“The associations, which under the general name of Farmers Alliance, are organized throughout the country, are a sign of the times not to be overlooked. They are the political form which is given to a feeling which is observable on all sides, extending quite beyond the circle of those who actually take part in such associations.... The mainspring of the movement is hostility to what is called the aristocracy of wealth. This hostility is due to the conviction that consolidated capital commands special privileges, which are denied to the greatest industrial interest of the country, that of agriculture.... The most striking illustration of this movement was that in South Carolina. A Farmers Convention composed of white Democrats, who were opposed to what they called the aristocratic Democratic Ring, made the present Governor ‘Ben’ Tillman, the Democratic candidate. His main appeal was to the poor whites or ‘buckra’, as they are called, and despite the fact that he was opposed by Judge Haskell, a representative of the old governing class, who had the good will of most of the colored leaders, Mr. Tillman was overwhelmingly elected.... Tillman’s election, which was a signal defeat of the old Democratic regime in South Carolina was followed by the defeat of the chief representative of that regime, Senator Hampton, for re-election to the Senate.... One striking incident in the campaign was the speech of a colored Republican, who opposed Judge Haskell and who said that Tillman had made both the whites and the Negroes readers and thinkers.”[233] The colored man to whom Mr. Curtis referred was the Rev. Richard Carroll, of Orangeburg, later of Columbia. In the early fall of the year 1890 he had, in a letter to the editor of _The News and Courier_, opposing Negro excursions, given, in addition to the very sensible views he put forth concerning such, an indication that he was alive to the greatest need of his race and how best it might be met. Five years before Booker Washington came upon the stage and twenty-two before he saw the light, Carroll seems to have seen it and pointed to it as follows: “Our Northern friends are turning their attention to the needs of emigrants in the West. We should save money to buy homes while land is cheap.”[234] That Carroll was, at that date, a vigorous, original, independent thinker and speaker, will be indicated by a fuller description of the incident which Mr. Curtis alludes to above.