Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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. VOL. X.?-Nett Series. UNION C. H., SOUTH CAROLINA, APRIL 4, 1879. NUMBER 14. M-.ll.- ?i? fJLJ ?g? J I.IMM -i-XJLJLAJI | | , . ? ?? HON. J. H. JTVTNS* SPHBOH. | la it aamriainor that anr>k ? ?t-? ' " - * ' The Campaign of 1876 ably Vindicated ( on the Floor of Cong ret* by a True Son ( of South Carolina * * . a Wo copy from the Congressional Rooord, J the following extracts from the able and c exhaustive address of Hod. J. 11. Evins, j our Representative in Congress, delivered r io the Hquse of v Representatives, Friday c February 28th, 1879, on the Contested f Election ease of Richardson vs.* Rainav ? J I V from tho First Congressional District of \ South Carolina : ^ ^ enable us, ^amfaure, the better to under- * , stand the condition of thinga which brought ? about the oampaign preceding the fall eloc tlon of 1876, out of which this oontest has arisen. confess, however, when I rometnber that for eighteen years (years Into whioh ars orowded so many signal events of oar r' ' ** history) that the voice of no trne son of * South Carotins had been heard in this Hall in her defease, I sua oppressed with s sense P of my inability to give utterance to the thoughts which such an ooeasion should 81 inspire, aad fsel stronger than before the 8< desire to shirk from the ncdertsking. ai Under the operation of the reoonstruo- [' tiaa laws of the Freodmen's Bureau and the bayonet, the white people of Soath Carolin'a were in 1868 aubjeotod to the eomplete . domination of their former slave#.?In the J? history of the world it was reserved for a people who hul given to the oouotry in the ?' hour of its dire extremity such patriots as j5' Laurens, Pinoknev, Rutledge, Marion, . Sumter, and Monltrie, and bad eontributed !t to the noontide of its glorv the luster that w shone around the names of Lowndes, Hayne, * Calhoun,>and MeDuffie, to drink to the ' dregs this bitter cup of humiliation. All w the people of the Southern States who had ? joined with South Carolina in the *war be- J - n the States were put to the raok and ?( broken upon the wheel set in motion by Ik these laws, bat those of South Carolina and Louisiana afo'no went down nnder their ** irresistible foroe into that dark valley and * shadow of death whore for years they struggled against adverse legislation, an adverse .r< administration, and all the red dragons of * i:*t i > ? ol j/uiikiuai nuu uuuiai revolution. . ? ? ??* 01 01 FEARFUL CONDITION OF THE 80UTH. e< I will do my friends on the other side of ft this Hall the just toe to say that, blinded by ui the passions engendered by tbe war, 1 be- r< liere they ^id not foresee the direful conse- u Suences which would neoossarily follow al ieir legislation in rogard to the States of et tbe South, and that so great has been the ti partisan prejudioe of the lost deoade that tl they do not yet fully appreciate them. I pi ask their attention, therefore, for a rery T few momonta while I sketch in the briefest p< manner possible the ooodition of things in w my own State, brought about by the reoon- si struction laws qf Congress and the arbitrary h measures adopted by the Exeoutire in en- tc forcing them, in order that the supremacy st of a political party might be maintained, di By the fortunes of war and its results the aggregate wealth of the State was reduced from aix hundred and thirty millions, to ti about one hundred and thirty millions but A her people returning from the war with di stout hearts weut manfully to work to re* |c pair their shattered fortunes and build up m their tfithteplaocs. It was impossible for ?' them at once to appreoiate the full effects g< of the oomplete revolution wrought by the * emancipation of their former slaves, or tq tl understand how best to deal with a problem it where they had no precedent to guide them, )e sod the eolation of which had never before w taxed the hunaan understanding. It should p not, therefore, eeea strange in the light of *1 subsequent legislation on the part of Con* tl great and subsequent ovenls, that they did * not act with the greatest wisdom, or even u with that inUllitMnn* *n/l ?!?