State of South Carolina,
Became one of the original thirteen States of the
Union.
It is supposed by some that Verazzani visited its coast in 1524.
D'Allyon was there in 1520 (see
America, discoverers of); but the first attempt to colonize that region was made by
John Ribault, at the head of some Huguenots, in 1562.
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The region was granted to eight of the favorites of Charles II., in 1663, and in 1670 they sent three ships with emigrants, under the direction of
Sir William Sayle and
Joseph West, to plant a colony below
Cape Fear.
They entered
Port Royal Sound, landed on
Beaufort Island, on the spot where the Huguenots had dwelt, and there
Sayle died, in 1671.
The immigrants soon afterwards abandoned
Beaufort, entered
Charleston Harbor, went up the
Ashley River, and seated themselves on its banks, a few miles above the site of
Charleston.
West exercised the authority of chief magistrate until the arrival of
Gov. Sir John Yeamans, in December, 1671, with fifty families and a large number of slaves from
Barbadoes.
The next year representative government was established, under the title of the
Carteret County Colony—so called in honor of
Sir George Carteret. Ten years afterwards the colony removed to
Oyster Point, at the junction of the
Ashley and
Cooper rivers, and there the city of
Charleston was founded.
Very soon some
Dutch families, dissatisfied with English rule at New York, went to
South Carolina, and planted themselves along the
Edisto and
Santee rivers.
Like the settlers in
North Carolina, those of the
Southern colony refused to be governed by the constitution framed by
Shaftesbury and
Locke.
Political and religious quarrels distracted the colony a long time, and finally the coast
Indians made raids upon them, plundering the plantations of grain and cattle, and menacing the inhabitants.
They were subdued in 1680.
In 1690 a large number of Huguenots, or French Protestants, settled in the colony, and afterwards a considerable number of Swiss, Irish, and German emigrants made their way to
South Carolina.
The people were often in opposition to the proprietary rulers.
They broke into open rebellion, and, in 1690, the popular Assembly impeached and banished
Gov. John Colleton.
While this turbulence prevailed, Seth Sothel arrived, pursuant to his sentence of banishment from
North Carolina, and the people unanimously chose him for governor.
For two years he plundered and oppressed them, when he, too, was deposed and banished.
Philip Ludwell came to re-establish the authority of the proprietors, but the people, thoroughly aroused, resolved not to tolerate even so good a man as he. He tried to enforce the fundamental constitution, but soon gladly withdrew from the turbulent community.
The good
Quaker,
John Archdale, came in 1695 as governor, and by his mild republican rule made the people happy.
In 1702
Governor Moore led an expedition against the Spaniards at
St. Augustine.
It was
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unsuccessful, and burdened the colony with a debt of more than $26,000, for the payment of which they issued bills of credit for the first time.
Before the settlement of
Georgia was begun, below the
Savannah River, the South Carolinians were often annoyed by Indian depredations incited by the Spaniards in
Florida.
In 1703 the
Apalachian Indians, in league with the Spaniards, were attacked by
Governor Moore and a body of white men and
Indians.
Their chief village was desolated; nearly 800 of the Apalachians were made prisoners, and their whole territory was made tributary to the white people.
A few years later a secret general Indian confederacy was formed to exterminate the white people by a single blow.
Within forty days, in the spring of 1715, the
Indian tribes from the
Cape Fear to the
St. Mary and back to the mountains had coalesced in the conspiracy, and before the people of
Charleston had any intimation of danger, 100 white victims had been slain in the remote settlements.
The
Creeks, Yamasees, and Apalachians in the
South had confederated with the Cherokees, Catawbas, and Congarees in the
West, in all about 6,000 strong, while more than 1,000 warriors issued from the
Neuse region to avenge their misfortunes in the war of 1712-13.
The people were filled with terror.
Governor Craven acted with the utmost wisdom and energy.
He declared the province to be under martial law, and at the head of 1,200 men,
black and
white, he marched to meet the foe. The
Indians were at first victorious, but after several bloody encounters the
Southern warriors were driven across the
Savannah River (May, 1715), and halted not until they found refuge under the
Spanish guns at
St. Augustine.
The
Cherokees and their northern neighbors had not yet engaged in the war, and they wearily returned to their hunting-grounds, deeply impressed with a sense of the greatness and strength of the white people.
The first part of this excitement had just passed by, when the proprietors attempted to establish the Anglican Church ritual as the state method of worship in
South Carolina.
In 1704 the Provincial Assembly of
South Carolina passed an act for the establishment of the
Church of
England as the legal Church of the colony, and requiring all public officers to conform to its doctrine and ritual.
The province was divided into ten parishes, lands were granted for glebes and churchyards, and salaries, payable from the provincial treasury, were fixed and appointed for the rectors.
