USA > South Carolina > Marion County > A history of Marion county, South Carolina, from its earliest times to the present, 1901 > Part 9
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The election laws, at that time and for years before and after until the war, provided that elections should be held one day at each poll, including the court house poll, in the district, and on the next day the election should continue to be held at the court house. That on the second day, the managers from the out or country polls, or a majority of them, were required to carry in the votes from the out polls, respectively, to be counted whilst the election was going at the court house poll, and at the close of the court house poll it was counted and the result for the whole district was then declared. The practical operation of this arrangement of the election laws of the State opened the door to all sorts of combinations on the second day at the court house poll. Many times the candidate or candidates elected on the first day of election were beaten on the second day. Not more than half the votes would be polled at the court house on the first day, and many from the out polls would not vote the first day, but would go to Marion the second day, and after hearing from, perhaps, all the polls in the district as to how the election went the day before, were ready to form combinations to elect or to defeat certain candidates, and vote accordingly. A heavy vote was thereby cast on the second day. It was not then, as now, an elector could vote at any precinct in the county, provided he could identify himself to the satisfaction of the managers, and take the required oath that he had not voted in the election at any other voting pre- cinct. The having one day's election at the out polls and two
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at the court house, was wrong in policy, as it often operated to defeat the will of the people; but allowing an elector to vote at any poll in the district, wherever he might happen to be on day of election, was right and good policy, and ought to be so now in 1900, provided he showed his registration certificate and takes the required oath. And it ought to be extended further. An elector ought to be allowed to vote at any precinct in the State for Governor and other State officers, and for a Representative in Congress at any voting precinct in his Con- gressional District, provided he identifies himself to the satis- faction of the managers by the production of his registration certificate and by other evidences, and takes the required oath. It often happens that a man's business or family necessities compel him on day of election to be somewhere else other than at his own poll. If so, by the law as it now is, he is disfran- chised, he is deprived of his right to vote. Our election and registration laws ought to be amended so as to avoid such dis- franchisement. Every man ought to have, and does have, the right to have his voice in choosing the makers and administra- tors of the law under which he lives, unless by crime or other disability he has forfeited that right.
After the campaign of 1844, there was a lull in party strife, and each party seemed to merge into the other party ; discrimi- nation ceased and men were seemingly elected to office without any reference to past party affiliations till 1851 and 1852. In 1851, it was proposed to hold a Convention of the Southern or slave-holding States at Montgomery, Ala., to consult as to the most advisable course to protect themselves against the aggressions of the North on the institution of slavery. South Carolina was for separate State action, whether any other State joined in or not. When I say South Carolina was for separate State action, I mean that was the proposition-Separate State Secession or Co-operate Secession-Secession or Co-operation. A popular election was held to elect delegates to the proposed Convention at Montgomery, Ala. It aroused a furor in the State. Excitement and strife permeated the whole State, from the mountains to the seaboard. The Co-operation party, as it was called, was in favor of secession, provided they could get the co-operation of the other slave States, or a majority of
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them; the Separate State Action party were in favor of the secession of South Carolina, whether any other Southern State seceded or not. Each party put out their respective candidates for delegates. The contest was bitter and strong; animosities were engendered, party feeling was strained to its utmost tension. I do not recollect who the respective candidates were. The Co-operation party carried the district by thirty-five majority, and that party carried the State by a considerable majority. The Montgomery Convention was never held, and thus the matter ended; but the feelings, the animosities and jealousies engendered and aroused were not allayed, or seem- ingly modified, but continued through the next year, 1852, as bitter and unrelenting as ever. Each party