Letter from George Washington Murray, Columbia, S.C., to William Lloyd Garrison, 5th April, 1877
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Holograph, signed.Title devised by cataloger.Manuscript addressed from "University of So. Carolina, Columbia, S.C."George Washington Murray writes William Lloyd Garrison to convey to the latter a first-hand account of the "political affairs" obtaining in South Carolina. Murray describes the recognition of Wade Hampton as governor of South Carolina as "unwarranted, humiliating, and brutal". Murray accuses Governor Daniel Henry Chamberlain of being "dazzled by the flattery and usual empty promises" of the Democratic Party, and charges Chamberlain with ultimate culpability for the revival of the Democratic Party in South Carolina. Murray asserts that "one Colonel Ferguson", purportedly from Mississippi, canvassed the state prior to the election forming "Sabre, Rifle and Artillery Clubs" to terrorize and surpress African-American and Republican voters. Murray describes the campaign of the "Red Shirts" paramilitary forces operating as the de facto armed wing of the Democratic party during the election, including the Hamburg Massacre organized by M. C. Butler, and recounts that the reported death toll from Hamburg was "far below" the actual total. Murray relates instances of electoral fraud and voter intimidation, writing that "my people have been driven from their own homes by the fierce assassins in their midnight raids, and in many cases they have been brutally murdered", and asserts that many have "died martyrs for the cause of their principle and liberty". Murray castigates President Rutherford B. Hayes for his inaction in the face of white supremacist terrorism and political violence, and opines that they may have been better off were Samuel Tilden elected.
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Correspondence Manuscripts
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Digital CommonwealthKeywords
- Abolitionists
- African American Politicians
- African Americans
- Antislavery Movements
- Butler, M. C. (Matthew Calbraith) 1836 1909
- Chamberlain, Daniel Henry 1835 1907
- Civil Rights
- Correspondence
- Democratic Party (U.S.)
- Equality Before The Law
- Freedmen
- Garrison, William Lloyd 1805 1879
- Government
- Hamburg Massacre, South Carolina, 1876
- Hampton, Wade 1818 1902
- Hayes, Rutherford B. 1822 1893
- History
- Ku Klux Klan (19 Th Century)
- Murray, George W. (George Washington) 1853 1926
- Paramilitary Forces
- Politics And Government
- Reconstruction (U.S. History, 1865 1877)
- Republican Party (U.S. : 1854)
- Slaver
- Social Reformers
- South Carolina
- Southern States
- Suffrage
- Terrorism
- Tilden, Samuel J. (Samuel Jones) 1814 1886
- United States
- Violence
- Violence Against
- Voter Intimidation