Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/214

 204 Southern Historical Society Papers.

but for a pretended zeal for reform, when in fact all the enormities of Scott's administration had been perpetrated with his knowledge and consent, as he was at that time not only Attorney Gen- eral but a member of the advisory boards connected with all those monstrous frauds. He also exposed other tricks of the reforming (iovernor. To this crushing speech Chamberlain made a reply, which, if not triumphant, gave him for the time a triumph. It was received with cheers, and he was afterwards elected to the first place on the delegation, but he could not get a vote approving of his ad- ministration.

In Mav the Democratic party met to send delegates to the Na- tional Convention to be held at St. Louis. The feeling in this body was very much divided. A large portion, having no confidence in Chamberlain, urged the propriety of proceeding at once to adopt an exclusively Democratic policy and to abandon all temporizing. But more prudent counsels prevailed, and it was determined to watch the current of events before committing themselves to any policy.

Indeed, it was no easy problem for the people to solve. For eight years the State had been governed as a conquered territory. Free suffrage existed, but only to give a color of legality to the acts of those strangers who were preying on her vitals, and had made her a disgrace to civilization. No Carolinian, except such as Moses, had a voice or a hand in any matter that concerned her interests. Her finances were in the hands of people that she knew not. Matters of the utmost moment were settled for her by men whom she knew not, or knew only as loathesome objects. Her prospects were growing worse every year. In 1870, in the hope of obtaining some relief from the evils that pressed upon her, she had put forward a promi- nent Radical to be her candidate for Governor, and in the hope of success, had made every concession that a spirited people could make to w^in over the blacks to their side. Their overtures were re- jected with contempt, and Chamberlain himself was loudest in denouncing the reformation which was aimed at. In 1874, availing themselves of a split in the Republican party, they rallied to the aid of that faction which seemed less steeped in corruption and gave their vote to Judge Greener against Chamberlain. But the man they had opposed seemed determined to make a reality of the promise of reform which had, as a matter of course, been brought forward as their platform, and they gave the Governor the aid of a steady, consistent and sometimes even unnecessary support ; and though he was far from being a Democrat, though many of his acts