The Anderson intelligencer. (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, June 13, 1872, Image 1
--:-*,
HOYT & CO., Proprietors.
ANDERSON O. H., S. C, THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 13, 1872.
VOLUME VIE.?NO. 49.
The Bailing of Jeff. BaTis.
geo. alpe ed townsend's description of
the memorable scene.
Although years have passed and gone since
the memorable events here recorded were
enacted in the former capital of the Southern
Confederacy, yet we think it entirely appropri?
ate to furnish our readers with the annexed ac?
count of the bailing of Jefferson Davis, writ?
ten not long ago for the Chicago Tribune by its
famous correspondent, George Alfred Town
send, better known as "Gatk." It is the best
description we remember to have seen of the
most notable event, connected with the war
since the surrender at Appomattox, and as a
contribution to current history is weU worthy
of preservation:
Washington, May 13.
' Nearly at this day of the year, five years
ago-7-a Friday in May?I received a liberal
?fter from a newspaper published in Philadel?
phia to go to Richmond, Ya., and see Jsfferson
Davis plead to an indictment for treason in the
United States Court there.
I had been home from Europe, where I hsd
gone t? describe Napoleon's great Exposition,
only one week; and the proposition to again
review the battlefields in the environs of the
late Confederate capital, and to conclude my
adventures in the civil war with the last pa?
geant it might present, affected me more favor?
ably than the point to be gained at commerce.
At that moment I little presumed that, for five
years yet to come, the appearance of hostili?
ties would continue, and the flame of the ex?
piring brands of battle be nursed to light the
career of parry camp-followers.
I took the regular steamboat at Baltimore,
and slept down the bay. At daylight Fortress
Monroe was disclosed above the sand-pits of |
Hampton Roads, with the flag of the recovered
country lazily waving above tne parapet. We
swung to at the pier, waited half an hour, and
then I saw walk down the plank roadway from
the fort, with a military officer on one side of |
him and a lady on the other, a thin, bent, gray- [
haired, unimposing, village-looking man, in a
suit of home-made gray or drab?Jefferson Da?
vis. A couple of soldiers, I think, lagged be?
hind, and, altogether, there were not above a
dozen people on the wharf in sig at beside j
these.
Mr. Davis did not come directly out to the
boat, but loitered there awhile in the warm
sunshine of that quiet Saturday, talking to
General Duncan and Mrs. Davis, with the
smile of a sick man convalescent playing on
his face. I was disappointed with hit* appear?
ance, for I was familiar with his person and
face only from portrait? on Confedera'ie money
and from engravings. Those pictures; heroized
him, and gave him a classical profile and an
2e of nahng decision, which now he did not
ow. Still, in this setting of Hampton Roads,
the man could not be else than the central fig?
ure. The great law of association made him
the personage to which everything in view was
subservient?the old Fort, which was the en?
tering wedge into the late Confederacy; the
Sellow barrack peeping over the parapet where
e had been imprisoned; the wrecks of frigates
sunk in the roadstead by his navy; the oppo?
site cape of sand and wood, where lurked that
that morning, terrible as ever, tho superstition
of the iron monster which had emerged thence
for the deliberate work of destruction at the
command of his will. And now he was the
riddle and perplexity of his conqueror ; this
thin old man, just permitted to feel the breath
of liberty, whose name, for fear or wonder, j
had gone round the world, and earned from a
cool head like Gladstone the opinion that
"Jefferson Davis had made a nation !" What
should the United States do with Jefferson Da?
vis t At law he might be hanged. Who
would hang him ? The pulse of the country
fluttered, and everybody wanted somebody else
to take the responsibility.
I shall not attempt to wreck expression upon
the feelings that I entertained as I leaned over
the deck-rai Is of the steamer, and looked down
npon this man whose empire had been reab
sorbed into ours, and whose active history was
done. I have never got over the fresh country
boy's surprise at seeing the world, and all real j
news affects mo as phenomena. There was
neither resentment nor judgment in my esti?
mate of this man, whom I did not bold either
wholly or in chief responsible for the great in?
surrection and its calamities. There is nobody
responsible for a general revolution like that
which he led, any more than a deluge is the
fault of the channels it chooses or the accesso?
ries it receives. In the broad-spread evapora?
tion of slavery rose the energies of the storm
and the flood. This dam was treacherous, and
yonder reservoir bursts. Here and there a
staunch and loyal wall or column kept erect, to
be revered when the waters subside; but he
who had seeu the war for slavery from a news?
man's eyrie was not fit for his vocation who
should point out Jefferson Davis, and say:
"This was the rebellion I" And, with an un?
defined, half-conscious sense of the injustice of
such an interpretation, the popular mind look?
ed uneasily upon its prisoner, and wished he
had escaped to Mexico, or Canada, or Europe,
and not remained the elephant that he was
upon our hands. Should we hang him, and
afterward feel mean about it, and sanctify his
gibbet to a dead cause ? Should we keep him
in jail as Elizabeth kept Queen Mary, and, at
the end, come to the same unwilling conclu?
sion ? Should we set him free, and make re?
bellion cheap ? Was it not a party necessity ?
