Chapter C: G. Woodson (11)

At the April term of the court, the evidences of the presence of
the Kuklux in Caswell county, accumulated. After partaking of
supper with Judge Kerr and his guests, I retired to rest in my
room, quite uneasy because of the rumors. I had fallen into a
doze, when my ears were disturbed by voices and singing and a
guitar tinkled. My venerable neighbor, Hon. James T. Morehead,
was being serenaded. After the music (so-called) had ceased
"Uncle Jimmy" made a little speech to the boys. From this, and
the conversation ensuing, I learned that it was confessedly a
Kuklux serenade. The venerable Nestor of the bar said to his
visitors that there were many worse things than the Kuklux--among
them the Union League and the Republican party. And so the young
men were encouraged.

I was glad when the time came to go home; which I did on the 14th
day of April, 1870. I started from Yanceyville in a buggy, with a
Mr. Fowler, a resident of Greensboro. Had I previously doubted
the existence of the Klans, I must have been convinced, after
that ride, unimportant in itself, but memorable for the events
which lately had taken place. The remarks and manners of my
companion were peculiar. He had a furtive, scared expression as
night enclosed us. He was a native Democrat--and I was amazed at
his evident trepidation.

We were striving to reach Ruffin, a little station on the
Richmond and Danville railroad (now called the Southern Railroad)
a few miles south of Danville. Although spring was opening, there
was no foliage on the trees, except tiny leaflets bursting into
life. Night advanced and the moon shone effulgent, but her rays
were obscured by the divergent limbs of the forest, when we
sometimes plunged into its depths. The gloom was intensified by
drifting clouds, hanging low; but these momentarily lifted,
briefly restoring the cheery moonbeams and silver roadway. Many
tree-trunks were white, contrasting with the darkness within the
dense woods, glistening like spectres, as the tremulous light
glimmered through the branches. There was no sound in the
forest, except the solemn wail of the wind, and the steady tramp,
tramp--tramp, tramp of the hurrying horse. My flesh crept and
shuddered under the drastic influence of the chill night and the
doleful croakings of my companion; who talked continually of the
Kuklux, and peered through the bushes and undergrowth, as if
expecting to see rise from the ground a full cavalcade of shadowy
night-riders.

We reached Ruffin, nevertheless, in good time, and went whirling
home in a comfortable railway coach, filled not with hobgoblins,
but with civilized human beings.

Afterward I learned that the companion of my night-ride (who was
a tailor) had sewn together the diabolical garbs of the White
Brotherhood of his vicinity. Remembering this hideous livery of
the devil, it was no wonder he was afraid, even of the peaceful
moon, as she benignantly observed him through the arms of the
forest.

* * * * *

New York, Feb. 2.--The result of the election (Nov. 8) was rather
shocking, but not unexpected. I think the Republicans deserved
the drubbing. A hundred and ninety thousand of them, in New York,
did not vote; so to punish somebody for something, they let
Tammany obtain control.

Governor Dix doesn't say anything; but Governor Wilson says
enough for both. It remains to be seen whether or not the latter
has not bitten off more than he can masticate.

In the course of my life I have been shocked more than once,
mostly, while living in North Carolina. For instance, in 1876,
when it was supposed that Tilden had been elected, the young men
of Odell's store thought it a good joke and decorated my fence
with black calico. Our colored cook, thinking it would hurt our
feelings, stripped it all off early in the morning before we got
a sight of it, much to our regret. But Madam was equal to the
emergency and had the girl gather up the black stuff and take it
to Odell's store to sell for paper-rags! The cook was received
with shouts of applause, showing that Odell's young men fully
appreciated the humor of the occasion.

Odell had a big store, but all the black calico in stock must
have been cleaned out on that occasion. As I understand at the
time, the fences of Judge Dick, Postmaster White, Col. Keogh,
Judge Settle and Judge Tourgee were all decorated. The last
named, characteristically, sought to make capital out of the
episode, which was only a joke.

When I went to bed very late the night before (or rather in the
morning) I thought Tilden had really been elected and I did not
enjoy the sensation. Nevertheless I did not feel as I did six
years before, in the Ku Klux times. We lived then in the little
cottage opposite the jail. The election was in August. Madam had
gone North to visit her home-folks. I was alone in the house.
Diagonally across the street was a disreputable bar-room, where
all the "roughs" assembled every night; and for no less than
three weeks after the "Conservative" victory these fellows kept
up a shouting and howling, which was far from agreeable to me.

Those were the Kuklux days and the times were very uncomfortable,
especially for a carpet-bagger, whose party had been
overwhelmingly defeated. But I did not know anything about the
Kuklux and was simple-minded enough not to fully credit their
existence.

I had become a citizen of North Carolina in November, 1868; but
being unaccustomed to the ways and prejudices of the people, I
was not prepared to believe what was said about the Klans.
Respectable Southern gentlemen denied their existence and I felt
bound by their protestations. Yet a "den" met frequently in
Greensboro; sometimes in Bogart's Hall; sometimes in the old
Caldwell Institute (now torn down), again upstairs over the
Lindsay corner (recently destroyed) opposite the court house and
more often in the woods in the northern suburbs of the town, not
a great ways from the residence of Judge Dick.

These meetings were occurring after the beginning of my residence
in Greensboro, for nearly a year, but I did not know of them.
Indeed, young men with whom I was well acquainted, actually were
members of the fraternity--men whom I met every day, on social
terms, in my boarding house at Mrs. Gilmer's. I had not reason to
suspect their membership. Of course the assemblages were as
secret as could be. When they were held in Bogart's Hall, for
example--so I have since been told by participants--the only
light was a candle, placed under a table, so that its rays could
not shine through the curtained windows.

