The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-04-22

| quietly and modcstly, and largely through
the direct Agency Of Others but It has
been tho inspiration and force Of tile
| educational crusade, which has aroused
pubic sentiment, made popular education
q political issue, and turned every Fell
ticlnn Into champion OF the public
school system. Its public meetings are
! always entertaining as well as instruc-
tive, and the meeting Tuesday night
should be we'll attended
| aaE9-Fas5 i.,------.---
Reconstruction in South Carolina.
AThe publishers Of the Columbia State
have done work OF real value In &C
cording the permanence Of covers to
series of papers on DEMONSTRATION In
South Carolina" which MIR. John 8.
Rennolds has seen for some time con-
tributing to the columns of that paper.
Tho volume is n massive one of oror 500
pages, but It's size springs rather from us
comprchensiveness than from any need
less dirfuseness Mr.. Rennolds proves his
entire competence to handle his subject
authorat lively and eXhaustively. He has
given us n history at once careful ana
painstaking able and highly interest
inE. And since the experience Of 4 South
Carolina in after-War times was, except
in detail, the experience of every South.
ern State, he deserves, and doubtless Will
secure, readers throughout the South.
Mr. Rennolds devotes all his space to
tie twelve years Immediately succeeding
the war, ending his narrative with tn?
final overthrow of Chamberlain and the
establishment OF lawful government I'M
der Hampton, in 1877, In these dark years
South Carolina fought out all the bitter
questions involved IN fitting the place
| of the negro in the new social economy.
Very early she had come to recognize
that, under certain limitations en-
REIMBURSEMENT must follow emancipation,
but the opportunity to do the experiment"
Ing obviously necessary In making SO
Fundamental n change was denied her
by a congress which at best. woefuly
misunderstood existing conditions. But
Mr. REYNOLDS finds that the course of
we may mildly term a lack OF candor,
in that while It affected q desire to re-
store free government. its real aim was
to h1miliate the Southern whites and
to pcrpetuate party ascendency. Pass
this bill" said Henry Wilson on the
floor Of the Senate, "and you make the
South Republican TO: all time Z" And the
declaration OF Thaddeus Stevens Is also
recalled that Congress should take no
account of the aggregation Of white
washed rebels who without any legal au-
thorityl have assembled and simulated
legislative bodies"
Tho terrible mistake OF placing the
ballot indiscriminately in the hands Of
ignorant men Of an inferior race, who.
the abolitionists had maintained. were
so brutalized by years of slavery, that
they We're unfit for intelligent sclf-gov-
eminent. Is doubtless plain to everybody
now. 1t was plain to the South then. This
book shows how South Carolina resisted
It through all the acts Of misguided
ConGress--throuGh the subverSIon Of
various State governments, through the
virtual destruction Of certain States,
through the establishment Of military
autocrncles IN every Southern State,
through the dlsfranchisemen OF many
white men and the Acknowledgement Of
most ncgrocs-South Carolina stood I'M
yicldlngly, as every Southern State din,
for the principle of white domination.
The unbcarable injuslices of carpet
tInggery under the misgovernment OF
Governors Scott and Moses, bore lnevl-
table fruit In the retalintlons Of tho
| XII kluX, under Chamberlain who had
publicly stated that he deemed carpet
| baggcry the most potent force for pros
| perlty and progress ever known IN South
| Carolina. disgust and indignation became
| universal, Then came the reorganization
OF the Democratic party in 70 and the
| general and final triumph, after much
trlbuatIon, typlfied By the election Of
| Wade Hampton for the GovernorshIp.
That the misguided sentiment OF North
ern Republicans did the South. at tho
| close Of tho war, gigantic injury, Is
too generally appreciated nowadays, We
take It. to require elaboration, Yet,
! Northern communities, who now have n
negro problem Of their own, like, say,
the Ohio and Missouri towns which have
recently figured unfavorably in the news
| columns, may possibly read Mr., Rem
noldss book with a kinded sense OF
those by-gone injustices A good book
Mr.. Rennolds has written, fun of perth
nent fact upon which future historians