Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-11-16
Misfellanenus 8eading.
LAST OF RECONSTRUCTION.
ReeolIeetions Of Days That Wore Trou-
blous.

| blous.
November 7. was the thirty
third anniversary Of the final
overthrow Of the reconstruction gov
ernments in the south. In the year
I1876, November 7, in the states Of
Louisiana, South. Carolina and Flor
ida especially, was looked to with
1 dread and hope. 1t was the day Of
the general election. These states, as
officially described at that time, were
armed camps. The negroes. carpet
baggers and scalawags and their
camp followers and dependents had
normal majorities, ranging from So"
t00O to 10000. The native white peo-
lple were generally enlisted as Demo-
Icrats. AS a matter OF fact, they were
tgiving no thought to- party princi-
piles. They represented home rule and
white rule locally. The fights were the
most desperate and spectacular In the
lpolitical history Of civilization. In
Isouth Carolina and Louisiana, on the
Hace of the returns as they came from
8he polling precincts, the Democrats
HAD majorities The legal authorities,
Ithe returning boards, composed OF
state officials calling themselves Re-
bublicans, but really the most intelli-
xerit elements of the scum intent on
bmnder, threw out enough Demo-
6ratic majorities, on the grounds OF
fraud and intimidation, to give the
states to the Republicans. Unques-
hionably the fraud and intimidation
fexisted. In a scuff1e like that nobody
Thought much Of the fine points Of
haw. The negroes and their carpet
lbag leaders defrauded and intimidated
Iwhere they had the power and OPP
Iportunity. The white men rode their
neighborhoods whooping and shoot
Hing during the night, fired cannon at
Daylight repeated from precinct to
precinct as long as their horses would
hold out and without hesitation shot
lup and burnt hostile ballot boxes,
beat hostile election officials and OBJ
noxious negroes over the head with
the barrels Of long navy revolvers and
when 1t became necessary for the ex-
Iigences Of the occasion, turned loose
bullets into the persons Of unduly
stubborn opponents. Nobody knows
or ever will know who really would
have been elected on a straight vote
and by an honest count governor OF
any Of the three states or whether TIL
den or Hayes for president really was
the choice Of the majority Of the Leo-
pie choosing the members Of the cleo
toral college.
It was a time Of deadly danger to
the republic, of confusion and fear
and fierce contention. Colonel Wat
terson, Of the Louisville Courier-Jour-
nal, threw a firebrand into the situa-
ton with a telegram prosposing to
have 10000 unarmed Kentuckians in
Washington to see Tilden inaugurated.
Through south and north were mui-
ferings and threats and suggestions OF
revolution and resort to weapons by
one side or the other.
These conditions Of doubt dragged
along through November and Decem-
ber, January and part Of February. 1t
was a clouded and fearful Christmas
that year, but one Of the widest and
jolliest the country ever has known.
The reckless spirit Of the American
people asserted itself and because no
body knew what would happen or
what fury and disaster would break
forth before the next Christmas every
body proceeded to celebrate 1t and en-
Joy it regardless of consequences. 1t
was a tremendous reaction Of laugh
ter and drunkenness and jollification
against the gloom and dread which
overhung the country. Later, Ameri-
can common sense and conservatism
asserted themselves and peace and
growth were gathered from danger
and wrath.
In South Carolina the conditions
were especially dramatic. In the early
part of December of 1875, two houses
Of representatives were occupying the
same hall in the state house with
two speakers sitting side by side, E.
w. M. Mackey, of Charleston, presid-
ing over the Republican house, Will
liam H. Wallace, Of Union, presiding
over the Democratic house. Sitting so
close together that either could touch
the other with his hand, each declined
to recognize the existence OF the other
or Of the house presided over by the
other. The white men and their FEW
negro allies had walked into the
chamber stiff-legged with Winchester
rifles inside their trousers and stores
Of six shooters and ammunition In
their overcoats On a Sunday night
General Wade Hampton, supposed to
have been elected governor by the
Democrats, while Daniel H. Chamber
lain was officially declared by the Re-
publican returning board to be the
governor, received an anonymous let
ter informing him that during the
night several hundred desperate ne
groes brought up from Charleston
and officially commissioned as deputy
sergeant -at-arms Of the house, would
break and run out the Democrats
or slaughter them and that they
would be backed up by the United
States troops, regiment being quar-
tered at Columbia and under the di-
rect orders Of President Grant. Calls
were sent out by telegraph wire and
courier. Special trains were called
into service. At daylight Monday
morning the red shirts were piling in
by trains and pelting headlong on the
backs Of horses driven at full speed,
every man armed, many of them, vet
Grams of the Confederate army train
ed to desperate fighting and eager
for opportunity to know again the stir
and exhilaration Of battle and the
smell of powder smoke. BY noon
Hampton had concentrated in Colum-
bia probably 5000 armed and fighting
men ready to sweep away the Repub-
lican government and to go against