Nevertheless, the Orange Free State accepted the situation philosophically and, outwardly, continued on friendly terms with the British government until the outbreak of war between that power and the Africanders of the Transvaal in 1899. [[148]]
CHAPTER X.
THIRD CONTACT OF AFRICANDER AND BRITON—IN THE TRANSVAAL.
The aggressive policy of the British, which had served to widen and deepen the breach between them and the Africanders of the Free State, was felt in the Transvaal Republic, also, and led to an open rupture in 1880. It will be necessary to trace somewhat carefully the conditions and events which brought on that conflict.
The Africanders who had settled beyond the Vaal River were of a ruder sort than their brethren of the Orange River district. Moreover, the reckless, unprincipled, and even criminal classes were attracted to the Transvaal from various parts of South Africa, seeking freedom from the restraints experienced under the stricter government prevailing in the British colonies. These occasioned much scandal, and provoked many conflicts with the Kaffirs by their lawlessness and violence along the border and in the wilder districts of the territory. [[149]]
The farmers of the Vaal in a general way considered themselves one people, but had become grouped in several districts separated by considerable distances. Thus, in 1852, there were four separate communities—Potchefstroom, Utrecht, Lyndenburg, and Zoutspansberg, each having its volksraad and president. There was no co-ordinate action of the whole for internal administration and public improvement, but for defense against the natives there was a sort of federative union—more a matter of mutual understanding and consent than of loyalty to a formal written document. That there was occasional independent action by a single community in reference to outside matters is evident from the invasion of the Orange Free State by the people of the Potchefstroom district in 1857, under the leadership of Mr. Pretorius. The object was to conquer the Free State, and was abandoned only when it was found that the young sister republic was disposed and prepared to defend itself. This invasion resulted in a treaty by which the independence, boundaries and mutual obligations of the two republics were fully defined and recognized.
In 1858 a single volksraad was chosen for all the four districts north of the Vaal, and the [[150]]“Grondwet” on Fundamental Law—an instrument in the nature of a federal constitution—was prepared by delegates specially elected for that purpose. This was adopted at once by Potchefstroom and Zoutspansberg. In 1860 Lyndenburg and Utrecht followed their example. Although it has been contended that the “Grondwet” is not to be regarded as a fixed constitution, like that of the United States of America, the people of the Transvaal have looked upon it as a sufficient federative bond for the union of the four semi-independent districts in one nationality. The practical union of all was delayed, however, by a civil war which broke out in 1862, and had a most disastrous influence on the future of the country.
This internal strife grew out of the election of the president of the Transvaal Republic, the younger Pretorius, to the presidency of the Orange Free State. It was hoped by his partisans in both republics that the dual presidency would help to bring about the desired union of the Free State and the Transvaal under one government. While Mr. Pretorius was absent in the Free State, on a six months’ leave granted by the volksraad of the Transvaal, a faction hostile to him began to protest against this double dignity [[151]]being enjoyed by any one man, and to argue that the advantages of union would be largely with the Free State. Hostility to Mr. Pretorius grew apace until it was strong enough to get a resolution passed in the volksraad forbidding him to perform any executive act north of the Vaal during the six months of his stay in the Free State, and requiring him to give an account of his proceedings at the expiration of his leave.
On the 10th of September, 1860, Mr. Pretorius appeared before the volksraad of the Transvaal, accompanied by a commission from the Free State appointed to ask for a further leave of absence for the president, and to further the interests of union. When Pretorius offered to give an account of his proceedings as president of the Free State, the opposition raised the point that it was manifestly illegal for any one to be president of the Transvaal Republic and of the Orange Free State at the same time, for it was provided in their constitution that during his term of office the president should follow no other occupation, and Mr. Pretorius was pressed to resign one office or the other.