The regulation included the
French settlements on the
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Santee and the
Dutch settlement on the
Ashley.
Several churches were soon afterwards built.
A commission was appointed for the displacing of rectors and ministers of the churches.
A portion of the acts establishing the Anglican Church in
South Carolina were disapproved by some of the proprietors as well as by the people.
These acts were referred to the lords of trade and plantations, and
were declared void by the
Queen in 1705, but the Church party remained dominant.
French and Spanish war-vessels entered
Charleston Harbor with troops, to capture the province and annex it to the
Spanish domain of
Florida; but they were repulsed with great loss.
The proprietors appearing indifferent to the sufferings of the colonists, the people arose in their might in 1719, deposed the proprietary governor, and appointed
Colonel Moore governor of the colony.
This course was sustained by the crown, and in 1729 the
King of
England bought the two Carolinas for $80,000, and they became separate royal provinces.
From that time until the
French and Indian War the
general history of the Carolinas presented nothing very remarkable, excepting their brave efforts for defending the colonies against the Indians and Spaniards.
The
South Carolinians warmly sympathized with the patriotic movements in the
North preceding the
Revolutionary War. The royal governor (Lord Campbell) abdicated the government, and took refuge on board a British war-vessel, in September, 1775, when the government was administered by a provincial council.
A State constitution was first adopted March 26, 1776, and the national Constitution was ratified May 23, 1788.
Great political agitation existed in the
State from 1828 to 1833, there being strong
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opposition to the high tariff upon importations imposed by the national government.
Immediately after the Presidential election in 1832, a State convention met (November), and adopted unanimously a “nullification ordinance” (see
Jackson, Andrew;
nullification), which pronounced the tariff “null, void, and no law, nor binding on this State, its officers and citizens,” and prohibited the payment of duties on imports imposed by that law within the
State after Feb. 1, 1833.
It was declared that no appeal in the matter should be made to the Supreme Court of the
United States against the validity of an act of the legislature to that effect, and that, should the national government attempt to enforce the law thus nullified, or interfere with the foreign commerce of the
State, the people of
South Carolina would “hold themselves absolved from all further obligations to maintain or preserve their political connection with the people of the other States.”
This was an assertion of the doctrine of State supremacy pure and simple.
It was approved by the governor,
Robert Y. Hayne (q. v.) in his message to the legislature, and that body took measures to give practical effect to the ordinance.
President Jackson met the vital issue boldly and promptly, in a proclamation which made the nullifiers pause; and, during the ensuing session of Congress, a compromise tariff was passed, which allayed feeling and postponed civil war.
A more fatal political excitement began in
South Carolina in 1860, when
Abraham Lincoln was elected
President.
On the day of his election the legislature assembled at
Columbia, when joint resolutions of both Houses providing for a State convention to consider the withdrawal of the
State from the
Union were offered.
Some of the more cautious members counselled delay, and to wait for the co-operation of other States, but this advice was condemned by more zealous members.
“If we wait for co-operation,” said one of them, “slavery and State rights will be abandoned; State sovereignty and the cause of the
South lost forever.”
James Chestnut, then a member of the United States Senate, recommended immediate secession; and
W. W. Boyce, a member of the national House of Representatives, said, “I think the only policy for us is to arm as soon as we receive authentic intelligence of the election of
Lincoln.
It is for
South Carolina, in the quickest manner and by the most direct means, to withdraw from the
Union.”
In the course of the debate the fact came out that emissaries had already been sent from the
Southern States to
Europe to prepare the way for aid and recognition of the contemplated Southern Confederacy by foreign governments; and that
France had made propositions for the arrangement of such relations between that country and the government about to be established in
South Carolina as would insure to the former such a supply of cotton for the future as its increasing demand for that article would require.
On Nov. 12 the legislature passed an act authorizing a State convention.
That legislature also declared that a “sovereign State of the
Union had a right to secede from it; that the States of the
Union are not subordinate to the national government, were not created by it, and do not belong to it; that
they created the national government; that from them it derives its powers; that to them it is responsible; and that when it abuses the trust reposed in it they, as equal sovereigns, have a right to resume the powers respectively delegated to it by them.”
As soon as the legislature had authorized the convention, orators of every grade went out to harangue the people in all parts of
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the
State.
Every speech was burdened with complaints of “wrongs suffered by
South Carolina in the
Union.”
The organ of the
Confederates in
Charleston called upon all natives of
South Carolina in the army and navy to resign their commissions and join in the movement.
“The mother looks to her sons to protect her from outrage,” said this fiery newspaper (the Charleston
Mercury); “she is sick of the Union-disgusted with it upon any terms within the range of the widest possibility.”
This was responded to by the resignation of many South Carolinians; and the leaders in the movement declared that “not a son of that State would prove loyal to the old flag.”
