themselves with zeal and honesty of purpose to the restoration of law, the blessings of peace and the rescue of whatever liberty may be saved from the general wreck. If, after an honest effort to effect that object, we fail we can then seek a home in another country. A distinguished citizen of our State—an honest man and true patriot—has been appointed Governor. He will soon call a Convention of the people which will be charged with the most vital interests of our State. Choose for this Convention your best and truest men; not those who have skulked in the hour of danger—nor those who have worshipped Mammon, while their country was bleeding at every pore—nor the politicians, who after urging war dared not encounter its hardships, but those who laid their all upon the altar of their country. Select such men and make them serve as your representatives. You will then be sure that your rights will not be wantonly sacrificed, nor your liberty bartered for a mess of pottage. My intention is to pursue this course. I recommend it to others. Besides the obligations I owe to my State, there are others of a personal character, which will not permit me to leave the country at present. I shall devote myself earnestly, if allowed to do so, to the discharge of these obligations, public and private. In the meantime I shall obtain all information which would be desirable in the establishment of a colony, in case we should be ultimately forced to leave the country. I invoke my fellow citizens, especially those who have shared with me the perils and the glories of the last four years, to stand by our State manfully and truly. The Roman Senate voted thanks to one of their generals, because in the darkest hour of the Republic, he did not despair. Let us emulate the example of the Romans and thus entitle ourselves to the gratitude of our country. Respectfully, Wade Hampton.[190] July 27, 1865. The convention was held and following it an election for governor and members of the General Assembly under the new Constitution and the most distinguished members of the convention, without regard to differences of opinion as to policies, united in recommending as candidate for governor Hon. James L. Orr, who prior to the war had been Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and with the organization of the Confederate States, a Senator from South Carolina and who had organized a command and seen service in the War between the States. Despite these facts and in the teeth of his published declination of a nomination, in his absence, General Hampton was nominated for governor by the mechanics of Charleston and only defeated by 733 votes in a total of 19,113 cast, a vote measured by the white males of voting age just after the war and its disabilities, which must have been at least forty per cent of what could have possibly been polled.