Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/185

 Reconstruction in South Carolina. 175

so large a portion of the citizens were disfranchised, the white people would register, but not vote. For a long time the poll-returns which were published made it likely that less than half of the registered names had voted, and that the call of the convention would be a failure; but the governing power was determined that their designs should not be thwarted, even by means provided by their own orders. A striking illustration was shown in the case of the adoption of the constitution of Alabama. The Congress resolved that it had been adopted, when it had been notoriously rejected. General Can- by's act was by no means so glaring, but it was highly suspicious. After publishing the state of the polls for some time, by which it ap- peared that the convention had not been called, he ceased the con- tinuance of the publication as unnecessary, and proclaimed that a majority of registered voters had ordered a convention, and published the names of the members-elect.

The convention assembled in 1868. In it were many members who afterwards attained a bad distinction, but did not at that time or on that occasion make themselves flagrantly conspicuous. They made the constitution for which they were assembled. It is a griev- ous fallacy to judge of a people or of a State by the constitutions or laws under which they live. The constitution adopted by that con- vention has never been changed ; under it we had six years of a saturnalia, of lawlessness and disorder ; under the same constitution we have enjoyed the blessings of peace and prosperity ; so completely does the well-being of a State depend upon the character of the peo- ple who rule opinion. From 1868 to 1876 South Carolina was denounced even by Radical newspapers at the North as a disgrace to civilization ; from 1876 it ventures to stand among the front in the march of refinement and civilization ; but in both periods the instru- ment of government was the same — the instrument devised by the agents appointed by a vindictive Congress to break down the manli- ness of those whom it stigmatized as rebels.

After the convention had done its work an election was held for a Governor, which resulted in the election of Governor W. K. Scott, and General Canby displaced Governor Orr and put Governor Scott in the gubernatorial chair.

Governor Scott was first known to the people of this State as the head of the Freedman's Bureau. He did nothing to make him par- ticularly obnoxious to the people. He had made a declaration of his opinions some time before, which his subsequent conduct as Gov- ernor proved to be his real views. In that speech, delivered in