as herein prescribed, the Attorney-General shall make the most effective prosecution possible against him on behalf of the State; and neither any solicitor nor the Attorney-General shall settle or enter a nol. pros. in any case arising under this act, except by the consent of the court.

This act (section 7) undertook to lay upon the person charged with any offense thereunder the burden of establishing his own innocence-a provision which, whilst glaringly unconstitutional, seems to have been without precedent in any legislation ever attempted in this country.

Occasional attempts were made to enforce this act in the courts, but it seems that no case resulted in the conviction of the offender. The negroes, as a class, were little affected, and the few who undertook to assert their social rights in the courts were so plainly actuated by the desire for notoriety or political advantage that they gained nothing by their performances. The law soon became a dead letter. It was repealed in 1889.

A COSTLY INVESTIGATION.

On March 26, 1869, the Legislature passed a resolution to appoint a joint committee "to thoroughly investigate the disordered state of affairs in the Third Congressional District, and the causes of the intimidation, outrages and murders perpetrated preceding and at the late general election, whereby it is stated that a fair and unbiased expression of the people's choice could not be and was not given; and of the existence of organizations inimical to the peace and wellbeing of the State."

The committee was composed of five Republicans and two Democrats. It commenced work ($6 a day) on May 3, 1869, and held its last examination on October 2 following-there being many days of intermission. Witnesses were examined in Newberry, Abbeville, Anderson and Edgefield, and the printed testimony covered 830 pages. The majority of the committee reported intimidation, oppression and Kuklux outrages to have prevailed all over the district, evidencing a "party thoroughly organized for the sole purpose of defeating the real object of the Reconstruction acts of the United States Congress." They charged that the killing of Lee Nance and of B. F. Randolph was each the result of a preconcerted plan of the Democrats. The work of this committee had no relation to the contest of Hoge against Reed, already noticed-the congressional committee having made its own independent inquiry. The cost of the

investigation here-for the pay of the members, the witnesses and the stenographer, printing and incidentals-was $68,000.

In February, 1871, the Senate appointed a special committee to "investigate the money transactions of the joint committee appointed to investigate the electoral affairs of the Third Congressional District." This senate committee, after taking testimony, reported that the sum of $7,500 appearing in the account of the joint committee to have been paid to "James Dunbar" had been "improperly and fraudulently drawn," and they recommended that legal proceedings be taken to recover the same. James A. Dunbar, a "carpetbag" lawyer living in Columbia, testified that he had been employed in a general way by Joseph Crews, chairman of the joint committee, but had received no pay whatever. Crews testified vaguely that he had employed James A. Dunbar, but declined to say whether the warrant drawn to the order of "Jas. Dunbar" was paid to him.

The prevailing opinion at the time of the exposure of this transaction was that Joseph Crews had pocketed the $7,500.

HE SOLD A CADETSHIP.

In the early part of 1870 a committee of the lower house of Congress found it necessary to investigate the alleged sale of West Point cadetships by members having appointments in their gift. As one result of this inquiry the Rev. B. F. Whittemore, representing the First Congressional District of South Carolina, was found guilty of having sold to a broker in New York, for the sum of $2,000 cash, the right to name a cadet from that district. Whittemore confessed that he had received money in connection with the appointment, but alleged that he had devoted the funds to "political and educational purposes." The house committee having reported that he had been guilty of conduct deserving of the penalty of expulsion, he sought to avoid the judgment of the body by vacating his seat. He sent his resignation to the Governor, who promptly answered with an acceptance. The House, however, refused to receive this paper, and, by a resolution unanimously adopted, expelled Whittemore— first declaring that he was guilty of "having dispensed an appointment to West Point and to the Naval Academy for valuable considerations, contrary to law," and further declaring that he was unworthy of his seat.

Whittemore affected to be both aggrieved and mortified, and he forthwith asserted that he should with confidence appeal to his constituents for vindication. The vindication came soon enough. In the special election held very shortly after the expulsion he was returned to Congress by a large majority. When his credentials were presented, Gen. John A. Logan, of Illinois, moved that admission to the House be refused-this on the ground that the member-elect was "a man of infamous character." The motion was adopted by a vote of 131 to 24. Whittemore's principal champion in the entire affair was Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts-in those days better known as "Beast Butler," a title which he had fairly earned by his conduct when in command over the city of New Orleans during the Civil War.

