ours, to the graves that it contains, and to the race of which you and we are alike members-the proud Caucasian race, whose sovereignty on earth God has ordained, and they themselves have illustrated on the most brilliant pages of the world's history. The subcommittee having appeared before the Reconstruction Committee, Colonel Thomas, as the spokesman for the occasion, presented an argument in support of the remonstrance. He said that upon anlyzing the propositions embodied in the proposed instrument there were two objectionable features that stood out in bold relief—unqualified negro suffrage and the taxing power. He argued to show their disastrous effects upon both races. The proposed Constitution established taxation without representation. Those who have no property were to tax those who have all the property. Under this Constitution $2,000,000 might be raised in the way of taxes, $1,000,000 of which was for educational purposes, and yet these advantages were to be enjoyed by the blacks alone, as white children would not attend black schools. The State heretofore, even in its most prosperous days, had not been able to bear a tax of more than $500,000 annually. Colonel Thomas, in conclusion, said that he deemed it his duty to state to the committee that while the whites were willing to concede to the negro all of the legal rights and a qualified suffrage, yet the white race would never acquiesce in negro rule. "You may make us pass under the yoke," he said, "and we shall have to do so; but by every means which God and Congress have left us under the Constitution and laws we shall resist this domination of an inferior race. By peaceful means, by political efforts, by industrial agencies, we will carry on this political contest until we regain the control which of right belongs to the power of mind and the influence of virtue. Nor can you have prosperity in the South under your Reconstruction scheme. But give the South a fair showing, restore the States to the Union on a just basis, and again will our people return with willing hearts to the Union, and the same energy, the same selfsacrifice, the same valor which they gave to the 'Lost Cause' will they give now to the Union, provided you meet them in a spirit of just magnanimity and concede to them the rights to which they deem themselves entitled." Subsequently there was submitted by the same committee "an appeal to the honorable the Senate of the United States, in behalf of the conservative people of South Carolina, against the adoption by Congress of the new Constitution proposed for South Carolina," in which the committee said: In spite of the respectful remonstrance submitted to the House of Representatives and the Senate we find that the former body have given to said instrument their approval. For the sake of all classes of our people, for considerations affecting the peace of society, in view of the substantial interests of the State, put in jeopardy by an organic law which may truthfully be characterized as a political abortion, the offspring of incapacity and prejudice and hate, we submit our case-the case of the conservatism of South Carolina-to the high court of last resort, the Senate of the country. Although South Carolina is struggling for bread, yet observe how, under the new Constitution, the burdens of taxation have been increased: Proposed now to be raised.. Before the war, amount about.. .$2,230,950 350,000 Proposed now to be levied on the real estate of the State.. 3 per ct. Before the war.. .. ..1⁄2 per ct. But when there is taken into consideration the depreciation of the value of property since the war the difference is far greater. For illustration, take the case of a piece of property in a town, before the war worth, say.. Levied on this, before the war 2 per cent.. But ..$10,000 The property value before the war at $10,000 has now a value of.. 50 300 ..$ 3,000 Before the war a tax of 1⁄2 per cent. levied on this would give cent. . . . 15 300 Thus taking into consideration the value of real estate the proportion stands as I to 20, or the taxation provided for in the new Constitution is absolutely twenty times as great as before the war. But in the case of land, which has depreciated more in value than city property, the proportion is even greater than the one established above. In fact it is now a common thing to find large tracts of land sold by the sheriff for less than the taxes resting thereon. The committee's estimate of the total amount required to run the new government for its first year included the following items: Educational system complete.. ..$ 994,000 Interest on State debt ($6,000,000) July, 1866, to July, Current expenses (Canby's tax).. Five per cent. for collection.. 1868.. ... Total amount of taxes... 445,000 71,950 720,000 .$2,230,950 By. Special Order No. 140, dated June 19, 1868, General Canby removed Mr. Theo. Starke, mayor of Columbia, and assigned to the duties of that office Brevet Col. F. L. Guenther, captain Fifth Artillery. By the same order Aldermen T. W. Radcliffe, W. P. Geiger, A. M. Huntt, John Fisher, W. T. Walter and A. R. Taylor were removed, and in their places were appointed Mr. W. K. Greenfield, Dr. F. W. Green, Dr. Thomas J. Rawls, C. M. Wilder (colored), Joseph Taylor (colored) and William Simonds (colored). Dr. Green declined. All the appointees were required to take the test oath. No reason was given for these changes-the act of the district commander seeming to have been done in the mere indulgence of the spirit of tyranny and with the purpose to humiliate those with whose feelings and interests he had no sympathy and who, he must have learnt, had little respect for his motives or character. The white appointees were all gentlemen in good repute in the community. By a later order, Mr. C. H. Baldwin, a business man of character and standing, was appointed mayor. On July 24, 1868, General Canby issued his General Order No. 145, whereby he