That South Carolina Insurrection

Martial law is imposed after the government fails to enforce the dispensary law, which create government-owned liquor stores.

The recent outbreak at Darlington, South Carolina over the effort of the state officials to enforce the obnoxious dispensary law is not at all surprising to one who has paid any attention to the history of the state. These people have been taught to regard lightly their obligation made to maintain and support the national government, and this very doctoring has borne fruit which will tend to the open eyes of the average conservative South Carolinian to the danger involved.
When State troops can with impunity refuse to obey the orders of their commanding officers and expand in the face of a grave crisis, without inviting severe and summary punishment; it becomes plainly apparent that the state government is too Loosely constructed and may go to pieces at any time that the winds and Caprices of these men so the tree.
We are of Governor BR. we neither like the man nor his methods. We neither Advocate his policy nor favor the laws which have been enacted it at his dictation.
But they are the laws of the state of South Carolina, and if constitutional should be enforced.
There is far more danger in the spirit of insurrection manifested than in the enforcement of bad and the chiveas laws.
This lawlessness however has been to a large extent encouraged by the same governor who is so forward and exercising the powers of the state to accomplish its suppression.
He it was who openly favored Lynch law. He it was who sent an innocent colored man into a county to be Tried by an irresponsible body of men who had no standing in law.
She it was who has been the leader of the later day demagogy, and has tended to lower in the public estimation the respect for the gubernatorial office by his appeals to Prejudice and his disregard of reason.
In the present trying moments, South Carolina is ripping her reward. Bloodhounds which have been accustomed to hunt Negroes have been turned upon white men, and the thrilling account sent broadcast over the country make us think of the days of the past when the distant baying of the animals...

“That South Carolina Insurrection,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed April 24, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1565.