Gubernatorial Sex Scandals

Lost in all the music/celebrity tributes last week to the King of Pop was the marital scandal of the South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.  Of course Mr. Sanford is certainly not the first governor or politician for that matter to run into this sort of problem.   He is not even the first South Carolina politician to have a sex scandal.  When I heard of Sanford’s affair with his Argentine hottie I thought oh heck that is nothing compared to James Hammond’s sex scandal in 1836.  This would be good time to start keeping score kids, because our friends at Wikipedia get this one wrong.  Wikipedia noted that Hammond was elected to the House of Representatives in 1835 and served one year only to give up his seat due to health reasons. 

The Wiki noted that he spent the next two years in Europe recovering from his illness, but the real story is not so neat and tidy.  Oh yes Mr. Hammond was recovering alright.  He was recovering from his brother-in-law’s threats to blackmail him.  It turns out that Congressman Hammond had seduced his under-age nieces and their papa was not any too happy with the news.  Evidently even in antebellum South Carolina child molestation was frowned upon.  Now Hammond did return to politics after his blackmail induced political sabbatical.  He eventually served the Palmetto State as governor and senator.  The Wiki folks do note that he fathered a child with one of his slaves.  Given the time this is not particularly scandalous since most slave holders also kept slave mistresses and would have certainly fathered children. 

Since child molestation only derailed his political career for a few years it is a good thing the news of his college affair with a male classmate never surfaced.  Historian Martin Duberman discovered that Mr. Hammond had engaged in oh my gosh, a homosexual affair in the 1820s.  Perhaps even more noteworthy he was able to carry out that affair deep in the heart of Dixie.  He did not even need to travel to the Minneapolis Airport to do the deal like modern day politicians looking for some man-on-man action.    Now I need to keep this G-rated since my mom reads my blog so I am going to spare you all the juicy details of the illicit language in the letters.  However, deep in the bowels of the South Carolina Historical Society rest the love letters wrote to young James by his classmate Jeffrey Winters and self-described writhing bedfellow.  Mr. Winters did not rise to the same political heights as his soon to be famous lover, but he did become a Circuit Court of Appeals Judge.  The affair happened when both young men were college students at what is now the Uniersity of South Carolina—GO GAMECOCKS!

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