"Armed men have been stationed as pickets on roads leading to county
conventions. These men were supplied with State arms, furnished through
the United States, were evidently under good military discipline, had
recognized officers, and were known as members of the State volunteer
militia. At first they appeared without uniforms; of late they have
attempted in uniform to break up Republican meetings. They have not
hesitated to announce publicly that the white people of South Carolina
had decided that Republican meetings should not be held, and that any
attempt to hold such meetings might result in personal injury. At one of
the meetings at Sumter County, one of the aids of Governor Hampton
knocked the Republican chairman from the stand. Another seized the
chairman by the throat and severely injured him. The speaker was Probate
Judge Lee, who acted as chairman of the meeting, and who at that time
was threatened both with shooting and hanging. So many authorized
details of those acts of violence have been brought to the knowledge of
the Administration here that the President and his Cabinet are convinced
that there is an organized movement in South Carolina to put down by
violence any attempt at Republican organization, and that Wade Hampton
is giving this revolutionary and cowardly movement his active personal
support. It is, perhaps, needless to say that the President is very much
surprised at Hampton's conduct."
If "the President and his Cabinet" had consulted the Principia Club
papers more, and Southern rebels less, it would not have taken them half
of their Presidential term to learn that rebel promises are of no
account whatever, for they would have discovered abundant evidence of
their utter worthlessness. As "federal bayonets" are now so popular in
_rebel_ hands, and getting to be so useful to put down _Republicanism_
in South Carolina, perhaps our verdant President, in his "_surprise_,"
may break the shackles with which he was voluntarily bound, and use
"federal bayonets" to put down _rebellion_. At all events, he ought to
obey the United States Constitution he has sworn to support, which
tells him he "shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican
form of government." If he hasn't given away all his "federal bayonets"
to the rebels, is it not about time for our commander-in-chief to use
them in South Carolina? (See Principia Club Papers No. 7, pp. 152-5: The
Southern Policy.)
[Special Despatch to the Boston Traveller.]
Washington, D. C., Oct. 18.--The President has taken steps, through the
proper officers, to have the outrage perpetrated at Sumter, South
Carolina, investigated, with a view of ascertaining who is responsible,
and whether or not there has not been an open violation of the United
States laws.
District-Attorney Northrup has the case in charge, and will, said a
member of the Cabinet to your correspondent to-day, make an energetic
investigation of the outrage and report the facts promptly. There is no
reason to doubt that he will do his whole duty and make a fearless
investigation of the affair, which, according to the Democratic account,
was brutal in the extreme. The Administration, said the Cabinet Minister
further, will see that the rights of the colored people in South
Carolina are maintained, and to this end will, if necessary, go to the
full extent of the United States laws.
We may be too faithless in this matter, we hope we are, but when
"investigations" shall result in the _punishment of criminals_, instead
of their protection from further molestation, we may have more
confidence that justice will triumph in rebeldom.