Page 366Instead of N. B. Myers being the elector for the fifth district I think it was his brother, Senator William F. Myers.
As N. B. Myers went over to the Hampton House it is not probable that he would stultify himself by voting for Hayes and acknowledging Hampton as Governor.
Page 462Gen. Elliott did not become a department clerk in Washington. He moved to New Orleans where he practised law several years before his death.
All the Republican politicians who remained in South Carolina did not sink into actual obscurity or harmless inactivity after 1876.
Mr. Wilder was postmaster at Columbia until June 30, 1885.
Gen. Smalls represented the State in Congress for several terms after 1876, and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1895. Was also Collector of Port of Beaufort.
Thomas E. Miller was also a delegate to the same convention and served a term in Congress, and was a member of the S. C. House of Representatives.
W. J. Whipper was a member of the legislature. Probate judge of the county for ten years and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1895.
John Lee was postmaster at Chester for several years.
Mr Rainey was a special agent of the Treasury Department with headquarters in South Carolina.
H. L. Shrewsbury and W. F. Myers were in the Revenue Service and active in politics as was A. W. Curtis.
There were others but I cannot recall their names.
Referring to the data mailed to you I desire to make the following corrections:
Page 2J. H. Rainey was not a member of the House of Representatives but Senator from Georgetown.
Page 6Relative to Judge Lee I desire to state that I am in error as to his case being the first where a colored man was elected to a municipal judgeship. Macon B. Allen was elected by the legislature as judge of the Inferior Court of Charlestown prior to Lee's election or appointment. Therefore Judge Allen should be given the honor.
Of course J. J. Wright who was elected an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State by the legislature was the first Negro in this country who ever occupied a judicial position.
Page 7Henry W. Purvis was elected Adjutant General for the four year term 1872-1876. Member of Legislature 1868-1870.
Page 10W. J. McKinlay was also a member of the House of Representatives for part of 1868-69 period but resigned his seat to accept the position of Register of Mesne Conveyanes for Charlestown, to which the legislature elected him.
Page 11W. H. Jones, should be W H. Jones, Jr.
John Williams was Sergeant-at-Arms from 1870 to close of period.
As there were no free public schools for colored youth in South Carolina it is an error to state that Thomas E. Miller was educated in that way. It was against the law for anyone to teach a Negro even to read or write.
I am also told that I am in error as to giving him credit for the establishment of the " State College" at Orangeburg. I will try to find out something about that matter.
Very respectfully,H. A. WallaceSome Corrections for Data Submitted by Mr. H. A. Wallace of New York City103 West 131 St., New York City. March 11, 1918.Mr. Monroe N. Work,
Editor Negro Year Book,
Tuskegee Institute, Ala.
Dear Sir:
I presume you received my letter of February 18, also the one of January 19, relative to corrections in the data on Reconstruction.
I herewith send you a few more before you go to press on your book pertaining to the part the Negro played in the political history of the Southern States during the Reconstruction period:
I am in error as to James Martin, of Abbeville, who was assassinated, as being colored. I was informed that he was colored, but in reading the eulogies delivered by the different members of the House and Senate, I find that he was not even an American. He was a native of Ireland.
W. A. Bishop, who represented the Greenville district in the first legislature, was white, not colored. In the list of delegates to the Republican meeting at Charlestown, May 9, 1867, he is given as white in Reynolds' book. I met a friend from Greenville about ten days ago and in speaking to him about Bishop he said that he was white and that he knew of no colored Bishops in that district.
On page 9 of my data I state that Mr. Whipper was born in South Carolina. I met his son, who is living here, sometime ago and he informed me that his father was born in Pennsylvania.
With reference to Judge Whipper I would add that one of the first acts of the first legislature was to elect a commission of three members to revise and consolidate the Statute laws of the State and that he was the first member elected. Quite a tribute to his legal ability.
On page 12 add the following names as from the North.
Rev. B. F. RandolphSenatorOrangeburg district.
W. J. WhipperMemberBeaufort district.
Judge J. J. WrightBeaufort districtafterwards Associate Judge Supreme Court, and on page 8, under his name please stateborn in Pennsylvania.
On page 107 Reynolds' bookAbbeville Co.W. J. Lomax, should be Hutson J. Lomax, this is official. On page 59 and 77 he has it H. J. which is correct.
Same pageFairfieldHenry Jacob, should be JacobsHe was also a delegate to the Constitutional ConventionSee page 77.
Very Respectfully,(Signed) H. A. WallaceCopy.
Sumner and Stevens advise with Reference to Reconstruction Policy in South CarolinaThe late Honorable Francis L. Cardoza at one time Secretary of State for South Carolina, several years before his death stated to the undersigned the following in substance:
That a number of colored men met and appointed a committee which was sent to Washington to get the advice of Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens concerning the formation of the political organization for the newly enfranchised Negro citizen shortly after the adoption of the 14th Amendment.
Pains were taken to keep the plans from both the native whites and the so-called carpet baggers from the North. That both Mr. Sumner and Mr. Stevens advised the committee to tender the leadership to native whites of the former master class of conservative views: but this plan was frustrated because they were not able to secure the consent of desired representatives of the former master class to assume the proffered leadership.
(Signed) Kelly Miller(Signed) Whitefield McKinlayWashington, D. C., December 14, 1917.Subscribed to and sworn before me, Samuel E. Lacy a Notary Public in and for the District of Columbia, this Fourteenth (14th) Day of December 1917.
(Signed) Samuel E. Lacy,Notary Public, D. C.Some Negro Members of Reconstruction LegislaturesTexasJ. H. Stewart who now lives in Austin.
Edward Patton, San Jacinto County, now living in Washington is in Government service.
Nathan H. Haller, Brazoria County. House, 1892-94. Reelected and counted out. Contested his seat and won.
R. L. Smith, Colorado County, 1895-99, now living in Waco. Is president of the Farmers Bank and head of the Farmers Improvement Association. For sketch of, see Negro Year Book, p. 322. For his work in the Legislature, see attached letter.
Elias May, Brazos County, in the early days of Reconstruction.