> ? _ 0 ? ? WI?U D / whioh others who had no life-long prcju* 0 dices and opinions to overeoam would have m noted. h PLACED UNDER NEGRO DOMINATION. Oi Their afforta at solving the difficulties of this problem, had, however, n verj brief ex- " perimoat, sad after a few jeers of abeoUue * cuilitirj rale, new ameodmeavs to the Conetitutioa, sad new acts of Congress, gave ? the newly ea&anohieed race complete oon- J* tool of the State, Qrsnl was msgnaai- ? iu iu? wrin mm maae won D? k- " oeivod the spotless a word of Loo, but it " can scarooly be mid that the Government ' cf the oonquoror vaa uaagaeaimoaa, which n placed 4 bravo people, who had in good . Jeith aoeepted the terms of an honorable 10 surrender of the eauee for which they w fought, under the dominion of their former U1 olavoo. What, I aak, in the oaim judgment ? of this hoar, wore the veenho which might 11 have boon renaooably orpaotod toiow from w the creation of auoh an abnormal eoodittoo P1 at aooiety f Would rapine and viola ana pl murder, and wholesale batchary of men, and u women aad ohildron, as the result, have surprised any one who had any knowledge at the Jaws bv which aooiety k bald togotn- di ^ or or who had boon a indent at bkitorj f tl i 0' ti f , 9 * _ ( 0 WMVII M uvvill^i VU US udely thrust into power, should have besome the easy prey of the worst elements >f the mot% intelligent white race aQd made 0 serve their villainous schemes of pluodor iltd spoliation ? Thj story of how their suMrstitious nature was appealed to} how Iheir passions were aroused and their preju1 iocs excited ; how the "leprous poison" of late Was poured into their ears by the lorthern adventurer and southern renegade intil they were mado to beliavo that their brmer owners and tho whole southorn feople were their worst enemies, and only raited for an opportunity to re>enslave them, las burdened the prees, weariod the ear, nd made the aiolt fee . jumps _pa#k ered, unfortunately for all classes of her ?vpin, wie most inviting neld tor the en* srprifting operations of these twin villains i crime and in infamy. WHOLESALE PLUNDER AND ROBBERV. How they "improved each shining hour," > plunder and to rob her citisens "without egard to race, color, or previous condition," orange to say is most graphically told in ae stenographic diary of one of tho chief lunderers wbioh recent investigations has rought to light. To mention evon the ilient points ot tho gigantio and shamelesa jheuies of spoliation which they conceived ad carried into effect while they held the una of power would fill up my hour and save tho half untold. How, under Soott, ot oontent with robbing the treasury of II it oontained and the tax-payer of his ist dollar, they attempted with scrip and onds, issued by tho millions, to put genrations unborn under tribute to their npidity and to insert their long, lank, larireenous fingers into the pockets of postery; how, under the "native yonng governor," ho has attained not only a national but a international reputation as a thief, they eld high oarnival and reveled in drunk11 debauoheries in the halls of the State 1 ipitol, wasting, for what they called ' refreshments," during one session of the < egialature, the enormous sum of $350,- i DO, while the poor lunatics in the asy- i im, whose unfortunate and helpless < >odition would have moved a heart of stone, ere loft to starve or to find support at , io hands of private citizens whose own ( isourccs wero almost exhausted : how the . arned, the cultured, aod polished leader , r the plunderers, Daniel H. Chamberlain, < lief architect of the miserable thing mis- , riled a government, becoming its chief ex- , :utive officer, attempted to gloss over itsde- , trinities and yet how intelligence and virtue j ad honestly wero still thrust aside to make >om for ignorance, incompetence and vice, , ntil the polishep carpet-bagger himself, , frighted by the monster he had oreatcd, , ried out that "the civilisation of the Pari- ( in and the Cavalier, the Round-head and j io Huguenot," is in danger of being sup- ( lanted by the barbarism of the negro.? ( bus for eight years did the people of this . x>r, down-trodden, and oppressed State, ; ith a patience that was heroic, bear their | tfferings and thoir wrongs. Promotheus. ,, auud to the rook, while the ravenous vulires tear at his vitals, presents not too rong a picture of the "prostrate State" uring these sad and trying years. ( A 8TRIKINO ILLUSTRATION. Who, while wandering through the