Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/203

 Vol. XII.

Richmond, Va., May, 1884.

No. 5.

The Last Chapter in the History of Reconstruction in South Carolina — Administration of D. H. Chamberlain.

By F. A. PoRCHER, President South Carolina Historical Society.

Paper No. 2.

Daniel H. Chamberlain is, I believe, a native of Massachusetts. In the triennial catalogue of Yale College, among the graduates in 1862, are the names of D. H. Chamberlain and W. H. Kempton, the notorious financial agent of the State. After the war was over Chamberlain was on John's Island, where he undertook to plant cotton. When the Reconstruction Convention was called by Satrap Canby, Chamberlain sat in that body, and when the State was re- constructed in pursuance of the new constitution he was elected to the post of Attorney-General, a post which he held until 1872. During the next two years he seems to have lived in private life in Columbia, attending to the bar, his profession.

If it were possible I would gladly insert a paper published in the Atlantic Monthly in February, 1877, for a minute and graphic view of the condition of South Carolina under the misrule of Scott and