Was it a human and patriotic necessity ? What
would he have done to us under like circum?
stances ? Should we apply our low estimate of
his magnanimity to our own in the period of
power ?
At*the moment of awkward irresolution, a
man in New York, out of his own notions of
the needs and fitness of things, obeyed an im
Sulse which solved the problem. Horace
rreeley took the public mind off Jefferson Da?
vis, and became, in turn, the best-abused man
in America. He obcyeci the old law of cards :
"When in doubt, play trumps 1" He played
mercy and magnanimitv, and closed up tho
war without shedding a life to stain the victory
of freedom. Whatever the motives of his de?
cision, whether "a meddlesome impertinence,"
as Mr. Dan Voorhees says, or a high and con?
sistent principle, ho made mercy a success.
Not under the apple-tree at Appomattox did
the Confederacy yield up its life, but under the
gallows-tree at Richmond. Tho most promi?
nent man in the North wrote his name to the
chief traitor's bond of security, and while we
cavil about it to this day, the South, ardent
and anxious again for restoration to fraternal
citizenship, and absorbed with mor-3 necessities
than we, cry, "We accept Horace Greeley as
he accepted us!"
By reference to my diary, I find that we as?
cended the James River, on the steamer John
Sylvester, and were all day on the passage.
General Duncan, Adjutant McElrath (a son of
Thos. McElrath, once partner and publisher of
Horace Greeley,) and other regular army offi?
cers were on board, and wished to introduce
me to the Davis family, for I was tho only
newspaper mau on the vessel. I declined.
Interviewing had not then become the fashion.
dLhad too much respect for my profession
and for Jefferson Davis' misfortunes, to snatch
from him momentary expressions, and print
them to mankind as his revealed and critical
opinions.
Mr. Davis was given the absolute freedom
of the steamer on the way up the river. His
wife?much younger than himself, a buxom
brunette?seemed to hover round him with
affection and admiration. The domestic life
of the South, barring slavery, always comman?
ded the respect of Northerners.. The women
were true and good; the men believed in their
wives. The best of slavery was the white mis?
tress.
We arrived, at night, near Rockett's, below
Eichmond. There were gathered up a great lot
of clattering cavalry, the sole attempt of the
United States to give a monarchical gasconade
to a small arrest. After the popular force sub?
sides in this country, the representative crimin?
al is a shadow. A young man named James
McConnell cried out to me from the. pier (he
represented the New York Tribune:)
"Gath, you are the luckiest newspaper man
alive."
He supposed I had been taking advantage of
Mr. Davis. My annoyance of Mr. Davis had
been circumscribed by looking at him half a
dozen times when courtesy allowed, during the
daylight. If he sees this paper, he will be,
perhaps, for the first time, aware that he trav?
eled a whole day up the James river in compa?
ny with a newspaper correspondent.
The next day was Sunday. A beautiful Sab?
bath-day indeed, with the green leaves out on
the trees, and all the hills of Richmond grassy
fresh. It is a beautiful city by nature?the
Montreal of the States, rapids and tide-water
meeting, heights and ravines all round about,
and in very little a Southern town. We meet
together, Northern and Southern journalists,
as cordially as if the war had never been, using
isms. What bosh to try to make two States
out of the same man, two directions to the same
river, and life-long enemies of two fellows
whom echo can not but confound 1 We use
the same grammar, smoke the same tobacco, spit
and swear just alike, and do equally mean
things under the cover of party loyalty. Sev?
eral of us rode out to see the old forts?mighty
works, and proof that the South was no more
lazy than the North, and full as enterprising
when it had a necessity or a resolve. There
I gaped the bomb-proofs; there yawned the
I magazines; there a black man was gathering
faggots from the abattis for fire-wood. The
I peace feeling was over all; the white sky hung
out its cirrus standard; the water cooled the
eyes of man; the grass almost grew in our j
sight to cover the scars of conflict in the land?
scape. Did you ever think what a great race
of men live at the South,* to have been subject
to the licentious and profligate contact of slav?
ery for twenty generations, and still preserve
such energies and so much manly character ?
We miss them from our public couusels to-day.