beau- , fnl art gallery at the other end of the ; .venue, which the munificence of a Lstinguished resident of this city baa dedated to the publio, has not felt bin steps rrested as his eye fell upon the brave words, rhe crime makes the sbame and not the ?ffold," has not felt his heart to throb ith inexpressible emotion as he hokod trough window-gratings of a prison-cell ito that faoe so sad and weary with troubd thoughts, and into those mournful eyes ith their touching expression of quiet, stient enduranoe, which the genius of the rtiat has made to speak so eloquently from is canvass T As I gased upon the picture ith deepest interest it suddenly became > me no longer the face of Charlotte Cerday, at ido impersonation 01 toe genius or my I irn Pal mot to State, persecuted, insulted, ad incarcerated by the mercenary and i eartlesa stranger and tbe fales and traitor- < He renegade; thus she stood, peering \ ) rough her prison bars, during all those ? ark days of srhioh 1 base just spoken, pure < nd nndefiled, without the "crime" which | naakes tbe ahame," waiting with calm en- , nranoe her hour of croeilxion while still oping almost against hope, for the hour of r deliverance. With a grateful and joy:1 heart I tamed away, remembering that , te prison bars bad already beam broken J nd the sceptre of pure and honest govern- , lent already restored to her hands. That maoh I have felt it my doty to any ' i vindication of the honest white people ' Wia T hflvA kVi, Lam* (a n..t b. * ' . ??. w www wvwv? |miv m9 a ?|PIVMBI j pon thie floor and in vlidiwtioB of (be otiree end purposes with whioh in Augcut, . 178, they refaeed anv looser to oo-operato ith any wing or feetton of the republican irtr and deemed for a etraightont demo* . ratio tiokefe. ( oonuation ov th? strajobtout policy. \ Having made uee of every lawful expo- i ient to improve their opadilkm and lighten I le oppressive burdene of taxation without i * I i . f avau, ine Rood people of the State in th summer of 1876 met in convention, and i spite of the blandish meats and skillft diplomacy of Gov. Chamberlain, who d< sired a re-election, determined they wool no longer vote for any member of a part that had bepome so infamous, and rosolve that they would put a full ticket of tbei purest and beat men in the field and oa upon every honest voter of the State, witl out distinction of dolor or party, to unite i a supreme effort to wrett the governmeu from the hands of the public thieves am plundererea who had gotten possession ef il Geo. Wade Hamptea, a man wbos reputation was without 0 stain and 'ever the same ticket were placed the names o thoee who were in every reepeet worthy t be his coadjutors in this good work. Th wild enthusiasm kindled among all olssse by this new departure and the loud aoclaim with which Hampton's nomination wa greeted from the mountains to the eenboan was a presage of certain victory, which a ouce filled Chamberlriu and his confederate in miBrule with dismay. They saw th "hundwritinir nn ??ll" "?J **" VM ...v nail auu lUd pfUllCU tiary openiug to receive them, aod in thei despair determined by every means withii their power to stifle the voice oi* an irdig nant and outraged people at the ballot-bos and save themselves from the just fate tha awaited them. The republican convention soon followed Chamberlain was re-nominated, aod on thi ticket with him were placed those whoc he had denounced as the greatest villain who had ever disgraced civilisation, am who, in their turn, had spoken in quite' a complimentary terms of him. The strug glo on the one side was to redeem the Stat and save her people from social anarch and irretrievable bankruptcy; on the other the sole purpose of the leaders was to main tain their hold upon the publio treasury with a view to further achomes of spoliation and to save themselves from the sure pun ishment which they knew their crimes do served. CHAMBERLAIN CA1.L8 FOR TUB MILITARY Thus was inaugurated the campaign out cf which has grown the oontest now uedci consideration. I propose, in the first place to examine very briefly the grounds upon which (Jov. Chamberlain and President Qrant issued their proclamations declaring that "insurrection and domostic violence* Existed in several counties of the State, nnc that "certain combinations of men agains law existed in many counties of