Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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DEVOTEL TO POLITICS, MOR"ALITY, EDUCATION AND .0 TIIE GENEHAL INTEREST OF TIlE COUNTRY. VO;L. VI. PICKENS, S. C., THURSDAY, JANUARY 1 1877 NO. Counting In. It cannot be expected that the re suit which has been reachod by the State Canvassors and Returning Bards in South Caroiina, Florida, and Loui siana, will be acceptahle to tho great body of the American pnoplc. On tho face of the returns as sent in from the polling places in each of theso throo States, the Tilden Electors and the Democratic State officors had a ma jority, and, unless tho votes could bo set aside, were logally choson. The method by which this apparent ma jgrity has been totally reversed will not command general confidence. In South Carolina tho nanipulation of the roturns which has produced such a result was made not only by ex trenie partisans, all of one sido, but by candidatos apparently dofeatod at the polls, who counted thomeolvos in without much doxterity and in the face of an order of tho SupremO Court of their own Stato, every judge in which was appointod by the Ropubli cans. In Florida a singlo member of tho board was a Domo1crat, but tho other members, who outvoted him, were of tho party now counted in the majority. In Louisiana tho board was coti posod wholly of ptartisans wh(so previons character was notoriously bad (the Republicans themselves being judges,) and who years ago had been caught in acts of great dishonesty in a situation almost precisely likO the present. There could bo, from cle montA liko theso, no reasonablo ex pectation of firnoss, and few will be disappointed at the concluson. Wo do not se how the most expert leaders of the dominant party can make oven a plausible dofonco of the course that has been pursued. If the National Govei-r-menit ]ad been in tho hands of the present opposition; if the Stato autl!ories hal likowiso been wholly Dcinocvatic, with hiGf, con, P hals all of thIaL pUli a.ii i.iLli; it Lhe Rol)ublitlans had then been in a Iceble iinority, with the wholo power of' the State and F'deral (Iovernmncit, the militia with its ar.enlals, the army with its veteran lcaders' and accumu lation of warlike stores thus against them, thero might be a reasonable as sumption that their aLdheronts~ had been terrified and a fair voto pr1e vented. BEt reverse all the attendant ci' cumstances, and the claim appears wholly preposterous. With a Gov otnor aid Logislaturo, the constabu hwy, the military and authority, and the machinery of election all in their harnds, and backed by a willing Pre sident and the whole power of the a Federal Government, a party repro. senting, as it claims, a large majority of the able bodied voters, ought to havo'succeeded, in the face of' what ever "intimidation," in polling all its available votes. Any claim of the want of a fair election amid such at tcnding influences would certainly come with mosit plausibility from the opposition, laboring under' so many disabilities, and not from the domin ant party, clothed ats it was with sus premeo authority, and not disposed to bo overscrupulous in the use of' it. If the party represented ats in a mipority had suddenly taken violeut posession of the poll1s, and by force of arms driven away the surprised adherents of the other side, this would of courso he p)ublicly known, and in such a locality there might be a fair claim for rodros~s at the hands of the Returning Board. But we have al rqadly hoard from ovcry part of the South; the election was to all outward appearances perfectly quiet and peao50 fdil,..aod no persons offering to vote ahywhere in the disputed btates were d ri vey away or prevented fromn the exo1foise of their lawful rights. ,.The magnitude of the