: How capable and direct they were iu foreign
diplomacy?courtesy and chivalry, truth aud
I death in their address 1 Then, slaveholders
[ as we were, the world knew that we said no
more than we meant. We did not needlessly
irritate our peers among the nations with sar?
donic sentences like Bancroft Davis'. With
the glove in his hand, and the talk of a king's
herald, the Southerner made his proposition, to
the foreigner. Of him it might be said, as of
Cromwell:
"While he lived, no Dutchman swept the
narrow seas 1 No Castlemaines dishonored the
high places I Vice and folly trembled in his
eye, and all good things lay safe beneath his
mighty shadow."
That Sunday there was a good deal of negro
parading. Cuffy was.out in blood-red uniform
and gold gimp, riding horseback at the head of
bis column, and taking a malicious pleasure in
passing before Jeffs hotel. They have had the
good sense at Richmond not to be annoyed at
, this, and now white troops and negro troops
salute each other there on Washington's birth?
day.
Monday morning the United States granite
building was the town rendezvous. It stood at
the foot of the State capitol hill, where the
Davis Government ruled with brief but tre?
mendous energy, and where all departments
quarreled, aud old Jeff, himself showed all the
weakness and strength of a destruction ist. In
this court-room presided a very forbidding
looking judge, by name Underwood?a man ap
Jmrently stunted and bleeched by wrougs and
ears, but, for all I know, a consistent aud per?
sistent man?born in the North, wedded to a
slaveholder's daughter for whom he was tutor,
and now very ambitious and uncharitable to
his beaten neighbors. The charge this man
had delivered to the grand jury, a few days be?
fore, was a strong instance of merely tantaliz?
ing declamation, bad spirit, mean in lan?
guage and without the tone or intent of justice
in it.
The grand jury was composed of whites and
blacks?the usual intelligent jury existing in a
half-guilty dependence between the judge and
the foreman. John Minor Botts was on the
jury?a big-bellied, hale fellow, farmer politi?
cian, two-thirds demagogue, and one third ob?
stinacy, with the varnish and veneer of elo?
quence over all; a talker by profession, who
boasted that ho had never read a book since
boyhood, but lived on newspapers and other
stimulants. He is dead, and carved his page
on the history of the country. What contrary
and heroic things men do for many years to
get that page!
The light was fair in the court room, and, in
due time. Jeff. Davis entered. He wore com?
mon clothes, looked weak-eyed, was not an. im?
portant-looking man, and seemed to me not
worth so much hating and fuss. Ho had been
very unpopular in Richmond, but the people
naturally felt that he was now vicariously on
trial for them, and they loyally stood by him.
There are people, I know, who want the South?
ern people to behave as Bancroft Davis expect?
ed England to behave?like weeping flunkeys,
running over at the eyes and lips with apolo
fies. Our fellow-man is no swindler. When
o carries Lis musket four years barefooted to
keep up the interests and save the necks of
politicians, he is slow to cry on order.
I saw thero?Charles O'Conor, of New York,
who was afterwards to be so potential and inde?
pendent in prosecuting the Tammany ring, and
thus insensibly heading the fraternal revolu?
tion ; General Iraboden, who was to write a
very beautiful letter to the Cincinnati Conven?
tion in Horace Grcelcy's favor; and, I think,
Frank Sternes, a fellow-Vermonter with Gree
ley by birth, who was to bear Imbodcn's letter
to Cincinnati. Lastly, I saw Horace Grccley
himself enter the court room, and become the
focus of observation.
Mr. Greeley I had never spoken with up to
that day. He was a large, fleshy, marked-look?
ing man, with a smooth, healthy face, in which
the colors were brighter than men usually keep.
He had a deep, benevolent forehead, ami woro,
I think, a suit of black broadcloth. He seldom
wears a white coat at any time, although cari?
cature so represents him, and his hat iu his
hand was the samo quality and shape he has
always carried since?a broad-rimmcd felt, soft
and fine, and sensible and dressy enough for
any person. He was dressed as well as any?
body in Richmond. He looked to nie like a
the
ihrases, bon-mots, gestures, American
man originally shy and bashful, and incurably
retiring by native wish, and who, therefore,
came forward on public occasions from propul?
sion rather than irom enjoyment. His smile,
at such times of exhibition, is that of a good
humored boy who had much rather go play in
the yard than exhibit before company; and it
occurred to me there that, for worldly uses, a
man might have such a thing as too exuberant
health and temperance. He spoke to few, and
then always by request;. and he was, to a grea?
extent, the reigning influence in that presence.
Underwood, the judge with whom lay the op?
tion of taking bail, paid much more respect to
Horace Greeley's intentions than to Mr. Davis.
After the bond was signed, as?Mr. Greeley
stepped back toward a column or pillar where
ho had'first stood, Mr. Davis rose from his
chair with a smile of respect, and reached out
his hand, bowing like one under deep obliga?
tion, and fully accepting the act in its benevo?
lent spirit. Mr. Greeley took the hand, with?
out speaking, so far as I could see, and the ac?
tion lasted only a portion of a moment. The
two have never had communications since.
