Republican Party and thus bury the Democratic Party so deep that there will not be seen even a bubble coming from the spot where the burial took place." State politics Smalls was a delegate at the 1868 South Carolina Constitutional Convention where he worked to make free, compulsory schooling available to all South Carolina children. He served as a delegate at several Republican National Conventions, and also participated in the South Carolina Republican State conventions. In 1868, Smalls was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. He was very effective, introducing the Homestead Act and the Civil Rights bill, the latter of which he worked to pass. In 1870, Jonathan Jasper Wright was elected judge of the South Carolina Supreme Court and Smalls was elected to fill his unexpired time in the Senate. He continued in the Senate, winning the 1872 election against W. J. Whipper. In the senate he was considered a very good speaker and debater. He was on the Finance Committee and chairman of the Public Printing Committee. Smalls was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1872 in Philadelphia, which nominated the incumbent Grant for re-election as president; in 1876 in Cincinnati, which nominated Hayes; and in 1884 in Chicago, which nominated Blaine—and then continuously to all conventions until 1896. He was elected vice-president of the South Carolina Republican Party at their 1872 state convention. In 1873 Smalls was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Third Regiment, South Carolina State Militia. He was later promoted to brigadier-general of the Second Brigade, South Carolina Militia, and to major-general of the Second Division, South Carolina State Militia. He held this position until 1877, when Democrats took control of the state government. National politics In 1874, Smalls was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he served two terms from 1875 to 1879. From 1882 to 1883, he represented South Carolina's 5th congressional district in the House. The state legislature gerrymandered district boundaries, thereby including Beaufort and other heavily Black coastal areas in South Carolina's 7th congressional district, and providing other nearby districts substantial white majorities. Smalls was elected from the 7th district and served from 1884 to 1887. He was a member of the 44th, 45th, 47th, 48th, and 49th U.S. Congresses. In 1875, he opposed the transfer of troops out of the South, fearing the effect of such a move on the safety of Blacks