Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/208

 198 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Tennant had acted without his knowledge or consent, and that the arms should be again delivered up. It does not appear that he took any steps to execute his promise, and for several days Edgefield was the scene of riot and incendiary outrages. Houses were burned in the dead of night at the peril of the inmates. General M. C. But- ler's house was burned, and a party implicated in the crime asserted that he had done it at the instigation of Tennant. Affairs were daily becoming worse and worse ; it was discovered that hired laborers were leagued with Tennant against the peace of their employers, whose bread they were eating. These employers did then what common sense dictates — they dismissed such traitors from their ser- vice — and this ordinary act of self-preservation was treated as a crime, and a proposition seriously made by Elliott to punish it. An attempt was made to arrest Tennant for burning Butler's house, but he re- fused to be arrested, and fired upon ihe posse which was sent to arrest him. The Governor, instead of going himself to the scene of dis- order, sent one of his henchmen — one General Dennis — to preserve the peace. Tennant retired to the swamp, and Dennis retired to his superior, defeated and disappointed. The eccentric Judge Mackey was now sent as a peacemaker. General Butler was arrested on a charge by Tennant that his life was threatened by him, but the charge was not sustained. A sort of peace was trumped up by Mackey, how, we do not know. In his report he denounced the gov- ernment of Edgefield as the most infamous to which any English speaking people had ever been subjected, and denounced the militia as perverted to the worst uses ; if a negro, he says, quarrel with a white man the militia is called out to settle the quarrel ; he therefore recommended that rhe Edgefield militia be disbanded and their arms called in.

Meanwhile the Legislature assembled again and the Edgefield troubles were immediately brought up by Elliott, who denounced in the bitterest terms those farmers who had dismissed their servants who were plotting against them. A bill was introduced to lay a special tax upon Edgefield for the support of those turbulent rioters who had been dismissed from service. The enormity of this bill did not operate against its passage, but Elliott discovered that it could never be enforced, and it was tabled with his consent.

The events of the year 1875 which showed the progress of cor- ruption were chiefly of a financial character, and the detail of them would be long and tedious, and which I am willing to confess I know too little about to undertake to give. One was the failure of Hardy