Mr. Voorhecs says that Mr. Greeley's act
was meddlesome impertinence. A public man
who could stigmatize a large and painstaking
act of kindness like that, in such terms, has a
querulous and provincial nature, and a gener?
ous age wastes time upon hira. What meddle?
some impertinence was not Mr. Voorhees guil?
ty of during the war?prolonging it by his ex?
ample, adding stup'iditv to the inevitable, and
assuming that the'whole epic tragedy revolved
about himself. To save nis seat in Congress,
and remember some old grudge, personal only
to him, this long-haired egotist would recom?
mend personal government till doomsday, and
load the carpet-bag hanging round the neck of
the South. That impertinent act of Horace
Greeley, brave as it was, had nearly driven him
from the head of the Tribune.
After the crowd left the court rooin? Mr.
Greeley proceeded directly to his hotel, in the
company of Mr. Botts, and, introducing myself,
the former said:
"Why, Gath, why haven't you introduced
yourself to me before? Come, walk down the
street"
I That night the Richmond newspaper folks
Sve us all a supper, and Mr. Greeley presided,
e gave a toast in cold water that the enmities
of the past be buried, and we lay our hands
and hearts to the peace of the future. We all,
Greeley excepted, drank a great deal of cham?
pagne, and young MacFarland, editor of For?
ney's Washington Chronicle (a paper now de?
funct, I believe, killed by a Bohemian named
Fox, by Holden, the North Carolina outlaw,
and by Morris, a renegade preacher,) toasted
Jeff. Davis, for which the small-minded and
timid Forney afterward cut off McFarland's
head. As nearly as I can remember my speech,
it was to the effect that the Provost Ma-shal
and the man in buttons had had his day; that
the best way to spoil the American volunteer
was to make him believe that nobody else had
ever served his country from the noblest mo?
tives ; and that for myself, long an army cor?
respondent, I had seen a great deal of mean?
ness, jealousy, intrigue and several penitentiary
offenses committed in the army, and hailed its
disbandment and the opening of the prison
doors to them that were bound.
Little did we know the fury that was gather?
ing in the North for Horace Greeley. The
New York Times, never truly in earnest except
when it gets the Tribune foul, had its brief re?
venge, and was meaner than ever. The Chris?
tian press kept Christ's admonition with a ven?
geance, "Be good to your enemies; pray for
them that despitefully use you." I am afraid
I have never been charitable to the Christian
?ress ever since I ascertained that the New
'ork Independent and several of its pious con?
temporaries farmed out their financial columns.
My own account of the Court-scene was gutted
and altered in a very impertinent manner by
the editor of the paper employing me, and Mr.
Greeley sent to me in vain for j:ic MS. to use
it on the lYibune.
I do know that the city of Richmond appre?
ciated that act. The feeling that day all over
the fire-scarred Capital of the Old Dominion
was a warming loyality to the Union again.
The noisy rebuke is hushed now, and none ac?
cuse the act but a very useless and showy Indi?
ana Democrat. The man who went on the
bond of Jefferson Davis will preside in the
White House, at Washington, from the 4th day
of next March, and prove the pen, in the hands
of one entirely merciful, mightier than the
sword. GATH.
Charles Lever.?The Charleston Courier
records the death of the celebrated Irish novel?
ist in the following words:
The telegraph has iust announced to a host
of sympathizing readers, the death of a well
known and well loved novelist. It is hardly
one brief month since, in a pathetic preface to
his latest story, Charles Lover told the public,
who had welcomed him so often to their homes
and hearths, that this book, begun in happi?
ness, and ended "in breaking health and broken
spirits," would be his last. Soldom has sad
?rophccy found sadder, speedier fulfillment?
'he ink was scarcely dry in which were written
down the adventures and misadventures, the
loves and flirtations and follies and failures of
Walpole, and Atlee, and Nina Kostalergi, be?
fore death took the pen from the nerveless hand
and wrote his inexorable Finis at the foot of
the well filled page.
What a literary record the great Irish racon?
teur has left to his generation. It is forty years
since the rollicking humors of "Harry Loirc
quer ? and "Charles O'Malley" delighted the
world of readers, and in "Lord Kilgobbin,"
despite all its faults of artistic construction,
there is the same irresistible geniality, the same
nerve and vigor and vitality which we had come
instinctively to associate with Charles Lever's
name. He will be missed by thousands who
had learned to look to him for that healthful
and innocent amusement which is the true salt
of existence. We knew that he was not a great
novelist; but wo felt that he was the very
prince of storytellers. It never occurred to us
to name him with those who had exalted their
art into a kinship, with the great moral and
intellectual forces that mould their age, but we
were not the less sure that in his brilliant pages,
we would find not only the sprightlincss and
humor which charm and entertain, but .ilso
the manly vigor and simple enthusiasm which
brace the heart and lift up the spirit of human?
ity. And it is surely no mean epitaph, for one
who has written so much, that throughout the
long list of bis various productious, the finger
of envious criticism can point to
"Not one immoral, nne corrupted thought.