While I myself was incredulous, my political friends, Union men,
natives of the South, familiar with the methods and peculiarities
of the people, were firm believers in the entity of the Kuklux.
They saw and understood the most trivial signs and signals. These
men had been on the spot when the rebellion raged and had, in
many instances, belonged to the "Red Strings," and other secret
societies, banded together for mutual help and protection, and to
aid the Union cause, in which they implicitly believed; and to
assist escaping prisoners of war through the military lines. If
therefore they observed a peculiar mark upon a tree, or figures
upon the ground, they knew there was some meaning intended.

But the time soon came when I had to believe. In the latter days
of 1869, Judge Tourgee, then of the Superior Court, issued a
bench warrant for the arrest of several citizens of Caswell
county. They were charged with having visited in disguise the
cabins of a number of negroes, whom they took out and whipped. I
was employed by Gov. Holden to conduct the examination of
witnesses for the State; but the defendants easily proved alibis,
as usual in such cases.

A few months afterward I was notified by the Governor to attend
similar examinations before Mr. John W. Stephens (called "Chicken
Stephens" by Jo. Turner). Mr. Stephens was a justice of the peace
in Yanceyville. He was likewise a State Senator, but the
legislature was not then in session.

I proceeded to Yanceyville via Danville, Va., leaving the
railroad at the latter town, and driving sixteen miles across the
country. Reaching Yanceyville in the forenoon, I noticed several
groups of men, apparently laboring under suppressed excitement.
Beginning to understand the popular temper I feared a riot if the
cases should go on before the magistrate that day.

I stated my apprehensions to the Honorable John Kerr, the leading
attorney for the defendants and suggested that, to avoid a
possible riot, his clients should waive examination, and give
bail for their appearance at the next term of the Superior Court,
which they could do easily.

All of the Yanceyville lawyers appeared with Judge Kerr for the
defendants, doubtless volunteering their services with patriotic
fervor. After further consultation, my suggestion was adopted and
thus, it may be, bloodshed was then avoided. At any rate, events
soon to follow in Yanceyville, justify the belief that Stephens
would have been put out of the way on the spot, had the trials
proceeded.

When the cases had been disposed of, Stephens came to my room.
He was a slender, sinewy man, with fair complexion, pale blue
eyes and light brown hair, not prepossessing in manners or
appearance; illiterate and unpolished, but very earnest;
belonging to the plain classes of the South. His origin was
respectable, although born into a poor family, in Guilford
county. He had courage and tenacity. He was the leader of the
Caswell county Republicans, being one of the few white men who
dared to profess Republican principles in that locality. He was
bitterly hated by the "Conservatives," and this boded him no
good. Yet knowing it all, accused of petty crimes, which he had
not committed, held up to ridicule by such a man as Jo. Turner,
then a veritable potentate, Stephens had stood up boldly in the
midst of a hostile population, with no backers but the timid
negroes, which only intensified the hatred of his enemies. No
romance of chivalry has ever invested its heroes with a nobler
spirit than his, which was more than equal to that of the bravest
of his traducers--for who of them all would have faced the
dangers that he was facing?

He resided about a quarter of a mile from the Yanceyville court
house, within plain view of it. His house was veritably his
castle, where he had fortified himself. He was besieged at home
and was under obsession everywhere; yet he seemed to hold danger
in contempt.

On this occasion he wore a sack-coat of medium length, with
side-pockets. He said he had been warned by anonymous letters to
leave the State. "But," he said simply, "I have a right to be
here and can't be scared away from my home and family."
Continuing, Stephens told me how well he was prepared for
emergencies; and he displayed two single-barreled, breech-loading
Derringers. He showed me how rapidly he could load them and
seemed expert in handling the weapons. He carried a pistol in
each side-pocket of his coat, within easy reach. He said he never
permitted any one to approach unless he knew him to be a friend;
that he always carried the Derringers, but that on "public days,"
he also had with him what I understood to be a seven shooter.

In his estimation this was a public day, because a crowd was in
town, attracted by the cases before his magistrate's court.
Yanceyville was but a small village, with a court house and a few
dwellings, stores and shops, and ordinarily not many persons were
on the streets. There was no hotel. Throwing back his coat,
Stephens, displayed to me his other weapon. With his temper and
dangerous surroundings, he was a man to be dreaded by his foes,
for he meant to kill any assailant. He could be overcome only by
treachery, as will be seen hereafter.

To me, his words had peculiar significance, when considered in
connection with the occurrences of the next few days; for it
should be noticed that he declared he never suffered any one to
approach, unless he knew him to be a friend. "But," he added, "I
think the worst is now over and they," (meaning the Kuklux) "are
becoming frightened at their own acts." Alas, how little he knew
or understood the venom of his enemies! Our conversation was on
Monday. The next Saturday, May 21, 1870, Stephens was murdered in
a lower room of the Yanceyville court house.

A vivid account of the assassination is given in "A Fool's
Errand," where John Walter Stephens is called "John Walters."
Whether it is all true as therein narrated, I cannot say for
certain; but the story, confessedly fiction, is no more monstrous
than the reality. It was a ghastly murder. As those who know best
about it (if still alive) have told nothing, and will not, any
narrative of the circumstances must be imperfect.

On the day of the homicide Stephens had attended a Democratic
meeting, upstairs in the court house, in the audience-room.
According to his custom he had been taking note of the speeches.

Sometimes he used the room where his body afterward was found,
for the trial of his magistrate's cases. This room was at the
time occupied for no other purpose, and was devoid of furniture,
except an old table and a chair or two. A pile of fire-place wood
extended across it, on the north side, next to the wall, one end
of the pile being near a window. There were three windows, two of
them overlooking the court house yard, opposite a street. On the
other side of the street were several negro houses. Stephens's
dwelling could be seen plainly from the windows, being southeast
from the court house. The only door entering the room was from
the hallway, which passed entirely through the building from
north to south. The door of the room was within a few feet of the
rear hall entrance.

