The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-12-01

thirsty people2 1 do not believe that
we are.
One cause which is commonly al
legged Mr.. Red6eld demonstrates to be
unfounded, viz. that the whites OF
South Carolina carry pistols because
Of apprehension Of danger from
negroes. For if this were true we
would surely find that the whites use
their pistols more frequently against
blacks than against those OF their own
color. The reverse is the case. Mr..
Redfeld found in South Carolina lO9
cases of homicide during the year
1877, in which the color Of the perpe-
traitors was ascertained. Of these 40
whites fell by the hands Of whites and
"a blacks by the hands of whites,
making So homicides committed by
whites out Of an ascertained total OF
| 1O9. Fhe blacks killed 80 Of their
own color and 5 white. The proper
tion is, indeed, greater than at first
appears by these figures, for IT we
take into consideration the relative
number Of the two races, as Mr.. Red
field argues, the homicides by whites
of whites is much greater in proper
tion than the number Of homicides
of blacks by blacks.
We may keep arms, guns and pis-
tolls, at home for the protection of our
property and Of our families, though
this Of itself argues deplorable con-
dition Of society. We carry them up
on our persons not for fear Of negroes,
but to resent insults by our equals
white men. We go armed not for
fear, butlfor resentment
Another point to which Mr.. Red
field calls attention is the fact that
while in the Northern States the high
est homicidal rate is found in the
cities, where it is furnished by the
lowest.foreign population which con-
gregate there, in the South generally,
and in South Carolina particularly,
where there are no large cities, no
violent clashings Of interests between
labor and capital, no large simporta-
ton of foreigners, with their often
peculiar habits and associations, but,
Instead Of these, all the conditions
for an ideal, law-abiding community,
1t is the rural districts in which the
manslayer most abounds.' And this
he found to be especially the case in
the upper tier of Counties.
Again he pointed out that while
there had not been as many political
fatal encounters in South Carolina
since the reconstruction governments
were overthrown, the number Of homi-
cides growing out Of personal diff
culties' and street ARRAYS has con-
tinued-indeed, has increased. There
was as much, or more, crime against
the person in South Carolina under
Hampton and Simpson as there had
been under Chamberlain and Scott.
If Mr.. Redfeld were writing to-day he
would add that they have so continued
under Hagood, Thompson, Richard
son, Tillman, Evans and Ellerbe.
For alas SO far from improving in
the seventeen years since Mr.. Red
field wrote, in 1880: in this respect
matters have grown worse.
This homicidal mania of our people
is due altogether, therefore. to neither
race nor political cause. To what is
it then due? Mr.. 'Redfeld, like most
Northern writer's, attempts to connect
it with the habits engendered by the
institution Of slavery. The short and
decisive answer to this, at least, as far
as this State is concerned, is that
there was no such homicidal habit
during the existence of that institu-
ton. Our gentlemen then fought
duels; but as many men were killed in
personal encounters in almost any
single year since the war as we're
killed in duels in all the previous his
tory Of the State Indeed, so true is
this that there are not wanting those
who attribute the increase of homicide
in the State to the suppression Of the
duclling code.
cannot myself doubt that all the
manifestations of this .erimc have
their origin in the one great cause,
to-wit: to habits engendered by our
late war, and more especially with us
by the actual, if suppressed, war Of
reconstruction which followed.
What are the manifestations of this
homicidal spirit? Are they not these:
l. The habitual disregard OF the
saeredness of human life.
2. The military impress upon civil