declared that "all authority conferred upon and heretofore exercised by the commander of the second military district under the aforecited law of March 2, 1867 [being the first of the Reconstruction acts] is hereby remitted to the civil authorities constituted and organized in the States of North Carolina and South Carolina, under the Constitutions adopted by the people thereof, and approved by the Congress of the United States." Thus ended the rule of the military commander in South Carolina under Federal statutes, which subverted the lawful government of the State, which gave to that officer absolute power over every right of the citizen, which at every stage subordinated the civil authority to the military, which caused every mandate to be enforced at the point of the bayonet, and which, from first to last, constituted as brutish a tyranny as ever marked the course of any government whose agents and organs claimed it to be civilized. FEELING AMONG THE WHITES. The action of Congress in establishing the negro government in South Carolina was not in any sense a disappointment to the white people of the State; nor did it anywise cause them to abate anything of their resolution to assert their rights, their opposition to the new order of things and their feeling towards the men who had carried out here the wishes of the Radical majority in Congress. For the great mass of the negroes there was no feeling but kindness mixed with regret that they should have been made the instruments of wrongs against which the white people rebelled. The negro leaders as a rule very soon betraying their corrupt character and purposes, there was no tolerance for them. Of the carpetbaggers nothing had been expected but such things as might naturally proceed from unscrupulous adventurers. Towards the few native whites who had joined hands with negroes and aliens to place the State under black rule there was a feeling of bitter animosity. That feeling had an illustration in the preamble and resolutions adopted on or about April 9, 1868, by the Euphradian Society of the South Carolina University. This paper, after setting forth in the preamble the principles to which the society had always been devoted and its hearty deprecation of any act of any individual in disregard of the same, proceeded as follows: And whereas, in the eyes of the public generally, and more especially in the eyes of this society, Thomas J. Robertson and Franklin J. Moses, Jr., late regular members, have in all these respects lowered their dignity and station as true gentlemen of Carolina; and whereas, on this account the names of the said Thomas J. Robertson and Franklin J. Moses, Jr., are no longer an ornament to or a jewel in the honorary roll of this society, but, as it were, two black stains upon that otherwise unblemished roll as yet of brothers true and faithful to their vows; therefore Resolved, That Thomas J. Robertson and Frank. J. Moses, Jr., be now expelled from this society, and that the immunities of entering the hall during session, or participating in the exercises of the society, be now and ever hereafter denied them. Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to inform the said Thomas J. Robertson and Frank. J. Moses, Jr., of their expulsion. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the Columbia Phoenix and the Charleston Mercury for publication. The single ground upon which the young gentlemen of the Euphradian Society thus proceeded consisted in the active and uncompromising adherence of the obnoxious individuals to the Radical party of South Carolina. No charge was suggested against the personal character of either. Whatever the doubts felt as to the society's jurisdiction of the particular matters upon which it thus strongly and publicly declared its judgment, it is safe to say that in the then existing state of sentiment among the white people of South Carolina quite ninety-nine per cent. of these heartily shared the feeling to which the paper gave expression. At the same time it must be stated, in view of the course of events in the eight years of negro rule in the State, that it would be very unfair to put Robertson in the same class with Moses. Robertson was graduated from the college in 1843, and Moses was honorably dismissed from the freshman class in 1855. THE CAMPAIGN OF 'SIXTY-EIGHT. The enforcement of the new Constitution and the establishment of the State Government thereunder caused the white people to strengthen and extend the organization of the Democratic party, so as to enable it to make the best possible fight in the November election. There were considerable differences of opinion touching the wisdom of holding the April convention, and its authority to speak or act for the Democratic party was openly called in question. In response to an invitation extended by the Democratic citizens of Edgefield District a convention of the party was held in Columbia, on June 10, 1868, the following "districts" being represented: Barnwell, Berkeley, Charleston, Chesterfield, Darlington, Edgefield, Georgetown, Orangeburg, Sumter, Williamsburg. The following officers were elected: President-Charles H. Simonton, of Charleston. Vice-Presidents-John L. Manning, of Clarendon; Thomas W. Glover, of Orangeburg; Charles M. Furman, of Charleston; F. D. Richardson, of Berkeley; M. C. Butler, of Edgefield; E. W. Charles, of Darlington; Dr. Mark Reynolds, of Clarendon; Alexander McQueen, of Chesterfield; J. G. Pressley, of Williamsburg. Secretaries-A. A. Gilbert, of Sumter; Henry Sparnick, of Charleston. The convention adopted a resolution expressing doubts of the propriety of the taking of any part by the white people of South Carolina in the National Democratic Convention--this because they would have no effective voice in the election of presidential electors-and submitting the matter to the action of that convention; also a resolution in effect declaring for "a white man's govern |