The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-01-28
WORSE AND WORSE.
ANOTHER SERIOUS PHASE IN THE
BONHAM GEFAlCATlON.

4 Charse that the Colored Troops are
Credited with Two Thousand Dollars
they Mover Eeceived-The Sensation the
Talk OF Columbia.
COLUMBIA, S. c., Jan IA dispatch
from Charleston wants to know if there
has been discrimination against color
ed soldiers and says Charleston is very
much agitated over the remarkable
bombshell which today went from Co.
iumbia about the accounts Of Adjutant
and Inspector General NJ. L. Bonham.
Being an officer of the recent admins
tration, a bright young man of distin-
guished family, he has MANY friends
there who cannot understand the situa-
ton, and why Gen. Bonham allowed the
checks to go to protest. The money
was allsupposed to belong to the State
funds, which had been appropriated fol-
the support of the military.
Friday, however, bomb was explod-
ed in Charleston, over the same matter.
Gen. 5. J. Lee, of the colored military
of that city, claims that not one cent of
last years appropriation has been re-
ceived by the negro companies. What
seems to be inexplicable is that in the
annual report recently submitted to the
Legislature in which is given the item
lied disbursement of the office the
amount of S2724 is credited to the cap
tainS of colored troops. They claim that
they have received nothing whatever.
Gen. Lee says that he recently visited
Columbia to see about the money for
the colored troops and that he received
the assurance that the money would be
sent. He claims that subsequent letters
have been fruitleSs. The white military
companies of Charleston all acknowl-
edge the receipt of their money aggre-
eating S2170. What is the other side of
the case regarding the colored funds can
only be ascertained after investigation.
AS things stand it isa great surprise.
The Augusta Chronicle correspondent
in writing from this city under date Of
Jan. 16 says naturally the chief topic of
conversation all over the city today is
the unfortunate position in which ex-
Adjutant General Bonham is placed by
the disclosures as to the shortage in his
accounts, published in The Chronicle
and other papers this morning.
There is but one feeling here-regret
for the occurrence and sympathy for
Gen. Bonham, while all are nevertheless
compelled to admit that the matter is
one which it is impossible to satisfacto-
rily explain. Explanations may modify,
but cannot alter, the fact of wrongdoing,
for bad judgment may be wrong doing
when it consists in personal use of funds
belonging to others and entrusted to
ones care.
\ more pleasant fact to chronicle is
that Mrs w. c. Bateman, whose short
age in his accounts as clerk of the Board
of Penitentiary Directors, as has been
published heretofore in The Chronicle,
has got on the track of portion of the
missing funds. That is to say, that
while his books called for some -, 600
more cash than he really had on hand,
obliging him to sacrifice all his property
70 make good the deficiency, he has now
discovered where portion of the miss
ing money may be accounted for, by
findinig q voucher for $500 not on the
books at the store of Lorick & Lowrance.
He expects to be able in the end to sat-
isfactorilly show that the whole matter
was only an error in bookkeeping.
Coming as it does so closely upon the
heels of the discovery of this seeming
shortage in the accounts of Clerk Bate
man, of the Board Of Penitentlary
Directors, no matter how either or both
cases may be hereafter explained, it
must be acknowledged that today's news
has sent straight out stock down many
points. Not, perhaps, that such ought
to be the result, for principles true once
are true still, in spite Of any falls from
grace Of any of the advocates Of said
principles.
But-and the b is "big' one-tke
recent discoveries seem to show just
enough possibility of the partial truth of
some charges made in the late campaign
to make the Tillman forces bold and the
straightouts timid. Possibly the worst
wound that can be inflicted upon a
mans feelings is to seem to have been
made a fool of-to have honestly de-
Tended those who were not worthy ofls,
to have denied that there was solitary
flaw in the gems of manhood making
up his standard-b bearers and find that he
had been mistaken to ever so small an
extent.
There is much of that feeling here
abouts today, and in the first smart Of
disappointment and disgust many are
free to express the opinion that the re-
cent Developments insure the return OF
Tillman and his party to power, and
that the much-talk-of 'reaction"-signs
of which really were to beseen just after
the Legislatures adjournment-has
been discounted, if not destroyed.