SOUTH CAROLINA. 



1 \vith an offence uiuK-r tliU uct, it is 

 provided iliat 



I n .-very trial for violating any provision of this act, 

 when it ihall In! elr.ux'cil ih:ti any |>er>on him been rc- 



tu-<i-'i or iK-nieii admission 1 1, or due coomiaodation 

 iii, any nf tlm plaees in this not mentioned, on ac- 

 <>f the race, color, or previous condition of thu 

 iipplieunt, and such niMiliount in a colored or l>hu-k pi-r- 

 hn. tin- burden -hall in- oti tho defendant or y.. 

 parties so having refused or denied Mieh admission or 

 accommodation, to show thai tin- same was not done 

 in violation of tliis act. 



A n important act passed at tliis session, regu- 

 lating the holding of elections, provides for 

 p-nri-al elections biennially, to bo lield on the 

 third Wednesday in October. The commission- 

 ers of election for each county are appointed 

 by the Governor, who appoint three managers 

 of election for each precinct of the county. 

 The polls are to be kept open from six A. M. to 

 six P. M. on the day of election ; " and all bar- 

 rooms, saloons, and other places for the sale of 

 liquors by retail," are to be closed on that day, 

 and remain closed until six o'clock the follow- 

 ing morning. On the Tuesday following the 

 election, the commissioners meet at the county- 

 seat, and proceed to make a canvass of the 

 votes cast, which they must complete within 

 ten days. They then transmit a statement of 

 the result to the Board of State Canvassers, 

 which consists of the Secretary of State, Comp- 

 troller-General, Attorney-General, State Au- 

 ditor and Treasurer, and Adjutant and In- 

 spector General. This body is required to meet 

 on or before the loth day of December fol- 

 lowing, to ascertain the results of the election. 

 A vacancy having occurred in the office of 

 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the 

 State, by the resignation of Judge Hoge, who 

 had been elected to Congress, an exciting 

 canvass ensued, in which the chief contest- 

 ants were J. J. Wright, Senator from Beau- 

 fort County, and W. J. Whipper, representa- 

 tive from Beaufort, both colored, and both 

 originally from the North. The election took 

 place on the 1st of February, in joint as- 

 sembly of the two Houses of the Legislature, 

 when Mr. Wright was elected by a vote of 72 

 to 57 for Whipper. The term for which Mr. 

 Wright was elected expired on the 31st of 

 July, 1870. 



The new Legislature chosen at the October 

 election convened on the 22d of November, 

 and was in session at the close of the year. 

 Thomas J. Robertson, Republican, was re- 

 elected United States Senator. No other very 

 important business. had been transacted at the 

 close of the year, except the impeachment 

 of T. O. P. Vernon, Judge of the Sev. -nth 

 Judicial Circuit. He was charged with drunk- 

 enness, and the issuing of writs purporting to 

 be writs of habeas corpu* in blank, and not 

 addressed to any officer, or containing the 

 name of any person, without any petition 

 having been presented to him praying for the 

 same, which writs were afterward used by 

 other parties to serve thoir own purposes. 



Prior to the time of hig trial before tho Senate, 

 Judge Vcnion iv~iu'iied. 



The political campaign of this year was one 

 of the most exciting that has occurred in the 

 State since the close of tho war, and was made 

 noteworthy by tho formation of a new party, 

 or rather the reorganization of tho Democratic 

 party. This new party, called the Union 

 Reform party, and composed chiefly of Demo- 

 crats with very few Republican", he-Id its first 

 convention at Charleston, on the 16th of June, 

 for the adoption of a platform of principle'?* 

 and the nomination of candidaU-K. Twenty- 

 two of tho thirty-one counties of the State 

 were represented by delegates, among whom 

 were a few colored citizens. The nominations 

 of the convention were : for Governor, Judge 

 R. B. Carpenter, and for Lieutenant-Governor, 

 General M. C. Butler, the former having been an 

 officer in the Federal army, the latter an officer 

 in the Confederate army, and still subject to 

 political disabilities. The platform adopted was 

 as follows : 



This convention, representing citizens of South 

 Carolina irrespective ot party, assembled to organize 

 the good people of the State in an effort to reform the 

 present incompetent, extravagant, prejudiced, and 

 corrupt administration of the btate government, and 

 to establish instead thereof just ana equal laws, or- 

 der, and harmony, economy in public expenditures, 

 a strict accountability of office-holders, and the elec- 

 tion to office only of men of known honesty and in- 

 tegrity, doth declare and announce the following prin- 

 ciples upon which men of all parties may unite for 

 the purposes aforesaid : 



1. The fifteenth amendment of the Constitution 

 of the United States having been by the proper au- 

 thorities proclaimed ratified by the requisite number 

 of States, and having been received and acquiesced 

 in as law in all the States of the Union, ought to be 

 fairly administered and faithfully obeyed as funda- 

 mental law. 



2. The vast changes in our system of government, 

 wrought by the international war between the two 

 sections of the States, and following in its train, are 

 so far incorporated into the constitutions and laws of 

 the States, and of the United States, as to require that 

 they be regarded as accomplished facts, having tho 

 force and obligation of law. 



3. This solemn and complete recognition of the 

 existing laws brings the people of South Carolina 

 into entire harmony upon all questions of civil and 

 political right, and should unite all honest men in un 

 earnest and determined effort to establish a just, 

 equal, and faithful administration of the government, 

 in the interest of no class or clique, but for the bene- 

 fit of a united people. 



Subsequently, on the 6th of July, an address 

 was issued to the people of the State by tho 

 " State Executive Committee of the Reform 

 party," deprecating any hostility between la- 

 bor and capital, arraigning the party in power 

 in the State for their extravagant expenditures 

 and announcing that " tho absolute and sharp 

 antagonism between the races must be so far 

 overcome as to enable tho good people of 

 both to combine for tho purposes of both." 



"The platform of this party,'' continues tho 

 address 



" while it is historically true, buries the issues of 

 tho past, and deals fairly, faithfully and wisely with 



