epublicans. He took
an active part in politics, having been elected to the State Senate in
the fall of 1865. He ran for Congress from his district in 1874, but
was counted out, as it was believed, at the election. He was also
summoned to Columbia by Governor Hampton after his election in 1876,
and rendered important service in securing the peaceable outcome of
that most trying struggle. Upon the convening of the Legislature, he
was at once elected Judge of the Fifth Circuit, a position which he
held with distinguished honor for sixteen years, rendering it to Judge
Ernest Gary in June, 1893, on which occasion there was tendered him
a farewell probably unique in the judicial history of the State,
by eminent representatives of the Bar of his Circuit. With impaired
health, but with unwavering faith and carefulness that no adversity
diminished, he once more returned to the practice of his profession.
It was a gallant effort in the face of tremendous odds, but the
splendid health that he had enjoyed for many years had been undermined
slowly and insidiously by disease incident to a life that had ever
borne the burdens of others, and that had spent itself freely and
unselfishly for his country and his fellowman, and it was evident to
all that his days were numbered. Devoted friends, the names of many
of whom are unknown to me, offered him pecuniary help at this trying
juncture, and these the writer would wish to hold, as he would have
wished, "in everlasting remembrance." In his message to the General
Assembly that year, 1893, Governor B.R. Tillman proposed him as the
proper person to collect the records of the services of South
Carolina soldiers in the Civil War, and to prepare suitable historical
introduction to the volume. The Legislature promptly, and I believe
unanimously, endorsed the nomination and made an appropriation for
the work. To this he gave himself during the two succeeding mouths,
collecting data, and even preparing in part the proposed introduction.
But growing infirmities compelled him to lay it down, and in the
latter part of March, 1894, he became alarmingly ill. All was done for
his relief that the most competent skill and gentle care could do, but
to no avail, and in the night of April 12th, just before midnight, be
breathed his last. Among his last words to his son were these, spoken
when he was perfectly conscious of what was before him: "My son, I
have no doubts and no fears." On the occasion of his fun