Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/262

 252 Southern Historical Society Papers.

this by the testimony of Prince Rivers himself, that Doc. Adams's company was not a legally organized body, and that they had got possession of their arms irregularly and unlawfully. With affidavits to these facts, made by men of the highest character in the neighbor- hood, the accused went to Aiken, before Judge Maher, and after some factious and ineffectual opposition by Attorney-General Stover, were discharged on bail. The matter was never brought before a court by that officer. He was too busy manufacturing outrages for the politi- cal market to attend to the proper duties of his office. Towards the end of the month the Governor went to Washington, a practice com- mon with our radical governors and judges when trouble of any kind existed. He also wrote a letter to President Grant, which we shall presently give, but it was not published until called for by the House of Representatives.

On the 4th August the Secretary of War ordered that all troops not required to act against the Indians be held in readiness to act in the Southern States, and not long afterwards troops were stationed at Hamburg. It was naturally supposed that this was the result of his late visit to Washington, but the Governor indignantly denied that he had visited Washington with that end in view. He wanted no troops to assist him, and had made no such request. He did not consider the riot at Hamburg as significant of anything more than a mere local affair, the result of bad feeling in a particular locality. A very few days afterwards his letter to the President was made public, and Cham- berlain's character for veracity was utterly ruined.

In this letter he declares that the massacre of Hamburg had struck terror into the hearts of the negro, and as it was probably made with a view to the approaching elections, it would have the effect of deter- ring them from the polls, and he more than insinuates that it was a political move. He says that the demand made by the mob on the militia company for surrendering their arms, with the fact that the militia had not done, nor threatened to do, injury to any one in that community, seems to indicate a purpose to deprive the militia of their rights on account of their color or political associations. Those who made the demand were whites and Democrats. The effect of this act has been to terrorize the blacks and cause some elation among the whites. All the whites are not so bad as those of Edgefield, but their mild disapproval of such outrages does not prevent them, and as political advantages may grow out of them, they overlook the brutality and seek to find some excuse for it. Their intention is to introduce the Mississippi plan into the State. In this state of general