changes pro 4 posed in Lauisiana must be startling to every unprejudiced mind. It equals nearly fourteen thousand votes in the cae of the leading Tildon elect or. WilorCan believe that there is any hbnest ocasion to reverse a p)opular' majority after this fashion? Thus, ? foni' unscrupulous partis~ans, openly convinced bvy their own nnat of a similar fraud heretoforo, have, against tho faoo of the roturns, counted in their candidates for tho Electoral Col logo, the Logislaturo and all tho Stato officors, and for tho Congross at Wash, ington. No right minded man, as it ooms to us, howevor strong his political proforoncos, can sanction such pro,. ceodings. We are far more anxious that tho peoplo at largo should repu diato this action than that any parti cular candidato or party shall bo suc cessful. It is a pitiablo exhibition to mako before all the world of tho exs tremo longth to which partisan zoal can go in a country so proud of its freo institutions. We mako no repre, sentation of the effect this may hav0 on either party. Whether if it is sus tained (as we cannot think it will be) by tho mass of the RZopublicans it will ultimatoly crush that organization bencath tho odium thus brought upon it, or if rightly mot and treated by the opposition, load to its entiro su prornacy in tho near futuro and thero, after for many years to conic-these are questions not as iuportant to the public welfare as tho possibilities that grow out of tho action itself. We nleed not liscu3ss just now the way in N hicl the Congress shoul moet this onrgency,as soveral months must clapb, beforo it is called to pass upon it. It ia for the honest people of all parties to speak their minds in referenco to it, and this should be uttered in no uncertain tones. Not with violence of' epithot, not wi4h a v,iew of stirring up civil stiif', but in t Ie tpirit of a calin judicial sentenco, tho wholo American people should set sch a seal of condemnation on this great wrong, that nothing liko it will ever be attempted agelain in the history of the nation.-N. Y. Journal Com1 rmoree. ------------10p 11 f I.-e. last wmberof the L1, nQacel Rviow, is dv(td to Ih0 Lquhna ite writer tells us that this poolple are the most co 5n-si(erab! re!nlant inj Northern regiong. of that nameless prehiistoric race of fishers and hurnters who once cilung to the shiores and con1s's of Europe, until they we're p)us5'ed away~ inlto the hIoles and~I cW ners, andl to the very verge and( (edgei '.f the great continenOIts if ti 11 atri b by the sacessi ve bands of the A rv:un mig ra tionis. T1hecy once exixed0( ini Englan d, Fran ce, Germany, Demaurk, Swedlon, and Spain, in all of which they havo left their traces, intermnents and im plements, and "kitchen mix cns." They belong to the race termed, somewhat incorrectly, Tu ranvian, and even at the present day they exist as "BPasks," in thme rugged mnounti ns of Spain. In Swedeni they are knowrn as Lappsl' and( Finnus, anid oven along tihe coast of Ri'.sia, there is a fringe~ of them that clings to tihe edge of the landI on the shore of the frozen ocean. Science has not ynt settled thes que1ss tion asE to how time di vision of the~ race known to us EsquIinmut1x (Jr more to the vast and inhospitable regioni whuich they now inhiabi t. Thme better op)inion seems to be0 that they were forced th ithiior from the cont b)othI of Asia and America across Rohrmi ng's Straits, by the migration of Indiani and Mongolian tri beF; but t here are many ecientists who contend that tihe race is really ind igenmus to t hO A retic rogilolns. Whichevoer theory be thme true one, coinpai ativye phi )logy hasuu demonstrated theo "Tiuran ian"' or igin: of the Esquimaux through tihe robL tion whicb has been discovered ini their speceb to the language of time Lap ps, Basks, .1lunIgarians