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Chapter III., "Villainies of the State Government," opens as follows:

"The corruption of the State government of South Carolina is a topic that has grown threadbare in the handling. The last administration stole right and left with a recklessness and audacity without parallel. The robbery under it embraced all grades of people. The thieves had to combine to aid one another. . They do not attempt even to conceal their plunder. . . . The whole of the late administration, which terminated its existence in November, 1872, was a morass of rottenness, and the present administration was born of the corruptions of that. . . . There seems to be no hope, therefore, that the villainies of the past will be speedily uncovered. The present governor was speaker of the last House, and he is credited with having issued, during his term in office, over $400,000 of pay certificates, which are still unredeemed and for which there is no appropriation, but which must be saddled on the tax-payers sooner or later... 'How did you get your money?' was asked of a prominent legislator and lobbyist. 'I stole it,' was the prompt reply. . . . As it is, taxation is not in the least diminished, and nearly $2,000,000 per annum are raised for State expenses where $40,000 formerly sufficed. . . . The new governor has the reputation of spending $30,000 or $40,000 a year on a salary of $3,500; but his financial operations are taken as a matter of course, and only referred to with a slight shrug of the shoulders. ... The total amount of the stationery bill of the House for the twenty years preceding 1861 averaged $400 per annum. Last year it was $16,000.... It is fearful to contemplate the thick-coming issues that result from emancipation and enfranchisement, which are now barely in the bud and in the blossom. The ignorance manifested is black with its denseness, and it is not too much to say that, as the negro in slavery had absolutely no morale, he comes out of it entirely without morale. . . . It is bad enough to have the decency and intelligence and property of the State subjected to the domination of its ignorant black pauper multitude, but it becomes unendurable when to that ignorance the worst vices are superadded."

The views expressed in the work from which I quote are those of an impartial, thoughtful observer, and they are well worthy of serious consideration by all who desire to see a satis factory solution of the problem involved in negro citizenship. This is the gravest question which has ever been submitted to a free people, and no satisfactory answer has yet been given. It will require wisdom of the highest order and ardent patriotism so to adjust the political relations of the two races as to protect the country from the gravest dangers. With a few more quotations from Mr. Pike I must dismiss his work:

"The rule of South Carolina should not be dignified with the name of gov

L

ernment. It is the installation of a huge system of brigandage. The men who have had it in control, and who now have it in control, are the picked villains of the community. They are the highwaymen of the State. They are professional legislative robbers. They are men who have studied and practiced the art of legalized theft. They are in no sense different from, or better than, the men who fill the prisons and penitentiaries of the world. They are, in fact, of precisely that class, only more daring and audacious. They pick your pockets by law. They rob the poor and the rich alike by law. They confiscate your estate by law. They do none of these things even under the tyrant's plea of the public good or the public necessity. They do all simply to enrich themselves personally. Fancy the moral condition of a State in which a large majority of all its voting citizens are habitually guilty of thieving and of concubinage. Yet such is the condition of South Carolina. Are we to be told that the civilization of the nineteenth century has nothing better to propose than this for the government of one of the oldest and proudest States of the American Union? .. As it is morally, so it is intellectually. These same rulers of a great State, speaking of them as a whole, neither read nor write. They are as ignorant and as irresponsible in the exercise of their political functions as would be the Bedouin Arab of the desert, or the roving Comanches of the plains, if called upon to choose the rulers of New York or Massachusetts. Is this the self-government for which a war of seven years was waged, in which the best blood of the nation was shed, and to secure the results of which a written Constitution was painfully elaborated by its wisest and most conscientious men, in order that justice and liberty might forever be maintained in the States of the model American republic? Tell us what government of any civilized state of the Old World, if imported into South Carolina, would be as oppressive upon, and as unfitted for, the 300,000 white people of that State as that which now curses it under the name of republican? In all modern history there has been no substitution of ignorance for knowledge, of barbarism for cultivation, of stolidity for intelligence, of incapacity for skill, of vice and corruption for probity and virtue, in the revolutions and changes which have taken place. But it is altogether otherwise in the case of South Carolina. Here is one to which all modern history does not furnish a parallel."

I turn now to the report of the Joint Investigating Committee, appointed by the legislature of the State in 1877.

This committee was appointed under a concurrent resolution of the General Assembly, and was instructed to investigate any improper or illegal use of the "public funds or credit of the State." By the terms of the resolution they were also authorized to investigate any frauds perpetrated against the State, and the result of their labors is given in a voluminous report to the legislature. No extracts from this report can show, in all their enormity, the frauds committed by the dominant party of the

State during the so-called Republican rule, nor could they give any adequate idea of the vice and corruption which then permeated the whole political system. It is proper to say that this committee was appointed on the motion of a Republican senator, a native of South Carolina, who felt shame at the degradation to which his State was subjected, and who earnestly sought to bring to light all the frauds which had been committed, and to have the perpetrators punished. He was made chairman of the committee, and all the most damaging testimony embodied in the report was given by Republicans, or taken from Republican sources. No one in the State would have regarded the witnesses summoned as credible in any case, save in one where they gave evidence as to their own complicity in the crimes committed; but when immunity was promised to all who should turn state's evidence, there was no difficulty in uncovering the great frauds which had been perpetrated, or in fixing the guilt on the criminals engaged in them. The first subject to which the committee directed their attention was the election of Jno. J. Patterson to the Senate of the United States in 1872, the committee having been instructed "to ascertaiu whether the same was procured by bribery and corruption." On this point about seventy affidavits, chiefly from members of the legislature, were placed on the record, all going to show that Patterson had secured his election by the shameless and wholesale bribery of the members. So overwhelming was the proof of this fact that Patterson would undoubtedly have been sentenced to the penitentiary had the State been able to secure his presence for a trial. If any one entertains a doubt of his guilt, a perusal of the committee's report will at once remove it. The next subject to which the committee turned their attention was that of "supplies," and in this connection I quote a few paragraphs from their report :

