Refreshed by a cup of coffee and a judicious breakfast, and a bath for his feet, he hobbled to his home, which he reached about ten o’clock. It had become his sole wish to see his family once more, and if he must die, to die with them; and his apprehensiveness had become so great that he with great difficulty persuaded to tarry at his neighbors for food. To be driven from home, and hunted through swamps and forests, like a ferocious beast, had become an insupportable thought. And wherefore _was_ he? Because he sought through that great instrument of enlightenment, the press, to disseminate his political opinions, and the principles of a Republican government, and to strengthen and perpetuate the Union. An hour after reaching home he became aware that the foe was on his track and approaching, but the house was kept closed, and guarded by leading citizens, and he remained till the afternoon of the following day; when, so disguised as to be unrecognized by familiar friends, he took the railroad train for the Capitol, and escaped. A band of those white ruffians boarded the train, and passed through it several times, enquiring for him, and even propounded their questions to him, without recognizing him. The horrors of this massacre were but the commencement of a succession which blackened the history of the political campaign of the year 1876 in the State of South Carolina, and in other Southern states, and disgraced the Republic in the sight of the nations she had invited to witness the successes she had achieved under a free and popular government. Is it asked what punishment was meted out to those miserable offenders? They were arrested, liberated for several months under bail of $500 each, and clearly convicted upon trial; but because the jury of twelve was empanelled upon a strictly party basis, and the six white men were _avowedly_ opposed to conviction on any evidence, a mistrial ensued. As under “the conciliation policy” of the national administration which followed the next subsequent election, the United States’ troops which had been sent into the State at the request of the Governor were withdrawn, the defeated Democratic candidates for Governor and Legislature, supported by the unchartered and hence illegal rifle clubs usurped the State government, and all further proceedings against the rioters were dropped, and the notorious General Baker was elected to a seat in the Senate of the nation, by that spurious legislature of his State. Such is the justice, and such the tender mercies, to which have been consigned the emancipated slaves of the Southern States, and these and similar experiences have caused the “Exodus” of the freedmen to the great north-west. With such fearful odds, can the reader wonder at their seeming timidity? THE END. End of Project Gutenberg's Other Fools and Their Doings, by Anonymous