STATE OF AFFAIRS IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 40, 22 November 1871, Page 3

STATE OF AFFAIRS IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

A correspondent of the New York Ttribune, writing from Columbia, gives the following explanation of the present disturbed condition of affairs in that district“ In a total of 729,000 inhabitants, there are about 425,000 negroes, who as a class are ignorant, superstitious semi-barbarians, but little elevated in intelligence above their kindred in Africa.

They arc extremely indolent, and will make no exertion beyond what is necessary to obtain food to satisfy their hunger. They rarely commit great crimes, but are given to theiving to a serious extent. Towards tho white man they aro still deferential, and assume an abject submission ; hut they arc distrustful of him and know ho hates them. Not only havo political rights been conferred upon these people, but they havo absolute political supremacy. They are the governing class in South Carolina, and a class more totally unfiit to govern does not exist on face of the earth. There are not a dozen highly educated negroes in the whole State, and tho whole number that can read and write is comparatively small. Not in the least superior in intelligence or virtues to the negroes are the poor whites, the “ low down people,” whoso poverty, stupidity, and degradation are beyond the conception of any man who has never seen them. They live in huts, without windows and without even floors. They are totally illiterate, and have not the slightest desire for education or for anything but corn, bread, bacon, and whiskey. They hate tho negroes with a mortal hatred, looking upon them as rivals. They are lazy, vicious, quarreltome, revengeful, and capable of brutal cruelty. The educated white man form a third class,comparatively small in numbers but owning all the property in tqo State. To them the present supremacy of the negro race is a thing unnatural and altogether abominable. At first they looked upon reconstruction as a farce, and believed that a Democratic triumph in 18G8 would sweep it all away. Now it is a horrible reality. From the amazement which they first saw the negroes (whom they had always regarded as cattle) making laws, levying taxes, holding office, and acting as jurymen, they passed snto a condition of bitterness and rage, of which violence and murder were the natural consequence. It would be hard to imagine a state of society more entirely unfitted for a Republican form of Government than this, and the prospect of affairs is justly described as being very dismal.