Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-04-22
From the Charleston Mercury.
The Last Attorney.General.

We publish In another column this morn
ing card from Honorable Isaac W. Hayne,
in which he bids farewell to the people of The
State as their last Attorney General The
clrd needs no COMMENT speaks for itself.
4 One thing we can say, however, which it did
mot become Colonel Hayne to say, and if
which we feel assured the voice of the whole
community will sustain us, and that is thai
Colonel Hayne is the peer and worthy sue
cessor of the noble men who preceded him Ii.
that high Office.
ANOTHER CARp-In the Card published or
Saturday, confined myself to the action O.
the meeting in Columbia. In taking leave.
however, Of the public, as Attorney. General
after service of near twenty years, / desire
to say a word as to the Office, and the more
Sc because I consider myself the last of the
Attorney. Generals of South Carolina. / meen
Of the old White Mans South Carolina-one
OF the original Thirteen"-the South Caro-
lima which gaveto the Revolution" her Rut-
leiges and Pinckneys, and to the crisis pre-
cedipg the "second War OF Independence,
her Lowndes, Cheves and Calhoun, which has
contributed to. the counsels of the country
silce, her McDufie, Hayne, Preston and
Legare-of that South Carolina / am the last
Attorney General!-
Heretofore the Office has been, in this State,
as in England, one Of the Prizes of the pro-
fession, to be attaiped only after long and ardu-
GUS service. The Attorney General is the ac-
krowledged head of the Bar, and the Bar have
jealousy guarded the position.
The Office, since the Revolution, has been
flled-frst by John Julius Pringle, learn
led lawyer, of large experience, with.:a very
lucrative and multifarious private practice !;
second, LaRgdon Oheves, clarun, ct ue1erdbRe
nomen, giant among giants, with the very
largest private practice ever known N this
State third, John S. Richardson, eminently
eloquent and successful as barrister; for
very many years Judge in our highest Court;
fourth, Robert Y. Hayne, who, between the
age of twenty one and thirty, began and tin,
ished brilliant professional career, which
gave him fortune enough to enable him to
devote twelve years to politics; fifth, James
L. Petigru; his very name synonym for
learning, eloquence and force as a Lawyer (;
sixth, Hugh Swinton Legare, a polished cor
ner of the temple" as profound as he was
brilliant, and equally the scholar and the
lawyer; seventh, R. Barnwell Rhett, who, af-
ter very brief term of Office, was translated
to the halls of Congress, and who has run o
career since, which has made his name fa-
miliar from Canada to the Gulf; eighth, Hen.
ry Bailey, who, as q Lawyer, was fit COM
peer of his distinguished predecessors. For
myself, will only say that, when elected At
torney- General, 1 had been sixteen years a
practicing lawyer, and have since been cleo
| ted by five different legislatures to this high
Office. So ends the roll of the Attorney Gen
erals of old South Carolina.
How begins the new? Who is Mr.. Cham
berlain? 1t may be that he is gentleman,
a scholar, and, for aught know, learned in
the law. But is he citizen of the the State !?
and if so, how long? Is he member of her
| BARI Is he member of any Bar at all 2
! AsM long has he pEaGsseea the psosssa'epso Ct
Imean nothing personal towards Mr.. Cham
berlain. But SO far as is known to the vo.
ters of South Carolina, he is citizen of Mas
saehusetts, who has come into South Carolina
since the war, and settled down as Planter
on Wadmalaw Island. Whether he is a
lawyer at all, or not, is not known to the vo-
tiers.
But to this too, we must submit as sub.
| iugated people, and, so far as the Bar is con-
cerned, it is not the least of our humiliations,
in the passage of power from the white man
to The negro. Yale!
ISAAC W. HAYNE,
Attorney General of South Carolina.
April 18th, 1868.