THE UNION REFORM PARTY.

505 the number of names of white voters on the lists should bear to the number of names of colored voters, as near as might be, the same proportion as the whole number of white voters bore to the whole number of colored voters in the township, city, or county, as the case might be. This arrangement assured the supremacy of the densest ignorance in the jury-box, in four-fifths of the state.

In February, 1870, a black man of Northern birth, J. J. Wright, was elected by the legislature to the office of chief justice of the supreme court. The next legislature, chosen in the fall, impeached Judge T. O. P. Vernon, of the circuit court, on charges of drunkenness, and of having issued and signed blank writs of habeas corpus, addressed to no one, and without designating the person to be brought before the court. He was allowed to escape the penalties annexed to these offenses by resigning. It seems to have been the rule to pardon criminals before the expiration of their terms of service in the penitentiary, in order to prevent their disfranchisement. This, however, was an exclusive privilege granted only to Republicans.

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During the spring of 1870, a new political organization was formed. It was styled the "Union Reform Party." It was composed chiefly of Democrats, with a few Republicans. A convention of this party met in June, at Charleston, and nominated candidates for state officers. Judge R. B. Carpenter, an ex-Confederate soldier, was selected as the candidate for governor; and Gen. Matthew C. Butler, an ex-Confederate officer, now United States Senator, for lieutenant-governor. But the new party was doomed to overwhelming defeat. Governor Scott was re-elected by a majority of 33,500 in a total vote of 136,000; and his colored colleague on the ticket, Ransier, was elected lieutenant-governor by a majority of 31,000. The Republican platform complimented Governor Scott upon his "wise, economical, and honest" administration of affairs. It insisted on a continuance of strict and close economy" in all departments of the government. The public debt had been augmented by two millions, it is true; and there was nothing to show for the expenditure except the sudden elevation of certain needy adventurers, and illiterate "field hands" from extreme poverty to affluence. There had also been a four-fold increase of This situation was heralded as a subject of public congratulation. The legislature, in 1871, made the novel attempt to raise means by authorizing the issue of "sterling bonds." Having exhausted their credit at home, they vainly attempted to entice the English capitalists, by issuing bonds especially adapted to that market, which promised to pay six per cent. interest. The amount authorized was £1,200,000, or nearly six millions of dollars. But the bait was not caught at. The scheme fell to the ground. The bonded debt now rose from $5,790,000 in 1868, to $9,528,ooo in September, 1871. Governor Scott, in an official statement made to the committee of Congress sent to investigate the condition of the "insur

taxes.

gent states," gave figures showing that the bonded debt, prior to the war, was $4,046,540.16; that the provisional government added $1,023,473.94, making $5,070,014.10; and that the amount of bonds issued by the Republicans, in their three years' administration, was $4,458,550. The public debt at the meeting of the legislature in November, 1872, was $15,851,000. The estimate of expenditures for 1873 was $2,054,000, in addition to $1,266,ooo for the deficiency of 1871. There were contingent liabilities also, amounting to $4,797,000, arising from the indorsement of the bonds of railroad companies.

Franklin J. Moses, Jr., was elected governor in 1872. As already stated in this chapter, he was a native of South Carolina. His administration was even more corrupt than that of any of his predecessors. His father, then chief justice of the state supreme court, was an honorable man. Governor Moses was criminally indicted while in office, but he escaped conviction on some technical point in respect to the jurisdiction to try a governor in the courts before his removal by impeachment. Since his retirement from executive cares, ex-Governor Moses' adventures and financial exploits in Northern cities have furnished the local reporters of police courts with not a few disgraceful items. Had it not been for the Southern men of this and the Swepson type- men of high social standing (and they were in every reconstructed state), the Northern adventurers would have been far less successful in their spoliations.