Ouo lino, which dying, ho would wish to blot."
? An Irishman, who let himself to a farm?
er, said, while selling his services, that he
could hold a plow, and do all other kinds of
farm work. He was taken to the field, and
told to hold the plow. The horses started, and
ho showed his incapacity in controlling the in?
strument. "Did you not tell me you could hold
the plow?" said the enrnged farmer. "And
sum 1 did," said Paddy; "and I can honld it
if you'll unhitch them two horses that are try?
ing to take it away from me.''
Acceptance of Hon. B. Gratz Brown.
In reply to the letter notifying him. of the
action of the Cincinnati Convention in nomi?
nating him for Vice President, Hon. B. Gratz
Brown has responded as follows:
Jefferson City, May 24,1872.
Gentlemen: Your letter advising me of the
action of the Liberal Republican Convention
at Cincinnati has been received, and I return
through you my acknowledgment of the honor
which has been conferred upon me.
j I accept the nomination as a candidate for
Vice President, and indorse most cordially the
resolutions setting forth the principles on which
the appeal is made to the whole peoplo of the
United States.
A century is closing upon our experience of
Republican government, and while that lapse
of time has witnessed a great expansion of our
free institution, yet it has not been without il?
lustration also of grave dangers to the stability
of such a system. Of those successfully encoun?
tered, it is needless to speak. Of those which
remain to menace us, the most threatening are
provided against, as I firmly believe, in the
wise and pacific measures, proposed by your
platform. It has come to be the practice of
those elevated to positions of national authori?
ty to regard public service but as a means to
retain power. This rosults in substituting a
more party organization for the government it?
self, which constitutes a control amenable to no
laws or moralities, impairs all independent
thought, enables a few to rule the many, and
makes personal allegiance the road to favor. It
requires little forecast to perceive that this will
wreck all liberties unless there be interposed a
timely reform of the administration from its
highest to its lowest station, which shall not
only prevent abuses, but likewise take away
the incentive to their practice. Wearied with
the contentions that are carried on in avarice
of spoils the country demands repose and re?
sents the efforts of officials to dragoon it again
into partisan hostilities. And I will zealously
sustain any movement promising a snre deliv?
erance of the perils which have been connected
with the war. It is safe to say that only those
are now to be feared which come of an abuse
of victory into permanent estrangement. The
Union is fortified by more power than ever be?
fore, and it remains as an imperative duty to
cement our nationality by a perfect reconcilia?
tion at the North. A wide-spread sympathy is
aroused in behalf of those States of the South
which long after the termination of resistance
to tho rightful Federal authority are still plun?
dered under the guise of loyalty, and tyrannized
over in the name of freedom. Aloug with this
feeling is present, too, the recognition that in
complete amnesty alone can be found hope of
any return to Constitutional Government as of
old, or any development of a more enduring
unity and broader national life in the future.
Amnesty, however, to be efficacious, must be
real, not nominal; genuine, not evasive. It
must carry along with it equal rights as well as
equal protection to all; for the removal of dis
abilies as to some, with enforcement as to oth?
ers, leaves room for suspicion that pardon is
measured by political gain. Especially will'
such professed clemency be futile in the pres?
ence of the renewed attempt at prolonging a
suspension of the habeas corpus, and the per?
sistent resort to martial rather than civil law
in upholding those agencies used to alienate
the races, when concord is most essential; and
in preparing another elaborate campaign on a
basis of dead issues and arbitr?r}* intervention,
all will rightly credit such conduct as but a
mockery of amnesty, and demand an adminis?
tration which can give better warrant of hones?
ty in the great work of reconstruction and re?
form in the array of sectional interests. A re?
public as wide-spread as ours is never entirely
safe from serious conflicts. These become still
more dangerous when complicated with ques?
tions of taxation, where unequal burdens are
believed to be imposed on one part at the ex?
pense of another part. It was a bold as well
as admirable policy, in the interest of present
as well as future tranquility, to withdraw the
decision of industrial and revenue matters from
the virtual arbitration of an electoral college,
chosen with the single animating purpose of
party ascendency, and refer them for a more
direct popular expression to each Congressional
district. Instead of being muzzled by some
evasive declaration, the country is thereby
invited to its frankest utterance, and sections
which would revolt at being denied a voice out
of deference to other sections would be content
to acquiesce in a general judgmeut "honestly
elected."
