“R” is for Robertson, Thomas James (1823-1897). U.S. senator. A native of Winnsboro, Robertson graduated from the South Carolina College. During the Civil War he sided with the Union and after the war joined the Republican Party. In return for his loyalty to the Union and the Republican Party, Robertson was bitterly condemned by White Carolinians. In 1868, the Republican-dominated General Assembly elected him to the U.S. Senate and reelected him in 1870. In the senate he served as the chair of the Committee on Manufactures, proposed a bill to deny former Confederates most of their political rights, and opposed the Ku Klux Klan Act. By 1874 he assailed the corruption of South Carolina Republicans. In 1877, Thomas James Robertson advised President Grant to allow the election of Wade Hampton III as governor, which effectively ended Reconstruction.
“R” is for Robertson, Thomas James (1823-1897)
