SOUTH CAROLINA. 



739 



tnre in protecting the right and interest of the 

 State in the phosphate territory, and recom- 

 mends that all the expenses incurred in litiga- 

 tion be refunded to the department out of the 

 phosphate royalty. During the year ended Aug. 

 81, 1884, 151,243 tons of rock were removed 

 from the navigable streams of the State, against 

 129,318 tons in 1883, an increase of 21,925 tons. 

 This is the largest amount ever removed in 

 any one year. The State received for the last 

 fiscal year royalty on rock mined amounting to 

 $153,797.62, which exceeds the sum realized 

 from this source in the previous year by $28,- 

 004.48. The report of the commissioner shows 

 a slight decrease in the area devoted to cotton 

 and corn in 1884 as compared with 1883, but 

 an increase in yield; and the area and yield of 

 wheat and oats were both increased. 



Industrial Statistics. The product of the man- 

 ufacturing enterprises of the State for 1883 

 foots up $26,863,324. The annual product of 

 the cotton-mills is worth $7,963,198, the num- 

 ber of looms and spindles having more than 

 doubled since 1880. It is thought that the 

 product of 1884 will exceed $9,000,000. The 

 product of the lumber-mills is $5,592,565, of 

 the turpentine-mills $2,912,271, making a total 

 of $8,504,838. The products of mines and quar- 

 ries have also increased since 1880. 



Political. The Democrats renominated the 

 sitting State officers. The Republicans nomi- 

 nated a State ticket, but it was not kept in the 

 field. On the 4th of November Governor 

 Thompson received 67,895 votes, and the other 

 Democratic candidates about the same number. 

 The following were the votes returned for 

 Presidential Electors : Democratic, 69,890 ; Re- 

 publican, 21,733; scattering, 1,237. Six Demo- 

 cratic and one Republican (Seventh District) 

 Congressmen were declared elected. The Le- 

 gislature consists of 32 Democrats and 3 Re- 

 publicans in the Senate, and 120 Democrats, 

 1 Independent, and 3 Republicans in the 

 House. 



The constitutional amendment limiting the 

 power of counties to incur debts was approved 

 by a vote of 38,069 to 7,271. On the 18th 

 of March, Robert Smalls, colored Republican, 

 was elected to Congress from the Seventh Dis- 

 trict, to fill the vacancy caused by the death 

 of E. W. M. Mackey. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature met on 

 the 25th of November and adjourned on the 

 24th of December. On the 9th of the latter 

 month, Wade Hampton, Democrat, was re- 

 elected United States Senator. The work of 

 the session was embodied in 189 acts. Not 

 more than a dozen of these are of general im- 

 portance. The Legislature was chiefly occu- 

 pied in amending the laws of previous sessions, 

 and in supplementing them. In no instance 

 was there any significant change of policy. 



A striking feature of the session was the 

 friendliness with which the Legislature regard- 

 ed railroad corporations, which had been the 

 subject of fierce attack two years before. 



The State-House appropriation for the pres- 

 ent year is $75,000. 



The constitutional amendment limiting the 

 power of counties to contract indebtedness 

 was ratified, and the civil-service resolutions 

 of 1880 were reaffirmed. 



Election Cases. In April, at the opening of 

 the United States Circuit Court, the cases on 

 the calendar charging violation of the election 

 law were stricken from the docket, on motion 

 of U. S. District Attorney Melton, who said : 



When I was appointed district attorney I found 

 upon my desk a very large number of these cases 

 something over two hundred in which the witnesses 

 and parties had been attending upon the court for 

 several preceding terms. I brought the matter to the 

 attention of the department, urging that these cases 

 could not all be tried, and requesting that I be per- 

 mitted to discontinue all of them, except a few which 

 upon a re-examination of the cases might be found 

 most meritorious. With a view of determining that 

 fact the Attorney-General appointed temporarily a 

 gentleman, Mr. Sanders, whose business it was to visit 

 different parts of the State and select from the 

 cases such as could be tried. This was done at the 

 April term, 1882, and all the other cases were discon- 

 tinued by leave of the department. The result was 

 that there were at that term one conviction, one ac- 

 quittal, one plea of guilty, and in all the other cases 

 tried the Junes failed to agree. In the fall of 1882 I 

 requested the permission of the department to con- 

 tinue the cases on the docket. They have continued 

 there to this day. Those cases, give me leave to say, 

 had reference solely, it is true, to elections for mem- 

 bers of Congress of the United States, but at that 

 time, under the law of this State, the same box was 

 used and the same ticket was used on which the per- 

 sons to be voted for for State offices were named. So 

 it was a difficult matter to investigate the election of 

 the national officers without, at least, appearing to 

 make inquiry into the election of officers of the State 

 and county governments. I need not say that the 

 purpose of the Government was to inquire as to the 

 national election, at that time and at all other times 

 declaring, both in words and in actions, that the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States did not undertake to in- 

 terfere in any way with the local affairs of the State. 

 There is no warrant of law in so doing, and it did not 

 desire so to do. The Legislature of this State in 1882 

 separated the State and congressional elections, sep- 

 arated the boxes and separated the precincts aad man- 

 agers so that investigations might be had without 

 even the semblance of interfering with matters per- 

 taining to the State. 



At the last term of the court the cases again came 

 up for trial. They were brought under these specific 

 directions contained in the circular [of the Attorney- 

 General] I have read, and they terminated with the 

 same result mistrials. I am now persuaded that in 

 the present condition of public sentiment of a large 

 proportion of the people of this State, convictions in 

 these cases are impossible, and because I am so con- 

 vinced I have deemed it proper indeed, my duty to 

 the Government as well as to the people o^the State, 

 to represent the matter as it is to the Attorney-Gen- 

 eral of the United States. In the exercise of the dis- 

 cretion with which 1 am now by this letter [of the 

 Attorney-General] invested. I move your Honor that 

 each and every case upon the calendar of this court 

 involving a violation of the election laws of the United 

 States be discontinued. 



Ex-Judge A. G. Magrath, who was counsel 

 for the accused in the election cases, said : 



I have listened with a great deal of interest to the 

 district attorney, and I have heard with bated breath 

 what he has had to say, and I concur in it except in 



