The Birthday of Eternity

Martin Witherspoon Gary, died April 9, 1881

After the Civil War, Martin Witherspoon Gary resumed his law practice in Edgefield, South Carolina and pursued a number of other business ventures. 

Edgefield, South Carolina

He lived at Oakley Park Plantation outside of Edgefield.

Gary's Home

Fed up with the Republican government which allowed the African-American majority in the South Carolina population to have a say in the government, he became an outspoken racist, saying on one occasion "that the negro shall not become a part of the body politic, or from any qualification either as to education or property, be allowed to vote in this country."

Wade Hampton III

In the summer of 1876, Matthew Calbraith Butler wrote to his former commander, Wade Hampton, urging him to seek the governorship in the upcoming election. Butler omitted the details of the violent campaign planned by Gary and others, and Hampton accepted.

It soon became apparent that Hampton did not support Gary's campaign plan: it was known in South Carolina as the "Edgefield Plan" due to Gary's leadership in its design and implementation. It called for the bribery or intimidation of African-American voters by local Democratic "rifle clubs" or "Red Shirts" formed ostensibly to attend campaign events and to insure order at polling places. Soon Red Shirt tactics became so violent that the state Democrats repudiated their association with Gary. After the election it was clear that Gary's tactics had helped Hampton to win, but it was also apparent that Hampton had won the trust of many black voters by his own actions.

The efforts of Gary's Red Shirts were successful in Edgefield and Laurens Counties, where Hampton received more votes than there were adult males. The election returns from these two counties were challenged and the outcome was critical to the decision of whether Democratic candidate Wade Hampton or the incumbent Republican Governor Daniel Chamberlain would serve the next term as governor. Hampton's victory came as the result of a deal between Democratic leaders and the national Republican Party.

In April 1877, Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes received the hitherto contested votes of South Carolina electors and was finally declared the winner of the contested United States presidential race. In return, he then ordered the removal of federal troops from South Carolina, ending the military occupation that had supported Republican rule.

Gary then became a state senator from Edgefield County; he was reelected in 1878. During his time in the State Senate, he became a vocal opponent of Governor Hampton because Hampton blocked his appointment to a U.S. Senate seat in 1877 and 1879. In addition, Hampton and his allies prevented Gary's candidacy in the gubernatorial election of 1880. 

Upon leaving the South Carolina Senate in 1881, Gary returned to his family home in Cokesbury, where he died from uraemia at 2 o'clock in the morning of April 9, at the age of 50. He was buried in Tabernacle Cemetery.

Gary's Grave

In 1941, John Gary Evans, a nephew of Gary, presented Oakely Park to the Edgefield Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. They operated it as a "Red Shirt Shrine".