In 1874, the former attorney-general, Daniel H. Chamberlain, was elected governor. He was a native of Massachusetts, a distinguished soldier, and a gentleman of scholarly and executive ability. Like Governor Ames, of Mississippi, he had clean hands in financial matters; but he was no less in the toils of the spoil-hunters. Nothing short of their total dispersion could give honest administration under any executive. But the change from Moses to Chamberlain was a vast improvement in the dreary waste of congressional reconstruction. The new governor recommended a re-assessment of property. He thought the result would be a falling off in taxable valuation amounting to $30,000,000 to $40,000,000. The deficiency of revenue for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 1874, amounted to $472,619.54; and that for the preceding year was $540,328. The public indebtedness, Oct. 31, 1874, is stated at $17,017,651.23. But this statement is based on the repudiation of $5,965,000 of "conversion" bonds; and perhaps, also, on the proposed refunding of the debt contracted prior to March 1, 1870, two millions of which had already been exchanged for one million of new bonds.

The foregoing is a summary of the results of misgovernment in North and South Carolina. It is all that can be presented in this place. Since the world began, no parallel can be found to the unblushing knavery which a complete history of carpet-bag government in these states would exhibit. If the entire body of penitentiary convicts could be invested with supreme

INCOMPLETE RESTORATION.

507

power in a state, they could not present a more revolting mockery of all that is honorable and respectable in the conduct of human affairs. The knaves and their sympathizers, North and South, complain that the tax-payers, the men of character and intelligence in South Carolina and other states, finally overthrew, by unfair and by violent means, the reign of scoundrelism, enthroned by ignorance. If ever revolutionary methods were justifiable for the overthrow of tyranny and robbery, assuredly the carpet-bag domination in South Carolina called for it. Only scoundrels and hypocrites will pretend to deplore the result.

Nominally North and South Carolina were restored to their full Federal relations on June 25, 1868, — nearly eight years after they had so violently severed them. They passed under the rod, but were not yet through the defile. The act of Congress of that date imposed as conditions for rehabilitation: first, that the state constitution should never be amended so as to deprive any citizen or class of citizens of the right to vote who were then entitled to vote; second, that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States should be ratified; and third, that no person who would be ineligible to office under that amendment should be eligible for state office. The President vetoed the bill that made these conditions, but it was passed over the veto on the above date. The vote in the House was, yeas 108, nays 31. North Carolina ratified the amendment on July 4, 1868, and South Carolina five days after. This action included the required guarantees for the colored vote and exclusion from office, and established the right to full restoration in the Union, - but it was not until many years after, as the foregoing sketch shows, and subsequent chapters set forth, that this right was allowed free exercise. The Republican party did not concede it until the year 1877, of Electoral Count memory, and then only in part in local affairs.

CHAPTER XXIX.

RECONSTRUCTION IN THE THIRD MILITARY DISTRICT.

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GENERAL POPE IN COMMAND-REGISTRATION AND CONVENTION IN GEORGIA、 CONFLICT BETWEEN GOVERNOR JENKINS AND GENERAL POPE - RATIFICA TION OF THE CONSTITUTION GOVERNOR BULLOCK INAUGURATED – COL ORED MEMBERS EXPELLED FROM THE LEGISLATURE-MILITARY INVESTIGATION-THE EXPELLED RE-ADMITTED – THE AMENDMENTS RATIFIED -FINANCIAL CONDITION FLIGHT OF BULLOCK- -THE ELECTION LAW OF 1870- ALABAMA - REMOVAL OF MUNICIPAL OFFICERS REGISTRATION - MOB