was unwilling to trust the other, and each party had out its candidates for the Senate and House the next year, 1852, in this, Marion District, and it was so throughout the State. Dr. Robert Harllee was the candidate of the Secession party for the Senate, and C. J. Crawford was the candidate of the Co-operation party for the same office. I do not remember the names of the candidates for the House. Dr. Harllee was elected to the Senate over Crawford by 171 majority. Dr. William R. Johnson, Colonel W. W. Durant and William S. Mullins were elected to the House of Representatives. Dr. Johnson was Secessionist, Durant and Mullins were Co-operationists. The Secession party had four candidates for the House to carry, and hence they elected but one of their ticket, Dr. Johnson. The bitter- ness engendered by the campaign gradually cooled down, and harmony and good feeling were restored. The party for Separate State Action believed and felt assured that if South Carolina acted alone, the other slave States would of necessity follow. The Co-operation party thought otherwise-that South Carolina should act only in conjunction with the other slave States. Both parties, doubtless, were honest. One party wanted to act at once, the other party wanted to go slow, being more cautious. The writer believes that if we had acted then, either separately or unitedly, there would have been no attempt at coercion. The anti-slavery feeling of the North was not then as strong as it was in 1860 and 1861. It was intensified and became more fanatical in each succeeding year
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from 1852 to 1860. Franklin Pierce was elected President in 1852, and a Congress in accord with the views of Pierce. In- stead of coercion, some scheme of compromise would have been suggested and adopted, by which war would have then been averted, at least for a time, and maybe for all time. Slavery was bound to go, sooner or later, either peacefully or by the scourge of war. After 1851 and 1852, there were no questions or issues to divide our people in South Carolina. But for the constant agitation of the slavery question in Congress, the people of the State were quiet and at ease. No division among themselves, nothing to disturb their equanimity of a political character.
Marion District, during the last decade before the war be- tween the States, was steadily progressing on the different lines of civilized life to that proud eminence to which she has since attained, and which she now occupies. When the tocsin of war was sounded, she responded to the call of her section with an alacrity and an enthusiasm not excelled by, perhaps, any district in the State. However much she may have heretofore been divided and torn by factional issues and factional strife, she was almost a solid unit for the war, as the rolls of the companies from Marion District will show, hereinafter pub- lished. It is true, there were a few on Maple Swamp and in the lower part of Hillsboro Township, and perhaps a few in the Great Pee Dee slashes in Kirby Township, who failed and refused to respond to their country's call, but the great bulk of the young and middle-aged, and some passed the age of active military service, obeyed their country's call from motives of patriotism, and went to whatever place they were assigned, and wherever the exigencies of the times and service required, and sealed and demonstrated their devotion to their country's cause with their life's blood. Many left home and family and friends, never to return. The casualties of our late war with Spain and now going on in the Philippines, are but a bagatelle to the casualties in the Confederate War. In some of the great battles in Virginia and elsewhere, the casualties on each side ran up into the thousands. The casualties were generally much greater in the Federal army than in the Confederate army. All were Americans- all had learned the arts of warfare in the
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same school, and why should the casualties have been greater in the Northern army than in the Southern? The Northern army had greatly the advantage in numbers, in the character and calibre of their arms, in equipment of their soldiers and in their means and resources of every kind for successful war. It can be accounted for only upon the assumption that the Southern people as a whole have more pluck, more indomitable courage, more intrepidity and more dogged endurance than has the Northern people. With equal means, equal numbers and resources, the South would have won, and the war could not have lasted more than two years. Above all, our cause was just; the slavery question, although the proximate cause of the war, was subordinate to the great cause of the right of self-government, self-control. The Southern people were and are a homogeneous people, a chivalrous people-more of the Cavalier than the Puritan or Round-head, and under equal conditions make the best soldiers. Hence it was that the South resisted the overpowering forces of the North