Stephens, after being in the meeting upstairs, until about 5
o'clock in the afternoon, was called out by a man named Wiley;
with whom Stephens had been in frequent conversation during the
day, trying to induce Wiley to become an independent candidate
for sheriff. Wiley was a Democrat and Stephens had pledged him
the Republican vote of Caswell county. After the two went out
together Stephens was not seen alive by any one innocent of the
murder.

No doubt Wiley enticed Stephens from the meeting and admitted it.
But according to a letter from Hon. R. Z. Linney (recently
deceased) published in the _News-Observer_, Dec. 29, 1891,
credited to the _Statesville Landmark_, "a gentleman of
intelligence who was at Yanceyville at the time of the tragedy,"
declared that he had information regarded by him as altogether
reliable, that Wiley was not in the room when Stephens was
killed, but had arranged to get him from the court-room, to
extort from him a promise to leave the county; and the promise
not being given Stephens was killed. According to the "gentleman
of intelligence," Wiley was "very angry" with the men who had
slain Stephens--a lame excuse, it must be admitted; although his
"anger" was quite creditable.

Mr. Linney, it may be stated, in passing, said in his letter,
that Wiley died at his (Linney's) house near Taylorsville, and
that the "measure of the corpse was about seven feet in length."
This statement seems astounding, but as I recollect him, Wiley
was a very tall man. Upon one occasion, during the Kuklux
troubles, I saw him on horseback, going from Yanceyville, with a
long rifle resting in the hollow of his arm--an incident
characteristic of the times. He looked like a wind mill on horse
back.

MATERIALS FROM THE SCRAPBOOK OF W. A. HAYNE COLLECTED IN 1874[1]

William A. Hayne was a native of Charleston, and a free man of free parents. His mother's father and his father's father were white. He was educated in the Charleston school of free Negroes. He attained the position of Representative in the Legislature and served the State efficiently. Hayne passed away in 1889.

The recent meeting at Barnwell Courthouse was by far the largest
held there since the war. The meeting was called to order by Dr.
J. W. Ogilvie as temporary chairman. A committee of five,
consisting of Col. Counts, Captain F. M. Wanamaker, Dr. J. C.
Miller, and Messrs. W. T. Blanton and J. M. Hudson were appointed
to select permanent officers, and nominated the following
gentlemen: General Johnson Hagood, President; Messrs. Counts,
Sojourner, Blanton, Killingsworth and Ogilvie, vice-presidents;
J. M. Ryan, secretary.

General Hagood, who was at the front end of the hall, some
distance from the chair he was to occupy, upon the invitation of
the temporary chairman, advanced to take his seat as presiding
officer amidst deafening applause. On taking the chair, General
Hagood said: "I understand the purpose of this meeting to be to
consider the misgovernment in South Carolina, which running
through ten long years, has culminated in the shameful and
shameless proceedings of our present Legislature. It is not for
me, here, to recall this disgraceful history in all its details.
You have borne with it till patience has ceased to be a virtue,
and from one end of this American Union to another, regardless of
section or party the press--that mighty engine and exponent of
popular sentiment--is now ringing with the denunciation of the
last wrong inflicted upon you, and with commendation of the true
and faithful man who, with a heroism surpassing that of the
battlefield, which is wielding such weapons as the executive army
can furnish in your temporary defence. This thing has gone far
enough: This crowded hall--these earnest faces over which a light
flickers that carries me back to a time since when my head and
heart have alike grown gray, tell me so. Every instinct of
self-preservation tells me that the time has come when all in
South Carolina who are fit to live outside of her penitentiary,
or expect to within her borders an inheritance for their
children, must enlist in this struggle. It will be a contest in
which no half-hearted recruit is wanted. It is a fight for life
and property, in which you will have to do all that a citizen may
do--and, if need be, all that may become a man." (Applause.)

Mr. Alfred Aldrich rose and said: A short time ago, in this
house, I said among other things to the taxpayers, that I had
"implicit confidence in the people of Barnwell County, but none
in Governor Chamberlain." In the light of recent events, I desire
to make the Amende honorable to Governor Chamberlain, and here,
with equal unreserve as when I made the declaration alluded to, I
wish to submit the charge in my opinion embodied in the following
resolutions:

Resolved that Governor Chamberlain, from his first ... to his
last veto, has carried ... knowledge to the platform on which
... if he does not receive the support of the leading men of his
own party, is entitled to the confidence and will receive the
cordial sympathy and merited aid of the honest and good men in
South Carolina.

Resolved, that in rising above party to vindicate the
civilization and ancient good name of the States over which he
presides, by his rebuke to the Legislature for the election of
corrupt and incompetent judges, as he has shown large
statesmanship, integrity of purpose and courage of performance
that command the respect and approval of all good men,
irrespective of party.

Resolved: that the Governor, having taken care of the Charleston
and Sumter circuits by refusing to commission Whipper and Moses
and not being able to reach Wiggins in the same way, we of the
Barnwell circuit must see that he does not defile the bench and
debauch the county now adorned by the virtue and the learning of
the incorruptible Maher.

Resolved: That we recognize and appreciate the difficulties that
the Governor has had to contend against to maintain his position
as a political reformer, that we acknowledge probity in redeeming
the pledges contained in the platform on which he was elected to
office, and admire his boldness in resisting the pressure of
those who were not in earnest when they made them; that we are
fully sensible of the opposition that he encountered and the
difficulties that have environed him in acting his arduous role,
and that we take this occasion to show him and the men of his
party who endorse him, of our cordial support.

