80 Southern Historical Society Papers.
other of crimes which ought to be followed by ignominious punish- ment; but such is the cohesive force of plunder, that all these robbers, as they called each other, would, when their power was in danger, knit anew the bonds of friendship and present a solid and unbroken front against all who dared attempt to rid the State of their destructive and blighting presence.
And all this seething mass of corruption was sustained by the moral power of the government. The infamous Patterson had the ear of the President. The garrisons of soldiers posted in the differ- ent parts of the State were always represented to the negroes as placed there to protect them from their enemies the whites; and on more than one occasion it seemed as if they regarded the whites as not only a conquered, but a seditious and rebellious people. The Governor, too, studiously kept them in the position of a suspected race.
When Governor Scott was organizing the militia, he refused to enrol white companies, and the whole military organization was confined to the negroes. A few white Radicals were honored with offices, but the white citizens of South Carolina were entirely dis- franchised. Arms of the best and most approved patterns, and ammunition to suit, were lavishly bestowed on this militia of Scott's making, and many a citizen of the State, black as well as white, fell victims to this reckless arming of a semi-barbarous race. At Ham- burg, in the Elberton riots, and at Cainhoy, the rifles which the whites had paid for were used freely against them, and they were denounced for their outrageous treatment of the poor and heavily oppressed negro.
It has been asked why did not the whites join with the Repub- licans and reform the abuses which were ruining the State? Twice they made the attempt. Twice did they join with those members of the Republican party who seemed disgusted with the course of their own party. Once they supported Judge Carpenter against Scott, and once Green against Chamberlain. On both occasions they were utterly defeated. The movement was regarded as an un- warrantable intrusion into the sacred fields of the party. The State seemed bound to the car of Radicalism forever.
Such was Republicanism as it was known to the people of South Carolina. Is it to be wondered at that the white people eagerly em- braced the party of Democracy ? That party, at least, had no cor- ruption like that of the Republicans of this State. That party repudiated the doctrine that the army of the United States might be