so successfully for so long a period-four years. The North never did whip the South by combat on the field, but by exhausting us and our resources. The world's history does not furnish a single example of such heroic endurance against such odds so suc- cessfully for so long a time, and Marion District did her full share in every way during the unparalleled struggle. She may truthfully say, magna pars fui, to the full extent of her capa- bilities. The war over, her men who had escaped the casualties and diseases and deaths incident and consequent upon it, having lost all, save honor, returned to their desolated and impoverished homes, with nothing to begin life again but strong arms and stout hearts. They found property gone (and what little remained had but little value), destitute homes, ragged children, in many cases no bread and other necessaries of life, and nothing to buy with. Their condition in many instances was deplorable indeed. Their poverty and want were more appalling than the enemy they had faced for four long years. The prospect for living, for recuperation, was most gloomy. Our people, nothing daunted, went to work with such scanty means as they had or could procure, entered the school of hardship and self-denial with a hearty good will, and
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in a comparatively short time acquired the means necessary to supply their natural needs, and continuing to ply their energies under adverse circumstances, the horrors of reconstruction under an insolent soldiery, the people of the district gradually recuperated, and not only supplied natural and pressing wants, but after reconstruction, though on a radical basis, began to accumulate the means of life; as well as many of its comforts and enjoyments, and occasionally a surplus. Our troubles did not end by reconstruction, so-called, and the State Constitution of 1868. The institution of civil government did not displace the military, but it was continued for eight or nine years, or till April, 1877. Before every election, and at the meeting of the Legislature, so-called, a body of armed soldiers was sent here, for the purpose of intimidation, and to awe our citizens at the polls and, as the "powers that be" said, to protect the voters of the Republican party at elections, and to prevent as many Democrats as possible from exercising their right to vote. And on the meeting of the Legislature, the soldiers were the door- keepers, and allowed no one to enter, as a member, except such as were known Republicans; and some from counties, for in- stance, Horry County, where after the first three or four years it was impossible to elect a Republican. The soldiers were the judges of the election and election returns, and were the actual returning boards of both county and State; were judges of not only the election of members to the House and Senate, but also of their qualifications ; and the only qualification neces- sary for admission to a seat in either House, if a white man, was that he was a Republican, a "carpet-bagger" or "scala- wag;" if a negro, that his skin was black or tan colored. So far as the negro member was concerned, he was nothing more than a puppet in the hands of those who led and controlled the body, and at least five-sixths of the members were negroes. There were a few leading negroes, such as W. J. Whipper, of Beaufort, Beverly Nash, of Richland, S. A. Swails, of Wil- liamsburg, Henry E. Hayne, of Marion, H. J. Maxwell, of Marlborough, and some other negroes, who were the lieuten- ants of such men as Scott, Moses, Leslie, John J. Patterson, H. C. Corbin and the Mackeys, and perhaps some others. These latter did the planning as to when and how to steal, and their
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lieutenants put the plans into execution. The ignorant rabble in the Legislature were voted as occasion might require. Such a carnival of plunder, under the forms of law, was never wit- nessed before. Open and shameless bribery was the order of the day, and the bribes were paid from the public treasury. Every man had his price-verifying the assertion of Robert Walpole, of England. The bribes paid in South Carolina were from $5,000 down to $200. Every man was paid according to his supposed influence. Henry E. Hayne, first a Senator from Marion County, and then Secretary of State, built a fine house in Marion, now owned and occupied by Mr. James Baker, and had it finely furnished. Whilst he was hauling up the furni- ture from the depot at Marion, the writer heard him say that it (the furniture) was a present to his mother from a friend of hers. Each one of those mentioned above, including B. F. Whittemore, a Massachusetts carpet-bagger, representing Dar- lington County in the Senate, received $5,000; others $2,000, $1,000, $500 and $200. I would mention the names of some of the scalawags in Marion, but out of respect to the families or descendants of some of them, the writer forbears, knowing that the present generation is not responsible for what was then done.