The resolutions were unanimously and enthusiastically adopted.
The Honorable A. P. Aldrich by invitation, then addressed the
meeting. We have already published his remarks.

It was resolved that the President appoint, at his leisure, an
executive committee of five to carry out in Barnwell County such
recommendations as might be made by the Central Democratic
Executive Committee, at its meeting in Columbia on the instant.

Mr. Simms then offered the following resolutions, which were
carried out unanimously: Resolved, that in view of our repeated
failures to reform the State Government by the policy of
co-operation with the Conservative element of the Republican
Party, who professed the same object, and of recent events we
recognize the absolute and immediate necessity of reorganizing
the Democratic party to restore an honest and economical
government.

Resolved: That the Democratic Party of South Carolina will in the
future, as it has in the past, support principles, not men, and
we hereby extend a cordial invitation to all men in the State,
who desire honest government, to unite with us, at least until we
have accomplished our purpose.

Resolved: That the co-operation now invited is not with the bad
men who have heretofore deluded, deceived and betrayed our
colored fellow-citizens, but with the great mass of that class
who, we believe, are willing to rescue the State from the grasp
of these unprincipled adventurers.

Resolved: That the President appoint a committee of five to carry
out the recommendations of the State executive committee to meet
in Columbia on the 6th instant.

The following resolutions offered by Col. Counts, were adopted
without a dissenting voice.

Whereas, by an indiscreet action of the Legislature of this State
an insult of the grossest nature--an insult to all common decency
and to all civilization, has been thrust into our faces by way of
an election for judges of the respective circuits of Judges
Maher, Reed and Shaw; and whereas, it was not expected or desired
by either political party of said circuits that either of the
present incumbents should be defeated; and whereas, we regard
this act as a public declaration against the peace, prosperity
and happiness of all virtue and intelligence, now, therefore, be
it

Resolved, That we, the people of this section of the second
circuit, not wishing to make an issue with any individual or
party, and not being willing to risk our lives and property in
the hands of the newly elected judge, P. L. Wiggins, for reasons
obvious, do earnestly request the said P. L. Wiggins to tender
his resignation to the Governor at once, and that the Governor do
declare said vacancy be filled by an election to take place
before the close of the present session of the Legislature.

Resolved, That a memorial be prepared by such persons as the
president of this meeting shall designate, asking for the
re-election of Judge Maher, and that said memorial (by request of
this convention) be presented to the Legislature by the Hon.
Chancellor Johnson.

Resolved, That a memorial be prepared by such persons as the
president of this meeting shall designate, asking for the
re-election of Judge Maher, and that said memorial (by request of
this convention) be presented to the Legislature by the Hon.
Chancellor Johnson.

Resolved, That a committee of two be appointed by the president
of this meeting to communicate with the action of this meeting to
communicate with Solicitor Wiggins, and to notify him of the
action of this convention; and that said committee be instructed
to assure him that this convention is not prompted by any impure
motives or personal animosity for him in taking this action, but
alone for the interest of the country, and for the peace,....

VOTE OF MARION COUNTY IN 1870

Reform Republican
Marion 372 511
Friendship 79 65
Mars Bluff 84 192
Berry's X Roads 196 178
Mullins 196 124
Aliens 72 33
High Hill 176 37
Old Ark 23 17
Cains 121 120
McMilans 105 36
Little Rock 277 204
Aeriel 130 57
Stones 62 73
Jeffries Creek 67 224
Old Neck 80 67
Campbells Bridge 151 56
____ ____
Totals 2191 1994

"It will be seen from the above statement that the reform
movement in 1870 carried the county by a majority of 207 votes.
In that election the fight was between the Conservatives and the
Republicans--the whites against the blacks. In fact it was a
question of color, for both races voted solidly. Now it is
different. The Republicans have inaugurated the Reform movement,
and the fight on the 3d of November will be between the two wings
of this party. The problem then is easy to solve. The Reform
movement will carry Marion County by an overwhelming majority."

THE SPEAKING TOMORROW 1870

The representatives of both wings of the Republican party will
speak at the Courthouse tomorrow. We hope every Republican in the
county will be present and hear what both sides have to say. The
Republican voters of the county who have any doubt as to their
duty at the coming election, for whom they should vote, we hope,
will be sufficiently enlightened to cast their votes for honest
men and an honest Government.

We hope, for the character of Marion, that, those who come to the
Courthouse on this occasion, will come for the purpose of
enlightening themselves on a subject which involves the salvation
of the State, and that each and every one will constitute himself
a keeper of the peace, and that good order will be preserved
during the day.

ROLL OF MEMBERS OF THE UNION REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION, 1874

Aiken--R. B. Elliot, C. D. Hayne, Gloster Holland, W. M. Peel.

Abbeville--H. Wideman, J. R. Tolbert, R. Griffin, A. H. Wallace,
A. J. Titus.

Anderson--John R. Cochran, C. A. Mathison, W. R. Parker.

Barnwell--W. J. Whipper, C. P. Leslie, E. M. Sumter,--Jackson.

Beaufort--Robert Smalls, N. B. Myers, R. H. Gleaves, T. E.
Miller, Thomas Hamilton, S. J. Bamfield, Hastings Gantt.

Charleston--W. R. Jervey, E. W. M. Mackey, Aaron Logan, S. E.
Gaillard, W. J. McKinlay, T. H. Jones, E. B. Seabrook, J. L.
Walker, W. T. Oliver, W. G. Pinckney, Stephen Brown, Edward
Petty, J. A. Williams, J. W. Reid, J. A. Mushington, P. P.
Hedges, R. B. Gathers, A. C. Richmond.

Chester--T. J. Mackey, D. J. Walker, Barney Humphries.