They commended the course of
Lieut. J. R. Hamilton, a South Carolinian and member of the United States navy, who issued a circular letter to his “fellow-Southerners” in the marine service, expatiating much upon honor, and saying, “What the
South asks of you now is to
Bring with you every ship and man you can, that we may use them against the oppressors of our liberties and
the enemies of our aggravated but united people.”
Vigilance committees were organized to discover and suppress every opposition sentiment and movement in
South Carolina.
These committees, clothed with power, were called “guardians of Southern rights.”
Their officers possessed full authority to decide all questions brought before them, and their decision was “final and conclusive.”
Their patrols were authorized to arrest and bring before the committees all suspected white men, and to suppress all gatherings of negroes.
It was under such circumstances that the election of members of the convention was held, and the Charleston
Mercury was enabled to say to the officers of the army and navy natives of that State it was calling home, “You need have no more doubt of
South Carolina's going out of the
Union than of the world's turning round.
Every man that goes to the convention will be a pledged man—pledged for immediate separate State secession in any event whatever.”
This promise was uttered before the members of the convention had been chosen.
They were chosen Dec. 3, 1860.
They met at
Columbia on the 17th, and chose
David F. Jamison president.
The great prevalence of small-pox there caused the delegates to adjourn to
Charleston, where they proceeded at once to business.
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They chose several committees, one of which was to draft an ordinance of secession.
J. A. Inglis was chairman of that committee, and on Dec. 20 reported the
following ordinance: “We, the people of the
State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the 23d day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the
Constitution of the United States was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of the
State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, and the union now subsisting between
South Carolina and other States under the name of the
United States of America is hereby dissolved.”
This ordinance had been framed by
Robert B. Rhett some time before, and the committee to report it had been selected with
Mr. Inglis at its head.
The ordinance, reported at noon, Dec. 20, 1860, was adopted just forty-five minutes after it was submitted to the convention.
There was no debate, for every delegate was pledged to vote for it.
The 169 members of the convention were then assembled in St. Andrew's Hall, and it was agreed that at seven o'clock in the evening they should go in procession to Institute Hall and sign “the great act of deliverance and liberty.”
When the convention adjourned for dinner at 4 P. M. and went in regular procession from St. Andrew's Hall, they were cheered by the populace, and the chimes of St. Michael's Church pealed forth
Auld Lang Syne and other airs.
At seven o'clock they reassembled in the hall of the institute for the purpose of signing the ordinance.
It had been engrossed on parchment, twenty-five by thirty-three inches in size, with the great seal of
South Carolina attached.
The governor and his council and both branches of the legislature were present, and the hall was densely crowded with men and women of
Charleston.
Back of the president's chair was suspended a banner, composed of cotton cloth, with devices painted in water colors by a Charleston artist named
Alexander.
The base of the design was a mass of broken and disordered blocks of stone, on each of which were the name and arms of a free-labor State.
Rising from this mass were two columns of perfect and symmetrical blocks of stone, connected by an arch of the same material, on each of which, fifteen in number, were seen the name and coat of arms of a slave-labor State.
South Carolina formed the keystone of the arch, on which stood a statue of
Calhoun leaning upon a trunk of a palmetto-tree, and holding a scroll bearing the words “Truth, justice, and the
Constitution.”
On each side of the statue were allegorical figures of Faith and Hope.
Beyond each of these was a
North American Indian with a rifle.
In the space formed by the two columns and the arch was the device of the seal and flag of
South Carolina—a palmetto-tree, with a rattlesnake coiled around its trunk, and at its base a park of cannon and some emblems of State commerce.
On a ribbon fluttering from the body of the tree were the words “Southern republic.”
Over the whole design were fifteen stars in the segment of a circle.
Underneath all, in large letters, were the words “Built from the ruins.”
On each side of the platform on which the president sat was a real palmetto-tree.
After the signature of every member of the convention was affixed to the ordinance the venerable
Rev. Dr. Bachman advanced to the front of the platform and uttered a petition to Almighty God for his blessing and favor on the act. Then the president stepped forward, read and
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Banner of the South Carolina secession convention. |
exhibited the instrument to the people, and said, “The ordinance of secession has been signed, and I proclaim the
State of South Carolina an independent commonwealth.”
A great shout of exultation went up from the multitude.
As soon as the proclamation was made the civil officers resigned their places under the government of the
United States.
Judge McGrath, of the United States district court at
Charleston, said to the grand-jurors in his court, “For the last time, I have, as a judge of the
United States, administered the laws of the
United States within the limits of
South Carolina.
So far as I am concerned, the temple of justice raised under the
Constitution of the United States is now closed.”
Then, with solemn gravity, he laid aside his gown and retired.