andi TJurks. it is qulite enious to thmink that thm blubber eatinug savages a re reall y i bo first cousinus of the~ hanghty MA1m andi thie p)rond, exchliive Turks.'Tbme writer in the Quarterly evidentliy thinks the Esquimnaux b)y no means to be pittled i'i a mnateria!l)point of viewv. They are comfortable eniough9~ in theuir snmowvshovels w ithm pl enty o caI mneat and bluiibber, and if they are without the benefits of moderm civilization, they are also without thme manifold troubles and sorrows which have followed in the train of thait porm hana (jnestionlabloJ good. Lincoln's Broadsword Duel. How HE ACOEPTED A CHALLEIOE to FroUT IN A QUARREL ABOUT A PIN. Mr. Lanon, in his lifo of Lincoln, gires 1i6 an account of affair of hon or, which forms one of the most pleasing opisodovin his book. In one of his letters to Speed, Mr. Lincoln refors to his 'duel with Shield'-a duel, by the way, which was never fought: The object of' this paper- is to furnish for our readers a porti ait of the secret hietory of that celebrat Od 'dnel.' The rea1der.i of Lincoln's lifo are well awairc that PMary Todd, after wards M's. Lincoln, drew her lover into that very ugly scrapo. "As a satirical writer, says Mr. Lamon, she bad no rival of Qither sex at Spring lield and few, wO venture to say .iywhere clsO. * * * She was aot dispoged to let her genius rust for want of use; and, finding no other rictim handy, t3lho turned her atten ,ion to Jam s ShAilds, 'A uditor.' She had a friend, one Miss Jayno, af qtrv:rd Mrs. Trumbull (United UC:3 - r), who helped her to eper s:oro(i's, and assi'd as 1nucIh as she could in worrowing the zholeric Irisi: man.' The beautiful Miss Jayne was the ipple of disicord in this caso. Gen ,ral Shield- was walking homo with 1r Wne light; he took the liberty of iezghe?r hand, C.he took thec lib-,. 1rtyh of sticking a pin in him. Tis rnall afTair of the tin led to the great Iffair of the sword"j. It figures lately n onle of,'Rebecca s alias Miss Todd3 ottors fromn the 'Lost Towuahips,' and Addrec"(dA t.) the O'ditor of the S:u, lir-h'.'.. It is the mor't fm rable t . - ~ ~ O who" 3' 1 ; 1 . it P 1h. Nwi, Unl A b int-Ited N(N ' Jncl C \ A 1)' T L. 'e1 l~ hi love of Pn, Or his lovo "f a'y 'dd, or his lve of miicheif, or by .1l thro m'O uslt have his say aboniit the pi1n. AccordJingly, he~ wroto a letter' >Ver t he name of 'Aunat Jkecy ,' trom' ;hich1 the fight Leeu Pred (i. c., the lighmt tha t was neveir fought), des not .Lppoar' in Mr'. Lamon's boo0k. Oth er let toe of the series are given, but not this. The wrath of Shields-thme Irish Achilleir-whichm had been long kin died, now burst into flames. iIe deumand(ed the~ author of tho 'Lost Tlowvnship' letters, especially of thme one wr'it.tonm by 'Aunt fleecy.' Aunt IBeecy proved to be Unce Abe. Geon. Sh ih, the terrible son of' Mars, without waiting to call for' anm expl a nation,1 at once challenged Ann mt iBeecy, alnd lho at once accep)ted thme ohbadong9e. it wmu; at this point of the busl iness that thme presen3C1t wr'tite was made actinainIted with the ls tato of affairs; by Mr'. Lincoln hi:nself. H Ie entered my o)ice one mnight al 1 wasu engag~ed in the study of a law ('aSe, with co inowh at niioir tilati thle usual gloom seated on is melani choly face. A hor t aking a ot ea aid, "I have gJt inito a diflinulty, and( I wanit to suOi it yon cannmuot help 100e ont of it.'' '''Mett hiappiy to do g, said 1, if I can). Wv hat is3 the mat er'?" '* Wh y, said he,. thuaF foul lener which huas miado Shmi(ls mlad, and lh hams challen.ged mei. I have accepted thme cha'logo.., andl, '.'ithout thinmuing, I haivo chmosen l.)b. Mtc1rrymanI f.,r my second. I belhieve h le wouh'l rather' see a Iight than not. If 1 have to light I will fight; but I don't caro~ about fighting just to griatify Dr. Merry