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over into the hands of the negro." "The measure of our own necessities should be the measure of our recognition of the negro as an element in the body politic," echoed Mr. Thomson. "This is a white man's government," re-echoed Dr. Boyce.

Those to whom the Convention is accustomed to look for leadership were about equally divided on the question, and the discussion indicated that delegates were inclining to favor the proposition more and more with each hour's delay of the final vote. That was at length reached, and the amendment, much to the surprise of Rev. Dr. Boyce, failed by only seven majority; the votes standing-Yeas 52, Nays 59.

This was considered as settling the dispute; and, without amendment, the section was agreed to as it came from the committee.

The end had not, however, been reached. The Convention took a recess till this evening, during which the discussion among the eighty or ninety delegates at the hotel was kept up with even more intensity than on the floor of the church. Several were not satisfied with the vote they had given, and it was determined to return to the section. Accordingly, as soon as the Convention came together after the recess, a motion was made to recur thereto, which was carried-by Yeas 52, Nays 48.

Mr. Aldrich, chief of the fire-eaters, moved an amendment providing, in effect, that three fifths of the negroes shall be counted, with the whites, in fixing the population-representation of the lower house, the property-representation being also retained.

This proposition was debated two hours, and many of the younger and third-rate members committed themselves to it as a compromise between no-negro representation and fullnegro representation. The older heads then took the floor, and made a dead set against it on the ground that the principle of negro representation is either right or wrong, - if wrong, then this amendment should not be adopted even to

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benefit the low country, where the negro element will ultimately reside; and if right, then no compromise was admissible. Wherefore Mr. Aldrich was constrained to withdraw his amendment, to disembarrass the Convention.

Mr. Norwood, of Darlington, then moved a reconsideration of the vote by which Mr. Dozier's amendment had been rejected at the morning session. He said he was opposed to negro suffrage, but neither he nor his people were afraid of a discussion of the subject.

Judge Edward Frost, of Charleston, an aged gentleman of high standing, got the floor, and supported the motion to reconsider, making the only creditable speech of the whole debate. He said the chief error of the South had been that she was not favorably disposed toward discussion of questions affecting the welfare and relations of the negro; and he was very sorry to see such undue sensitiveness upon the subject in this debate. The events of the last four or five years have settled a great many things, and one of the things thus settled is that South Carolina is not omnipotent. It is effectually determined that we cannot have our own way in everything. We assumed that we knew all there was to know about the negro; and that where the world differed from us in opinion, it was wrong. Events would seem to indicate that we were wrong in at least some very important particulars. The world insisted that the negro is a man, and we have even been brought to that acknowledgment. The world now demands that we fix the political status of the negro; and we must consider the question, whether it does or does not please us so to do. The old relation of master and slave is abolished. What new relation shall be given to the negro? We cannot ignore him. We cannot give him suffrage, he is not fit to exercise it; but if the community in which he lives has a representation on his account, he will be in one sense represented. Gentlemen talk about his ignorance, and plead that as a bar to his

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admission into the body politic in any form. He is ignorant; I grant you that; but how came he so? Did he make himself ignorant? Did he ever have a chance to choose his station in life? Was it not an act of insubordination for him to ask instruction? We may as well admit it first as last, slavery made him what he is. Ignorance is the natural and inevitable result of our former system of labor. Let us do the negro justice: he is mainly what we of the ruling class made him. In one sense, we still stand in the relation of master to him, as the educated and intelligent are always the masters of the ignorant and feebleminded. It is our duty to consider his condition and help him to become a better man. Take away his ignorance, and you take away some of the burdens and some of the dangers of society. If no higher considerations will move us, let us consult our own material interests, and give him a fair chance. Treat him as a free man, as an element of prosperity in the State, and you soon make him such an element. We cannot any more maintain the opinion of South Carolina against the world. The negro has civil rights, as we all have; political rights he will be slow to ask for, I think, if we treat him fairly. His natural temperament is such that he shuns responsibility. Fully and freely concede his rights as a man, and he will be willing you should make his laws. I have not known him to ask for suffrage except when influenced by bad or designing men; but it is the part of wisdom for us to open our eyes and see where we stand. We must concede that the negro is a free man, having civil rights, having property rights, having the right to be represented in the body politic, and unquestionably destined at no very distant day to have political rights."

"Why, he's a Black Republican!" exclaimed a man who sat in the seat with me at the church, while Judge Frost spoke. "Well, he's the only one who has spoken," said I, in reply. "Yes, and d―n him, he's the only one here, I

reckon," continued my seat-mate. "You are sitting next to one!" I answered, with some asperity of tone, I'm afraid. "You?" “Yes.” I had the whole seat to myself soon after the close of the conversation.

The motion to reconsider was carried by a vote of 55 to 51; but, a little later, Chancellor Inglis rose and said, that reflection had convinced him it would not be wise at this time to admit the negro as an element in any form into the body politic, and he therefore moved to lay the pending. amendment — originally offered by Mr. Dozier upon the table. The nobodies followed the Chancellor's lead, and the amendment went to the table by 75 to 24.

Therefore the basis of representation in the lower house of the General Assembly stands as it always has since the original Constitution was adopted, white population and taxation.

I was not sorry to see the Dozier proposition finally killed. So far as granting any right to the negro, it was a sham and a cheat. In the mouths of one or two men it meant goodwill to him; but it would have proved worse than the apples of Sodom had it been ingrafted into the Constitution.

IX.

THE GREAT CONTEST BETWEEN THE UPPER AND LOWER SECTIONS OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

THE

COLUMBIA, September 23, 1865.

HERE has long been strife between the two sections of the State locally known as the "up-country" and the "low-country." Just how it originated, and by what jealousies it has been fed, probably no one could satisfactorily explain to an outsider. A dozen gentlemen have volunteered to elucidate the whole matter for me, and so

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long as I listened only to one side I thought I understood it; but, having heard both parties, I am convinced that no one really comprehends it. That there is ill-blood is patent enough. "I hate the saints of New England in reference to national affairs, and I hate the saints of the low-country in State affairs,” said one of the up-country men to me yesterday. "The low-country has overridden us long enough,” said one of the delegates, "and now we've drawn the sword, thrown away the scabbard, and are going to have a settlement." The hostility of the one section to the other five years ago was scarcely less than the State hostility to the general government; and the up-country now charges the low-country with having brought on the war. "Disunion was born in the parishes," is the public remark of one delegate.

The opening day of the session of this Convention found the political power of the State where it always had been, in the low-country. The second day's session made it apparent to everybody that the up-country had marshalled its forces for a struggle, and meant to depose the king and take the reins of government into its own hands. The end of this, the tenth day's session, sees this purpose accomplished,

sees the low-country at the feet of the strong and innovating up-country.

To show the successive phases of the conflict in the Convention whereby this result was gained is the purpose of this letter.

The origin of the parish system of representation in the upper house of the General Assembly dates with the formation of the original Constitution. Theoretically the senatorial representation was one from each district. Practically this was the case only in the upper and back portions of the State. The sea-coast districts were divided into parishes, and each parish was entitled to a senator, even if it contained no more than one hundred voters. Therefore, as

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