Clinton Prisoners in Charleston. Handcuffs and Capt. Mc's wrists. Reminiscences. Massachusetts and South Carolina. Tariff Question. Centennial Exposition. "Counting in" the President. Fort Moultrie's Centennial. "Bloody Shirt." Hamburg Horror. Ellenton Riots Chamberlain. First Democratic Conven- tlon Hampton's Campaign. Women of the State. Rice-field Strikes. Disbanding "Rifle Clubs." Hampton's Peace Policy....... 152 Hampton elected. Returning Board and Supreme Court. Judge Bend. State House garrisoned Legislature convenes Two Houses organized and sitting in one Hall. Starvation versus Stench. Hampton and Chamberlain both inaugurated Washington's Birthday. Hampton invited to visit the President. Senator Gordon comes to the rescue Troops withdrawn and South Carolina free. Legislature again convenes. Senate. House. Hamilton as an Exhorter. The Two "Investigating Committees." Speaker W. H. Wallace. Lieut.-Gov. A partial Digest of the "Reports of the Joint Investigating Com- mittee on Public Frauds, and the Election of John J. Patterson to the United States Senate, made to the General Assembly of South Caro- lina, at the Regular Session, 1877-'78; with occasional comments on A VOICE FROM SOUTH CAROLINA. 1874. CHAPTER FIRST. INTRODUCTORY. South Carolina can proudly point to a galaxy of historic names, who have illustrated her fame in every period of her past history. Through these her voice. has already been heard in tones which will reach the latest posterity. In the dark days of the Revolution, this voice could be heard in such clarion notes as her Moultries, her Sumters, and her Marions could utter, to electrify to new life her people, though overrun and all but conquered. In the formation of the government, it has been. heard, in no faltering accents, from her Pinckneys, her Laurenses, her Rutledges and her Heywardsequals among equals-statesmen, who were jealous. of her liberty so dearly purchased. These only consented to her association with her sister colonies, when they thought this liberty was hedged in by every safeguard which human wisdom could devise. It has been heard in the halls of State and Federal legislation, from the tongues of Calhoun, Hayne, McDuffie, Preston, and a long list of worthies, whose names will ever adorn the annals of the past. Giants in intellect, who could embellish profound and ennobling statesmanship and patriotism, with unsullied integrity, and the purity of the high-toned gentleman. But this potent voice has long been hushed, and her approaching "centennial year" will find her in habiliments of mourning-silent and sad. Most of her sisters who began the race with her, and very many of those younger ones, who are but of yesterday, and who owe so much to her sacrifice of blood and treasure, will then be rejoicing in their prosperity, and have already invited the whole world to witness their progress and their greatness. She, almost alone of the " Old Thirteen," will turn her face to the wall, and will feel no responsive throb to the rejoicings over this national jubilee. In one short century, she seems to have run her whole career of rise, progress, decline and fall. She has the same bright sky above her, as in her palmiest days; the same broad rivers flowing from her mountains to the seaboard; the same fertile soil and genial climate; but "'Tis Greece; but living Greece no more," yet, unlike ancient Greece, how short-lived has been her glory! Her most bitter enemies must admit that her, so-called, leaders have maintained a dignified silence since her fall. Even those who watch so assiduously to catch up and pervert every chance expression of Ex-President Davis, have found nothing to report from them. These gentlemen show that it is the part of true manhood to endure what is unavoidable, as well as to dare; and that fortitude is, in many respects, a higher virtue than bravery. This "Voice from South Carolina," comes from one of her humble sons, whose earnest desire is to cling but the closer to her side in the day of her humiliation. He feels irresistibly impelled to publish to the world that the grand old State, declared to be free, sovereign and independent, an hundred years. ago, is now deposed, gagged, and trampled in the dust. Her seat and name has been usurped by a brazen-faced strumpet, foisted upon her "high places" by the hands of strangers; her proud monuments of the past, all begrimed and vandalized; her sacred treasury thrown wide open to the insatiable rapacity of thieves and robbers; and her bright escutcheon blackened by every crime known to the decalogue. All these, too, have been the legitimate fruits of deliberate legislation on the part of her sister States, in Congress assembled; peopled, like herself, by the descendants of that glorious old Anglo-Saxon race, whose achievements on this continent have filled the world with amazement and admiration. Could our common ancestors ever have foreseen this? Can posterity ever account for the "madness of the hour," in States, having the same lineage, combining to drive one of their number from the folds of civilization into the dark despotism of African rule? And yet, South Carolina to-day presents the terrible pic |