In 1687, under Governor Colleton, the endeavor to force the adoption of the Constitutions occasioned such contention between their lordships’ officers and the representatives of the people that no laws were passed for two years; and as all laws were limited to twenty-three months, there was in 1690 not one statute law in force in the colony. A new position was taken and with boldness. “The people having not, according to the royal charters, assented or approved of any fundamental constitutions in parliament, have unanimously declared that the government now is to be directed and managed wholly and solely according to said charters.” Their revolutionary spirit went still further. The representatives in Parliament denied “that any bill must necessarily pass the grand council before it be read in parliament.” They maintained this position, and in consequence were dissolved. The Proprietors instructed their favorite, Landgrave Colleton, brother of one of themselves, to call no more parliaments “unless some very extraordinary occasion should require it.” Colleton proclaimed martial law. The Proprietors thought he did right. In his arrogance, he imprisoned a clergyman and fined him £100 for preaching what he considered a seditious sermon. The Proprietors thought it best to remit the fine. The people, however, raised a cry against his “illegal, tyrannical, and oppressive way of government.” Fortunately for him, Seth Sothel, a Proprietor by purchase of Clarendon’s share, arrived,—having been turned out of North Carolina by its assembly,—and assumed control of affairs in the more southern colony, and acted pretty much as he pleased, till he was turned out of his new position by his colleagues in London. The Proprietors, by their aristocratic folly, had kept the people continually studying and maintaining their rights. A new policy began, about this time, in England,—to revoke proprietary charters. The spirit, too, of the colonists, demanded from the Proprietors some conciliatory concession. Yet it cannot but appear a triumph for the people, and not a good-will concession, when “the true and absolute” lords wrote to the Grand Council (1691), almost in the words which they had written to Andrew Percival and to the provincial authorities,—as if they wished to make an emphatic apology,—that there had been “no alteration made in any of the Constitutions, but for the greater security of the people of Carolina from oppression, either by ourselves or our officers, as any one that will please to peruse the several alterations may plainly perceive; the last in date still bounding our own power most, and putting more into the hands of the people.” But they were forced soon—and it must have been with some little feeling of vexation—to acknowledge the failure of their Grand Model, and to write to their next governor, Ludwell (who could not conciliate the “factious” assembly), that they now thought it best for themselves and the colonists to govern by all the powers of the charter; but that they would part with no power till the people were disposed to be more orderly. This was written to Ludwell; but to the public it was at last definitely announced “that as the people have declared they would rather be governed by the powers granted by the charter without regard to the Fundamental Constitutions, it will be for their quiet and the protection of the well-disposed to grant their request.” The Proprietors, however, still held to the Constitutions as a compact among themselves and as a regulation of their mutual interests; and even endeavored once more to tempt the people to adopt some part of them in the fifth set, reduced to 41 Articles. They were then laid aside entirely.
The assembly (we shall no longer call them parliament), not yet aware of the action of the Proprietors, prepared a summary of grievances: that the latest form of conveying land was not satisfactory; that courts ought to be regulated by laws made by the assent of the people; that the representatives of the people are too few in the assembly and not appointed according to the charter; that the power of enacting necessary laws should not be obstructed; that the application of the laws of England to the province ought not to be by authority of a Palatine Court (established by their lordships), but such laws are applicable of their own force, or are to be so by act of the assembly; that the powers of the assembly and the validity of their enactments are not to be judged by inferior courts, but by the next succeeding General Assembly; that martial law should not be resorted to except in case of rebellion, tumult, sedition, or invasion; that there should be more commoners in the council; that the deputies of the Proprietors were forbidden to confirm a certain set of laws (necessary at times for the immediate welfare of the people) until their lordships’ assent should be given, which could not be known in the province “in less time than one year, sometimes two,” and they do not conceive the Patent of Carolina gives any such powers to their lordships.
