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 Reconstruction in South Carolina. 203

the character of Whipper's speech against Chamberlain when we are told that when the subject came up for discussion, the few ladies (?) who were in the galleries were turned out, and the door- keeper instructed to give admittance to none during the discussion. How self-respecting ladies could condescend to give their presence at the meetings of this motley assembly, I cannot understand, but the speeches must have been filthy in the extreme when such an as- semblage thought it expedient to exclude the weaker and more delicate sex.

In April of this year a Convention of the Republicans was held to appoint delegates to the National Convention, to meet in Cincin- nati, for the purpose of nominating their candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States. Chamberlain's popularity was waning with his own party, and it was understood that elections of this Convention were to be a test of his power. He and Patter- son were the prominent candidates to represent the State at large, and both factions were arranging their forces to meet the crisis. Senator Morton had denounced Chamberlain for courting the Dem- ocrats. He felt that his position was insecure and that he needed all the aid he could get. He wrote accordingly to President Grant, to define and defend his position in the matter of the judges, avow- ing his great ambition to give the vote of South Carolina for a Re- publican President at the next election, and praying for the moral aid of the government to protect him against his enemies, the extreme radicals. As the leader of the Republican party he naturally ex- pected the first place on the delegation. But his claim was opposed by a host of discontented Radicals. Patterson, Elliott, Leslie, Whitte- more. Bowen, all the leaders of the party, were against him. The only supporters he had were Cardozo and the eccentric Judge Mackey. The latter did not hesitate to denounce Elliott and others and all who had voted for Whipper and Moses as a band of thieves and robbers who had plundered the State. When we reflect that nearly a hundred of these men were present in the convention the audacity of this denunciation was at least remarkable. But one of the most remarkable things in Carolina Radicals is the meekness and Chris- tian-like spirit with which they receive abuse. As a test of the feel- ing of the convention, Scrails, a negro Senator from Williamsburg, and not Chamberlain, was elected to preside, and the Governor was compelled to listen to speeches in which he was denounced in no measured terms for deserting the party and courting the Democrats. Judge Carpenter denounced him not only for deserting the party,