Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER III.

SCOTT'S FIRST TERM.

Pursuant to the call of Governor Scott and the order of General Canby, the General Assembly met in Columbia on July 6, 1868. The Senate was composed as follows:

Abbeville-Valentine Young, white. (Mr. Young was a Baptist clergyman, a gentleman of character and standing, who was elected against his wish and who, declining to serve, never qualified. James S. Cothran, Democrat, was afterwards elected in his place, defeating L. P. Guffin, white Republican, but the Senate declared the election void.)

*Anderson-John H. Reid, white.

Barnwell-C. P. Leslie, white.

Beaufort-J. J. Wright, colored.

Charleston-D. T. Corbin, white, R. H. Cain, colored.

Chester-Lewis Wimbush, colored.

Chesterfield-R. J. Donaldson, white.

Clarendon-E. E. Dickson, white.

Colleton-William R. Hoyt, colored.

Darlington-B. F. Whittemore, white.

Edgefield-Frank Arnim, white.

Fairfield-James M. Rutland, white.
Georgetown-Joseph H. Rainey, colored.
Greenville-James M. Allen, white.
*Horry-H. Buck, white.

[blocks in formation]

Orangeburg-B. F. Randolph, colored, succeeded by Joseph A. Greene, colored.

*Pickens-T. A. Rodgers, white.

Richland-W. B. Nash, colored.
*Spartanburg-Joel Foster, white.
Sumter T. J. Coghlan, white.
Union-H. W. Duncan, colored.
Williamsburg-S. A. Swails, colored.

York-William E. Rose, white.

The number of white senators elected was twenty-one, and of colored, ten.

The counties marked * were Democratic.

The roll of the House of Representatives was as follows: Abbeville-George Dusenberry, T. B. Milford, James Martin, white; R. M. Valentine, W. J. Lomax, colored.

*Anderson-John B. Moore, B. Frank Sloan, John Wilson, all

white.

Barnwell-B. F. Berry, W. J. Mixson, white; C. D. Hayne, James N. Hayne, Julius Mayer, R. B. Elliott, colored.

Beaufort-C. J. Stolbrand, Charles S. Kuh, white; W. J. Whipper, P. E. Ezekiel, Robert Smalls, G. A. Bennett, W. C. Morrison, colored.

Charleston-Reuben Tomlinson, Joseph H. Jenks, John B. Dennis, F. J. Moses, Jr., B. F. Jackson, white; R. C. DeLarge, A. J. Ransier, W. H. W. Gray, B. A. Bosemon, George Lee, William McKinlay, W. J. Brodie, John B. Wright, William R. Jervay, Abraham Smith, Samuel Johnson, Stephen Brown, Edward Mickey, colored.

Chester-Barney Humphries, Sancho Sanders, Barney Burton,

colored.

Chesterfield-H. L. Shrewsberry, D. I. J. Johnson, colored.
Clarendon-William Nelson, Powell Smyth, colored.

Colleton-George F. McIntyre, white; W. R. Hoyt, W. M. Thomas, Wm. Driffle, colored.

Darlington-G. Holliman, white; Jordan Lang, John Boston, Alfred Rush, colored.

Edgefield-T. Root, white; David Harris, Samuel J. Lee, John Wooley, Prince R. Rivers, John Gardner, Lawrence Cain, colored. Fairfield-L. W. Duvall, white; Henry Jacob, Henry Johnson,

colored.

Georgetown-Henry W. Webb, white; F. F. Miller, W. H. Jones,

colored.

Greenville-Samuel Tinsley, John B. Hyde, white; Wilson Cook, W. A. Bishop, colored.

*Horry-Zadock Bullock, W. W. Waller, white.

Kershaw-S. G. W. Dill, white; John A. Chestnut, J. W. Nash,

colored.

*Lancaster-T. Frank Clyburn, W. G. Stewart, white.

Laurens-Joseph Crews, white; Griffin Johnson, Wade Perrin, Harry McDaniels, colored.

Lexington-G. A. Lewie, white; H. W. Purvis, colored.

Marlboro T. B. Stubbs, white; John G. Grant, colored.

Marion-W. S. Collins, white; Evan Hayes, B. A. Thompson,

colored.

Newberry-Joseph Boston, James Hutson, James Henderson, col

ored.

*Oconee-O. M. Doyle, W. C. Keith, white.

Orangeburg-W. J. McKinlay, T. K. Sasportas, F. DeMars, E. J. Cain, James P. Mays, colored.

*Pickens-W. T. Field, white.

Richland-S. B. Thompson, William Simmons, C. M. Wilder, Aesop Goodson; colored.

*Spartanburg-Samuel Littlejohn, Robert M. Smith. Javan Bryant, C. C. Turner, white.

