JOSEPH H. RAINEY.
Mr. Rainey is a native of South Carolina, and was born at Georgetown. His parents purchased their freedom, and gave the son a good education, although it was against the law to do such an act. His father was a barber, and he followed that occupation at Charleston till 1862, when, having been forced to work on the fortifications of the Confederates, he escaped to the West Indies, where he remained until the close of the war, when he returned to his native town. He was elected a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1868, and was a member of the State Senate of South Carolina in 1870, resigning when elected to the Forty-first Congress as a Republican to fill the vacancy caused by the non-reception of B. F. Whittemore, and was re-elected to the Forty-second Congress as a Republican.
Mr. Rainey is below the medium size, of a dark olive complexion, straight, black hair, finely chiseled features, modest in manners, and dignified in his deportment. Although not what the world would call an orator, he is, nevertheless, an able debater, and in his reply to “Sunset” Cox, in the House of Representatives, showed talents superior to the New Yorker.