BoQk_ ^ 3 V^ 



ADDRESS 

TO 

HIS EXCELLEICY PRESIBENT &RAIfT 



OF 



COL. RICHARD LATHERS, 



CHAIRMAN OF A COMMITTEE 

OF THE 

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

OF 

C^IIARLESTON, S. C, 

APrOINTKD TO COOl'EKATE AVITH THE COMMITTEE ENTRUSTED 

WITH THE DUTY OF I'KESEXTING TO THE PUKSIDKNT 

AND TO CONGRESS THE MEJIOKIAL OF 

THE tax-payers' CONVENTION 

OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Charleston, S. C. 
The Xew8 and Courier Job Presses. 

1874' 



RICHARD LATHERS, Chairman. 
G. A. TRENHOLM. LOUIS D. DkSAUSSURE. 

HENRY GOURDIN. JAMES SIMMONS. 

WILLIAM AIKEN. S. Y. TUPPER. 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. President: Wc represent the Chamber of Commerce, of 
Charleston, S. C, one of the oldest commercial bodies in the 
Union, originating in 17S4, under the Presidency of Commodore 
Gillon, whose gallantry during the llevolution, in capturing 
three English Frigates off the Bar of Charleston, while command- 
ing a single vessel, and other naval feats of skill and bravery, 
which you have no doubt often recalled with pride in the early 
history of our Navy, and whose shade, could it bo permitted to 
look down on our present sufferings, would revolt at the hard 
conditions to which his descendents in the State are now sub- 
jected. "We have been appointed as a delegation to co-operate 
with a like body of leading citizens of the State in the i)resentr.- 
tion of a Memorial to Coxgrkss of thk Taxpaykks' Convkx- 
Tiox, and to lay our grievances before your Excellency, with a 
view to enlist your sympathy and support for the people of the 
State, who are now suffering by fraud and misrule, not the result 
of mere party domination, for there are no party issues of a po- 
litical nature to divide our citizens, but Ave suffer by the despot- 
ism of a corrupt and ignorant faction, a body of adventurers who 
came into power by the connivance of the Freedmen's Bureau, 
and the corrupt use of public funds to procure their election, 
which funds Congress had set apart for maintaining the indigent 
and aged freedmen of the State, but which was used for the cor- 
ruption of the colored race, as appears by the j)rinted Congres- 
sional Report, No. 121, of the Second Session of the Forty-second 
Congress, of the Investigating Committee into the alleged frauds 
of General Howard: " It was offered to be proved that in South 
Carolina the Assistant Commissioner (Scott) had been elected 
Governor of that State by the cornipt use of rations, provisions, 



and transportation; that, as an otticer of tlie Bureau, and having 
control of this pro|)erty, he, by and with the knowledge and con- 
nivance of Howard, did use such property to tlie extent of three 
liundred thousand dollars for this ]>urposc'. The names of wit- 
nesfics, of high character, and members of the Republican party, 
were handed in, and subpcenas asked for them, by wliom it was 
stated, by respectable jiersons, these facts could be substantiated. 
The majority of the Committee refused to allow them to be sum- 
moned." 

NoAV, Mr. President, this fact only confirms your own fears as 
to the dangerous influence of the Freedinan's Bureau, so clearly 
hinted at in your very thoughtful Report to President Johnson, 
in 1865, on your return from your Southern tour of military and 
civil ol)servation; and I cannot refrain from quoting the greater 
]tart of that admirable paper, because it so justly and compre- 
hensively describes public sentiment in South Carolina, and sug- 
gests such measures of liberal i)olicy as were well calculated to 
insure public safety, and a hapj)y reconstruction of the State into 
the Union; and had your advice been followed by Congress, we 
would have escaped the evils and scandal Avhich the political ac- 
tion of the Freedmen's Bureau has entailed on this country: 

i,ij:rTicxANT-(;i:NEi:Ai, (juant's ukpoup. 

" The following ai'e the ('onclusii)ns come to by me: I am satis- 
fied that the mass of the thinking peo])le of the South accei)t the 
])resent situation of affairs in good faith. The (piestions which 
jiave hitherto divided the sentiments of the i>eoplo of the t\\() 
sections, slavery and States Rights, or the right of a State to 
sect'de from the Union, they regard as having been settled by the 
highest tribunal (arms) that man can resort to. I was pleased io 
learn from the leading men whon\ I met, that they not only ac- 
cej)ted the decision arrived at as final, but noAV that the smoke of 
battle was cleared away, and time has been given for reflection, 
that this decision has been a fortunate one for the whole country, 
they receiving the like bcnclits from it with those who opi)oscd 
them in the field and in council. * * * '*'' 

Tlie white and black mutually retpiire the ])rotcction of the Gen- 
eral Government. There is such universal accpiiesccncc in the 
authority of the (leneral Government throughout the ])ortions of 
the country visited by me, that the mere preseiue of military 
force, without regard to numbers, is sufficient to maintain order. 



