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

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[313] criminal figuring at Washington as the adviser of the President as to his policy towards the contending parties in South Carolina. In fact the paper adds: ‘We can recall nothing more discreditable in political history than the determination with which the Republican party kept up its alliance with these jail-birds and relied on them as an instrument of government years after they were either notorious or objects of strong suspicion. Numbers of worthy men in the party seemed to have worked themselves into a state of readiness to suspend the laws of morality in order to carry out one particular experiment in protection of the negro, and to have supposed that they were in some measure benefitting him by leading him to believe, on the very threshold of his new life, that in the opinion of good men of the North, ignorance, obscurity, and disrepute are no disqualification for office in a Christian State, and that there was far deeper guilt in fighting on the wrong side in a just civil war than in committing theft, forgery and embezzlement.’

With this introduction we may understand the better the speech of Patterson before the convention.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention.

This is, as I understand, a convention of the representative people of South Carolina. I am happy to be with you, and I greet you, my friends, as Republicans. It has been said in some places that the Republican convention in South Carolina would not meet, but, thank God, you are here, and in your countenances I see a determination to do your duty. Let every man in South Carolinia, rich and poor, white and black, rise up in recognition of the great importance of the hour. You have rights that men are bound to respect. No armed force under heaven dare attempt to take these from you. Carry the determination to your homes to demand that your rights be respected, and you will prove that you are not only Republicans, but American citizens, and you can't prove it any other way. The Republican party is on trial, and you must assert yourselves like men, and repel the base attempt to intimidate and coerce you. I tell you I know a thing or two, that the great arm of the North will stand by you, and be here to protect you and see that you are not deprived of your rights by Democratic arms. You have the great principle of universal freedom in your hands. See that every one of you discharges his whole duty. You have a right to your choice, and no man, nor set of men, has a right to dispute it with you by armed force.