Mr. Lemuel Boozer, who had been elected as a delegate from Lexington, sent a letter regretting his inability to attend and expressing his endorsement of the objects of the Convention. Mr. W. J. Armstrong, who had been sent from Washington by the National Republican Committee "to visit this Convention," was elected an honorary member of the body. The committee on finance reported that the expenses of the Convention were $36.25 and the collections $46. THE UNION LEAGUE. While the negroes in South Carolina were openly invited to join the Republican party they were secretly enjoined to unite with another organization-the Union League-which had a powerful influence upon them. In 1862, when the repeated victories of the Confederate armies had caused apprehensions among the Northern people for the safety of the Union as contemplated by them, and when there was more or less "disloyalty" among them, there began a movement for the formation of "loyal leagues," the mission of which was to organize and cement the Unionists and at the same time crush out the doubt ing or disaffected. Thus was instituted the Union League of America, the object of which, as declared in its constitution, was "to preserve liberty and the union of the United States of America; to maintain the constitution thereof and the supremacy of the laws; to sustain the government and assist in putting down its enemies; to protect, strengthen and defend all loyal men, without regard to sect, condition or race; and to elect honest and reliable union men to all offices of profit or trust in National, State and local government; and to secure equal civil and political rights to all men under the government." All loyal citizens of the age of eighteen years and upward (including aliens who should have declared their intention to become citizens) were eligible to membership. There was a National council, whilst each State had its council directing and controlling as many district councils thereunder as might be deemed necessary. Upon initiation into a council the member was required, amid much form and ceremony, to take the following oath: I do solemnly swear, in the presence of God and these witnesses, that I will never voluntarily bear arms against the United States while I am a citizen thereof; that I will support, protect and defend the Constitution and the Government of the United States and the flag thereof, against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will also defend this State against any invasion, insurrection or rebellion, to the extent of my ability. This I freely pledge without mental reservation or evasion. Furthermore, that I will do all in my power to elect true and reliable Union men and supporters of the Government, and none others, to all offices of profit or trust, from the lowest to the highest, in ward, town, county, State and general government. And should I ever be called to fill any office I will faithfully carry out the objects and principles of this League. And further, that I will protect, aid and defend all worthy members of the Union League, and that I will never make known in any way, to any person or persons not members of the Union League, any of the signs or passwords, proceedings, debates or plans of this or any other council under this organization, except when engaged in admitting new members into this League. [Place your right hand upon the Holy Bible.] And with my hand upon the Holy Bible, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America, under the seal of my sacred honor, I acknowledge myself firmly bound and pledged to the faithful performance of this my solemn obligation. So help me God. To defend and perpetuate freedom and the Union I pledge my life, my fortune and my sacred honor. So help me God. In connection with the work of the Union League there were distributed by its agents among the negroes of the South a paper purporting to represent a dialogue between a "sound Radical Republican" and a newly enfranchised freedman seeking light upon the subject of his political duties. By this catechism it was enjoined upon the colored man that he should vote with the Union Republican party because that party made him free and gave him the right to vote; that the friends of the colored race in Congress belong to that party; that a Democrat was a "member of that party which before the rebellion sustained every legislative act demanded by the slaveholders, such as the fugitive slave law and the attempt made to force slavery upon the western territories"; that the Democratic party "resisted every measure in Congress looking to emancipation, and denounced the Government for arming colored men as soldiers"; that the Democratic party was otherwise known as "Conservative, Copperhead and Rebel, and under each name is still the same enemy of freedom and the rights of man"; that it was fair to presume that the Democrats would make slaves of the colored people if they could, and would not allow colored men to vote-having "tried to keep them in slavery and opposed giving them the benefit of the Freedmen's Bureau and Civil Rights bill and the right to vote"; that the Democratic party would disfranchise the colored people and if possible return them to slavery; that that party was composed of the "slaveholders and leaders of the rebellion"; that the colored men should vote with the Republican party and "shun the Democratic party as they would the overseer's lash and the auction block"; that if the colored men should vote with the Democratic party "the people of the North would think that they did not fully understand either their own rights or the duties devolving on them"; that the money which the colored people of the Southern States had paid as taxes had been used to establish schools for white children, to pay the expenses of making and executing laws in which the colored people had had no voice, and in endeavoring to have the Supreme Court set aside the law which gave the colored man the right to vote; and that the colored people ought to suffer or even starve to death rather than aid the Democratic party to enslave them. The emissaries of the League went secretly but actively to work among the negroes in every part of South Carolina, so that upon the first opportunity of the whites to present public matters to the men of that race these had already become members of a secret, oath-bound organization wherein, as the members actually declared, they had solemnly sworn to vote the Republican ticket. THE SICKLES ADMINISTRATION. On March 21, 1867, Maj.-Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, U. S. A., by appointment of the President, acting under the provisions of the Reconstruction acts, formally assumed command of the second military district, including North and South Carolina. By that order the commanding general in terms assumed all the powers vested in him by those acts. This State was divided into eleven military posts, each under the command of an officer of the army, as follows: Post of Charleston-Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton. Post of Hilton Head-Beaufort. Post of Georgetown-Horry, Georgetown. Post of Darlington-Williamsburg, Marion, Darlington, Marlboro, Chesterfield. Post of Sumter-Clarendon, Sumter. Post of Aiken-Barnwell, Edgefield. Post of Columbia—Orangeburg, Kershaw, Richland, Lexington. Post of Unionville-Spartanburg, Union. Post of Chester-York, Chester, Fairfield, Lancaster. The whole number of troops employed to garrison these posts was nineteen companies averaging 100 men each, besides line and staff officers. One of the first acts of General Sickles in the administration of his government was the issuance, April 11, 1867, of General Order No. 10, which excited much criticism at the time. By this order imprisonment for debt was abolished; execution was stayed for twelve months on all causes of action arising between December 19, 1860, and May 15, 1865; sales were suspended for a like period on all judgments recovered prior to December 19, 1860, unless the debtor should consent to execution; a homestead of twenty acres of land, together with $500 in personal property, was declared exempt from levy or sale for any debt; the death penalty for burglary and for horse-stealing was abolished, and imprisonment for a term of years substituted; whipping as a punishment for any crime or misdemeanor was prohibited; the carrying of concealed weapons was declared a crime; and the pardoning power was conceded to the Governor of the State, though resting concurrently in the district commander. By subsequent orders, the remedy by distress for the collection of rent was abolished; common carriers were prohibited from making any distinction whatever on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude; the distillation of spirituous liquors was absolutely prohibited; quarantine of the several seaports was established under military supervision; all male persons assessed for taxes, without regard to race or color, were declared eligible as jurors, and the several judges were ordered to enforce this provision; sheriffs, chiefs of police, city marshals and town marshals were required to obey the orders of provost marshals, to report their own name, official position and date of commision to the district commander, and also to make to him a monthly report setting forth the arrests and commitments made by them, escapes and discharges, together with the condition of their jails or guardhouses. 5-R. S. C. By several special orders General Sickles illustrated and enforced his views of his own powers and of the purposes of the acts of Congress under which he proceeded. On the occasion of the annual parade of the Charleston fire department (April 27, 1867), he ordered that the United States flag, attended by a color guard of two men from each company, should precede the procession (which had for years carried only the different company banners), and that on its arrival at the reviewing stand the flag should be saluted by each man in the several companies passing in front-each man being required to uncover when three paces from the flag and so remain till three paces beyond it. This order was duly carried out-the parade being delayed a few hours in order to procure a flag and arrange other details. Disobedience would have caused the instant arrest of the department chief with others to be selected by General Sickles, and their incarceration in his discretion. A young gentleman who, losing his temper under the provocation naturally given by the order of Sickles, cut with his knife a national flag used to decorate the hook-and-ladder truck, and not flying as colors, was arrested, confined without trial for a month, and then discharged with a reprimand published in an order. The district court of Edgefield was abolished and in its place was created a special provost court composed of two military officers and one civilian, appointed by General Sickles. By a "special order" issued August 7, 1867, General Sickles reviewed a decree of Chancellor Henry D. Lesesne in the case of the Bank of Charleston against the Bank of the State of South Carolina, and set it aside as "without jurisdiction, erroneous, irregular and a fraud upon the rights of the United States." The order contained a suggestion of a combination among certain of the lawyers engaged in the cause to conceal the proceedings from the Federal officials, who claimed that their Government had some interest in a part of the fund distributed by the decree, because that part was assets of the Confederate Government; and it appeared to impute connivance to the Chancellor himself. The order finally directed that the fund should be paid over to the receiver (a military officer), appointed by General Sickles, and remain in the receiver's hands until further orders. The money was afterwards distributed by military order. |