'I'lie good of the country reijuiros tliat tlic forco koj)t in tlie inte- 
lior, wlicro tlitTo are many Ircodnicn, (elsowlu'iv in tlu' Soutbein 
States tlian at forts, upon tlie seacoast, no force is neccHsary,) 
should be Avliite troops. The reasons for this are obvious, with- 
out mentioning many of tliem. The ]>resence of black troops, 
lately slaves, demoralizes labor, hotJi by their adiuce and fni- 
iiishing in their cam]).s a resort for the freedmen for long <lis- 
tanees around. White troops generally excite no opposition, 
and therefore a small number of them can maintain order in a 
given district. Colored trooi)s must be ke])t in bodies sufficient 
to defend themselves. 

" It is not thinking men who would do violence towards any 
class of troops sent among them by the General Government, 
but the ignorant in some places might; and the late slave, too, 
Avho might be ilnbued with the idea that the property of his late 
master should, by right, belong to him, at least should have no 
])rotection from the colored soldier. iSIy observations lead me 
to the conclusion that the citizens of the Southern States are 
anxious to return to self-government Avithin the Union as soon 
as possible. I did not give the operations of the Freedmen's 
Bureau that attention I would have done if more time had been 
at my disposal. Conversations, however, on the subjec^t with 
officers connected with the Bureau, led me to think that in some 
States its affiiirs have not been conducted with judgment or econ- 
omy, and that the belief widely spread among the freedmen of 
the Southern States, that the lands of their former owners will, 
at least in part, be divided among them, has come from the <if/ents 
of this Bureau. This belief is seriously interfering with the will- 
ingness of freedmen to make contracts for the coming year. ^'' 
■■¥■ * * 'pjjp Freedmen's Bureau being separated from the 
military establishment of the country, requires all the expense 
of a separate organization. One does not necessarily know what 
the other is doing, or what orders they are acting under. It 
seems so mo this could be corrected by regarding every officer 
on duty with troops in the Southern States as agents of the 
Freedmen's Bureau, and then have all orders from the head of 
the Bureau sent through the department commanders. This 
would create a responsibility that would cause the orders and 
instructions from the head of the Bureau being carried out, antl 
would relieve from duty and pay a large number of employees 
of the Government. 

(Signed) U. S. GRANT, 

Lieutenant-( General." 

Now, Mr. President, you have here fully and fairly stated our 
case in South Carolina, and if our State had been kept under the 



management of the officers of the army of the United States, an<l 
the Freedraen's Bureau had been subordinated to their honest 
direction and supervision, as you advised, instead of beiucr used 
as a political engine for corrupting the freedmen, and for sow- 
ing dissension between the two races, our mission to-day to your 
Excellency might have been one of congratulation, instead of 
one for ])resenting grievances, and invoking commiseration and 
redress. 

Confining itself strictly to the domains of Commerce, the Cham- 
ber whicli we represent rarely comes into personal relations witli 
any of the distinguished men who have occupied the Presidential 
chair. President Washington visited our City in lYQl, and re- 
ceived from the Chamber such hospitality and address of wel- 
come as his distinguished patriotism and able administration 
merited; and the appointment of the delegation before you is, 
perhaps, the next most important event as connecting the Cham- 
ber with public measures. The reply of the Father of his Coun- 
try to his fellow-citizens of Charleston, which I venture to quote to 
your Excellency, as marking the sympathy of a President of that 
day lor a State now greatly needing such support, and which we 
have every confidence you will practically emulate, lie writes: 

"(tkntlkmkn: Your congratulations, on my arrival in Soutli 
Carolina, enhanced by the affectionate manner in which they 
are offered, are received with the most grateful sensibility. 
Flattered by the favorable sentiments you express of my en- 
deavors to be useful to our country, I desire to assure you of 
my constant solicitude for its welfare, and of my particular satis- 
faction in observing the advantages which accrue to the highly 
deserving citizens of this State from the operatloyis of the Gen- 
f.ral Government. I am not the less indebted to your expres- 
sions of ])ersonal attachment and respect; they receive my best 
thanks, and induce my most sincere wishes for your professional 
prosperity and your individual happiness. 

