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Rh to the Union. The inauguration of General Wade Hampton (1818-1902) as governor, and the final withdrawal of United States troops in 1877, marked the downfall of negro rule.

The political history of the state since 1877 presents some interesting features. Practically the entire white population is Democratic, partly for historical reasons and partly because of a feeling that union is necessary to maintain white supremacy. The old warfare between the Up Country and the Low Country has been renewed in a modified form in the conflict between Reformers and Conservatives. The triumph of the Reformers culminated in the founding of Clemson Agricultural College (1889), the establishment of the state dispensary system for the sale of intoxicating liquors (1893), the election of Benjamin R. Tillman (b. 1847) to the United States Senate (1894) over M. C. Butler (1836-1909), and the work of the constitutional convention of 1895.