Chesterfield--T. L. Weston, Robert Brewer.

Clarendon--J. D. Warley, Syfax Milton.

Colleton--W. M. Thomas, A. C. Schaffer, A. P. Holmes, T. H.
Grant, W. F. Myers.

Darlington--T. C. Cox, B. F. Whittemore, Jordan Lang, J. B.
Middleton.

Edgefield--J. H. McDevitt, Lawrence Cain, Paris Simkins, David
Graham, Ned Tenant.

Fairfield--Daniel Bird, Thomas Walker, William Boler.

Georgetown--J. H. Rainey, W. H. Jones, Jr., R. M. Herriott.

Greenville--J. M. Runion, Thos. Brier, A. Blythe, Zion Collins.

Horry--T. C. Dunn, H. W. Jones.

Kershaw--J. A. Chestnut, N. W. Blair, Frank Carter.

Lancaster--Jos. Clarke, Allen Hudson.

Laurens--Y. J. P. Owens, H. McDaniels, James Young, Jos. Crews.

Lexington--R. H. Kirk, S. L. Lorick.

Marion--C. Smith, W. A. Hayne, M. K. Holloway, Anthony Howard.

Marlboro--H. J. Maxwell, D. D. McColl.

Newberry--H. C. Corwin, C. David, Henry Gillem.

Oconee--M. D. Singleton, Elisha Jenkins.

Orangeburg--T. C. Andrews, R. R. Duncan, C. W. Caldwell, E. I.
Cain, Samuel Lewis.

Pickens--O. C. Folger.

Richland--C. M. Wilder, J. J. Patterson, F. L. Cardoza, C. S.
Minort.

Sumter--Samuel Lee, F. J. Moses, Jr., W. E. Johnson, J. M.
Tindall.

Spartanburg--J. Winsmith, T. B. Hartwell, S. T. Poinier, Alex
Jones.

Union--June Mobley, S. Hawkins, J. H. Goss.

Williamsburg--S. A. Swails, J. T. Peterson, Wm. Scott.

York--J. H. White, R. M. Crook, M. L. Owens, Nelson Davis.

MARION COUNTY

_For Governor_,
JOHN T. GREEN

_For Lieutenant-Governor_,
MARTIN R. DELANEY

_For Congress_,
SAMUEL LEE

_State Board of Equalization_,
B. D. TOWNSEND, of Darlington
W. B. SMITH, of Charleston
W. D. MARS, of Abbeville
G. W. MELTON, of Chester
S. J. LEE, of Aiken

_Representatives_,
W. D. JOHNSON W. A. HAYNE
B. G. HOWARD A. H. HOWARD

_Judge of Probate_,
JOHN WILCOX, SR.

_School Commissioners_,
J. A. SMITH

_County Commissioners_,
T. W. AYRES A. J. FRYER
J. P. DAVIS

A GREEN POW WOW

CONFUSION TRIUMPHANT

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHARLESTON CHRONICLE:

A mass meeting of those of the Republicans of this County who are
credulous enough to espouse the bolters movement, was held here
on Tuesday the 29th inst, at the Court House under the call of
one Dr. J. B. Thompson, temporary County Chairman, who was sent
down here by Senator T. C. Dunn, with a handsome and carefully
prepared set of Resolutions, for adoption, pledging the entire
County for Green and Reform, and lauding Senator Jones, for his
steadfast adherence to the cause; and with equal warmth
denouncing the other of our delegation for daring to exercise
their untrammelled opinion in their support and advocacy of
Daniel H. Chamberlain. The resolutions, however, were never
introduced as intended owing to the fact that the Chairman, the
said Dr. Thompson, had not the temerity to call his own meeting
to order, nor did he put in an appearance at any time during the
proceedings. The recollections of the bombardment of Castle
Jones, on the memorable night of the 13th of August was too vivid
upon his memory. But about the meeting.

It was a Babel of confusion from beginning to ending. This arose
principally from an evident disposition on the part of the most
prominent Greenites, to thrust the notorious Bowley upon the
people as a Delegate, against their will and wishes. The meeting
was really a Pow Wow. A motion of any description could not be
heard and the meeting adjourned without coming to any effectual
conclusion.

The majority of the people are under such a feeling having been
foiled, deceived, and deserted by the men whom they have elevated
for honor, that they now have inscribed upon their banners:

"Judge Green may try with might and main, But he'll never beat
Daniel H. Chamberlain."

REPUBLICAN.

MATTERS IN MARION

FREAKS OF A JACK-IN-OFFICE--THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE DISTRICT
CONFERENCE

_Correspondence of the News and Courier_

Marion, S. C., July 20, 1874.

One W. A. Hayne, of nondescript complexion and Radical
persuasion, whose frantic speeches and other wild performances
during a political canvass several years ago procured him the
sobriquet of "Notoriety," is just now lording over our unhappy
people in the guise of a United States commissioner. In this
potential capacity he has commenced active operations against
those who he or his ebon emissaries choose to suspect of
transgressing the internal revenue law. Farmers who may have been
in the habit of purchasing small quantities of tobacco just as
they purchase other supplies for the use of the laborers on their
plantations, have all at once become victims of vindictive
prosecutions--the officers who make the arrests, and the
over-zealous witnesses for the government, all being negroes. It
is said that a farmer must not buy tobacco for his hands without
having obtained a regular license therefor. While this may or may
not be true, it seems to be certain that the warlike commissioner
is enforcing the decision not so much in the spirit of the law,
which he pretends to vindicate, as with a malicious propensity to
annoy his political opponents. He was not gracious enough to
consider that our farmers were without perhaps a single
exception, ignorant of the existence of so stringent a ruling,
(if, indeed, it does exist,) and he did not see the propriety of
advertising it for the benefit of those whose character would
belie the suspicion of an intention to defraud the revenue. It
may be that "Noteriety Hayne," by thus flaunting in our faces his
puissant commission, means to enhance his consequence as a
prospective candidate far the Legislature, or that he thereby
seeks to ingratiate himself with the colored people who relish
(as he may suppose) the persecution and humiliation to which the
planters are subjected by such wanton abuses of misplaced
authority.

