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disseminated than that, though I am not certain of it. I think the causes of the existence of that organization in South Carolina are purely local; they grew out of the condition of things that has existed there since the reorganization of the State - the local government of the State in all its departments and ramifications. At the commencement, when the State was reorganized, in 1868, the people of the State took very little part in the elections. The elections were carried by the colored people, and the persons who had emigrated from the North and gone there managed it exclusively. The first Legislature that met in South Carolina began its career by largely increasing the State debt, without there being anything in the State to show for that increase. I can only give in round numbers what was the State debt of South Carolina at the time of the inauguration of Governor Scott in July, 1868; it was about six million dollars. The Legislature increased it in the first place by an act authorizing the issue of $500,000 in bonds to take up certain bills receivable, as they were called. They then passed an act authorizing the Governor to borrow $1,000,000 to issue the bonds of the State to pay the back interest upon the public debt. They then passed an act to fund the bills of the Bank of the State of South Carolina, and bills were funded to the amount, I think, of $1,246,000. They then passed an act authorizing the Governor to borrow $1,000,000 for the relief of the State treasury. They passed two acts, by the two acts authorizing the issue of bonds for $700,000 for the land commission, for the purpose of buying lands and selling them to the colored people.

"With these additional expenditures of money, all these bonds having been issued, as I believe, not a mile of railroad has been built in the State, not a mile of canal, and up to the last November not a schoolhouse had been erected in South Carolina from our State resources. The Freedmen's Bureau had built a large number of school-houses there that had been occupied, but none have been built by the State, although large appropriations have been made for school purposes, and the per capita tax has also been devoted for that purpose. Besides this increase of the indebtedness of the State, the general conduct of the Legislature was very unsatisfactory to the people. It was very well understood at Columbia and throughout South Carolina that no bill, having any other purpose than a mere public law, could be passed in that Legislature without bribery. The Governor, in his testimony before the joint committee on the Blue Ridge railroad, has expressed it very strongly. His statement was that if the Saviour came down to that Legislature and wanted to pass a bill for reform, unless he bribed the Legislature to do it, they would crucify him; they would not only reject his bill but they would crucify the Saviour. I do not pretend to indorse that statement precisely, but my belief is that of every other man in South Carolina, of any intelligence, that no act was passed there, other than of a purely legal character, that the Legislature was not bribed to pass. I make that statement not only from general information, but from the confessions of a large number of parties interested, the lobby members and the members of the Legislature themselves; I do not think they ever made any secret of it.

"Another cause of discontent was the lavish pardons that were issued by the Governor. Men of the worst character, men who had committed the worst possible crimes, were pardoned and turned loose without any application from anybody, as far as was known; from no responsible parties, certainly; no application from either the judge or solicitor. They were pardoned and turned loose to prey again upon the community. Another cause of discontent was the character of persons appointed to fill offices under the Executive. The constitution of South Carolina gives the Executive vast patronage, or at least the Legislature have assumed it whether the constitution gives it or not. All the county auditors, county treasurers, trial justices, as they are called there--justices of the peace--and most of the local officers are appointed by the Governor. As a rule they are utterly incompetent, and as a rule they are utterly corrupt.  Another cause of discontent was the organization and arming of the militia of the State and the furnishing them with ammunition. The militia were confined to colored people. Numerous applications were made by white companies to be received into the State militia, but they were all rejected. Some twenty thousand colored people in different parts of the State were armed with Winchester and Springfield and other rifles, and near the time of election ammunition was distributed to them as if upon the eve of battle. They were sometimes very offensive and did a great deal of mischief. It was very offensive to the white people that these colored people should be armed; and sometimes depredations were committed by them; that was a serious cause of discontent. Another cause was the election law itself and the manner in which it was executed. I do not remember the number of sections in the statute. It is a long act, and from the beginning to the end no penalty is provided for any violation of its provisions. That act places the whole power of conducting the elections in the hands of the three commissioners for each county to be appointed by the Governor, without confirmation by the senate. These commissioners thus appointed were required in the first place to designate and fix the places of voting. They appointed the managers to receive the votes. The law then required the managers, within three days after the election, to return these ballot-boxes sealed up to the commissioners. The commissioners were allowed by law ten days to count these ballots and to make their returns of the persons elected. They began their career as commissioners by being very generally themselves candidates for office; and they had to decide whether they were elected or their competitors. Before the appointment of the commissioners, however, the executive committee of the reform party requested Governor Scott to appoint one reform commissioner for each county. That he declined to do, and, so far as I am apprised, he appointed commissioners only from his own party and his own friends. These commissioners commenced operations by fixing the voting places upon the banks of rivers and upon the sea-coast, where the colored population is very dense; while further back from the rivers, and along the upper part of the State, the white population predominates, but is very scattered. As a rule, the commissioners fixed the voting places to accommodate the colored people, and to be as far off and inconvenient for the white people as they could. In certain counties the white people would have to travel forty miles to the nearest precinct to vote. Then it was proposed to the executive committee of the Republican party to have a committee of each party remain with the ballot-boxes and see that they were not tampered with. This they declined to do, and, except for the city of Charleston, they kept these ballot-boxes in their private houses from the time of the election until the time they made their returns.

"That the ballot-boxes were stuffed after the election is no longer a matter of opinion. In some of the counties it has been a matter of judicial investigation. For instance, in the county of Beaufort there was a trial of the commissioners for that county, charged with stuffing the ballot-boxes after the election. The trial was before his honor Judge Bond, of the circuit court of the United States. The jury was composed of an equal number of black men and white men. They found the defendants guilty, and Judge Bond sentenced them to the penitentiary for two years each. In counties where it was utterly impossible there should have been a majority for Governor Scott, in my opinion the ballot-boxes were stuffed, the record falsified, and the will of the people entirely thwarted. I cannot suppose that a law of that sort was made for any other purpose than to keep the party in power, to prolong their power, whether the people voted for them or not. For instance, the fourth congressional district, represented in your House by Mr. WALLACE, the commissioners' returns make him elected by somethree