Sumter-John H. Feriter, white; W. E. Johnson, James Smiley, Burrell James, colored.

Union-Samuel Nuckles, June Mobley, Simon Farr, colored. Williamsburg-C. H. Pettingill, white; R. F. Scott, Jeff Pendergrass, colored.

York-P. J. O'Connell, John L. Neagle, white; J. H. White, John W. Mead, colored.

*

The number of white representatives was forty-six, and of colored seventy-eight. The counties marked were Democratic. On joint ballot there were sixty-seven whites and eighty-eight colored-135 Republicans and twenty Democrats.

The amount of taxes paid by the entire Legislature was $635.23, of which the twenty Democrats paid $203.84. The average tax of the Republican members was therefore $3.12; and of those members ninety-one paid no tax whatever. The senators and representatives from Charleston-twenty in all-paid a tax of $84.35, of which all

but one dollar (paid by F. J. Moses, Jr.) was paid by William McKinlay, a colored man.

The Senate organized by the election of D. T. Corbin, president pro tem., and Josephus Woodruff, clerk. There were also a reading clerk and a sergeant-at-arms, together with a full corps of attaches, pages, etc.

The usual messages were sent to "Governor" Scott, and "Provisional Governor" Orr was informed that the Senate was ready to receive any communication which he might be pleased to make. Similar action was taken by the House.

The House organized by the election of F. J. Moses, Jr., speaker; and A. O. Jones (a Northern mulatto, who had come to Charleston) clerk. A full corps of attaches was provided.

There was something of a contest for the speakership between Moses and Elliott. The latter was nominated by Whipper, who took the ground that a colored man should be chosen as speaker of the first House organized under a "free government" in South Carolina. Moses won by a decisive majority.

The Governor-elect was inaugurated on July 9, 1868, and the new Lieutenant-Governor was sworn in on that day.

J. W. Denny, white Republican, was elected "printer to the State," though the figures of his bid were manifestly higher than those of Julian A. Selby, the proprietor of the Columbia Phoenix.

Both houses promptly ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution—the Democratic members all voting in the negative. In the Senate, Cain, of Charleston, offered the following resolution, which, on the motion of Wright, of Beaufort, was tabled:

Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed, to inquire and report whether the senators who voted in the negative on the ratification of the amendment to the United States Constitution have or have not violated their oaths and committed perjury; and if so, to recommend what course should be adopted by the house to vindicate the purity of its organization.

"Daddy" Cain was a Northern negro preacher who got that soubriquet by his efforts to mimic the ways of the old-time Southern negro. For some time he edited in Charleston his paper, called the Missionary Record, the columns of which often contained matter of a most incendiary character-appeals to the passions of the negroes, coupled with outrageous abuse of the white people. For

some of the bloodshed in this State during the Reconstruction period "Daddy" Cain and his Missionary Record were in part responsible. Though sometimes denouncing the corrupt practices of his party, his actual affiliation was generally with the thieves. He stumped the State in advocacy of the election of Frank Moses for Governor. The case of Cain is thus referred to in order to point out the influence, in some degree, once exerted by the African Methodist Episcopal Church on the side of dishonesty and discord in South Carolina. Cain's performance in the Senate was not imitated in the House.

ELECTIONS IN JOINT ASSEMBLY.

Much interest among the Republican members centered in the election of the two Senators of the United States. The most prominent candidates were Dr. A. G. Mackey, lately the president of the Constitutional Convention; Mansfield French, a Northern man who had been for some time connected with the Freedmen's Bureau; Frederick A. Sawyer, of Charleston; and Thomas J. Robertson, of Columbia.

Robertson ran for the short term (two years) and was easily elected on the first ballot-the vote standing: Robertson, 130; B. F. Perry, 19; Mackey, 1; Sawyer, 1. The term for which Robertson was chosen was stated in the proceedings to be the term commencing March 4, 1865, and ending March 4, 1871. For the period between March 4, 1865, and the date of election, Robertson and some other Senators elected by the different negro Legislatures were, by an act of Congress, passed in 1862, declared entitled to pay as if they had actually served from the beginning of the term. For this imaginary service in the case of Robertson the allowance was something over $20,000. Mr. F. A. Sawyer, mentioned below, was of course included among the beneficiaries of the provision stated.

For the term commencing March 4, 1867, and ending March 3, 1873, the contest was much harder. There were eight ballots, and on the last the vote stood as follows: F. A. Sawyer, 76; A. G. Mackey, 68; James B. Campbell, 5. On the previous ballots Mr. Campbell had received a vote ranging from 13 to 15, and Mr. Mansfield French a vote ranging from 1 to 28. Ex-Governor Perry received one vote on the first ballot.

Thomas J. Robertson, as already stated, was a graduate of the South Carolina College, in the class of 1843. He was engaged in

« AnteriorContinuar »