' (Signed,) GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

Two of the gentlemen, here present, of our Delegation to your 
Excellency are the sons of merchants then representing the Cham- 
ber in doing honor to the first President of the United States, 
and their situation now, as citizens of a prostrate State, where 
robbery and misrule prevails, as compared with the South Caro- 



lina of thoir fatlicrs, whose place in the Union was then one of 
equality, respect, and influence, is well calculated to ikodnce des- 
pondency as to the future of our Great Republic, and calls on 
you, sir, to apply such remedies as the great influence and power 
of your office clothes you with, to rescue tlie history of your ad- 
ministration from the foul charge which bad men have ])ut upon 
it, and when you sliall again visit our city, restored to the rights 
and privileges with which Wasliington congratulated the Cham- 
ber as enjoying, under the benign influence of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, we shall be able to address you with the same words of 
veneration and esteem as were accorded the first President, and 
you will be equally ready to respond in the spirit of liis language: 
" I desire to assure you of my constant solicitude for its welfare, 
and my particular satisfaction in observing the advantages which 
accrue to the highly deserving citizens of the State j'^ro?« the ope- 
rations of the General GovernmenV Your great military fame, 
enhanced by your generous treatment of the vanquished at the 
close of our unfortunate civil war, and your liberal and manly 
report of the condition of the South, already referred to in my 
remarks, Avill be greatly illustrated and sustained by a firm civil 
administration, rebuking and putting down the frauds and mis- 
rule of a body of adventurers, who, under the garb of your sup- 
porters, are rapidly undermining your administration, impover- 
ishing the people, and degrading the national reputation itself. 

Under the reconstruction measures of Congress, manipulated 
by the carpet-baggers and the corruptions of the Freedmen's 
Bureau, an entire subversion of every conservative principle or 
))ractice of the State took place, and institutions, foreign to tlic 
habits of our people, were introduced and operated by strangers. 
Laws, usages, and the Courts themselves, were all changed, and 
venerated Judges, w'hose reputation for learning and probity 
gave our Courts at home and abroad an enviable reputation, 
were displaced, and a Code of laws Avere introduced from another 
State, wholly out of sympathy with our usages and comprehen- 
sion, and Judges appointed in many cases who had not mastered 
the lowest rudiments of the law, and in whose integrity no one 
had confidence, and even Judges of our highest Court have not 



escapeil from open charges of corruption by members of tlie 
Legislature in tlieir places during the session. 

Criminals are discharged almost as fast as they are convicted, 
by pardons granted in consideration of political influence or ser- 
vices. Elections are held by managers, most of whom are candi- 
dates or active politicians, appointed by the Governor, and his 
immediate agents, no representative of an adverse party being 
conceded, and even the polls, in many cases, opened at unusual 
places, without notice. In our OAvn city, at the last election, the 
oath requiring proof of citizenship was so modified by the parti- 
saji managers as to leave out that protection against illegal vot- 
ing, and large numbers from the rural districts and the surround- 
ing plantations were brought into the city and voted at polls not 
advertised, so that 1500 more votes were cast at one precinct 
than the whole number of inhabitants residing there. The regis- 
try law which the Constitution of the State requires, is wholly 
disregarded, because it would tend to restrain illegality; and in 
a recent appeal against an illegal election, the Judges declined 
to have the returns examined, or to receive testimony of voters 
that confessed they had voted illegally. Charleston, therefore, 
the great commercial mart of the State, and among the largest of 
the export cotton ports of the country, has not a single member 
in the liCgislature representing the business interest and ])roperty 
of the city. The two Senators are colored men, and twelve of 
the eighteen in the Lower House are also colored; with few ex- 
ceptions, this whole delegation are men of no business or occupa- 
tion, except that of politics, and in no sens6 representing tlie 
business or useful industry of the city. And wliat is still worse, 
it is rare that a respectable colored man can get any appoint- 
ment, and when the public are so favored, his removal is certain 
when he neglects or refuses to conform to the fraudulent prac- 
tices oi the party in ])Ower, or when a hungry white carpet- 
bagger covets his office for the emolument; but it must be con- 
ceded that offices of high military rank, without salaries, are 
freely conferred on ambitious colored men, as the frequent mili- 
tary parades fully attest, by the new uniforms. The effect of all 
this misrule and corruption is seen in the enormous taxation 



which burthen the industry and commercial enterprise of our city, 
and drives away capital and popuhition. Tlie taxes in this city 
on Bank capital is nearly six per cent., so that the borrower lias 
to add these taxes to the interest on his loan, and hence tliirtcen 
pur cent, is the very lowest at which money can be liad on the 
best security in the Banks, and of course money borrowed on less 
known securities, or of private lenders, are at greatly enhanced 
rates, thus crippling enterprise, and seriously interfering with 
trade and industry. 