man. Now, if you will comei in and m iake D)r. Merrmy nmani do right (for I know yon wviil have moure infi .ns enTCe with him thani anmy other man) the whole dlitliculIty may be settled.' Again I said, 'Most happy to do so i I can. WVhat la the dililtna 'Why, it ii this,' replied Mr. Lin coln, 'the friends of Shields say tha if I will explain or apologizo he Wil whdraw the chllneinge, and ti qijarrel can be settled honorably t both parties. But Dr. Merrymar says if Shields will first witndraw th, challenge then I will explain or apol igizo, and the quarrel may be settle honorably to both partics. A n thero they hanve come to a (lead lock Now 1 don't see, if both thi1tgs h1av( to be done, that it ma1fke3 so mueh differenco which is done first. It scoms to me that Dr. Mterryman i disposed to stand upon niecot.ics, and I don't think he ought to stand uponi niceties in a case of life and death.' The situation was plain. I syn patbjized with Mr. Lincoln, but, while I fully appreciated his practica,l good senso, I could not exactly Bee his nice 3enre of honor. 'I know very little about the cmde of honor,' Baid I; 'it ig a brIanICh of moral science for which I have never had much restpect, and have therefore never studied it. But if you go by that code at all (and I SuppOEO yo m111ust if vou fight duclu) it uecus to me that Dr. Merryman is r i.1ht. I don't see how you can cx plain or apo!ogize or lay one word to mitigate the wvratlh of Shields wlilc the challenge is ponding over vou.' Ar. Lincoln thereupon fell into onic of his Inusing, melancholy mo< dg tnd tlhoro was ,sprcad ovcr his Tace that sad exprectsionl vIich 1mnado himn anl object of iterest tu overy tmakn Vh had a live heart in his boson. AE he oat there, looking at the fire, hC seouied to be saving to himiself: "] have coel to the wrong person t( ho,> me out of my difliculty. PCI ha8p Merry muan is righ, anid thiorot i. n) hClp ('(t f is 11 ead lock' excop S ;bt u hichis. IHis C(.m1preis3 cted fih t. 'Thero is not tho least neosz;ity fi a fiit, whatevcri,' 8ad 1; '1t may bN very easilY avoided.' 'low 8,.?' r,aid, Mir. Lincoln, loo)kinig up) with a ro leive eCl xpress1tion of face, aoi t urin wecll,' I rep.1lied; 'und his~ courn1Le is niot of4 the tr Ues3t stamp;; thero is al1 together' t>) uimoh of bluster a:8 bravado about the muan for that. IIe. iG try'ing to make you8 h)ack out, and~ you can make him~ back out very easily.' 'llow so?'said Mr. Lincoln. 'Why said I, 'as 110 sent the challenge S( you have the right to chooso th< weaponis, and if you eboose br'oads wVords, my word( tot' it he will novei fighit you ini the v;-orld. You are a least seven inchtes taleir t han Shi:elds and1( your' ar'ms ar'e thre3 01' four inch es longer than his, So) th at you conI( cut im down before 1h0 cond 14 e~ neatr enough to touich you. I know)~ youl will never do l tis, b)eCanse hI wvili neOver fight you w.ithi brloais wordJ'(s. 11e will sho0w theo whit< feather~i firs~t.' MrIt. Linln adopH tetd this idlea. I I choso0 b)'radswor'; no thoL tel'rms o) d nel werte a rr-ingted as rstated~ inv Mr LinlcolnsG book, (p. 265.) 1st: Weap one -Cavalrty broa.dawor'ds of t h lartges:t sizec, pr'ecisely eg~Inal int n!i ro sp;ets, andi( such a3 areo now useid by 2: Positiont--A plbmk ten feet long and1 fr'omi 9 to 1'2 faiches broad8(, t< ho1 firtnty fixed ont odge( ont the grunneit as the I lne betw n uOTIis, wh icht neit h' Otr is to ptVs his foo1 Jt o)ver,t ~On fot' fei(o ia life &c. to pas (':or to M.issourii, ont thte op 1)osite sidet. of the MIisslissippo i rver the pia1ce appl)ointed( for' the fatal ci'. counfter'. My)'1 teher anld iimyself boUtt accom npan11(Ied Linconi anud Mem rmat to the sceneo of actiont - hi to see th fun anud I to)cee that t here was no figh My pr'edliction was fulfilled. Shtichh~ would not, or' at least he did niot, figh with brouadjwulrdJ Lincoln had put down his foot fOr L broadswords, and nothing could I slake his purpose. Gen Ewing, the friend of Gon. Shield, cursed and swore, and carried on at a great rate about 'the - larbarious practige of fighting with broadswords in the nineteenth century." Mr. Lincoln I very coolly and calmly replied that I for his part he thought fignting duels in any way a rather barbarious prac tice for the nineteenth centlur,v an(d if he had to fight lie would chORse his own weaporm. The moro Ge. Ewing insisted on rifles and pis tols tho more Mr. Lincoln held on to broadswords, and there was another 'dead lock. But it did not last over an hour or two. Gen. SIlicld was fina,ly induced by his friends to with draw his challenge; Mr. Lincoln ex plained the offelsive matter in the only lotter written by himnself, and the groat troublo nbout the pin was 'settled honorably to both parties.' The Second of Mr. Shields 1had do clared, beforc the choico of broad SWOr1d 'that ho would as soon think of asking Mr. Shiolds to but his brains out against, a brick wall as to withIdraw Ihat paper'- the challenge -but yet, after all, this son of blood and thunder dil withdraw that very pr rathei' tLIn CX)oso his brai)( to tfi long sword and the long arn of Abraham Lincoln. An Addres to the Poople of Indiana. At a meeting of the Democra'ic Central Committee held December 13th, it was uuauimnously resolved that meetings of the peoplo of the soveral counties of the State be held at the conty seats on Saturday, Dc comber 23, for the purposo of consid. LeiY t he presout condiion of public zfftirs, and of giving proper ex pres tiO to 1.eir VieW1, and the further pirPoses of appointing delogates to a State Convention, to be h1ld0 at the city ( f Indianlapolit; ofn Monday, Jaui nary 7, 1 S77. In callItNg upon the people to respond to thme actioni of the comm11itte.e, it i8 proper to state the ocasionu which w as deemeod sufiicit to autihorize ami~ require it. Samuel J . Til den and Thomas A. 1JonudrioLs h ~ave been elected respect fully to thme ohileouy 01 Presiidlent and Vice-Presi dent of tho United States. This election hRe been in accordance with the Cunustant ion and lawA of our coun Lry, and by the ex pressed will of a ornjorit.y exceeding one quarter of a milion of the( v'oters of the Uniited States. T1hs act ion was upon aun issue d istinictly mada before the peo, plo of ~01h coor and reformii in all the dairsi'~ of t he Governmnent. Thie - maitenanIIce oft the Consttitultion1 and ho laws, fair phlay and huonesty, andc the hig'hesct interelsta of th~ peop;e dennd hatthe .he be na*u This iis knownu not oidy to DemcrauC'ut6, who v~)'oted ft r Ithomi1 dlemand th ir ~ i.1~~inauuai.)n as a rigiht, anud all wvho voted agaf1inst them2' owe~ it as a4 (dit). -Amecrican hionor! req ues it. Tihe - stability of oiur institutions3 demand;; ' it. -h Thre is3 now a. comhbina(t ion very foridaclble and rechkes to prvn -the legal roi;nI of thue elect ion, and to place mien in the 1Ligh ollices who havo not been2l Cectedl to thieini and ther eby to defeat the changes an!d reCfonoiS which all clamos of society and all of theo great indtustrial and comme;ircial inuteos of the colutry so mu1chi reVq uire. TIhey havai resor't chinery heretofce uniknion n in n t ional polities, pioerless for good,) bu4t pregnant with evi!. Theby th reat en to deparUt fromu the established ustag'ed in counltinug theC electoral voto, by withholi *g Ifrom theL people's prer'~iogativye of puarticipa~ing in the Sdeeion <t all quaestion)s t haut may 4tri5U ini the jro0 reas of vi th ).mzi, and by clothing one man with the power of allowing and of excluding votes, and thereby centrolling the Presinontial election.. The purposos of this dangeroue