THE ELECTION OF 1876 IN SOUTH CAROLINA – And You Thought 2016 Was a Strange Year

By Gould Hagler · Originally published January 2017 · p. 27

THE ELECTION OF 1876 IN SOUTH CAROLINA – And You Thought 2016 Was a Strange Year By Gould Hagler Two competing bodies of men occupied the chamber of the House of Representatives. Each group claimed to be the majority with the right to organize the House and conduct the state’s business. Two speakers and two clerks. And two sergeants-atarms, each ordered to expel certain men present whose elections were not recognized by the other party. Neither side would relent or depart. Each group sent out for food and blankets. As daylight faded the vast room fell into darkness, as the accumulation of unpaid bills had caused the gas company to cut off service. And many of the men were armed. Would this powder keg explode? Two men claimed victory in the gubernatorial race. The incumbent was re-elected, he said. The challenger’s count made him the winner. Federal troops backed the incumbent but limited their role to keeping order. Huge crowds of armed men supported the challenger, who was declared the winner by the legislators of his party and sworn in. The incumbent was named the victor by his party’s legislators and he too took the oath of office for another term Each man issued orders and acted on behalf of the state. Whom would the state’s employees obey? And where would the money come from? The state was dead broke. The light bill for the State House was not the only unmet obligation. Most Civil War News readers have a greater interest in military history than political history. However, the story of the Civil War did not end in the spring of 1865. Many people with detailed knowledge of the events of the war years have only a cursory knowledge of the fighting’s aftermath. Freedmen, carpetbaggers and scalawags ruled for a dozen years and Reconstruction ended in 1877. Right? Well, not exactly. The story is far more complicated and is interesting in its own right – as is indicated by the disputed 1876 election in South Carolina which produced the drama outlined above. Fall turned into winter; Christmas came, then the New Year. Still, there was no resolution. Would the Palmetto State’s Reconstruction government remain in power? Would the state’s electoral votes go to Rutherford Hayes and combine with the votes from Florida and Louisiana – where Reconstruction governments were still in charge – to keep the Republicans in the

White House? Would there be a peaceful conclusion, or would the state where war had begun 17 years earlier erupt in bloodshed? By the time the January 2017 issue of Civil War News is distributed, our strange election of 2016 will be over. Whatever the outcome, we can be confident that the campaign and the results will be far less bizarre than what happened in the Palmetto State 140 years ago. By 1876 home rule had been established in all Southern states save three – Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina. As the election season neared, South Carolina Democrats were divided between the Fusionists, whose strategy was to achieve improvements via cooperation with the Republicans, and the Straight-outs, who wanted to make a maximum effort to win total victory. The Straightouts’ course was chosen. The Democratic candidate for governor, Wade Hampton, led an all-out campaign to win the governor’s office and a majority in the legislature. Wade Hampton, Red Shirts, and rifle clubs on one side. Daniel Chamberlain, the apparatus of the Reconstruction government, and Hunkidories on the other. Huge Democratic rallies, especially in the Piedmont and the Upcountry. Disruption of Republican rallies by Democrats insisting on “dividing the time” so they too could make their appeal and demonstrate their strength. Republican appeals to black voters fearing domination by former Confederates. Violence and chicanery aplenty. And a close, hotly-disputed election which settled nothing. After the voting Wade Hampton and the Democrats skillfully maintained pressure while avoiding a violent confrontation they could not win. The Democratic House members prudently withdrew from the State House and conducted their business elsewhere. They welcomed a few Republican defectors and became an undisputed majority. While Hampton’s surrogates met in Washington with President Grant and others, the Democratic claimant began to act as governor in a way that Chamberlain could not. The government was bankrupt. Hampton appealed to South Carolina’s taxpayers to starve out the Chamberlain government by refusing to pay taxes. To fund his modest operation, he asked taxpayers to send his government a mere 10% of their tax bill from the previous year. This was not much money, but if used judiciously it was enough. The state’s agency heads, Republicans all, had to go to Hampton for funds. The superintendent of the lunatic asylum addressed a letter to “Governor Hampton” requesting the money necessary to keep his doors open. The officials who ran the orphan asylum and the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute had to care for their charges as well. The salaries of judges were also paid. A U.S. Army officer needed the state to grant title to land so he could construct a lighthouse. He addressed a letter to the unnamed “Governor of South Carolina” – mailed to Hampton’s address, not Chamberlain’s. To assert his authority, Hampton issued pardons to two prisoners – and they were turned loose. Chamberlain’s office was in the State House, but he did not have much to do. Federal troops occupied the building but served only a peacekeeping role. President Grant refused to use the troops to enforce Chamberlain’s authority and prevent Hampton from exercising his. As the electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina ultimately were cast for the Republican candidate, Rutherford Hayes was sworn in at the 19th president. Like Grant, Hayes chose not to use troops to force a reversal of what had become a compelling fact on the ground. Hampton and the Democrats were in charge de facto. Any attempt to remove Hampton would have met widespread resistance. After a four-year war and twelve years of Reconstruction, few Northerners cared to enforce Republican rule in the South. Reconstruction had already ended in eight former states of the Confederacy. The last three dominoes were about to fall. What was the point? President Hayes ordered the troops to leave South Carolina’s State House, and Reconstruction was over. With their departure, Chamberlain lost his last vestige of power. He relinquished his office, and his secretary turned over the keys to Hampton. Sources: The principal sources for this account are: Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior, Conservative Statesman by Walter Brian Cisco, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, by Eric Foner, and The Story of Reconstruction by Robert Selph Henry. There are other books on Reconstruction, of course, including a few specific to South Carolina. Gould Hagler is past President of The Civil War Round Table of Atlanta and is the author of Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation (Mercer University Press, 2014). This book is available from Mercer University Press, retail outlets, online sellers, and directly from the author