the State.' Never was there a grosser libel uttcrcc against any people than is contained in thi words ot these proclamations. There wai absolutely no "unlawful obstructions ant combinations and assemblages of person: in the oounties of Aiken ana Barnwell," o elsewhere, which made it impracticable "t< onforco, by the ordinary course of judicia proceeding, the laws of the Statethen was no insurrection and no domestio violenci to give tho slightest warrant of authority for the interference of the President, even if he had been applied to in the mannei prescribed by the Constitution. * * * The Circnit judges (all republicans with one exception) deolarcd that there was "uc lawlessness, no violence, which the coortf k/wuiu uv? ivujcujt, MUU IIIUI I DO law wai administered without difficulty." Id reference to the condition of things in the first congressional district which the contostee claims to represent on this floor, [ assert without the fear of successful con tradiction, that during the whole canvass, with the exception of one or two attempti on the part of the republicans to prevent democratic speakers from being heard, there waa aa little lawlessness or violence as in my other congressional district in the Union. Although the canvass was] a nost earnest one on both sides, almost ,ho only eases of lawlessness which oosurrod grew out of the violent efforti node by tbo black raoe to prevent persona >f their own oolor from co-operating with .he whites or voting the democratoi ticket. The law was wholly unobstructed, and the inthority of the oourta was reepeoted and obeyed as in day* of profoundest quiet.? rho testimony of the two judges, (Shaw ind Townsend,) whose oirouits embraced ivery county in thiedistrict, is oonolusivt on this subject. * * * * * DISBANDING WHIT* CLUBS AND ABMINO NBOBO MILITIA. The eo-oelled rifle clubs io this district with the exception, perhaps, of two or three irhieh had existed for years with the fall knowledge and sanotloo of Governor Cham berlain, are abundantly shown to have beet political organisations, snob as existed irery where throughout the oountry, without my military feature whatever, exoept thai in one or two localities the me4hpfl*f thsa< slnhe. with th*S? A" ? ? w?? w?? ira a W) PflV WWIO timet forced by the dieorderly add threaten ion demooatratioaa of the well-armed nogrc militia com pa oiet to do police dntv to aar< their property from the torch of the inoen liary. Can coy one, therefore, longer doub that the order* disbanding theee poiitioa olaha while the negro militia wee allbwe< to retain it* arms and organieelicn^ and thi tending ot armed aoldicre to the tothi| n 1 .?_ i I. i? precincts, constituted a bold violation of n the Conetitutioo end the rights of the eitill sen, with e definite purpose of carrying the i- elections, both Federal end Stale, at the d point of the bayonet ? This purpose is y further tnado manifest in tbs order of the j d Secretary of War to General Sherman, t ir dated the 17th day of October, the Yery t II day the proclamation of the President was i- issued, and before it was even kiftwn in n South Carolina, commanding him to sond it forward ''immediately all the available foroe I in the military division of the Atlsntio to t. report tq Gen. Rucer, commanding at e Coliftnbia, South Carolino," and to 'instruct J that officer to station hia^t f These instructions were given, too, notwitho standing the fact that General Ruger had e telegraphed the President only the day bea fore from Columbia, saying all waa quiet; s '*if I need more troops I will send you a s dispatch telling you 1 need them." The j evident design was to get, under the pret text of tbo charges made in the proclamas tion, as many troops as possible into the e State, in order that they might be used at the polls to bolster up the failing fortunes r of a party which, in South Carolina at n least, was fast falling to pieces under the ; weight of its own rottenness and corruption. ****** *1 it V. 8. SUPERVISORS AND DKPUTT MARSHALS < IN CHAROK OF THE POLLS. I I- Passing bj, in the next place, the innu* 1 8 merable irregularities in the manner of 1 n conducting the election, which so greatly 1 8 facilitated fraudulent voting, I desire to 1 i show the partisan conduct of the republi8 can managers, supervisor*, and deputy marshals who controlled and