thers when it was least likely to prove remunerative. But
these men, though pecuniarily unsuccessful, quickly formed relations of
kindness and friendship with the negro race. They addressed them in
different tone, treated them in a different manner, from that which
they had been accustomed in the past to receive from the white race,
and it was natural that a feeling of friendship should grow up
between the liberated and those whom they regarded as liberators.

It was soon apparent that, under the protection of the National power
and with the numerical superiority of the negroes in several States
(certain Southern leaders being under political disabilities), it would
be easy for the loyal white men to obtain control of the local
governments. Out of these circumstances there came into political
power the class of men known as "Carpet-baggers"--so described from
the insulting presumption that the entire worldly estate of each one
of the class was carried in a carpet-bag, enabling him to fly at any
moment of danger from the State whose domestic policy he sought to
control. The prospect of the success of the new movement induced a
number of former rebels to join in it, and to them the epithet of
"Scalawag" was applied. This combination was not without disadvantages
to the negro. By as much as it gave strength to his political
organization, it increased the hatred and desperation of the ruling
element among the whites, and demonstrated that the negro could
secure the rights conferred upon him by the Constitution and laws,
only through violence and bloodshed.

Many of those denounced under the epithet of Carpet-bagger and Scalawag
were honorable and true men; but a majority of these were unobtrusive
and not brought strongly into popular view, while many of those who
became entrusted with the power of State governments and found
themselves unexpectedly in possession of great authority were not
morally equal to its responsibility. The consequence was that some of
the States had wretched governments, officered by bad men, who misled
the negro and engaged in riotous corruption. Their transgressions were
made so conspicuous that the Republican leaders of other Southern
States, who were really trying to act their part worthily and
honorably, were obscured from view, and did not obtain a fair hearing
at the bar of public opinion. The government of South Carolina, under
its series of Republican administrations, was of such c