When the white people, the taxpayers of the State, got pos- session of the Legislature and the executive departments of the government by the election in 1876 (ever to be remembered), a Fraud Commission was appointed to investigate and unearth the frauds and stealage for the then past eight years. One Josephus Woodruff, who had been and was Clerk of the Senate, turned evidence against his party, or against the party who had been in power. It seems he kept a little book, called at the time a "whirligig book," in which many of the stealings were entered-I suppose it was stenographically entered-each man's name, and how much he was paid, and what he had been paid. When that Committee made its report, our own people were astonished. They knew that fraud and stealing had been going on, but to what extent was unknown. A stam- pede from the State of many of the leaders, white and colored, took place at once. Whittemore, then in the State Senate from Darlington, fled never to return ; the same of Moses (F. J., Jr.),
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R. K. Scott, H. E. Hayne, S. A. Swails, and, in short, the whole gang of the leaders, the biggest rogues, fled the State, and in a few months time they were all gone. "A guilty con- science makes cowards of us all." Henry E. Hayne left Co- lumbia and went down to Marion, his home, and where his mother lived, and was so badly frightened that he did not spend the night there, but left the same night and, as the writer understands it, has never returned. "He left his country for his country's good." We can spare him. The particular stealings above mentioned were not all, by many, that occurred during the eight years of radical rule and high carnival. These were the bribes given and taken to pass a certain financial scheme by which the State was robbed and to be robbed of millions. In the early part of their career they did not seem so rapacious-more modest in their actings and doings; but as time went on, the disguise was thrown off, and they became familiar with crime and theft; and growing more rapacious, they did not hesitate to take it by thousands, when at first they were afraid of being caught, and being somewhat squeamish, they would take only by littles, by hundreds; now in or near the end of their reign, they could and did take it by thousands ; and no doubt thinking that their hold on the State could not be broken-that their lease of power was well secured to them for all time to come, or at least for a long time they were the more ready to embark into stealing enterprises on a large scale. Hence this voracious greed for money could not be satiated with small amounts. It took more and more to satisfy them. Wresting the State from them in 1876 was a complete surprise to them-they had no idea of defeat. On the 15th August, 1876, D. H. Chamberlain, their candidate for Governor, said in a public speech in Marion that day, that the Republican party would carry the State by 40,000 majority. In other words, that he would be elected by that majority. There are many now living who heard him say it. Hence the Hampton cam- paign success was a great and fatal surprise to them.
In 1868, at the first election under the Constitution of that year, Henry E. Hayne, a mulatto negro, was elected to the State Senate. I am not certain as to who were elected as Representatives, but think it was B. F. Thompson, Ebben Hays
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(white) and W. S. Collins (white) ; the white men were called scalawags. In 1870, only Representatives were elected. The Democrats put out a ticket that year and succeeded in electing it, to wit: Rev. Joel Allen, F. A. Miles, Dr. Thomas R. Bass and John C. Sellers. They were elected by a majority of from 150 to 180. They would, doubtless, have been counted out by the Returning Board for the county, had they not been put in fear. Some half dozen or more of our citizens, headed by Major S. A. Durham, waited upon R. F. Graham, C. Smith and others, leading lights of the Radical party, the night before the returns of election were to be canvassed the next day, and told them that they knew the Democratic ticket entire was elected, and if they were counted out, the lives of the canvassers would be taken at once. Major Durham and his associates were appointed a committee to wait on the Board of Canvass- ers, and so say to them, by an impromptu meeting of citizens in the town of Marion. This prompt action on the part of the Democrats had the desired effect, and thus saved Democratic representation to and from the county. Our Representatives could do nothing in the Legislature when they were there. They could only watch the Radicals and block, as far as pos- sible, any hurtful legislation attempted. There were only about twenty Democrats in that Legislature.