At the same time the United States district attorney, the collector of the port of
Charleston, and the national sub-treas-
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urer resigned, and were followed by all the
civil officers of the
State.
On the day when the ordinance of secession was passed, the convention adopted a new banner for the “independent commonwealth.”
It was composed of
red and
blue silk, the former being the ground of the standard, and the latter, in the form of a cross, bearing fifteen stars.
The larger star was for
South Carolina.
In one upper corner was a white crescent moon, and in the other a palmetto-tree.
A small medal was also struck to commemorate the event.
On Dec. 21, 1860, the South Carolina convention appointed
Robert W. Barnwell,
James H. Adams, and
James L. Orr commissioners to proceed to
Washington to treat for the possession of the public property within the limits of their State.
They arrived in
Washington Dec. 26, and the day after their arrival they heard of the movement of
Maj. Robert Anderson (q. v.). On the 28th they addressed a formal diplomatic letter to the
President, drawn up by
Mr. Orr, informing him of their official authority to treat for the delivery, by the
United States, of all forts and other public property in
South Carolina to the authorities of that “sovereign State.”
They also furnished him with a copy of the ordinance of secession.
They urged the
President to immediately withdraw all the
National troops from
Charleston Harbor, because they were a “standing
menace.”
The President was highly offended by the arrogance of the commissioners, acting under the peculiar circumstances of the case, and the best friends of the country urged him to arrest them; but, soothed by his fears, he replied to them courteously (Dec. 30), and expressed a willingness to lay before Congress any proposition they might make.
To recognize their State as a foreign power would be usurpation on his part, and he should refer the whole matter to Congress.
He denied ever having made any agreement with members of Congress from
South Carolina to withhold reinforcements from the forts at
Charleston, or any pledge to do so, which William Porcher Miles asserted had been done.
He alluded to the seizure of the arsenal at
Charleston, and gave them to understand that he should defend
Fort Sumter. Two days later the commissioners replied
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to this, in a long and extremely insulting letter, in which they charged the
President with perfidy, and taunted him with dereliction of duty.
The President made no reply, but returned the letter to the commissioners endorsed— “This paper, just presented to the
President, is of such a character that he declines to receive it.”
See
Buchanan, James.
In April, 1861, citizens of
South Carolina attacked
Fort Sumter, and compelled its evacuation by National troops, and for about four years afterwards kept up a warfare upon the life of the republic.
At the close of the war a provisional governor was appointed (June 30, 1865) by the
President, and in September a State convention, at
Columbia, repealed the ordinance of secession, and declared slavery abolished.
In October
James L. Orr was chosen governor, with other State officers, and the government passed into their hands Dec. 25, 1865.
This government continued until superseded (March, 1867) by military government, South and
North Carolina being included in one military district.
On Jan. 14, 1868, at a convention composed of thirty-four white people and sixty-three colored, a constitution was adopted, which was ratified at an election in April, 1869, by a large majority.
Members of the legislature (72 white and 85 colored) and representatives in Congress were chosen.
Reorganization was practically completed on the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, by the withdrawal of the military authorities on July 13. 1868.
The legislature ratified the Fifteenth Amendment of the national Constitution March 11, 1869.
Population in 1890, 1,151,149; in 1900, 1,340,316.
See
United States,
South Carolina, in vol.
IX.
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The Dispensary law.
This was an act passed by the legislature in 1892, making the sale of intoxicating liquors a State monopoly.
It provided for a State board of control, who should purchase all intoxicating liquors allowed to be sold in the
State, and supply them to regularly appointed dispensers in each county.
Thus the traffic was to be carried on by regular State officers, and the entire profits were to go direct into the
State treasury.
The act restricted the sale of any kind of intoxicating liquors after July 1, 1893, to the
State dispensaries, and forbade sales to minors or known drunkards.
The law had scarcely been enacted when it met with fierce opposition throughout the
State.
Governor Tillman gave it hearty official support.
In 1894 the Supreme Court of the
State decided that the law was unconstitutional, but the legislature of 1893 modified the original act considerably, and the court sustained the law in this form.
In January, 1897, the United States Supreme Court decided that the section forbidding the importation of liquor into the
State by privated persons violated the inter-State commerce laws of Congress.
The other portions of the law have since been carried out with such success as to lead to the introduction of a similar measure in
North Carolina.
In 1899 the total receipts from the dispensary system, including a surplus from the previous year, were $1,638,939; the aggregate purchases made during the year, $1,158,081: the total disbursements, $1,495,818; and the
State treasury had a balance at the end of the year of $142,121. The total net profits were estimated at $500,000, and the dispensary board had a stock of liquor on hand valued at $500,000. The profits are divided between the
State, counties, cities, and towns, the share of the
State being applied to the public school funds.
The net profits of the
State in the seven years of the existence of the laws aggregated about $1,706,000.
