came
the query whether every one at the town meeting could take part in
naming a candidate to be voted for. The advocates of Negro suffrage
claimed that the colored native citizens of South Carolina had a
better right to select the candidate to be voted for than any of the
white men present. It should be remembered that at this time the
Fifteenth amendment had not been adopted. The point was made on the
other side that only those who would have the right to vote for such a
candidate had the right to participate in the nomination. This
proposition was voted down, however, by a large majority, and H.G.
Judd, a philanthropist engaged in the work of educating the Negroes,
was nominated. Subsequently, however, another meeting was held by the
white settlers who had acquired a residence, and who were entitled
under the laws of South Carolina to vote, having resided there three
years, at which meeting I was nominated.

THIS ELECTION

occurred the next day, and I received 36 votes and H.G. Judd 8 votes.
There being no authorized managers of the election, the voters
assembled at the polls on the morning of the election and elected
three persons to act in that capacity. These persons made a
certificate that I had received the largest number of votes at the
election.

When the convention assembled in Columbia, I presented by credentials
and could have been sworn in without question if I had preferred to
make a statement to the convention that it might not act unadvisedly
of the circumstances of my election. I asked that the credentials be
referred to the committee on credentials. It was so ordered and I then
appeared before the committee and related the facts. After the hearing
a report was presented which stated that perhaps this was the only
case known to legislative history in which a man contested his own
seat, and that all the evidence for and against my right to the seat
was presented by myself. The committee reported unanimously in favor
of

SEATING ME

A long debate, however, ensued in the convention upon the question,
and it was finally decided only by the close vote of 53 to 50 that I
be seated. George D. Tillman, now a member of Congress from South
Carolina, made a very bitter speech against seating me. He thought the
insolence of this Yankee was beyond precedent in claiming to represent
the grand old parish of St. Helena, which had been represented in the
past by Middleton, Rhett, Bull and other distinguish