conspiracy must be defeated. The right, as declared at the ballot box must be rcspeteud and maintained. As was said of Mr. Lincoln'e elec tion: "The people are strong enough to place him in his office." Our army must not be used to place either Governors or Presidents in office who have not becni elected. The purjpose' of the vggrossive and ambitious lead ors which you must defeat is usurpa tion. It is revolution; its accomplish ment will disturb the foundation of our institutions, and endanger the canso of fre) government itself. We cannot maintain our institutions if the peoplo allow their choico and Will, as expreised in pursuance of law, to be defeated by fraud and forco. The committee, thorefore, call upon all the people, withuut respect to party who nake our country's wel ftro paramount to every other con sidcrationl; all who say that the vote of the peoplo Ehall not bo defeated by fraud, and all who stand by lair p,lay and honesty, to iet at their cnmI T113, EOatG oi tho dzay above mnen ioind, aMd to tlake a1n eXp'ession fit the popular judgmont whieh cannot be dikregr)rdeld, even by the most abandoned and reckless enemies of onel institutions, and to appoint men as their delegates to the State Con vention, on the eighth day of thia mnonth, who will featlessly and pru dently mnike such declaration and take such action as will give our State her proper position and influ ence inl maintainling constitusional government and the rights and lib erti Cof our I' people. Tn11j PESuIDENTIAL QUESTION FROM A Bu si s STANDPOINT.-A gentle., man who roturned homo yesterday from a visit to Baltimoro reports re nowod confidence in business circlos in that city, resulting from the recont enceoura ginzg inid ications that Mr. TilN (den is to be the next Presiidenlt. A day or two after the election, before the r'eturn ing boar d rascalitios were thonght of, the sulccess3 of the Demo, cralic ticket gave a decided impetua to trade, and orders from the South wecrc p)articularly large. Then came tho developments of the Radical con spiracy to countL in Mr. ilayes, and these ordors were, many of' them, re~ vokod or held subject to the settlement of the Presidential question. Many mnerchiants then took steps looking to, r'etrenchimnent at the cnd of the pres (nit year, inivolvuig in seome cases the d isobiarge of a large pr'oportion of their empl'ycos. One firm has boxed and ready for shiipmnt South $35,000 worth of goods on a single order, w hiich will niot be forwarded until it is s;een that Mr'. Tilden is to ho the next is'g ~dont. TIhiis is now regarded na i( i : urly assurod,(1 hO wover', that ono oirm~: is: maing arrian)gemnents to send four add itionial ualesm:. to Vir'gi nia alone. T.he dealors in fortilizers say that the dlefeat of the Radical conspi racy will greatly stimulate theCir busin css, and a member o't a leading dry goods house says that the election of Mr. Tilden will ho worth $10,000 per anniumu to each mnember of the firm. It is iho uiiiivers3al opinion among the busmosa5( men of' Baltimoro that the p)rosp)erity of tho country dopends on tho inauguration of Mr. Tilden Washington Union. New~ O1UiEANs OUT OF FUNDs. T1ho NewV Orleans D)omocrat of the z94th says that tho( Suporior (Criminal Cour it in that city had been compJjollod to adijor 11i'lover for three~ day~s becauso thiere wasi no fire ini the court room, the StatLo having thrown the expenseH of prouv iing for tha:t courit upjon1 the@ city, andl the city being out of' funds. Tfhe delay miulets the city in heavy costs, such:1 as con tin uances, suam mfonlses, dletonitions in pison) ait sixty cent s per' heCad 1)>1' day, &c. And yot New Orleans shold( be one0 of the most indopondenitIlif and flourishing c'it ies in thme UnJiiion. " floconstruc-. ion" has dono the work for her,