If local government bo, as It undoubtedly is,
tho most vital principle of our institutions,
much advance will be made towards establish?
ing it by enabling the people to pass upon
auestions so nearly affecting their well-being
ispassionatcly through their local representa?
tion. The precipitance which would force a
controlling declaration on tax or tariff through
a Presidential candidacy is only a disguised
form of centralization, involving hazardous
reaches of Executive influence. A conclusion
will be much more impartially determined and
with less disturbance to trade and finance by
appealing to the most truthful and diversified
local expression. Industrial issues can be thus
likewise emancipated from the power of great
monopolies, and each representative heul to
fidelity towards his immediate constituents.?
These are the most prominent features of that
general concert of action which proposes to re?
place the present administration by one more
in sympathy with tho aspirations of the masses
of our countrymen. Of course such concert
cannot be obtained by thrusting every minor
or past difference into the foreground, and it
will be for tho people therefore to determine
whether these objects are of such magnitude
and present urgency as to justify them in de?
fending other adjustments until the country
shall be first restored to a free suffrage, unin?
fluenced by official dictation, and ours becomes
in fact a free republic, released from apprehen?
sions of a central domination.
Without referring in detail to the various
other propositions embraced in the resolutions
of the convention, but seeing how they all con?
template a restoration of power to the people,
peace to the nation, purity to the Government;
that they condemn the attempt to establish an
ascendency of military over civil rule, and af?
firm with explicitness the maintenance of equal
freedom to all citizens, irrespective of race,
previous condition, or pending disabilities, I
have only to pledge again my sincere co-opera?
tion. 1 have the honor to remain, very respect?
fully yuurs,
B. Git atz Brown.
? A fall of rain, it is observed, generally
lessens sickness; while a drouth augments it.
A heavy fall of rain is better than a light
shower. A wet summer is more apt to be a
healthy season than a dry summer. Dr. Bill?
iard says that rain in summer operates more
favorably than rain in winter. This must be
true, especially in warm climates, as the air in
summer is more apt to be in Avant of that de?
gree of moisture which is necessary to the good
of animal life, and wet air being a good con?
ductor, is more apt to cany the malaria that
may be created in one locality, to another,
The Growing Crops.
In accordance with an annual custom, which
has invariably been attended with the most
satisfactory results, we have this spring sent
circulars to a large number of the most intelli?
gent and carefully observant planters through?
out the State requesting from them certain
points of information respecting the growing
crops, especially, of course, as to the condition
and prospects of our great staple?cotton. In
response to these requests we have received a
great number of letters containing important
and valuable information which has been
promptly spread before our readers, and from
the mass of information thus obtained, it is
now possible to give in a compact form a gen?
eral review of the planting operations through?
out the State, with a comparison of similar op?
erations in former years, and as complete and
accurate a statement of the prospects and prob?
abilities of the crops of South Carolina for
i1872 as can possibly be obtained at this stage
of the season.
First, as to the area of ground occupied in
the cultivation of cotton this year in compari?
son with 1871, it is certain that there is an in?
creased acreage devoted to cotton amounting in
the whole State to certainly 10 per cent. In
many counties the increase is much more than
this, as in Eichland which reports an increase
of 30 per cent., Anderson and Orangeburg 25
per cent, each, while in Fairfield, Clarendon,
Darlington, Lancaster, Lexington, Marlboro'
and Sumter an increase of from 10 to 20 per
cent, is noticed; but in no county, with the
single exception perhaps of Union, is there a
less area than in 1871.
The stand of cotton does not, however, com?
pare favorably with that of last year, nor are
the prospects of a yield at all equal to those at
the same period of last year. The lateness of
the stand is an almost universal complaint in
many counties, and noticeably in Anderson,
Clarendon, Darlington, Marlboro', Oconee,
Richlaud and Union, the long drought in
April and the first half of May having baked
and hardened the soil, retarding the germina?
tion of the seed. In many localities the pro?
cess of planting was necessarily suspended, and
only renewed since the rains in the middle and
latter part of May. The reports are somewhat
more cheerful from Barnwell, Lexington and
Sumter, but, on the whole, the prospects at this
date of an increased yield, proportionate to the
increased quantity of cotton planted, are not
by any means encouraging. As the crop, how?
ever must depend upon the character of the
seasons from this time out, we do not pretend
to estimate the number of bales that may be
expected to be made.
