Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 12.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

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[312] before denounced as one, a reconciliation with whom he would consider as worse than a defeat. Patterson's speech saved him; but is an ebulition of his contempt for the Governor. It is so curious and characteristic, that I shall insert it as a part of the history of the times. The ball seemed to be opened by Whittemore, who had been guilty of peddling in appointments at West Point, and had resigned his seat in Congress to avoid expulsion. He opposed Chamberlain because he was too thick with the Democrats. He wished there was no such thing as color in the State. In other words, he wished he was a negro. He was glad of the straighout Democratic ticket because it would shut them straight out of their hopes in November. Ever since he was inaugurated Chamberlain had been plowing with Democratic heifers, and holding the Republican party up to scorn. He could not countenance for a moment a man who would rise above party and not be governed by the men who put him in office. He would support T. C. Dunn for Governor. His life had been threatened, but he thanked God that if there are Democrats in South Carolina, there is also a God in Israel.

I have given this speech merely as a specimen of the drift of thought of those philanthropists who came from New England to enlighten the ignorance and tame the barbarity of the unhappy Southern people. The speech of Patterson decided the question. He spoke by authority; he was the organ of President Grant. In all matters relating to South Carolina, President Grant surrendered himself completely to the dictation of John J. Patterson. This disreputable adventurer had been elected to the United States Senate by bribery so palpable, and so shame-faced, that even the Republican party was compelled to prosecute him for it. He was saved by one of those blunders which the party was always making. The day before that fixed for his trial the Attorney-General whose duty it was to prosecute, but who intended to save him, called up a petty and insignificant case. In the preliminary conversation which ensued, the question of the legality of the jury was discussed, and it appeared that through some informality, some neglect, possibly, of the jury commissioner, the whole jury of Richland county was illegal, their indictments void, and Patterson was free.

He had been a noted Pennsylvania swindler before he came to South Carolina, and a fugitive who had been more than once in the hands of justice. It has been well observed by the Nation newspaper that one of the shameful incidents of this Presidential struggle was the calm with which good Republicans watched this wretched