There was a further principle announced by the people: that the Proprietors could send what “instructions” they pleased, but they certainly could never have intended that they should have the force of statute laws without the assent and approbation of the people, except in such matters as wholly belonged to their direction according to the charter. With so intelligent and progressive a people to control, the almost impotent “absolute lords” on the other side of the Atlantic might well have written to Ludwell as they did to Morton, “Are you to govern the people, or the people you?” Yet a further signal triumph for the people was at hand. The Proprietors had already seen fit to modify their rule that the assembly of the people should neither debate nor vote on any matter except what the Grand Council should propose to them; but their modification at that time amounted to very little, namely, that if a necessary law was delayed by the council, and “the majority of the grand juries of the counties” presented the matter for legislation, then only might “any of the chambers” take cognizance of it. It was now the good fortune of Governor Smith,[753] successor to Ludwell, to announce that “the Proprietors have consented that the proposing power for the making of laws, which was heretofore lodged in the governor and council only, is now given to you as well as the present council.”[754] Henceforth the assembly claimed the privileges and usages of the House of Commons in England.
COOPER AND ASHLEY RIVERS.
[This is a side-map in a large folding one called A new map of Carolina, by Philip Lea, at the Atlas and Hercules, in Cheapside, London. Courtenay considers it to be of a date before 1700. There is a fac-simile of the whole in Charleston Year Book, 1883. For the associations and landmarks of these rivers see C. F. Woolson’s “Up the Ashley and Cooper,” in Harper’s Monthly, Dec., 1875; and P. D. Hay’s “Relics of Old South Carolina,” in Appleton’s Journal, xix. 498. In the Charleston Year Book (1883) there is a large map, showing the town and the early farms on the west bank of the Ashley; the present site of the city up to near the Clements’ Ferry road, with all lines of fortifications and historic points. Cf. W. G. Simms’ “Description of Charleston,” in Harper’s Monthly, June, 1857.
Moll’s map of South Carolina (1730) is given in fac-simile in Cassell’s United States, i. 439.—Ed.]
When there was no longer any reasonable expectation for the adoption of the Grand Model of government, a carefully prepared set of Instructions, in 43 Articles, became the rules for the colony, all former Instructions and Temporary Laws being abrogated, except such as related to lands. These rules continued as long as the Proprietors owned the province. It is not necessary to explain them. They were for the interest of their lordships; simple enough, but establishing a proprietary oligarchy. The Palatine and three other Proprietors, and, in the colony, the governor and three other deputies, constituted the governing power, with, apparently, a complete check upon the representatives of the people. The people could not complain if their lordships carried out what they wrote to Ludwell, that “they would part with no power” conferred on them by the charter “till the people were disposed to be more orderly;” for the people had demanded to be governed solely by the charter. The prominent question now would be: Do their lordships properly interpret and apply the powers granted them in the charter?
But fresh political subjects engaged attention: the tenure of lands, naturalization of the French Huguenots, payment of quit-rents, now for some years due, the jury laws, and that relating to elections. Governor Smith lost courage; he could be no champion for their lordships against his friends and neighbors. The only way out of the difficulties occasioned by the maladministration of the Proprietors was that some Proprietor should be sent over “with full power” to heal all grievances. This plan was adopted. The grandson of Earl Shaftesbury was appointed, but declined to come. A pious, benevolent Quaker came, John Archdale, whose policy was a smiling patience, but a strict requisition of every penny that was due to the “true and absolute lords” of the province,—himself among them. He thought his patience would, as he expressed it, allay their heats. But this could only be done by concessions. He yielded to their request to have thirty representatives in the assembly. He also remitted, after a struggle, arrears of quit-rents to Michaelmas, 1695, on condition that the remaining debts were secured, rents for the future strictly provided for, and the town fortified by taxation. Some political advancement was gained by the assembly;[755] the repeal of any law not infringing on the rights of the Crown or of the Proprietors, or relating to land, was not to be made without the consent of the General Assembly. The council, too, was so constituted by the pious Quaker as to be more in harmony with the dissenters. But he seemed to fear that he might be prevailed upon to grant too much, and appointing his friend, Joseph Blake, in his place, hastened away (1696). He lived to see the peace and tranquillity vanish which he hoped he had firmly established. Two years later the “House of Commons” petitioned (among other things) for the privilege of coining; and for the removal of duties on the chief exports from the colony. They also prayed that no more than 1,000 acres be in future granted in one piece; that an authenticated copy of the charter be sent them; and that the colonial authorities have power to repeal laws (if expedient to do so) which had been confirmed by the Proprietors: and though some of these things (they said) were beyond their lordships’ power to grant, their interest with the king was great enough to secure them for their colonists. Their lordships, as might have, been expected, were astonished that Blake, himself a Proprietor,[756] should allow such an address to be issued,—a precedent for so much future evil.