Wigg’s speech on the suffrage clause, from the standpoint of his race, was also a strong presentation of the subject, pitched upon a high plane, eloquent and dignified. No extracts from it will do it justice. To be appreciated at its full value, it must be read as a whole. In it was none of that amusing buffoonery, which in another colored delegate’s remarks so captivated the press representatives; but it did contain not a little biting sarcasm. It is a speech well worth the perusal of the careful student of history, who is desirous of informing himself of the various styles of men, our institutions and our practices have evolved. But with all that has been stated, yet the most interesting incident connected with this colored man’s service in the Convention, was his clash with the strongest and most influential member of that body, in an impromptu debate, arising almost accidentally, in which, by no stretch of imagination, can the colored man be said to have been worsted. That he owed his triumph to the weakness of the position of his adversary was his fortune, and he used it to effect. As has been before suggested, by passing such a law to restrain the egress of the Negroes, as the new regime had done in 1890, the inconsistency of declarations concerning the dangerous characteristics of the race had been made manifest, and in the full tide of his progress as leader of the Convention, Senator Tillman found himself on a shoal from which it took some floundering to get again into natatory water. As reported in the press the incident appears as follows: “Senator Tillman said he would preface his remarks by reading from his first or inaugural message, when he advocated township government.... ‘At that time we were hampered by this Sinbad’s old man, the Negro. He is here and he is going to be here and we must look out for the nigger in the wood pile.’” Mr. Wigg (a young colored man) asked Senator Tillman: “Do I understand that you object to the presence of the Negro in South Carolina?” “Senator Tillman: Not a bit, but I would place no restraint upon his emigration. “Mr. Wigg: Did you not sign a bill calculated to prevent his leaving? “Senator Tillman: I never signed such a measure.[244] “Mr. Wigg: I mean the act imposing a tax on emigration agents.” To this distinct specification of the act passed while he was Governor Tillman at first hastily claimed that it had been passed during his predecessor’s term of office; but later, on reflection, made a point of informing the Convention that he found he had signed it and desired, “to apologize to the State for having done so.”