Whittemore bore a bad character before he came to South Carolina. It was publicly stated that he had swindled his associate in business (W. F. Shaw, of Boston,) out of about $5,000. He was a large man of good proportions, he had a striking face, to which his flowing beard added strength, and his voice was one of extraordinary power with no taint of harshness. Speaking as if he were in ordinary conversation, he made every word plainly and pleasantly heard all over the Senate chamber. His enunciation was clear and accurate and his accent almost wholly free from that peculiarity which in its lower forms Southern folks have been accustomed to call the "Yankee twang." Some of his power over his negro constituency was explained by the fact that he sang well at his religious meetings and that his addresses-whether religious or political or both-could be easily heard by the many hundreds of people who were listening. He was a minister of the Northern branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Whittemore's misconduct nowise impaired his standing among those whose votes he wanted. In the November election following his repudiation by the lower house of Congress he was elected to the State Senate from Darlington, and served in that body till 1877, when he left South Carolina to escape prosecution for some of the frauds in which as a Senator he had participated.

SOME FRUITS OF MISGOVERNMENT.

With the close of the legislative session of 1869-70 may be said to have ended the first two years of negro rule in South Carolina. In

that short period the consequences were seriously hurtful to every interest of the people without regard to race or color.

The State debt was increased from $5,407,306.27 to $14,833,349.17, and in December, 1870, the amount as given in the official reports was $18,575,033.91.

At the close of the year 1870 all the counties except Anderson and Fairfield were in debt-the aggregate of these liabilities exceeding $250,000. At that time also there were outstanding pay certificates of teachers in the public schools amounting to $57,320.40.

The average annual tax levy for some years before the Civil War had been less than $550,000-which, however, did not include the interest on the State debt, amounting to about $350,000 annually, which was paid out of the net earnings of the Bank of the State of South Carolina. The taxes, State and county, for the fiscal year ending October 31, 1869, amounted to $1,764,357.41.

The public school system was grossly inefficient throughout, by reason not only of the incapacity of school commissioners and their consequent inability to organize any proper system of education, but because of the lack of funds. For the two fiscal years commencing November 1, 1868, the aggregate appropriations amounted to $100,ooo and the revenues from the poll tax a little less than that sum-so that the average yearly fund was less than $100,000. Before the war the annual appropriation for free schools was $74,400, distributed among the several districts at the rate of $600 for each member to which the district was entitled in the House of Representatives. This fund went only to support free schools, to which none but the actually indigent could send their children—and, of course, no provision was made for the education of negro children. Under the Republican administration the public school system for the first two years at least was the merest pretense. Few schools were wholly free-the plan chiefly in vogue being the payment of money to a private school, thus reducing the tuition fees. The negro schools received considerable aid from churches or benevolent societies in the Northern States and thus managed to keep up a semblance of school work. The collection of the poll tax was so loosely conducted that only those who had some taxable property were required to pay. The negro population were thus almost wholly exempted from making the only contribution to the support of government to which under the Constitution and laws they were subject.

The land commission, to which the Legislature had allowed $700,000 for the purchase of "homes for the homeless, lands for the landless," had accomplished little but the acquisition of quantities of land, much of it at prices far beyond its real value, accompanied with many scandalous transactions. False entries in deeds of conveyance were made, so that the price paid for the property might appear more than the sum received by the seller. In one of these "deals" the land commission divided $90,000 as their profits. The doings of the commission were tainted throughout with fraud, and there were, besides, irregularities involving loss to the State.

The administration of the public business had been marked by reckless waste amounting to actual malfeasance. Members of the Legislature had sold their votes, and State officers had made money out of their positions at the expense of the taxpayers. The legislative and the executive department were tainted with corruption, and the entire administration was weak by reason of the incapacity of most of its agents. Among the white people the almost universal feeling towards the State Government was contempt for its weakness and disgust for its rottenness.

One cause of trouble-one obstacle to the due administration of the laws-was in the reckless use of the pardoning power. In his first year Governor Scott issued 332 pardons. For the first eighteen. months of his term (1874-76) Governor Chamberlain issued seventythree.

SCOTT'S CAMPAIGN PLANS.

The dissatisfaction among the white people was so plainly shown that it evidenced a purpose to make a fight to wrest the control of the government from the party in power and thus restore peace, order and the economical administration of public affairs. Governor Scott very soon disclosed his plans. In the early part of 1870 he made a speech in Washington, in which he pretended to depict the rebellious and bloodthirsty doings of the white people in South Carolina, and declared that the only law for those people was the Winchester rifle. Upon his return to the State he put his theory into practice by arming the negro militia and supplying them with an abundance of ball cartridges.

Of the evils and dangers of arming the negroes against the whites Governor Scott had had ample warnings.