Background
He was born in 1838 in Sumter District, S. C. , the son of Franklin J. and Jane (McLelland) Moses.
His original name was Franklin Israel Moses, but for reasons unknown he and his father, for whom he was named, both dropped Israel entirely and substituted the initial J. His father belonged to a Jewish family that had served the state with distinction, and was, himself, an able and successful lawyer, a member of the state Senate from 1842 to 1862, commissioner of South Carolina before the North Carolina secession convention, a circuit judge in 1865, and, after the accession of the Republicans to power in 1868, chief justice of the state, in which position he served with great distinction until his death in 1877.
On Dec. 20, 1859, he married Emma Buford Richardson, the daughter of James S. G. Richardson, a distinguished lawyer.
Education
The younger Moses was a freshman in South Carolina College in 1855 but withdrew without finishing the course.
Career
He began his public career in December 1860, as private secretary to Gov. Francis W. Pickens, and he became an influence in politics.
He raised the Confederate flag over Fort Sumter when the Federals surrendered that stronghold.
In 1867 he suddenly became a renegade to all his previous code of conduct.
His writings became so radical that he was dismissed from his editorship, and it was discovered that he was closely affiliated with the Union League.
In his private life his extravagance and immorality caused public scandal.
When he finished his term as governor he was a ruined man.
His ill-gotten gain passed from him as easily as it had come; in May 1874 it became known that he was a hopeless bankrupt.
His associates deserted him; there was no thought of nominating him for reëlection in 1874.
When Gov. Daniel Chamberlain [q. v. ] refused to commission him as a circuit judge in 1875 after the legislature had elected him to that position, the action of the governor won universal applause.
To save himself from prison Moses testified against his former associates.
From 1878 until his death he was a hopeless wanderer, a victim of poverty and of the drug habit.
His sole asset was his ingratiating manner.
Several times he was convicted of petty frauds and thefts and served short terms in various prisons.
[F. B. Simkins and R. H. Woody, S. C. during Reconstruction (1932); R. H. Woody, "Franklin J. Moses, jr. ," N. C. Hist.
Religion
On Nov. 28, 1866, he was admitted to the bar, and the following April he was elected a vestryman of the Sumter Episcopal Church.
Politics
Moses, Franklin J. ,, South Carolina 1838 1906 Male Governor (State) governor of South Carolina, had a career that fulfilled in most details the conventional Southern conception of a scalawag.
In 1872 he was elected governor by an overwhelming majority over the candidate of the reform faction of the Republican party, and he served for two years.
Connections
In 1878 his wife divorced him, and the knowledge of his career was hidden from his children.
