Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-04-06
General Wade Hampton @
South Carolina.
OF

lHe IOlIoWlnS is an aqureSS QellV-
cred before the Newberry High
School by Mr.. w. H. Wallace, editor
of the Newberry Observer:
1t is an honor that appreciate
very highly to have been asked by
the United Daughters of the Con-
federacy to be the speaker on the
occasion of the first celebration in
Newberry of the birthday of that:
tsplendid South Carolinian, Wade
Hampton. l use the much-abused
word, Splendid" advisedly, for he
was, indeed, as citizen and soldier, a
splendid character. AS country
lad 1 read of the daring and dash
ling cavalry leader and admired him
greatly; but I never saw him until.
he came to Newberry on campaign.
day, September ,:13, 1876, to speak
to the Red Shirts and to rally the
dormant hopes and energies of the
democracy. He had been nominated.
for governor at the Democratic state
convention in Columbia in August,
and was entering on a canvass that.
many of the wisest men regarded as
a forlorn hope, so long had the state
been PROSTATE in. the dust with a
negro majority of forty thousand to.
contend against; with every state
office and nearly every county Office
and both houses Of the general as.
sembly in the hands of Republicans,
or Radicals" as that party was then
called in South Carolina. In Colum-.
bia and Charleston and other towns
in the state were yankee garrisons''
and Ulysses S. Grant was presi-
dent of the United States. 1t was
great undertaking; but Wade Hamp-
ton threw his whole soul into it, and
never faltered moment, nor did he:
once lose his self-control or the con-
troll of his followers.
Hampton was then in the prime
of his life, with a face and form we'll
nigh perfect and manner quiet and
dignifed. His presence inspired re-
IEspseta and sdeaee md
lobeyed his every ORD and REG Z.
At the beginning Of the campaign he
counseled moderation and a ppealed
to the people to observe the law and
especially to treat the misguided
negroes kindly. Many negroes went
out to the campaign meetings to see
and hear him, and at the November
election, out of more than 100000.
votes that were cast the Radical
returning board, after throwing out
the votes of Edgefeld and Laurens
counties, found that Chamberlain
had less than two thousand majority,
and when those two counties were,
restored and counted under an or
der of the Radical supreme court,
Hampton had majority of more
than a thousand. 1t was a striking
tribute to his kindness and strong
personality that so many negroes
voted for him, and it was an achieve
ment that could not have been ac-
complished by OF for any other liv-
ing man.
Gen. Hampton was not a particu-
larly eloquent man; he was not an
orator in the commonly accepted
meaning of that term; but his
words carried conviction and per-
suasion and force because of the
strong personality behind them. He
had none of the arts of the dema-
gogue but he could sway the feel
ings of the multitude as few mer
could, by his earnestness and evident
sincerity. AS an example of this
power, l will mention that after his
election, when he had been kept out
of Office for weeks and weeks by the
Radical state government, backed
by the army of the United States, an
immense crowd of his followers gath.
cred in Columbia, fearing that the.
victory so nobly won was about To-
be snatched out of their hands, and
were on the verge of doing some
thing desperate; it looked like moth
ing could stop them. But Hampton
spoke to them from the balcony of
the old Wheeler house and pleaded
for caution and for obedience to law
and in impassioned tones that reach
ed every man in the listening crowd,
he said: 81 have been elected gov
ernor, and by the Eternal God, I
will be governor or there shall be a
military governor" That was enough,
rs .