[Letter to] Honored Sir
Contributors: Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879, recipient
Published: 1877
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Number of pages: 11
Subjects: Politics and government; Violence against; Suffrage; Freedmen; Paramilitary forces; Abolitionists; Ku Klux Klan (19th century); Terrorism; Social reformers; Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877); Correspondence; Hamburg Massacre, South Carolina, 1876; Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ); Democratic Party (U.S.); Civil rights; Equality before the law; Voter intimidation; South Carolina; History; African Americans; Antislavery movements; African American politicians
Other titles: William Lloyd Garrison Correspondence (1823-1879) (Boston Public Library)
Description: George Washington Murray writes William Lloyd Garrison to convey to the latter a first-hand account of the "political affairs" obtaining in South Carolina. Murray describes the recognition of Wade Hampton as governor of South Carolina as "unwarranted, humiliating, and brutal". Murray accuses Governor Daniel Henry Chamberlain of being "dazzled by the flattery and usual empty promises" of the Democratic Party, and charges Chamberlain with ultimate culpability for the revival of the Democratic Party in South Carolina. Murray asserts that "one Colonel Ferguson", purportedly from Mississippi, canvassed the state prior to the election forming "Sabre, Rifle and Artillery Clubs" to terrorize and surpress African-American and Republican voters. Murray describes the campaign of the "Red Shirts" paramilitary forces operating as the de facto armed wing of the Democratic party during the election, including the Hamburg Massacre organized by M. C. Butler, and recounts that the reported death toll from Hamburg was "far below" the actual total. Murray relates instances of electoral fraud and voter intimidation, writing that "my people have been driven from their own homes by the fierce assassins in their midnight raids, and in many cases they have been brutally murdered", and asserts that many have "died martyrs for the cause of their principle and liberty".  Murray castigates President Rutherford B. Hayes for his inaction in the face of white supremacist terrorism and political violence, and opines that they may have been better off were Samuel Tilden elected.
Notes: Holograph, signed.

Title devised by cataloger.

Manuscript addressed from "University of So. Carolina, Columbia, S.C."