“2. Not even the prospect of securing a favorable recognition in Congress could secure the election of any man tainted with Unionism, in opposition to any candidate thoroughly established as an opponent to the Government in past time. “3. And yet, strange as it may seem, _the people_--by which I mean the planters generally, exclusive of the _politicians_--are not savagely disloyal; and this is one main point to which I desire earnestly to testify. It is a fact that the political working of the State is in the hands of one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty men. It has taken me six months to appreciate the _entireness_ of the fact, though of course I had heard it stated. “It seems to me a most Providential opportunity is now offered to break up this maladministration of politics. The people among whom I move are becoming restive under present disadvantages, and criticize sharply the acts of the Legislature, which seem to delay Reconstruction. If the State is refused representation in the present Congress, and the acts of the State Legislature, its speeches, its Black Code, its general fractious and combative attitude, its spirit in accepting the Constitutional Amendment and refusing the annulment of Secession Ordinances are brought to light,--if, in a word, it can be shown that the long recognized politicians of the State have thoroughly damaged the State by taking her out of the Union, and have also kept her from coming in, _there will be a political revolution in the State in less than two months_. The Rebels so promptly pardoned by the President will meet no such complacency from the people. I _know_ this to be true,--am taught it anew every day. “If the State authority is to be recognized, and the present Legislature triumphs by forcing the State into the Union, I anticipate very disastrous consequences. The freed people are well enough; they do not know as much as could be desired, but they know quite as much as could be expected, and are open to instruction. But that instruction must come from _the Government, through the military_, untrammelled by any fractious jobbing of State Legislatures. There is no confidence on the part of the freed people in the _State_; they only know the United States Government, and no other will answer.” Here is a letter from a South-Carolinian who served in the Rebel army, but who now sees the error of his ways.