The resolutions as reported from the committee were made the special order no less than four different times; but, strangely enough, on each occasion something else was found to be more pressing, and their consideration was never reached.

On the last day of the session, however, the Convention took up, and unanimously passed, the following resolution, which was introduced by Colonel Henry G. Simonton of Charleston:

"Resolved by the delegates of the people of South Carolina in Convention assembled, That we indorse the administration of President Johnson, that we cordially approve the mode of pacification proposed by him, and that we will co-operate with him in the wise measures he has inaugurated for securing the peace and prosperity of the whole Union.”

XI.

SUMMARY OF FOUR WEEKS' OBSERVATIONS.

CHESTER, September 27, 1865.

HE attitude of the people toward the general govern

THE

ment is, on the whole, pretty good. I am convinced that even in South Carolina there was a large body of men who never favored Rebellion. I do not make this assertion except after much inquiry and conversation. State pride, State pride, that is what ruined South Carolina. Men went into Rebellion, not of original choice, but because the State did. These men say now, said in the Convention to those who talked of conservatism in changes of the Constitution, "O yes, if you 'd had a little more conservatism five years ago, we should n't be where we are now."

It is already a question how the State got into Rebellion. "Disunion was born in the parishes," said an up-country

delegate. "The political leaders carried us out," said one merchant to me. "The Rebellion came from the people," urged a man who had been a colonel in the Rebel army. "We went out to save slavery," argued Delegate Orr. “We went out for State rights," responded Delegate Dunovant. "The woman tempted us, and we did eat," answered Delegate SumIt is a good sign that the people are found thus differing. "I begin to wonder, after all," said the mayor of one of the back cities, "if there was any real occasion for us to go to war." "You never 'll get us into another war till we know exactly what it is about," remarked a Columbia merchant in my hearing.

mer.

There has been a great deal said about the existence of a sullen spirit in the State. I have not discovered much of it. The famous Aldrich resolution was an expression in that direction; but in a body of one hundred and ten members, it found but four supporters, even in a viva voce vote. Aldrich afterward made a speech in the same vein as his resolution, and the galleries applauded him heartily; but when I saw it I could not help recalling that the same gallery had previously heartily applauded McGowan's indig nant speech against the resolution. The applause of a crowd of young loafers counts for very little, any way. I don't believe there are many Aldrich men in the State. Daily intercourse for over three weeks with all sorts of people and under very many different circumstances has failed to reveal them to me, if there are. The people have a prejudice against the Yankees, and they avow it without any hesitation. They are somewhat disposed to boast of their martyrdom. "The State is nothing now but a county of the United States," is a remark I have heard scores of times, as though there were pride even in recalling other days. The pride is perfectly harmless. They exult in their war record. " We believed we were right," they say, "and we fought for our belief with every possible energy." Remembering that the

State is a part of our nationality, shall we not, in other fashion though it be, also exult in the heroism of her people? They are poor enough, but there is no humiliation in their poverty. "Incurred as ours was, it is no blame and no disgrace, but rather a glory and a boast," passionately exclaimed Chancellor Inglis one day when some one impliedly said the State ought not to admit her poverty. However it may be with other States, South Carolina is conquered, and has great respect for the power of the North. Love is something which must grow as respect did. All these various sorts of pride abound, but any widespread sullenness or obstinacy in respect to the general government there is not, unless my observation is wholly at fault.

Something has also been said about the existence of a fawning, cringing spirit. On the steamer I met a fellow from Charleston who had been to Washington with a pitiful story, in order to get pay for property destroyed. One of the up-country Convention delegates went before General Ames, whose head-quarters are at Columbia, and indulged in some tear-shedding while he told his story and asked for favor. Old Governor Pickens, as I have before said, was nervously sensitive that nothing should be said or done that could possibly give offence to His Excellency the President, or His Excellency the Provisional Governor. These are exceptions, however. The people at large have not that spirit.

Some persons like to show why the Rebel defeat occurred. Delegate Youmans impliedly says Davis was obstinate in keeping men in power whom the people would not trust; an up-country merchant with whom I travelled thought the negroes were not used as they ought to have been; a Charleston cotton-factor assured me the officials starved the army; a Columbia lady was confident victory went with us because we had the old banner, which the South might just as well have claimed; while an Orangeburg miss of eighteen or twenty said the Yankees had been deceitful, and were able

1

to fight a great deal better than the South ever supposed they could. These diversions of why and wherefore are harmless enough; let persons indulge in them if they will. The fact remains, that almost every man, woman, and child will readily own that the South is whipped. "We did the best we could in war, and were beaten; now we are going to do the best we can in peace," is the conclusion.

"Is there anything of defiance among the people?" some one asks. "Who is so mad as to talk of further war?" asks Delegate Inglis. "Who is crazy enough to dream of resistance by any power on this continent to the will of the United States?" interrogates Delegate Orr. "If the youngest of you lives to my age even, you will not see another musket shouldered in the South against the Union," observes venerable Delegate Huger, with the weight of his eighty years bending him toward the grave. "Whose voice could raise a regiment, nay, a company, in the whole State for further resistance?" exclaims Delegate McGowan. "The conqueror has the right to make the terms, and we must submit," say dozens of men everywhere.

It is idle and foolish, more, it is false and cruel, to urge or argue that there is danger of further armed resistance to the authority of the government in South Carolina. The argument against the restoration of the State to political fellowship must rest on other grounds. It can rest on other bases without losing any of its strength, too.

I know there were a score of ex-Confederate officers in the Convention "Does n't that indicate a rebellious spirit?" may be queried. For my part, I wish every office in the State could be filled with ex-Confederate officers. It is the universal testimony of every officer of our own troops with whom I have conversed, from the commanding general down, as well as of every Northern man two months resident in the State, that the late Rebel soldiers are of better disposition toward the government, toward Northerners, toward progression, than any other class of citizens.

The delegates of the Convention have mostly united in asking Colonel James L. Orr to allow himself to be voted for as Governor. He replies that he does not desire the office, but will accept it if elected. That he will be elected I do not doubt. A few men are advising that Wade Hampton be also brought into the field. He has many warm personal friends, and is popular with the masses; but I think the people will not elect him, even if he is a candidate. Mr. Orr never was very heartily in the Rebellion. "We always rather distrusted him," said a prominent ex-Rebel to me yesterday. The merit of his election will not, however, lie in his former relation to the war, but in his present views of State and National policy. He is pre-eminently the leader of the progressives, and is of far more liberal and sensible views, I think, than Governor Perry. When, four days ago, one of the Convention delegates, who mourns for the olden days, expressed his pride in the great men and the general hospitality of the State, Mr. Orr retorted that she never had anything else to be proud of; and then burst out into a passionate eulogy of the many-sided life of the North, and a scathing criticism of the narrow, inert, centralizing policy of South Carolina, which I shall not soon forget. "I am tired of South Carolina as she was," said he; "I covet for her the material prosperity of New England. I would have her acres teem with life and vigor and industry and intelligence, as do those of Massachusetts."

The white man and the negro do not understand each other, and consequently do not work together so harmoniously as it is desirable that they should. It would seem that, one party having work to do and the other needing work, there would be such community of interest as leads to unity of purpose and action; but the fact is, that each party distrusts the other, and therefrom results bickering and antagonism.

That there are many kind-hearted planters

men who