Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/61

 60 Southern Historical Society Papers.

The Cainhoy massacre, though humiliating, furnished another proof of the self-control exercised by the whites. It was an unpro- voked, a brutal and an outrageous assault. It would have justified, as it deserved, the most signal retribution. The Rifle clubs which pro- ceeded that same evening to the scene, had it in their power to strike a blow which would have been remembered for years, and the moral sense of no people in Christendom would have condemned them had they done so. But they did not; they went with words of peace; they gave their protection to the village which lay exposed to the insults and assaults of the savage mob, and they quietly and gladly gave way to the troops who came on the same mission. This mod- eration was not understood by the negroes. They supposed it was the result of fear, and the glorious day of Cainhoy and the defeat of the whites was celebrated by them in songs and dances. Day by day their tone became more aggressive, day by day the imbecility of Chamberlain's government, and the partisan tyranny of Grant's, more offensive. The papers teemed with sickening reports of in- sults, of outrages, of the work of the torch. But enough of these disgusting details.

ELECTION RIOTS.

On the yth November the election was held. In Charleston, long before six o'clock, a mob, accompanied by the beat of a drum, gave tumultuous notice of the election, and by six o'clock the polls were thronged. All day there was the most intense excitement. Every poll was attended by brutal looking negroes, who, decorated with ribands, proclaimed themselves the special deputies of the sheriffs, armed with clubs, and ostensibly keepers of the peace. Scarcely less repulsive in appearance were the deputies of the United States mar- shal, who, as at this election Federal officers were to be elected, were directed by the Attorney- General to watch the polls and pre- serve the purity of the election. At every poll were the gentlemen of the precinct, who, without distinction of age, profession, or con- dition, went there to assist by their moral influence to preserve the peace. General Hunt was in town with his troops to quell any dis- turbance that might arise. About the polls, too, were numbers of negro women decorated with Chamberlain badges, giving encour- agement to their darkey brethren and ready to join in and add to the horrors of a riot.

The day passed off quietly in the city, but it was evident from the very large number of votes polled that hundreds of illegal votes had