The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1907-04-16

&the command of Col. Henry S. Rus
sSsell Of Boston and under the special
Spatronage~of of Gov. John A. Andrew.
saHe left for the seat of war in Vir-
sginia in the spring Of 1864. His army
life, until the end Of hostilities, was
EsHpent at Point Lookout, Maryland,
and in the Army Of the James, at
City Point, and before Petersburg.
Qn the early morning Of April 3,
I865, he entered Richmond with his
3sregiment, then under the command
;5s$of Col Charles Francis Adams, Jr.,
ssHe passed the remainder of the year
on the Rio Grande, with Weitzel' s
/ corps, and in Decemebr 1865, was
mustered out of the service ut Bos-
ton.
Clearly in january, 1866, he went
to Charleston, S. c., to settle the af-
fairs of classmate, James Pierpont
Blake Of New Haven, drowned at
Edisto Island. While so engaged he
visited the sea islands near Charles
ton, where he was led to engage in
cotton planting in the hope Of being
enabled in this way to pay his col
lege debts; but the two years he
spent in this occupation proved pc
cuniarily unsuccessful.
Whilst there is no evidence upon
which fairly to question the state
ment that Mr.. Chamberlain came to
South Carolina on personal or pro-
fessional business only, yet there are
those who believe that he had some
expectation of the opportunity which
the Reconstruction schemes Of con-
gress soon gave him, and that he pur-
posed to use it.
Immediately upon the passage Of
the Reconstruction acts which plac-
ed the State under the absolute rule
Of a military commander, Mr.. Cham
berlain entered actively into politics
by organizing and instructing the ne
groes on Wadmalaw inland-where,
by the way, the negroes outnumber-
ed the whites about 10 to l.
Publicly charged with having used
inflammatory language calculated to
incite the negroes to wrongdoing, he
declared that he had neither said nor
done anything but to present fairly
their new rights and duties.
Sent as delegate from Berkeley
district to the constitutional conven-
ton which assembled in Charleston
in January, 1868, he took an active
though not generally aggressive part
in the proceedings Of that body. He
was appointed on the judiciary COM
mittee. Perhaps his most significant
and certainly the most earnest speech
made by him in the body was that in
which he insisted on the requirement
that all schools of whatever grade,
supported in whole or part by pub
lie funds, should be open to all child
rem without regard to race or color.
Mr.. Chamberlain was elected in 1868
on the Republican ticket, to the office
of attorney general and held that Of
fec for four ycars-thc period of
Gov. Scott's two terms. As attor-
ney general he was n member of two
important commissions, the "fnan-
cial board" and the advisory board
of the land commission.
"The financial board" included
besides the attorney general the gov
ernor, Scott and Treasurer Niles G..
Parker. Parker was a self-confessed
thief and Scott was justly believed
to have been no better. This board
selected as "inancial agent" one
Hiram Fl. Kimpton Of Boston (said
to have been a college-mate Of Cham
berlain) and under their manage
ment the finances of the state were
soon brought to a condition which
evidenced both bad management and
gross malfeasance-not to use harsh
.er phrase. The state debt increased
from $5,500,000 in, July, 1868, to
$11, $4,000 in 1973--and this did not
include the issue of 1906, 900 of
bonds so plainly fraudulent that the
legislature itself--perhaps the most
4 corrupt Of all-rcpudiated them.
n Attorney General Chamberlain
q was also a member Of the advisory
',aboard Of the land commission
LEbody to whom was assigned the work
Sf buying lands in large bodies, to
le sold to freedmen in small tracts
nd on easy terms. The transactions
this commission, manifcstly taint-
through with fraud were very
oe Il,