THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN-1872 175 



The following winter I had my first experience of " Re- 

 construction " in the South. Being somewhat worn with 

 work, I made a visit to Florida, passing leisurely through 

 the southern seaboard States, and finding at Columbia 

 an old Yale friend, Governor Chamberlain, from whom I 

 learned much. But the simple use of my eyes and ears 

 during the journey gave me more than all else. A visit 

 to the State legislature of South Carolina revealed vividly 

 the new order of things. The State Capitol was a beau- 

 tiful marble building, but unfinished without and dirty 

 within. Approaching the hall of the House of Representa- 

 tives, I found the door guarded by a negro, squalid and 

 filthy. He evidently reveled in his new citizenship; his 

 chair was tilted back against the wall, his feet were high 

 in the air, and he was making everything nauseous about 

 him with tobacco ; but he soon became obsequious and ad- 

 mitted us to one of the most singular deliberative bodies 

 ever known a body composed of former landed propri- 

 etors and slave-owners mixed up pell-mell with their 

 former slaves and with Northern adventurers then known 

 as ' i carpet-baggers. ' ' The Southern gentlemen of the As- 

 sembly were gentlemen still, and one of them, Mr. Mem- 

 minger, formerly Secretary of the Treasury of the Con- 

 federate States, was especially courteous to us. But soon 

 all other things were lost in contemplation of "Mr. 

 Speaker. ' ' He was a bright, nimble, voluble mulatto who, 

 as one of the Southern gentlemen informed me, was "the 

 smartest nigger God ever made." Having been elevated 

 to the speakership, he magnified his office. While we were 

 observing him, a gentleman of one of the most historic 

 families of South Carolina, a family which had given to 

 the State a long line of military commanders, governors, 

 senators, and ambassadors, rose to make a motion. The 

 speaker, a former slave, at once declared him out of order. 

 On the member persisting in his effort, the speaker called 

 out, "De genlemun frum Bufert has no right to de floh; 

 de genlemun from Bufert will take his seat," and the 

 former aristocrat obeyed. To this it had come at last. 



