Charleston, South Carolina was crowded for the national Democratic convention, when Charles Lamar and seven other prominent citizens engineered the rescue from jail of J. Egbert Farnum, the purser of the slave ship Wanderer, then under indictment and nearing his federal trial for piracy. He was taken to the best hotel in the town for a reception. A confrontation with federal marshals followed and Farnum returned to the city jail the next day. (By John Osborne)