REUBEN TOMLINSON.
Reuben Tomlinson came to South Carolina in the year 1862, among the first of the young men from the North who were desirous of aiding in the education and improvement of the freedmen, who were in the lines of the Northern army after the downfall of Port Royal and Hilton Head. He came here because he had been reared as an abolitionist, and he desired to be among the first who should show to the world that the negro was more than a mere brute—as the advocates of slavery had charged—and that all he needed to make him a useful and honorable citizen was the education and training which for two centuries had been denied him. Was this a selfish effort on Mr. Tomlinson’s part? Let the colored people of Beaufort County, who knew him in those early days of their freedom, answer! For three years Mr. Tomlinson gave his whole soul and energy to the work he had chosen, and when the freedmen’s Bureau was organized, and General Saxton was placed at its head in South Carolina, he selected the best man he could find for that most responsible office, the office of Superintendent of Education—and that man was Reuben Tomlinson.

Greeley and Tomlinson.
How any southern man who can vote for Greeley, and refuse to vote for Tomlinson is more than we can understand. Both are Northern men; both were and are anti-slavery men; both were considered honest and reputable men until nominated for office; since then both have found traducers and slanderers enough; both are in opposition to what has hitherto been the party of their choice, out of which they have come to protest against corruption.

Edwin F. Gary.
Mr. Gary came to South Carolina in the first years of the war as a soldier in the Union army, and afterwards as Clerk in the Quartermaster’s Department under that well known “Yankee,” Col. James P. Low. No petty thief or swindling clerk could find a place under his eye. As long as Col. Low remained in the service of the United States, Mr. Gary was his trusted assistant and friend. Large sums of money passed through his hands constantly, and none ever remained there which did not belong to him. Afterwards, as Chief Disbursing Clerk in the Freedmen’s Bureau, Mr. Gary was known as thoroughly upright and honest. Lastly, as State Auditor of South Carolina, he has had the pluck and honesty to fight, almost singlehanded, that most corrupt swindle known as the Blue Ridge Railroad Ring, and has saved to the State of South Carolina, $1,800,000, unless by the election of Frank Moses and his ticket this great work of Mr. Gary is undone. For the first time in his life he is a candidate for public office, and this after a residence of nearly ten years in this State.

If Tomlinson should declare for Greeley how the tone of the News would change. As a Grant man he is on a par with the worst of the plunderers; as a Greeley man he would be washed white as snow. And yet the News blames the negro for being governed by prejudices when he votes.

Archival Note: Historical Context
Reuben Tomlinson was a prominent figure in the “Port Royal Experiment.” These records serve as evidence of the alliance between Northern abolitionists and newly free citizens in Beaufort to establish the foundations of civil society.

“Reuben Tomlinson / Edwin F. Gary.” Beaufort Republican (Beaufort, S.C.), September 26, 1872, Page 2. Digitized by Library of Congress via Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. View Original Source at Library of Congress. ID: 1872_09_26_Beaufort_Republican_P2.

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