surrounded the 6 ballot boxen, and the groes outrages upon 1 y the rights of the citisen and a free ballot 11 i committed by them. Thomas E. Rhades, a republican, who 1 '? supported tbe Jones republican ticket .in 1 ? Georgetown County, testifies that he was at 1 * the Suntee poll on the day of tbe election, 1 - and that the managers refused to allow him e to vote the ticket he desired j and other s . witnesses testify to a similar partisan spirit 1 ; shown by the managers at other proeioots. ? f Many of the republican supervisors *rere ' themselves candidates, and took an active i part in electioneering at the polls. In the F t County of Sumter aloue, the testimony ? , shows that the following persons were can- " ' didatcs upon the republican ticket, and also c I acted as United States supervisors: J. H. v I Ferriter, John W. W?4bury, W. J. An- 1 > drown, T. B. Johnson, were candidates for * I thfl ?J ? Mvgiviavuio UUU \J Ullt'U OUIC8 3 supervisors; T. J. Tourney, for sefaool com- F , missioner aod United States supervisor; 1 1 Rufus C. Westbuay, for oounty commission- I I er aud United States supervisor; -Samuel r Lee, for judge ot probate aod United States * 0 supervisor. 1 But I desire to speak more particularly p 3 of the large number of deputy United States o ? marshals (all of them republicans, and many ii f of them candidates for office) who were ? , appointed, not only without authority of d r law, but oontrary to the plain letter of the ti law, for every prseiact in Darlington and h , Sumter oounties, if not in all the others, v , for the purpose of intimidating snd over- U , awing voters. These marshals claimed to n , have orders to make arrests and to control 0 the military stationed at the polls. In or r . der to show how thoroughly they performed ti , the lawless and disreputable work assigned a them, I quote only a few passges from the d largo amount of evidence on this subject: t' , NBOKOES POECKD TO#VOTE REPUBLICAN S I TICKET. t The evidence is abundant and over- 8 > whelming to convince any unprejudiced I I I.J 1- Al -s ujiuu mat in tnese m roe counties none but 1 the boldest and most fearless negroes, or 1 those who had the immediate and strong protection of the whites, dared to rote a democratic ticket. Hundred* in each of 1 these oonnties were forced to vote the Re' pwblioan tioket or to refrain from Toting 1 through fear of bodily barm or injury to ' the small property tboy possessed. And 1 in the oounty of Georgetown, where the colored population so largely preponderates, ' the negro leedera had during the campaign, ' by the deniel of free speech to demoorate ' of both eolon, by their own inoendiery 1 and inflammatory harangues, by threats and violenoe of the most savage character, > inflicted npon these of their own rsoe who even dared to advooete a republican ticket with a single detnocratie name upon it, so ' maddened and infuriated their followers 1 i that khav a mad 11V- r? -:,J j ? ^ aa*v IVIWIVUO VUU " . beasts in their fierce opposition to the P i whitai than lika fraa voters in a free ooun| try, By suoh maana waa tha voice of the t people stilled and large majorities rolled up f t for tha oooteetee. And yet the report of 11 , the minority daelaraa that "there in noth- F . ing in the record to show aooial oatraoism ' . or that fear was preventing tha oolorad 0 , voters from supporting Hampton." r I THB WHITES CON8KRVATIVB AMD OON- 1 CIUATORT. After all the flourish of trumpets in the 1 t proclamations of the governor end tha I President about innumerable 'rifle-olubs" in I hostile array against Chamberlian and his I government, and with the fullest epportu- ? I nity in seven hundred and flfty pages of printed testimony to show their existence, only four are shown to bare been formedr two only were armed, and all were disbanded upon the publication of the governor'# proclamation. Democratic clubs were organised in every neighborhood in the State, and many of them were uniformed with ? red shirts; but they were unarmed, and in no sense of the word were they military organisations. In a very few instances, in localities where the colored militia, with irwa and fixed ammunition furnished then* by the State, were so violent in their demonstrations {as to menace the lives and property of the whites, the members of (breed to contend with an armed mob imbittered