extend to other portions of the State now too greatly excited by passing events and issues.

I do, therefore, forewarn all citizens of this State against aiding or abetting W. J. Whipper in his said unlawful attempt, and I call upon all the officers of the law in said Circuit to exert their official powers promptly and vigorously, in sustaining the authority and executing the orders of Judge Reed, and in putting down all attempts in any manner to interfere with his discharge of the duties of his office.

I further call upon all citizens to frown upon and discountenance any and all attempts to usurp the authority of Judge Reed, and, when called upon, to assist in executing his orders; and I further proclaim that, if the officers of the law in said Circuit shall fail to discharge their duties as hereinbefore laid down, I shall proceed, under the law of this State, to organize a sufficient force in the counties of Orangeburg and Charleston, under the command of the lawful deputy constables of those counties, under my own direction and control, to execute promptly and effectually such orders as may be issued by Judge Reed as Judge of the said Circuit, whenever such orders shall be resisted, and to arrest and commit all persons who may oppose or resist his authority, or who may, in contempt thereof, aid in the execution of any order which may be issued by W. J. Whipper, until his claim to be Judge of said Circuit shall have been established by some tribunal competent to pass final judgment thereon.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the great seal of the State to be attached, at Columbia, this 21st of August, A.D., 1876, and in the one hundred and first year of American Independence.

By the Governor :

H. E. HAYNE,

Secretary of State.

D. H. CHAMBERLAIN,

Governor of South Carolina.

The proclamation and the action taken to enforce it awed the conspirators, and no attempt was made to seize the coveted places. Thus the defeat of the infamous scheme sprung upon the State on "Black Thursday" was accomplished and sealed, and the "horrible calamity averted. "Persons lightly dipped, not grained, in generous honesty," says Sir Thomas Browne, "are but pale in goodness." A magistrate pale in goodness would hardly have undertaken what Governor Chamberlain successfully accomplished.

CHAPTER XIV.

Influence of the Election of Whipper and Moses on the Politics of South CarolinaRevival and Reorganization of the Democratic Party-Views of Governor Chamberlain and Dr. H. V. Redfield-The Political Situation in the State and the Country-Letter of Governor Chamberlain to President Grant Setting Forth the Nature of the Crisis-Letter of Governor Chamberlain to Senator Oliver P. Morton on the Partisan Aspects of the Issue Made-Senator Morton protests that He had been Misunderstood-Letter of Governor Chamberlain to Dr. H. B. Blackwell-Comments of Newspapers in Other States on the Situation in South Carolina-Hon. A. H. Stephens Corrects a Misrepresentation of His Opinion Concerning Affairs in South Carolina.

T

O complete the record of this dark crime of the Legislature, it is necessary to exhibit its immediate malign influence upon the morale and organization of the political parties. The corruption which obtained a riotous brief triumph in the State-house at Columbia on the 16th of December, 1875, invited and prepared for the colored race the doom of exclusion for a long period from any controlling influence in public affairs. It was their Belshaz

zar's feast.

No one apprehended the calamitous consequences more quickly than the Governor. In his first utterance for the public, three days after the mischief was done, he said: "I look upon their election as a horrible disaster-a disaster equally great to the State and to the Republican party. The gravest consequences of all kinds will follow. One immediate effect will obviously be the reorganization of the Democratic party within the State as the only means left, in the judgment of its members, for opposing a solid and reliable front to this terrible crevasse of misgovernment and public debauchery. I could have wished, as a Republican, to have kept off such an issue."

Dr. H. V. Redfield, a very intelligent and fair-minded correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, who had made the South

ern States a field of special personal investigation, wrote to that journal from South Carolina, when the event was fresh, as follows:

A rumpus has begun in South Carolina which will end in the white people getting control of the State, as they now have control of Mississippi. The means to be adopted to overthrow negro rule in the Palmetto State may not be precisely the same as that which proved successful in Mississippi, but the result will be similar. Pick out two of the most notorious ward bummers in Cincinnati-men as ignorant of the science of law as a boy is of astronomy, men of no standing in the community, and no character save that of idleness, and elevate them to the bench in two of the most important Ohio circuits, Cincinnati and Cleveland, for instance. How would you feel about it? . . . The whites are aroused; the color line is drawn ; and before long you will hear of a "great Democratic victory" in South Carolina like unto that in Mississippi

The Governor has refused to sign the commissions of Moses and Whipper upon merely technical grounds-something that he would not have thought of doing, as he says himself, had these judges-elect been decent men. But how he is to carry out his point I fail to see. There seems no escape from Moses and Whipper on the bench but the complete overthrow of the so-called party which elected them. And that is what is coming. I say to the reader, and hope he will remember it hereafter, Look out for Democratic gains in South Carolina! For a long time the whites have wanted a sufficient excuse to rise up and overthrow the African government under which they live; and now they have it. Not a white Republican in the State, from the Governor down, nor a Republican journal, pretends to justify the election of these notorious men to the bench.