The transaction from this topic to matters of religion may be
somewhat violent; it is, nevertheless, a relief. The Marion
District Conference of the Methodist Church convened here on
Thursday last, and remained in session four days. An unusually
large number of delegates were in attendance. The deliberations,
which were presided over by Rev. W. C. Power, were conducted in a
spirit of earnest devotion to the important interests which came
up for consideration. The reports from the various charges in the
district, which embraces the Counties of Marlboro', Marion, Horry
and Georgetown, and portions of Darlington and Williamsburg,
exhibited a most gratifying state of the church. The
Sunday-Schools were shown to be in a very flourishing condition,
and the cause of temperance was making headway against all
opposition. The Rev. Drs. Shipp and Jones, presidents
respectively of Wofford and Columbia Female Colleges, were
present, and their fine pulpit ministrations added much to the
interest of the occasion.

DIVIDING THE NEGRO VOTE

WHY THE SOUTH HAS FAILED TO ACCOMPLISH IT

_A Northern Journalist's Impressions of the Palmetto State_

The following extracts from a letter of Mr. John Russell Young,
published in the New York Herald, are well worthy of attentive
consideration; but we need hardly say that in our opinion Mr.
Young is wholly mistaken in holding the white responsible, during
the last five years at least, for the solidity and infrangibility
of the negro in the South:

_The Letter_

Why is it that the Southerners, the whites who masters before the
war, have not devided the negro vote, and uniting with those who
were intelligent, gained control of the State so as to secure it
an efficient government? It would seem to the ordinary political
thinker that even three-sevenths whites could control the
four-sevenths blacks. One thinks of the Saxon in India with the
Hindoo, in Canada with the French, in Jamaica with the Negro, in
Ireland, after a turbulent fashion, with the mailed hand, and
yet his rule is now absolute. Why is it that in South Carolina it
is otherwise? My gifted and honored colleague, Mr. Nordhoff, in
his series of letters from the South, says it is because he has
been corrupted by the carpet-bagger. With all deference to that
distinguished authority, his answer is an imperfect solution.
Surely the Negro who knows his old master, who has lived with him
during his life, who in most cases looks with affection upon him
and all who belong to him--surely in the new relation he will
look to the master as a friend, and take his guidance in so
solemn a duty as entering upon citizenship. This too because as
we learn from all authorities, and from none more clearly than
Mr. Nordhoff, that the master, "accepts the new relation" and has
no purpose of renewing the war, and, so far as from wishing to
return the negro to slavery, feels that the old system was an
error, even from an economical point of view, and that in time
its abolition will prove to be a blessing to the white, whatever
it may be to the black. Why, then this being the case, has the
carpet-bagger been able to strangle a commonwealth like South
Carolina, and with the aid of the Negro, plunder his old master?
The only answer that I can see is that the whites have not taken
any pains to cultivate the blacks, who would naturally go with
them, or the intelligent and honest Northern men who came here,
meaning in good faith to make the South a home and to grow up
with the Southern people. In nearly every case with scarcely an
exception, the whites have drawn a line, just as Jefferson Davis
drew when he embarked upon the Confederacy. They alone have a
right here. Whoever opposes him is a "scalawag," a
"carpet-bagger," or a "nigger." A "scalawag" if as a Southern
born man he votes with the Republicans; a "carpet-bagger" if he
comes from the North, no matter how he votes. This line is drawn
with severity and with scarcely an exception. A worthy citizen of
Charleston, who came from the North in the beginning of the war,
from motives of philanthropy, to educate the blacks, who has
lived in the state ever since, and holds a high reputation from
all classes because of his integrity and ability, told me that he
had never been asked to the home of a Southern man since he came
into the State. "They do business with me, meet me in public
places and show me all respect, but never open the latch key". A
reverend and highly esteemed prelate of the Methodist Church in
the North came here to attend a gathering of African churches. He
was in an official position, for these churches were under the
control of his denomination. He remained here several days
presiding over the gathering. He was known to be an honored
prelate, whose life was given solely to his religious duties. He
told me that during his stay in South Carolina he had not
received a single attention from his Southern fellow Methodists.
The clergy had not noticed his presence nor asked him into their
pulpit. He saw only fellow Christians who had come from the North
or Negroes, I cannot imagine how the line can be more closely
drawn, and now speak of what happened only a few days since.