The quantity of commercial fertilizers used
this year has been very largely in excess of the
consumption of 1871, and almost equal to the
quantity used in 1870. This increase is report?
ed in some counties as enormous. In Lancas?
ter County it is said that three times the quan?
tity of fertilizers used in 1871 has been used
this year. In Anderson, Barnwell, Clarendon,
Darlington and Orangeburg, twice as much,
and in Abbeville, Chester, Fairfield Marion,
Marlboro', Sumter and York the increase is re?
ported at from 10 to 75 per cent. In Laurens
and Oconee, it is said that about the same
quantity has been used that was used last year,
but in no county is a decreased consumption
noticed. Tho probability is that throughout
the State tho consumption has been about dou?
ble that of 1871, and very nearly equal to that
of 1870. This probability is strengthened by
the report of the number of tons of fertilizers
shipped to the interior of South Carolina and
the adjoining States, by the various lines of
transportation from this city, recently pub?
lished in the New?. Those shipments were, in
1870, 44,485 tons, in 1871, 20.4S7 tons, and in
1872, 37,18fiktons. and it must be borne in mind,
also, that many thousand tons were carried over
in stock in the interior towns from 1S71 to the
present year.
The cost per bale of making the cotton crop,
this year will, it is unanimously agreed, be
about the same as in 1S71. The cost and effi?
ciency of labor has been about the same as
last year, and the increased expenditure for
fertilizers has been counterbalanced by the
cheapness of staple provisions, such as bacon
and molasses, These remarks, however, will
hardly apply to the counties which have been
harried by Grant's night raiders, causing vex?
atious and coutly suspensions of planting Oper?
ations at critical periods, unsettling the minds
of the frcediuen and frightening them away
from their work. In all of these counties the
cost of production will be materially increased,
but the decreased expense in all the other
counties, from the causes above enumerated,
will prove an ample offset, and it is a perfectly
safe statement that throughout the State the
proportionate cost of making the cotton crop
will be no greater than iu 1871.
The prospects of the grain crop throughout
the State are not flattering. In a very few
counties, as in Chester, Lancaster, Orangeburg
and Richland, rather more grain has been
planted than last year, but in most of the
counties the quantity is about the same. Corn
appears to be doing well, but wheat and the
smaller grains have been generally impaired
by the dry season, and tho oat crop in many
localities is reported as a total failure. About
half the counties in the State will make enough
grain to supply the needs of their own locali?
ties until the next crop comes iu, but the other
counties will, as usual, be purchasers.
This is believed to be a careful, comprehen?
sive and accurate review of the present condi?
tion and prospects of the crops of this State.
The reports from the interior will be continued
throughout the season, with the continued co?
operation of* our attentive correspondents,
wnose courtesy and kindness in this matter we
beg respectfully to acknowledge, as well as
the hearty words of encouragement with which
many of thctn have greeted these efforts on
our part to furnish at all times the latest, the
most complete and tho most trustworthy infor-1
mation upon this subject of vital importance
to our State.?Charleston News.
? A young lady of Bangor, some three years
since, lost a valuable diamond ring at a ball in
Augusta, and could hear nothing of it, though
she advertised her loss. Last Monday evening
the ring was returned to her by a young man,
who stated that a lady had found it at the ball,
and though she knew to whom it belonged, de?
termined to keep it. The matter weighed heav?
ily on her conscience, however; she never dar?
ed wear the ring, and for a long time dared not
return it, but at length, coming to the conclu?
sion that she could not bear it any longer, she
related the whole circumstances to the geutle
man who kindly returned the ring to its right?
ful owner.
? Miss Kane, of Baltimore, set out to write
a list of the wrongs of women, but found so
many of them that she was driven to the con?
clusion that women suffer a wrong in being
born at all. This disposes of the whole ques?
tion in a nutshell.
? An exchange tells us that Indianapolis
has a firm with a woman as silent partner.
Was the poor creature born that way, or was it
the result of an accident?
Letter from General Beaurcgard.
New Orleans, May 27,1872. .
To tlie Editors of the N. 0. Times : I am in?
formed that mauy of my friends were disap?
pointed at not obtaining a response to.their
call for my views relative to the subject under
consideration at the great meeting of the people
at the St. Charles theatre, on the 25th inst., es?
pecially when I was one of the signers of the
call for that meeting, and had been selected as
one of the vice-presidents on that occasion. I
did not respond for two reasons: In the first
place, able orators had been selected to address
the meeting, and they were entitled to the
floor; secondly, not being a public speaker, I
might have used language which might not
have expressed exactly my meaning, thereby
doing, perhaps, more harm than good.
It is but seldom that I take part in politics,
which offer generally little attraction to me;
but when the questions at issue are vital to the
safety of our institutions and welfare of the
State or country, every patriot should step to
the front and assume the individual responsi?
bility which belongs to a proper manhooa. We
have reached, I think, one of those critical pe?
riods of our history when we should "hangout
our banners on the outer walls." We are now
in greater danger of losing our liberties and
the little that is left of our property than in
the fatal year of 1865. We bad then "hope"
to guide and cheer us along the dreary path
we had before us; but now all is darkness and
gloom above the horizon, and we should be
careful in the choice of the pilots who are to
take us to a port of safety; they should be
well acquainted with the bars and quicksands
which lay in our course.