The campaign in South Carolina next year will be very bitter, if not bloody. The whites will now draw the "color line," and at the same time throw all the blame upon the blacks. We know what the color line means. If any there are who don't comprehend the term, they can have light by spending a few days in Mississippi.

The meetings that were held throughout the State to protest against the action of the Legislature and to sustain the action of the Governor, almost without exception, passed resolutions in favor of a thorough reorganization of the Democratic party, and appointed committees to effect it. While in some places, for example, Charleston, as already shown, the appeal was for an organization of all the friends of honest government, and not specifically for a reorganization of the Democratic party, in other places the latter course was considered the only safe reliance. This sentiment was clearly set forth in the resolutions adopted at the Barnwell meeting:

Resolved, That in view of our repeated failures to reform the State Government by the policy of co-operation with the Conservative element of the Republican party, who professed the same object, and of recent events, we recognize the absolute and

immediate necessity of reorganizing the Democratic party to restore an honest and economical government.

Resolved, That the Democratic party of South Carolina will in the future, as it has in the past, support principles, not men, and we hereby extend a cordial invitation to all men in the State who desire honest government, to unite with us, at least until we have accomplished our purpose.

Resolved, That the co-operation now invited is not with the bad men who have heretofore deluded, deceived, and betrayed our colored fellow-citizens, but with the great mass of that class who, we believe, are willing to rescue the State from the grasp of these unprincipled adventurers.

A call was promptly issued for a meeting of the State Executive Committee of the Democratic party in Columbia on the 6th of January, and at the many mass-meetings held committees were appointed to co-operate in carrying into execution the plans that might then be resolved upon. Measures were also taken to perfect the party organization in every township and county. In this movement there was, at the time, no indication of hostility to the Governor. It was believed that the course he had taken had made an irreparable breach in the Republican party, that the portion of the party which sided with him was a weak minority that would be overwhelmed in the first convention, that the element, led by Elliott, Whipper, Moses, and their kind, would nominate the Republican candidates for the next election, and that the Governor would thus be forced, in obedience to his declared convictions, either to continue the combat for the salvation of the State as an independent candidate, or to give his support to a Democratic candidate. In either case the reorganization of the Democratic party for earnest and efficient service was deemed by its members a necessary condition of public safety. No well informed Democrat expected that the Governor would unite with their party. It was well known that, as to every other issue between parties in South Carolina except this of honesty and economy in the conduct of the State's business, and in regard to the issues which divided the national parties, he was a Republican. All the aid they could hope for from him was the aid of a Republican who believed it to be the primary duty of all government and all parties to establish justice and public prosperity by honorable methods and without wrong or oppression, and who in fidelity to this motive did not hesitate to rebuke and oppose the infidelity of his political associates.

E

While the spirit and the immediate aim of the majority of the Democratic party were such as have been indicated, there were ambitious leaders who had another purpose not yet plainly announced, and who joined in the general tribute to Governor Chamberlain's great public service with a sinister motive. They affected gratitude and honor; but they would have been better pleased if he had sinned with the rest. It exasperated them that any Republican should obtain credit for ability, wisdom, integrity, and honor, and they recognized in him the one man likely to be able to thwart their plot to overthrow the rule of the majority and seize by force and craft all the political honors of the State. Him alone they feared, as one having the sagacity to discover the unreality of their professed regard for the principle of equal rights, the power to cope with them in argument and organization, and the character to command respect for any report he might make to the people of the country of their machinations. They did not want South Carolina to be saved from misgovernment except by the Democratic party, and were incensed that he should have done any thing to deserve the praise of Democrats. By keeping his pledges with such fidelity, by bettering the promise in the performance, he had falsified their hopes built upon expectations of his failure.' The Anderson Intelligencer was almost the only newspaper which openly spoke the sentiments of this class. "His political course," it said, "has been outrageous in the past and deceptive in the present. Whenever any real reform has been accomplished by him it will be time to praise him. The mere prevention of Moses and Whipper taking their seats is something, to be sure, but he says he did it for the purpose of saving his party." Such expressions were then rare. Those who agreed with them were too discreet to talk much aloud. They preferred to be silent and to avail themselves of the opportunities which the reorganization of the Democratic party would afford, relying on their skill in political management to intensify party feeling and direct it to their advantage.

The chief promoters of this policy were men whose ambition

1 By how much better than my word I am,

By so much shall I falsify men's hopes.

-Henry IV., Part 1, I., ii., 234.