In 1872, the Democrats and Republicans each had their tickets in the field for Marion County. A strong effort was made, but the Republicans having the whole machinery of elec- tion in their hands, succeeded by fraud and by counting in their candidates. William S. Mullins was the candidate for the Senate on the part of the Democrats, and C. Smith on the part of the Radicals. Henry E. Hayne, the former Senator, was elected that year Secretary of State. The Democrats elected every one of their candidates, but they were all counted out, and the Radicals counted in. Kukluxism had been doing its bloody work in some parts of the State, and the power of the United States was being invoked to suppress and punish it, and that to some extent awed our people and deterred them from going as far in 1872 as they would have gone in 1870. Hence the counting out of our candidates in 1872 was submit- ted to. We had a full Radical set of county officers and Sena-
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tor and Representatives. Incompetency in office and greed for money ruled the times. Crime was everywhere rampant, not only in Marion County, but throughout the State. The State was called the "prostrate State"-she was powerless every- where. In 1872, three negroes, Jonas Deas, Lawrence Mills and Enos Reeves, were elected County Commissioners for Marion County. Ignorant and corrupt, they knew nothing whatever about the duties of the office, nothing about finances, except to steal them. For the year 1874, they fixed the county taxes so high that they, with the State levy, made the taxes for Marion County $100,000, whereas they should not have ex- ceeded $40,000, county and State. In consequence of which a public meeting of the citizens and taxpayers was held at Marion on salesday in January, 1874. The Legislature was then in session ; our situation was discussed, and resulted in appointing a committee of our citizens to go to Columbia and memorialize the Legislature on the subject, and to pray that body for relief. The committee appointed to perform that duty was composed of Major A. J. Shaw (afterwards Judge), A. Q. McDuffie, J. M. Johnson, T. C. Moody and W. W. Sellers. The committee re- paired to Columbia. We consulted our own delegation and the leaders, or some of them, in the House and Senate, and heard their suggestions. We drew up a strong memorial for the House and Senate, setting forth our grievances and the relief sought, in a respectful manner, avoiding or refraining from saying anything that would give offence or exhibit any partisan feeling-remembering the old adage, "that when your hand is in the lion's mouth, it won't do to twist his tail." We had the memorial printed and placed copies in the hands of our delegation, and they were introduced simultaneously into the House and Senate, and were referred to the respective Judici- ary Committees of the House and Senate. By appointment of those Committees we went before them and were courteously received. Major A. J. Shaw, the Chairman of our committee, was our spokesman before the Judiciary Committees. The facts were very fully stated, both in the memorials and in the state- ments made by Major Shaw. We remained in Columbia about a week, talking with different members of other delegations and with our own, when we left and returned home, feeling
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very well assured that our mission there would be successful. The final result was the passing of an Act for our relief, and a reduction was made of the taxes for that year from fifty to sixty per cent., and was so arranged as to benefit only those taxpayers whose property was valued too high. For on inspec- tion of the Auditor's books, there were those whose property was not valued too high and, of course, those did not share in the reduction. It saved some of our people a great deal, while it saved to others less. It saved to General William Evans over $200, to William S. Ellerbe near $250; one Mr. Sinclair ( whose first name is not remembered) was assessed at $89 amount to be paid, and by the reduction made it was less than $30. Thus it fan, some saving much and some less. All this trouble and expense were incurred by the ignorance and incom- petency of the three negro County Commissioners for the county, and it is not improbable that they desired a heavy collection of taxes that they might have a larger pile to steal from. This is inferred from the fact that they were afterwards indicted for embezzlement of the public funds, tried by a Re- publican Court, prosecuted by a Republican Solicitor and a jury, a majority of whom were negroes, and were convicted and sentenced to terms, each, of imprisonment for a number of months not now remembered-some for longer terms than others. Jonas Deas, the Chairman of the Board, got the longest term.
In 1874, there was a sort of compromise in Marion County between the parties, by which the white people of the county had two Representatives and the Republicans two. The Rep- resentatives elected that year were ex-Chancellor W. D. John- son and Colonel R. G. Howard, and William E. Hayne and Anthony Howard-the two former for the whites and the two latter for the Republicans. During that legislative term Judge Green (a Republican) died, which left the Third Circuit with- out a Judge. His place was filled by the election of A. J. Shaw, Esq., then a resident citizen of Marion, and a Democrat. The Representatives from Marion voted for him, and it was said, and truthfully said, that W. E. Hayne, one of the Repub- lican Representatives from Marion, did his best for the election of Shaw as Judge, and was fully appreciated by the citizens of
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