IN MOBILE - THE CONVENTION - THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION OBNOXIOUS FAILURE OF RATIFICATION BY THE PEOPLE -STATE ADMITTED NOTWITHSTANDING - THE LEGISLATURE STATE INDEBTEDNESS FLORIDAREGISTRATION-CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION-DIVISION OF THE REPUBLICANS INTO TWO FACTIONS—UNITY RESTORED, AND A CONSTITUTION VOTED — A MILITARY OFFICER ACTS AS TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN OF THE CONVENTION - CHARACTER OF THE CONSTITUTION – ELECTION OF GOVERNOR REED -CHARGES OF FRAUD IN THE ELECTION-ADMISSION OF THE STATE INTO THE UNION-THE LEGISLATURE-PROPOSED IMPEACHMENT OF GOVERNOR REED - JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS — THE IMPEACHMENT ABANDONED — NEW IMPEACHMENT PROPOSED-BRIBERY, CORRUPTION, AND FRAUD CHARGED AGAINST THE GOVERNOR-VOTE AGAINST IMPEACHMENT - ACTS OF USURPATION-LEGISLATIVE LEGERDEMAIN — REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE "COUNTED IN" THE OSBORN RING A THIRD ATTEMPT AT IMPEACHMENT ALSO FAILS THE DEMOCRATS REGAIN CONTROL OF THE STATE-FINANCIAL CONDITION.

T has already been stated that Georgia, Alabama, and Florida formed the Third military district under the Reconstruction acts, and that Maj.-Gen. John Pope was assigned to the command of it. He announced from his headquarters at Montgomery, Alabama, on April 1st, that he had assumed the command of the district; and that the sub-districts of Georgia and Alabama would remain under the commanders then on duty. He further announced that the civil officers in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, if they administered justice impartially and faithfully, would, unless otherwise directed in special cases, be allowed to retain their offices until the expiration of their terms of service. He expressed the hope that no necessity would arise for the interposition of military authority in the civil administration.

GEORGIA UNDER MILITARY RULE.

509

Civil officers would be required to adhere strictly to their official duties, and to refrain from using any influence whatever tending to deter or dissuade others from uniting in the work of reconstruction. He announced, also, that no elections to fill vacant offices would be held pending the period of reconstruction; and that such vacancies would be filled under appointment by the commanding general. On April 8, 1867, the commanding general issued directions to the sub-district commanders of the three states for a registration of the voters. As these directions were necessarily conformable to the acts of Congress and similar to those set forth in preceding chapters, it is needless to recite them here.

The result of the registration in Georgia gave 192,235 names of persons entitled to vote for delegates to the constitutional convention: 96,262 were white, and 95,973 were colored. The vote for a convention was 102,282, and the vote against it was 4,127. As might be inferred, the largest part of the vote was cast by the colored men; probably few of them failed to exercise the privilege on that, their first opportunity. Only 36,500 of the votes were cast by the whites. Of the 166 delegates chosen on the same day, 133 were white, and thirty-three were colored. The convention met on the 9th of December, 1867, at Atlanta, and it remained in session until the 23d, without entering upon the work of framing a constitution. This time was spent in passing ordinances of a legislative character, and among them one for the stay of executions for the sale of property. The convention memorialized Congress for the repeal of the cotton tax, and on the 23d it adjourned until the Sth of January, 1868.

General Pope, who had been applied to by citizens to exercise his authority in stopping the sale of property under execution, gave an answer which does him great honor. It contrasts favorably with the high-handed course of other military commanders. He said: "I know of no conceivable circumstance that would induce me to interfere by military orders with the great business of the state, or with the relation of debtor or creditor under state laws, except perhaps in individual cases, where very manifest injustice had been done. The only military orders which I have issued, or intend to issue, in this district are such as I consider necessary to the execution of the Reconstruction acts."

Charles J. Jenkins, who was elected governor by the white people on President Johnson's plan of reconstruction, set himself in opposition to the Reconstruction acts of Congress. He endeavored to have their constitutionality tested by an appeal to the Supreme Court. This course was in conflict with the general order of the commander, which forbade all state officials to attempt to thwart the measures of Congress. The governor's attention was called to the subject by General Pope, who informed him in respectful and even regretful language, that it would be necessary for him either to conform to the order or to resign. The governor consented to conform. The next