I proclaim it as my conviction, that thehonr
has struck when the voice of the people shall
be heard, reverberating in loud ana clear tones,
from one end of the Union to the other. In
times of national peril it is our privilege, as
well as our right, to be heard in public assem?
blies, and no citizen should shirk that sacred
duty.
The old parties are powerless to save us I
We must call on all discontented elements and
parties to unite with us to resist the encroach?
ments and corrupting influences of the Gov?
ernment under which we are living, or, I should
more properly say, "dying," for a slow but sure
political death is now staring us in the face.
What, then, may be asked, is the remedy that
we have at h.?.nd? It may bean unpleasant
one to many of us, but we had better make a
virtue of necessity and accept it ere it be too
late.
To me it appears plain, that to insure success,
we must all unite under the banner of "the
Constitution and the laws," "reunion and re?
form," "honesty and universal amnesty." That
banner has been lately raised at Cincinnati,
under the leadership of Greeley and Brown ;
in the past two of our most earnest and dan?
gerous enemies, but two, also, of the purest
and most honest of men, who, when they shall
have said to the country, "Let us have peace,"
will mean it, and will give us peace in spite of
all opposition. For my part, I prefer bavin?
as a friend one who has been my open and
fearless antagonist, to one who has "friendship
on his lip*, but hatred in his heart 1"
In conclusion, may I ask my friends if we
are likely to go amiss by following the exam?
ple of such men as Seymour and Blair, Demo?
cratic candidates for President and Vice-Pres?
ident in 1SG8, and of Chas. Francis Adams,
who would have been very acceptable to the
Democrats, it is said, if chosen by the Cincin?
nati Convention in preference to Horace Gree?
ley? Those gentlemen, we are informed, ap?
prove and indorse the nomination of Messrs.
Greeley and Brown, and adopt the Liberal
Republican platform. Why should we be more
hypercritical than they are? Are they not
supposed to be better judges than we are of the
merits and qualifications of the candidates who
can or should command success? Let us,
then, Lury the hatchet, forget and forgive, on
both sides, and march in solid phalanx to re?
form and victory.
G. T. BEAUREGARD.
Too Much Preaching.?The Standard, in
a philosophical article on Sunday sermons and
the way they are overdone, says:
We think there is too much preaching, and
that the church which sins most in this regard
is neither the Roman Catholic nor the Episco?
palian. In the majority of Protestant church?
es, not Episcopal, two sermons are preached
ever}* Sunday?one morning and afternoon, or
one morning and evening, as the case may be.
These sermons vary in length from three-quar?
ters of an hour to one hour, and in some excep?
tional and rare cases extend even beyond that
period. But fixing the average at three-quar?
ters of an hour, we thus have two discourses,
on two different topics, regularly delivered once
a week, and hcbdomadally occupying not less
than one and a half hours. Under such cir?
cumstances one is not surprised at the reply of
the parishioner, who, on being asked by a di?
vine, notorious for the length and abstruseness
of his discourses, what he thought of the ser?
mon, replied, that like the ways of the Al
! mighty, it was past finding out, and like His
mercy, lie thought it would have endured for?
ever. Two long sermons per week are too
much to expect tue clergy to write or the laity
to desire. They clog the spiritual digestion
and overload the spiritual stomach. One good
6ermou per week is quite as much as a man of
even more than the average intelligence of ha?
bitual church-goers can take in.
Never Heard of Greeley.?A corres?
pondent of the Springfield Republican de?
scribing a journey through South Carolina,
writes from Beaufort as follows:
Some have said the freedmen will vote for
Greeley; he has been their firm friend and
stroug champion, and they will be gratcfuL
The Ifrccdmeu will vote just as their leaders
tell them to, and, as for lirceley, not one in
twenty hereabout ever heard of him, and I do
not believe the proportion living in and about
cities would greatly exceed that. I interview?
ed one on the presidential question. He was
of more intelligence than the average here, and
said when Grccley's name was mentioned that
Mr. Blank was "tellin' me de oder day 'bout
Mr. Greeley?where docs he live?" He
thought the representatives sent to Washing?
ton would report how matters were there, and
that he .should vote accordingly.^ Another one
knew he had voted the Republican ticket last
presidential election, but who the man was that
he voted for he could not say. It is not to be
expected that people so thoroughly ignorant,
and whose political guides have been those
who were bent simply on promoting their own
interests, without regard to any principle what?
ever, should vote with any degree of intelli?
gence. _ _ _
? A clergyman created quite a merriment
the other day, on one of our steamboats, going
over to lay out a new-* camp-meeting resort, by
the inquiry: "What positive proof is there
that King David and his eon Solomon were
tailors?" No one in the crowd could answer,
and the humorous divine quoted the familiar
passage : "And Solomon mended the breaches
which David his father had made."