fifty years, especially with reference to the terms the legislators
served, unless I had access to the records. I was a boy when our
family returned to South Carolina in 1870, two years after the
adjournment of the Constitutional Convention. At that period I was not
especially interested in the trend of affairs. I was thinking more of
the splendid opportunities I had left behind in Canada.

I think it very important that all of the data possible should be
collected pertaining to the Constitutional Convening as I regard it
the most important Convention ever held in which colored men
participated. I was very fortunate in finding a copy of the
Proceedings of the Convention in the Public Library in this city. I
have given only such names as I could positively identify as colored.
No doubt some names have been omitted but not of any who took an
active or important part in political affairs.

F. B. Perry, of Greenville, S.C., was appointed Provisional Governor
of South Carolina by President Johnson in 1865.

Pursuant to a call for a convention of the people issued by Governor
Perry in obedience to the proclamation of President Johnson for the
purpose of organizing a State Government, the Convention assembled at
Columbia, S.C., September 13, 1865.

To show the intense bitter feeling of Governor Perry the following is
from his proclamation:

"It is a source of congratulation to know that the colored troops,
whose atrocious conduct has disgraced the service and filled the
public mind with the most horrible apprehensions, have been withdrawn
from the interior of the State, and are to be placed in garrisons on
the coast where they can do no further mischief. In all of my personal
interviews with the President and in all of my dispatches to him I
urged this course most earnestly."

A Constitution was adopted by the Convention without being submitted
to the people for ratification.

The Constitution provided that only free white men were eligible for
membership in the Senate and House of Representatives; only free white
men were entitled to vote and that the appointment of members of the
House of Representatives among the several election districts of the
State should be in accordance with the number of white inhabitants in
each.

The Convention adjourned September 27, 1865.

Congress decided that it was no part of the prerogative of the
Executive to call conventions or to direct the adoption of
Constitutions.

J. L.