Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1884 — THE SOLID SOUTH. [ARTICLE]

THE SOLID SOUTH.

Fraud, Violence, and Murder Still Important Factors in Its PoliticsSixty Thousand Republican Voters Disfranchised in South Carolina Alone. Columbia (S. C.) Cor. Chicago Tribune. Northern Democrats claim that the grist for the Southern “outrage-mill” is a product of the fertile imagination of Republican editors. Even large numbers of Stalwart Republicans evince but a languid sentimentalism, which is based on half incredulity; they think that all that sort, of thing disappeared “long, long ago. ” Recent events, however, show that the shotgun, the pistol, and the lash are still important factors, in the polities of the “Solid South.” Within but a few weeks there have been the Danville massacre, the Kentucky tragedy, and the Mississippi Sheriffkilling. These three affairs, however, are completely put in the shade as to cold-blooded barbarity by the raid of Georgia Ku-Klux last July. The poor negroes who were dragged out of their beds and lashed and shot at had committed no offense beyond voting for the Hon. Emory Speer for Congress last November. There was a Lecomin r fitness in the fact that Mr. Speer was the Nemesis who avenged the wrongs of the negroes, he having been appointed United States District Attorney. These shocking cruelties occurred in a State whose proud boast is, jthat- she is the most progressive and most enlightened of aH the Southern States. many political outrages, they were not committed in the heat of passion, but coolly, deliberately, in the year of grace 1883, six or seven months following the election.

Mr. Speer convicted eight of the Ku-Klux. This fact has intensified the hatred of the Bourbons of South Carolina, engendered by his coming here from Georgia to assist District Attorney Melton in the election trials now in progress. As to South Carolina KuKluxism, its history has never been written, except in sketches. What has been made public of its operations warrants the statement that as thugs and torturers the Ku-Klux have never been surpassed. When Chief Justice Waite was down there a fe.w years ago he declared that he could not preside at another Ku-Klux trial. The details made him deathly sick. Here is a representative case: * A band of Ku-Klux made a midnight" raid on the residence of an old colored woman and her nephew. Despite the piteous pleadings of the . old woman, they dragged the nephew out of bed. “Gentlejnen,” he cried, “I’ve done nothing. I’ve not ’lectioneered since you whipped me three weeks ago, and I’ll never ’lectioneer any more!” “Why, you black son of a b—,” mockingly replied one of the Ku-Klux, “we’ve not come to whip you. Don’t be afraid o f that. We’ye on ly come to kill you—that’s all. ” Then out into the darkness they dragged him. They made him wade into the middle of the Broad river and kneel down on what they called “the holy stone.” The leader chose several of the gang to shoot at him from the bank. After enjoying the fun for some time one of the shooters got impatient and jumped into the river and rushed at the victim. Tearing liis mask from his face the Ku-Klux shouted, “You d—n black dog, I want you to see who killed you;” and then he literally shot the .face oft’ the negro.

“Now, auntie,” softly inquired one of the Judges at the trial—a pin could be heard drop in the court-room—“how did you recognize these men who came to your house and took your nephew out and killed him ?” “Why, Lor’, mas’r, I orter know ’em —I nussed ’em!” And it was God’s truth. Those men had suckled at that black® breast! Of course she recognized them. It may seem a hard thing to say, but it is al act: While Ku-Kluiism may not exist now as a regular organization land then, sqtain, it’s quite pcssiblethat it does), its .spirit is still abroad in South Carolina, stalking through the cotton fields and the pine forests at election times. Ah address has been issued State Executive Committee of the Union Republican party setting forth to their brethren of the nation how it came to pass that in a State having between 40,000 and 60,000 Republican ma ority the Hancock and English electors were awarded 54,241 majority over the Garfield and Arthur electors. That address has never been replied to. What happened at the last Presidential election, will probably happen in the next, unless the Republicans of South Carolina receive substantial support from the North. It should be borne in mind that ever since 1876 the election officials have been Democratic exclusively. The United States Supervisors in many places were driven from the polls 7 by violence. It would be tiresome to even enumerate the methods of fraud. But one Democratic paper in the State, the Beaufort Crescent, raised its voice to protest. It said: “There is one thing to be said of the Democracy of Beaufort county that unfortunately cannot be said of some others, and that is, they have not as yet learned to make one Democratic vote count as five, and five Republican Votes as one. Nor have we yet adopted the system by which ballots are substituted in the boxes for those which were originally placed there. Upon these little matters we are sadly deficient, which will account for the small showing we are able to make with 300 votes. “For ourselves, we had rather be afflicted with years of Republican misrule, trusting to the justice of our cause finally asserting itself, than to steal an election." With the. reigns of government firmly in their bands, and with com* plete control Of the election machinery, the Democrats st the —last —election called in their bloodhounds; but, as before, resorted to every imaginable form of fraud and intimidation. In South Carolina no Republican has any

right of citizenship that a Democrat is bound to respect. The Republican majority was wiped out in 1882—first," by intimidation and fraud in connection with the registration, and the Registration law itself is grossly unjust; secondly, by intimidation and fraud at the polls; and thirdly, by “counting out" —an art in which Southern Democrats are experts.