If the simple statement was made that senators and members of the House were furnished with everything they desired, from swaddling clothes and cradle to the coffin of the undertaker, from brogans to chignons, finest extracts to best wines and liquors, and all paid for by the State, it would create a smile of doubt and derision; but when we make the statement, and prove it by several witnesses, and vouchers found in the offices of the clerks of the Senate and House, all will with sorrow admit the truthfulness of this report."

Woodruff, who was clerk of the Senate at that time, testifies on this point as follows:

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"Under the head of supplies' was embraced everything that a senator chose to order. . At first the orders were moderate, and included only stationery and postage-stamps, but they gradually increased until they assumed gigantic proportions. .. A. O. Jones, clerk of the House, testifies that supplies were furnished under the head of legislative expenses,' 'sundries,' and 'stationery,' and included refreshments for committee rooms, groceries, clocks, horses, carriages, dry-goods, furniture of every description, and miscellaneous articles of merchandise for the personal use of the members. Your committee find, upon examination of vouchers in the treasurer's office, that in one session there was expended, under the respective heads of supplies, sundries, and incidental expenses, not less than $350,000, $125.000 of which was spent for refreshments, including the finest wines, liquors, and cigars.

. It is shown that on March 4, 1872, Solomon furnished the Senate $1,631 worth of wines and liquors, and on the 7th day of the same month, $1,852.75 worth, aggregating $3,483.75."

I will quote from the report only a few lines more, to show how vast was the comprehension of the term "supplies" in those days, and how liberal the construction given by the representatives of the people to the authority under which they levied what was literally "blackmail" on their unfortunate constituents. Let it be borne in mind that the articles enumerated were all stolen by these legislators, and paid for by the State, for in the report vouchers are to be found substantiating every charge. of theft made. I can give only a very few items of the "supplies" furnished, for the list comprises almost every article which civilized man uses or barbaric taste fancies:

"Finest English tapestry brussels carpeting, English body brussels carpeting, English velvet door mats, English thread door mats, English oilcloths, English velvet hassocks, . . . finest French velvets, silk damask, Irish linens, billiard table-cloths, linen towels, woolen blankets, imported flannels, Marseilles quilts, ladies' hoods, ribbons of all qualities, pieces of crêpe, scissors, skirt braids and pins, tooth-brushes, hooks and eyes, boulevard skirts, bustles, chignons, palpitators, garters, chemises, parasols, gold watches and chains, rich sets of gold jewelry, diamond rings, diamond pins, ivory-handled knives and forks, pocket pistols, Webster's unabridged dictionary, fine horses, mules, carriages, buggies, and harness."

The above list hardly embraces one-tenth of the articles named in the report as having been bought by these legislators and charged to the State; but the list is surely long enough to

prove the assertion of Mr. Pike, already quoted, that these sable statesmen, aided by their carpet-bag allies, "stole right and left."

The report of the committee is very voluminous, covering several hundred pages. From the mass of testimony presented only extracts taken here and there can be given, and these I have selected from the different subdivisions of the report, in order to show that fraud, corruption, and vice ran riot in every branch of the public service. One of the most fruitful sources of plunder was found in the public printing of the State, and the committee dealt with this subject at great length, exposing an organized system to defraud a State never surpassed in magnitude or iniquity in the criminal records of similar cases. The committee say:

"Whilst fraud, bribery, and corruption were rife in every department of the State government, nothing has equaled the magnitude and infamy attending the management of public printing. . . . The division of the spoils extended from the highest officials to the humblest members of the General Assembly. Indeed, it embraced a majority of the State officials, and two-thirds of the members of the General Assembly. . . . In addition to the amounts expended for the benefit of those persons, the fund obtained was devoted to the establishment and support of various Republican journals, daily and weekly.

. At first, as will appear from the testimony, under Mr. Denny's contract the division of the spoils was confined to a few of the leading members of the General Assembly, but a majority did not like Denny's close manner of conducting business. Hence the Carolina Printing Company was formed, composed of certain State officials and the editors of the Columbia Union,' and Charleston Republican.""

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The amount stolen from the State by this ring of robbers passes belief, and but for the unimpeachable testimony of the figures given, proving this organized system of plunder, the facts presented by the committee would seem incredible. It must be remembered that all the evidence submitted is sustained by affidavits, and in most cases by those of the criminals themselves; so that no room to doubt the damaging exposure is left. The committee say that from 1868 to 1876 the amount paid for public printing amounted to $1,326,589—

"a sum largely in excess of the cost of public printing from the establishment of the State government up to 1868, including all payments made during the war in Confederate currency. . . . The public printing in this State cost $450,000 in one year, exceeding the cost of like work in Massachusetts Pennsylvania, Ohio. Maryland, and New York, by $122,932,

. . Amount

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