The report of the City Treasurer, just made public, show^^that 
nearly one-third of the yearly taxation is in default, and subject 
of sale in the City, and I perceive that over 288,000 acres of land, 
and the buildings thereon, have been forfeited for taxes due the 
State for the year 1872, for the small aggregate sum of $!;12,000, 
Avhich is less than twelve cents per acre, which the impoverished 
owners have been unable to pay to save their property from con- 
fiscation. I know of a landed estate in the city, consisting of a 
good class of tenement houses, kept in fine order, and valued for 
taxational $100,000; the property is all rented at satisfactory 
rents, and yet, after paying taxes, and insurance, and such small 
repairs as ^tenants require, the owner has not realized one cent 
the past year for the capital invested. The house in which 1 
live myself would not rent for the taxes and insurance, to sa)- 
nothing of the capital invested in its value, and the necessary 
repairs to keep it in order. 

The State authorities overthrew first the credit of the State by 
fraudulent issues of bonds, and then repudiate, not only their 
own issues, but also scale down to half their value that part of 
the bonds of their honest predecessors, for which the public 
creditor honestly parted with his money, and which the State 
has the full benefit of, by an honest application of the fundf. 
Having exhausted their credit, and wasted the public funds, 
the Legislature are proceeding to spoliation, under the name of 
taxation. 

So anxious were the Conservative peo])le to have an honest 
administration of the affairs of the City of Charleston, and of the 
State, that no Democratic nominations have been made; but on 
the contrary, candidates of both colors from the Republican party 



10 

have received the support of Conscrvalive men, in every election, 
on principles of tinancial reform ; and yet, every election since 
tlie active political contests have ceased, seems to have brought 
into power in the State Government, with few exceptions, officials 
of more eftrontery in their frauds and misrule than it was be- 
lieved possible to obtain in any community, outside of a peni- 
tentiary. The few honorable exceptions, among which I would 
name most of our members of Congress, white and colored, and 
small minorities in the City and State Legislature, who are, liow- 
ever, so powerless as to be of no practical utility for reform, but, 
on the contrary, are in peril, because of their very exceptional 
honesty, of losing their positions at the next election; for every 
election in this State sacrifices a part of this honest minority, and 
reduces their number in proportion as their integrity becomes 
obvious to the corrupt ring which rules the State, by the ma- 
nipulation of the ballot-boxes, and the appointment of the whole 
machinery of the election. Unless Congress applies the remedy 
by special election laws, and other measures of relief, and even 
then the use of money is to be feared in a State where members 
of the Legislature, in open session, accuses the judges of the high- 
est court of receiving bribes for favorable decisions, and Avhen 
legislation is openly sold for money, and no bill, however useful 
to the public interest, can be ])assed without payment of money 
for legislative action. 

In view of these evils we ask your influence, sir, with the coun- 
cils of the nation, and hope for a message to Congress, evincing 
the sympathy in our cause which we know you entertain. We 
feel confident that Congress will exercise the same power to cor- 
rect tiie evils which we are constrained to say their reconstruction 
measures produced. The proposition cannot be controverted, 
that the power to make a law can certainly modify or abolish it ; 
and while we freely concede that the reconstruction measures 
were intended only to protect the freedmen's rights, yet the most 
earnest in their cause now admit that the rights of white men, and 
their estates, have been too much sacrificed in the theory, and 
that, practically, both the interest of the white and colored citi- 
zens in this State have been made the victims of the rapacity of 
the corrupt carpet-baggers, lint apart from all this, we rely on 



11 

the Constitutional power of Congress to guarantee to us a Ro- 
])ublican form of government, not in name, but in fact, the sub- 
stance of that which Ave hope for. If a sliadow, as some con- 
teiul, it must 'proceed from a substance, and must be that form 
wliich was in practical execution, and was contemplated by the 
Constitution when tlie States confederated to maintain the prin- 
ciple so essential to freedom. Hamilton, Madison, and even Cal- 
houn, the great embodiment of the extreme doctrine of State 
rights, not only concede the power of Congress to reform evils 
in a State, under the fourth Article of the Constitution, but show 
conclusively that they anticipated our present situation as the 
proper application of that correctionary measure. The rem^'dies 
are fully within the power of Congress, without the exercise of 
extreme or revolutionary measures. An amendment of the State 
Constitution to protect minorities and restrict the power of ma- 
jorities, by the application of the cumulative system of voting, 
so successfully in force in England, and in many of our own 
States, will go far to protect the rights of property and persons 
against fraud and misrule, and yet preserve manhood or individ- 
ual suffrage as fully as it now exists, to every class of citizens. 
Or, an amendment, by which members of the Senate of the State 
should be elected by taxpayers only, would protect the people 
from extravagant appropriations or fraudulent use of the public 
money, and conserve the public interest generally, especially if 
))roperly sustained by an effective registry law and a proper pro- 
tection of the purity of the ballot-box, now utterly degraded to 
serve the purposes of those in power. 