and infuriated by the vile teaching# of their leaders, who publicly declared to them that they woqld be justified in using the incendiary torch against their former masters. And in no instance did these slabs ever parade as an armed military organisation. ' Tfc#t nrnnf nn *t.T- -XT? J-3 ? - - r-vu >uio luujot-v, uuurueu uj a nultitude of witnesses of the highest charMster and respectability throughout the congressional district who were active in tho campaign and had every opportuoy of knowing the truth, has not been and cannot be inccessfnlly assailed. Governor HamptoD,. in testifying, soys truthfully, that the effort >n the part of the democrats "was to make the campaign thoroughly conscrvaLive and conciliatory." lie spoke in every Bounty in the State, and saw no intimidation except that which proceeded from colored republicans, and was intended to prevent any of their fellows from voting with the democrats, lie says, further, that "at no single meeting attended by me was thero an armed organixationyof men." In his letter to the New York Tribune, dated November 2, 1876, published in the record of thisuse, (page 560,) be gives the true character of these so-called "rifle clubs/' "They ire," says he, "neither more nor less thau campaign clubs, moving and acting together for reasons ?uch as prompted the organisation of the 'Boys in Bine,' the Grand kriny of the Republio, or other kindred associations." Ho further declares in this, etter thut "during my canvass of the State have not seen a single gun or saber in tho possession of these clubs, and they have not arried anv ?noh at. ono >??? !? -* T j uiwiiu^ ul? WU1CQ JL lave been preaont." They were called "riflelubs" in the proclamations; the colored* oters heard them called "riflc clubs" by heir leaders, who understood better than* hey the political necessities of their party 0 hate them so denominated, sod so weroircpurod to see a rifleman in every man rho wore a red shirt. IX EX AM PLED FORBEARANCE OP THE WHITE* 1 ****** * Thus we have seen the unlawful and artisan agencies employed by the republiaos to avert a political defeat which seemed evitablo. A republican- governor, himelf a candidate for re-eleotioo, (without be slightest degree of truth in the allbguioas made to warrant such action,) in vioitlon of every right of a free citizen-, irtually declaring the State under martial) iw ; the whites disarmed while the negro lilitia, in the midst of a heated political ontest, not only allowed to keep their iflea and muskets, but encouraged to used hem, to menace the whites, and overawe nd intimidate oolored voters who simply esired to exercise their right of voting for he candidates of their choice: the polls ? ? - urrounaea by this militia, with arms in heir bands; the preoiaet managers chosen, a it would seem, on aooountof their bitter wrtisanship, opposing with the authority of heir office the free choice of the voter; a lost ot supervisors who wore themselves taodidates upon the republican ticket for >ffioe, and having the strongest motives to ecure their own election by any means, oul or fairj a republican deputy marshal ppointed in violation of the law, guarding he pathway to every poll, backed by Fedoal bayonets, in the eaercise of his assumd and unlawful authority, and in the oomlission of his lawless sets; hoards of ooun? f canvassers, who violate without hesitaiod the law and tha sanctity wkieh it had brown around the ballots; and, last of all. State board of oanvaasers, every one of rhom are re^ubKeaos, and a majority of rhom are oandidates upon the ticket ot heir perty for high Stat# offices, surroundr dby a oordon of United States soldiers, lenltrino lK? Msnlt !? ?- -* n ?w unuauoo VI CUV IB SO* late of ? supreme oourt composed of rembliean judges 1 And jet the minority iu their report bt the oonteetee wee fairly elected, and sudly hint thai fbe report of the majority i an effort on their part to indnoe their arty associates in this chjuaber "to expel rom the House of Represeatetire" the patentee, who is "reflecting honor upon bin see and oreditahly representating his ?ontituency" upon this floor. e ft***** - ?v >*NUN01ATI0N OF MIIJTAAT INTULFKBIRGI IN KLKCTI0N8. Bat, Mr. Speaker, the grereet featare ia hie contest, end the one apon which I detire to epeek more et length then I can do ( Concluded on 4th Pag* ]