_The Negro and His Northern Ally_

The negro, then has been thrown back upon his Northern ally.
Every memory, every name, every anniversary of the war, is
cherished as sacred. All the rest is an abomination. You may well
ask: "Why should not this be so, for are not these memories dear
to them by the blood slain brothers and children?" Truly so, and
far be it from me to profane so holy a thought as that which
would honor them. But I am answering the question propounded some
time since as to how it is that the Southern whites have never
succeeded in dividing the colored vote, so as to give the states
a good government. They have driven the Negro away. In Georgia
when they gained power they have practically disfranchised him.
But for the interference of the Federal Congress they would have
forbidden his appearance in their legislatures. I do not think
that any frank Georgian will deny that this result was largely
due to intimidation and force. In a State with 545,142 negroes in
1870, to 638,926 whites, they have virtually stamped out a
Republican party. The negro is afraid to vote, is not in many
places allowed on the jury, is punished severely for crimes, and
Mr. Nordhoff has told you that at least 25,000 of them have left
the State in the last five years; and yet in Georgia they pay
taxes on a large property. The negro in South Carolina sees what
has been done across the line, and he knows, or naturally fears,
that should the white man rule here the same results will follow.
As a consequence, therefore, the negro is in the hands of the
adventurer. He fears that his master will make him a slave, or
reduce him to a condition akin to slavery. The result is,
therefore, that not one of them will vote the Democratic ticket.
I have heard of Democratic negroes, but I have seen none. I have
spoken on this subject with Southern men in Florida, Georgia,
North and South Carolina, and there is only one story. "I have
negroes here," said one eminent gentleman, "who were my slaves in
the old time. They hang around my house. They will fight for me,
work for me and bring me their money to keep. They take my advice
in all things, and are trustworthy and devoted. They will not
vote for me. My coachman there will vote against me and in favor
of the meanest Republican in the county." The negro thus far sees
nothing in politics but his own freedom. He votes for Grant all
the time. His political education embraces a sentiment and a
fact. The sentiment is Lincoln, the fact is Grant. I was talking
to a woolly headed vagabond the other day, who had learned that I
was a Northern man, and wanted to go home with me as an
attendant. He was a worthless, ragged, shining darky, as black as
night, and earned his living, he told me, by dancing the juba for
gentlemen on the sidewalk when the police were not looking.
During the war he was a slave lad. "Did you know you were free,"
I said, "before the war was over?" He told me that the news came
very quickly; that they all kept "mighty shady," never pretending
to know until "Massa Sherman came with the soldiers." But they
knew it all the time, and there was never a night that his "old
mammie didn't pray to Massa Lincoln." This is the thought that
has burned deep into the negro mind. You cannot erase it. You
cannot take it from him. He has heard the slaves' horn. He has
worn the yoke and carried the scar into furrow and swamp. He has
seen father and mother perhaps, taken to the block and sold into
slavery. That memory ever lives as it would live with you and I,
if such a career darkened our lives. So Moses may steal and
Whipper may "administer justice," to him they mean freedom.
Coming out of the night they find no hand to grasp but the hand
of the adventurer. Is it any wonder then, that they follow him as
blind men or those who see darkly?

_Better Signs_

I cannot resist the conclusion, and it grows upon me every day,
in the South, that for much of the wrong, that has been done in
these States the old Southerners are to blame. I say this in
sorrow and with no harshness of feeling to them, and not without
making allowance for a feeling which, after all, is one of human
nature, a feeling of hatred of the men who defeated their hopes
of empire and of contempt for the negro, who is today a senator,
but who yesterday could have been sent to the whipping post. It
is not easy for a planter who has not enough to eat to rejoice
over the fact that the servant who once washed his beard is now
his ruler of the State. But, whatever the motive of the feeling,
the negro in South Carolina is at the feet of Moses and Whipper,
because he was driven there. The old master has as yet made no
sign of sympathy or friendship. I am profoundly convinced that
if, instead of mourning over the lost cause, as in the past they
were wont to bluster about the Yankees and slavery, these people
had dealt wisely with the negro and generously with the Northern
immigrant, these States, and South Carolina especially, would be
free and powerful. I hail the Chamberlain movement in one of its
aspects as the opening of a new era. The support which that
officer receives from the leading journal in the State, and one
of the leading journals in the South--_The News and
Courier_--shows the awakening of a new spirit. This paper
thoroughly Democratic, its editors gentlemen who were in the
Confederacy through the whole war and firm in their devotion to
the lost cause, sees that the only hope for South Carolina is
supporting the honest, intelligent New England Governor, who says
he is Republican from conviction and never ... a Democrat; that
he has no sympathy for Democracy or desire to be in its councils
... that as Governor he means to give ... honest government. The
news ... takes the Governor at his word and ... him on, while
newspapers over the border in Georgia mock and deride. If
Chamberlain succeeds he will divide the colored vote, and for the
first time array parties upon some other dividing line than that
laid down by Jefferson Davis when he founded his Confederacy.

_Hope for Carolina_

But whether he succeeds or not the movement which he began a year
ago, and which is now almost national in its extent, must go on.
There is no way for South Carolina to win a good government
except on this basis. Here the negroes are and in a large
majority. They cannot be driven away, they cannot be slain, they
cannot be disfranchised. They must be asked to take part in
government, to unite with honest men in punishing crime.
Education makes this more and more easy, and amid all this sorrow
and strife and tumult the work of education goes on. The negro
pants for the primer and the speller as the hart for the water of
the brook. I have taken pains, in some bookstore loungings, to
inquire about this. I learned in nearly every case that the
negroes were constant purchasers, and almost invariably of
school-books--elementary and advanced. I am told that the negro
is as anxious to read and write as he used to be to own a yellow
cravat. I do not suppose this education goes far, but it is
something. It is there I see day--there, and nowhere else. This
old feeling must die out. These memories of the Southern
Confederacy must be put away with the family laces and
grandmother' samplers. Leaders like Toombs and Hill must be
superseded. These negroes must be taught that freedom means
responsibility, and that honesty is safety and peace. These lands
and ports, these watercourses, these widely stretching and vast
acres, must respond to capital and energy, the money and the
skill of the North. Here is room in South Carolina alone for all
of New England, and in no State could the spirit of New England
work such marvels. But so long as the fogs of slavery and
misgovernment and ostracism and social hatred hang over them like
the malaria of their own rice lowlands, so long South Carolina
will be a prostrate State, crying for sympathy and help. Let us
trust that the time has come for the people to help themselves,
and in doing so, raise their Commonwealth to a pinacle of
grandeur and prosperity such as even its proud history has never
known.

"REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLE" AND THE INDEPENDENT REPUBLICAN MOVEMENT

The burden of the song of the Chamberlain Ring and their organs
is that the integrity of "the party" is of more consequence than
honest government, and that any Republican who votes for Green
and Delaney is a traitor to the Republican party and false to
Republican principles. In all humility we beg leave to suggest
that the persons who are candidates for office in the interest of
a corrupt Ring, and the few newspapers which live and move and
have their being by and in that Ring, are hardly the
disinterested and unselfish counsellors that they claim to be. It
is safer to go outside of the charmed circle, and ascertain what
is advised by Republicans whose honesty is as great as their
integrity, who were Republicans when Democracy was in the
ascendant, and who are as true now to Republicanism as they were
while slavery existed and most of the South Carolina white
Republicans were red-hot Democrats in the South or obscure
demagogues in the North. Their opinions are entitled to weight,
and for that reason they are carefully excluded from the columns
of the organs of the Chamberlain Ring. It is in our power,
however, to lay these opinions before the public, and we mean to
do it.

1. _The New York Times_ is known everywhere as a powerful
Republican newspaper; it advocates Republican principles in
season and out of season. This paper heartily approves of the
Independent Republican movement, and says that, whatever may be
the immediate result, "The final effect cannot be good." It says,
further, that, in the organization of the Independent Republican
movement, the colored people have made "a long step forward."

2. _The New York Evening Post_, a Republican newspaper which
circulates among the upper-ten, declares that "the political
signs from South Carolina are favorable"; and that it has very
gratifying assurances that "the colored voters are beginning to
perceive that they have been used too long by unscrupulous
politicians" (of the Chamberlain-Bowen school) "who have employed
partisan prejudices to promote their own private fortunes." And
_The New York Tribune_, an unfaltering friend of the colored
Republicans, talks in the same strain, and gives the Independent
Republican movement its warm approval.

3. One of the strongest Republican newspapers in New England is
_The Springfield Republican_ (Mass.) which sees in the new
movement an evidence of good faith on the part of the
Conservatives, and of sagacity and honesty on the part of the
Independent Republicans.

The newspapers whose opinions we have quoted represent, in large
part, the sentiments and opinions of the people who pushed the
war against the South, and insisted on the abolition of slavery.
They say, without a dissenting voice, that the Independent
Republican movement is right and wise and just. On the other
side, a marked man, stands C. C. Bowen, who, in printed
handbills, speaks of Judge Green as "the Democratic candidate for
Governor." Colored Republicans! whom will you believe, the men
and newspapers who fought your battles when you were powerless to
help yourselves, or the men and the newspapers whose love for you
only began when you had office and public plunder to bestow upon
them?

SUNDAY MORNING, July 12, 1874

_The Warning_

If there be anything wanting to the argument we have persistently
urged upon the Republicans of this State, it is contained in the
following extract from an editorial in _The New York Times_,
General Grant's especial organ. In speaking of what General Grant
has said about South Carolina, the _Times_ says: "He (General
Grant) further added that unless a true reform was begun at once
in South Carolina, the Republican party would this fall repudiate
the so-called Republicans of the State. In fact, this is what the
Republicans of the North have already done. The Triumph of Moses
and his gang would be only the triumph of corruption, and that
the people of this country will not stand.

If we do not heed this warning in time, there will not be enough
left of our organization next year to make a respectable ward
meeting. We cannot fight the Democrats here, General Grant and
the whole country beside. We cannot afford to commit political
suicide, and we are not going.

CHARLESTON, S. C., FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 2, 1874

THE FAIR PLAY MEETING

_A Grand Gathering of Republicans and Conservatives--Harmony
Prevails and Nothing Asked but Fair Play_

The meeting last night was one of the most extraordinary
gatherings ever held in Charleston. Upwards of four thousand of
our citizens irrespective of party, assembled together and raised
their voices in the interests of fair play for one and all.

Men of culture and wealth, stood side by side, with the honest
and industrious workingmen. Republican and Conservative, white
men and colored men, Chamberlain men and Green men stood shoulder
to shoulder bearing in mind the great object of the meeting and
for the time being casting aside all thoughts of party spirit. It
seemed to be well understood by each and every man in the vast
assemblage that this was not the time nor place to urge the claim
of any particular candidates, and the harmony that prevailed
reflected the most unbounded credit on the citizens of
Charleston.

Let it here be distinctly understood that the objection to the
commissioners of election does not imply an objection to either
of them individually but it is claimed that one of them should
at least give place to a representative of the other side. If
Thompson and Smith are candidates for election to any office, and
the three commissioners of election are all Thompson men, it is
natural that the supporters of Smith should be dissatisfied, but
by appointing one Smith man all suspicions of unfair play will be
removed.

Col. E. W. M. Mackey called the meeting to order from the steps
of the City Hall at 8 o'clock and upon his motion it was
organized with the following officers:

President--The Hon. H. D. Lesesne.

Vice-Presidents--Mayor C. I. Cunningham, Ex-Gov. Wm. Aiken,
Coroner Aaron Logan, Mr. E. B. Seabrook, Mr. S. Y. Tupper,
Alderman W. J. McKinlay, Senator S. E. Gaillard, Hon. Henry
Gourdin, Mr. John F. Taylor, Rev. E. J. Adams, Mr. Andrew
Simonds, Mr. H. H. DeLeon, Mr. C. O. Witte, Alderman S. B.
Garrett, Mr. Hugh Ferguson, Mr. J. W. Reed, Alderman John A.
Godfrey, Mr. B. Bollman, Mr. B. O'Neill, Capt. J. C. Clausen, Mr.
Stephen Brown, Mr. W. A. Courtenay.

Secretaries--Mr. J. A. Mushington, Mr. C. O. Trumbo, Capt. Alex
Williams.