Mr. President, it ajipears to us that Congress must deal with 
tliis evil, and reform the work of reconstruction, and correct the 
malign influence of the Freedmen's Bureau, which you so clearly 
saw cropping out in its early history. The whole country, of 
every party and race, and, indeed, the whole world, are shocked 
and disgusted with the pi'esent rule in South Carolina. The safe- 
ty and protection of the interests of the public creditors, as well 
as the oppressed property-holder, and the civilization and pros- 
perity of the colored race itself, needs immediate active measures 
on the part of Congress to reform these abuses. The reputation 
of your administration is even at stake in this connection, because 



12 

these public robl)c'i'3 have siicccotled in identifying themselves as 
your supporters, and justify their corrupt measures as in sympa- 
thy with your policy. They misrepresent our opposition to their 
frauds as rebellion towards the Government and opposition to 
your administration; whereas, the people of South Carolina are 
as loyal to the Government and laws of the United States as any 
people in this Union, and have liad too hard a struggle for m'eaus 
to support their impoverished families to give any time to party 
issues. We therefore, sir, approach you as American citizens 
should approach the Chief Magistrate of our nation, not as ])arti- 
sans, but with that respect for your person and high office which 
justifies our confidence that your administration disregards party 
or sectional lines inmeteingout that justice and protection which 
the humblest citizen has a right to expect at the hands of the 
representative of a great and free people. 

It has been well said, Mr. President, by a distinguished hero 
of our own navy, that '* blood was thicker than water," and the 
truth of this maxim is attested by the universal sympathy of the 
whole Xortli for the South at this time of our extremity, not only 
as shown by the spirited editorials denouncing the carpet-bag 
rule in the South, which appear in every respectable journal of 
the North, and the letters of our Northern brethren who visit 
the South to investigate for themselves, but in the earnestly ex- 
pressed opinions of every public man, in and out of Congress, 
whom I have met or corresponded with. All, like yourself, sir, are 
in full sym})athy with us, and earnestly desire our restoration to 
tliat equality in the Republic, and that form of Kepublican gov- 
ernment which would enable them, should they wish, or their 
children, to locate in South Carolina, without that degradation 
wliich now humiliates us, feeling, with true American hearts, that 
the fiag of our Union is to be an emblem of fraternal unity and 
equality among the citizens of every State, and not of sectional 
hostility or carpet-bag domination. Foremost in this generous 
sympathy, I would name Charles Sumner, the consistent, the con- 
stant, and successful advocate of the freedom and political equali- 
ty of the colored man. Sir, our hearts are softened, and our sec- 
tional, party, and personal prejudices are subdued, if not eradi- 
cated, when we contemjdate with sorrow the departure of that 



13 

illustrious New England Senator, who has just passed away from 
the sphere of his usefulness in the very zenith of his national 
reputation; whose life of integrity and zeal, in a stern, and, at 
times, unpopular advocacy of his own peculiar political doctrine, 
has hecn marked hy an indei>endenee of thought and action, 
which, iiowever much many of us have hitherto differed from 
him, challenges our respect, and in his disregard of public clamor 
or the hlandishments of legislative temptation, stands singularly 
prominent in these times of demagoguism and official depravity. 
The South, Mr. President, has reason to appreciate sympathy in 
her fallen fortunes, and honesty in her impoverished condition, 
and hence the tear of gratitude and of heartfelt sorrow irresisti- 
bly falls on the graves of such men as Horace Greeley and 
Charles Sumner. 

This mutual interchange of respect, sympathy, and good-will 
between the North and the South is grateful to the heart of every 
]>atriot. Small prejudicial minds of both sections may attempt 
to deprecate the coming era of good-will Avhich converts our 
hearts into one homogenous national unity, overleaping State 
lines, sectional or party dissensions, and, as a Greeley and a Sum- 
ner now find places in the gratitude of the Southern heart, so, 
Mr. President, in time will Lee and Stonewall Jackson be re- 
garded, with yourself, among the military heroes of our common 
country. 



V