talents committed to his keeping by the Creator of all men. We do not fail to achieve success in life for the want of opportunities. These come to all men, and are just such as their abilities enable them to perceive, and their energies enable them to properly improve. It is indeed true that "there is a tide in the affairs of men," and it is also true that this tide must be taken at its flow. It will not take you forward or backward against your will or your wish, but you must take it. It will not rise to some height, where your vanity may have taken you to wait in listless apathy and dream away life in the seductive shades of inaction, where you have allowed yourself to become fixed above the highest water-mark of all opportunity, but it surely comes to "lead on to fortune" those who are willing and active in the judicious improvement of every occasion, however small, to meet its "flood." Such an one never fails to find an occasion, and is sure to meet with an opportunity. Mr. Memminger well understood this, and no one more fully appreciated than he did the value of time and the necessity for decision and prompt action. His remark to a gentleman with whom he was once conversing, that "one often lost more time in deciding what to do, than was required to do it in," is but an expression of his active nature.

In order that the reader may have a clear conception of the general condition of the country at the time that Mr. Memminger entered upon public life as a legislator, I will endeavor here to outline this, and measure, if possible, the "tide" that bore him and others on to fame and fortune.

The great McDuffie was then Governor of the State; he whose prescience was but the intuition of a great mind, and whose record remains with us to-day among the glories of the past a splendid chapter in the history of South Carolina-whose name and face, with that of the great Hayne, is carved upon our State House as the synonym of patriot

ism. Governor McDuffie's message to the legislatures of 1835 and 1836 so clearly state the condition of public affairs at that time, and the subjects that were brought to the consideration of the legislators are so distinctly set forth that I reproduce them in the Appendix to this work, and ask the reader's reference thereto. These State papers will not only grace this Memoir, but are deemed by the writer the best means of presenting a just conception of the momentous questions that for years after engaged the attention and invoked the thoughtful consideration of the best and wisest men of the entire country, and are yet forming, to a certain extent, subjects for discussion that excite in the minds of the patriot the gravest apprehensions.

The session of the House of Representatives in which Mr. Memminger first took his seat as a legislator was remarkable in that it brought to this Council Chamber of the State a number of young men who have since become distinguished in the history of this State, and whose names are familiar to thousands throughout the country.

MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, NOVEMBER, 1836.

St. Michael's and St. Philip's Parishes.-Kerr Boyce, Otis Mills, C. G. Memminger, Richard Yeadon, Jr., Joshua W. Toomer, John Phillips, Samuel P. Ripley, Charles Edmondson, Edward H. Edwards, R. W. Seymour, John C. Ker, George Gibbons, James L. Petigru, Wm. Cross, Edward Frost, John Huger.

Williamsburg.—Joseph Scott, W. J. Buford.

Lancaster-Wm. Reed, J. P. Crockett.

Horry.-John W. Durant.

Prince William.-J. B. Ellis, James S. McPherson.

St. James, Santee.-John A. Wigfall.

St. John's, Berkley.-Peter P. Palmer, F. A. Porcher.

All Saints.-Joseph Alston.

Laurens.-John H. Irby, Henry C. Young, Thomas F. Jones, John F.

Kern.

Marlborough.-C. W. Dudley.

Prince George, Winyaw.-John W. Coachman, T. P. Carr, A. H. Belin. St. Mathews.-Thomas J. Goodwin.

Fairfield.-David McDowell, David H. Means, John Buchanan, John

J. Myers.

lin.

Union.-Wm. M. Glenn, M. A. Moore, A. N. Thompson.

Marion.-Wm. W. Harllee, Samuel F. Gibson.

Richland.-B. F. Elmore, J. H. Adams, D. J. McCord, B. L. McLaugh

Pendleton.-F. W. Symmes, O. R. Broyles, John Maxwell, John Martin, Joseph T. Whitfield, Joel H. Berry, Bailey Barton.

Clarendon.-Wm. R. Burgess, James P. Richardson.
Claremont.-Isaac Lenoir, James W. English, R. R. Spann.

Lexington.-Henry Arther, Samuel Boozer.

Newberry.-John P. Neel, James Moffett, P. C. Caldwell.

York.-J. D. Witherspoon, Samuel Rainey, James Moore, A. Hardin. St. Luke's.-James A. Strobart, William F. Colcock.

St. Bartholomew's.—John D. Edwards, J. Murdough, Hugo Sheridan.
St. Andrew's.-W. T. Bull.

Barnwell.-John M. Allen, John B. Bowers, W. M. Duncan.
Kershaw.-John Murry, Lewis J. Patterson, M. M. Levy.

Abbeville.-David L. Wardlaw, James Fair, A. B. Arnold, James Gillam, Donald Douglass.

Chester.-John Douglass, William Woods, F. W. Davie.

Spartanburg. John Crawford, H. H. Thompson, A. Barry, John H. Hoey, S. N. Evins.

Edgefield.-John S. Jeter, James Tompkins, John Hunt, Tilman Watson, Abner Whatley, M. Laborde.

St. James, Goose Creek.-John Wilson.

St. Helena.-Thomas I. Fripp, A. M. Smith, Charles W. Capers.
St. Paul's.-Benjamin Perry.

Greenville.-Benjamin F. Perry, Spartan Goodlet, T. B. Brockman.
Orange.-W. D. V. S. Jamison, Elisha Tyler.

St. George's, Dorchester.-David Gavin.

St. Peter's.—W. G. Roberds, William W. Gavin.
Darlington.-George Huggins.

From among these representatives David L. Wardlaw, of Abbeville, subsequently, eminent in the history of the State as a jurist, was chosen "Speaker." There is no more important duty imposed upon the presiding officer of a legislative body than that of forming the committees, to whom are referred for special investigation and report such matters as may come before the body for consideration. In making these appointments he is supposed to be selecting from