The century now closed. Governor Blake died in 1700. As required under the 43 Articles, the deputies elected a Landgrave to succeed Blake, till the Proprietors could be heard from. At first they chose Morton. He was set aside afterwards by the council, as were all the Landgraves in the colony, and Colonel James Moore, a deputy, appointed. This competition gave origin, for the first time in the history of the colony, to what may be denominated party strife. Besides Moore, several able leaders now appeared,—among them, Major Daniel, Colonel William Rhett, and Sir Nathaniel Johnson; while to Nicholas Trott the foremost place must be assigned for distinguished learning and ability. On his arrival he espoused the popular cause; but with numerous offices and honors bestowed upon him by the Proprietors, he and his brother-in-law, Colonel Rhett, became their zealous champions. These able men so largely influenced their lordships that at a word from them governors and councils were sometimes set at naught.
At the opening of the new century, we must cease to look upon South Carolina as the home of indigent emigrants, struggling for subsistence. While numerous slaves cultivated the extensive plantations, their owners, educated gentlemen, and here and there of noble families in England, had abundant leisure for social intercourse, living as they did in proximity to each other, and in easy access to Charles Town, where the governor resided, the courts and legislature convened, and the public offices were kept. The road that led up from the fortified town between the two broad rivers so enchanted Governor Archdale that he believed no prince in Europe, with all his art, could make a walk for the whole year round so pleasant and beautiful. From the road, to the right and to the left, avenues of water-oaks in mossy festoons, and in spring-time redolent with jasmines, gave the passer-by glimpses of handsome residences, from whose spacious verandas could be seen on the east the beautiful waters of the Bay, on the west the Ashley River. Hospitality, refinement, and literary culture distinguished the higher class of gentlemen.[757]
Governor Moore and his party gained control of the council by filling vacancies with those of whose good-will they were assured. But they ineffectually sought, by every means in their power, to elect a majority of assembly-men in their interest. Even violence was resorted to, and some estimable gentlemen, opponents of the party in power, were set upon and maltreated in the streets. The assembly resolved to investigate the abuses at the election, and were, therefore, prorogued from time to time; and it was reported that martial law would be proclaimed. When at last the assembly convened, they began with recriminations. If the public welfare had required their counsels, why had the governor, through pique, prorogued them? And was it true that he designed to menace them with coercion? “Oh! how is that sacred word Law profaned when joined with Martial! Have you forgotten your Honor’s own noble endeavor to vindicate our liberties when Colleton set up this arbitrary rule?”[758] But further disputation was averted. The governor had planned a secret and sudden attack on St. Augustine. The assembly joined in the scheme. They requested him to go as commander instead of Colonel Daniel, whom he nominated. They voted £2,000; and thought ten vessels and 350 men, with Indian allies, would be a sufficient force. The doors are closed. Men, and even women, who had been to St. Augustine, are interrogated concerning its defences. An embargo is laid on the shipping in the harbor. Moore with about 400 men sets sail, and Daniel with 100 Carolina troops and about 500 Yemassee Indians march by land. But the inhabitants of St. Augustine had heard of their coming, and had sent to Havana for reinforcements. Retreating to their castle, they abandoned the town to Colonel Daniel, who pillaged it before Moore’s fleet arrived. Governor Moore and Colonel Daniel united their forces and laid siege to the castle; but they lacked the necessary artillery for its reduction, and were compelled to send to Jamaica for it. Unfortunately the agent sent put back to Charles Town, and the governor sent Colonel Daniel himself to Jamaica. Before he returned, two Spanish ships appeared off St. Augustine. Moore instantly burned the town and all his own ships, and hastened back by land. Colonel Daniel, coming from Jamaica with the artillery, narrowly escaped the Spanish ships, and was convoyed to Charles Town by an English man-of-war which he met at sea. The expense entailed on the colony was £6,000.
When this attack on St. Augustine was planned, it must have been anticipated in the colony that war would be declared against Spain and France. The impending danger to South Carolina, a frontier to Spanish Florida, induced the Proprietors to appoint as governor the soldierly Sir Nathaniel Johnson (June, 1702). James Moore was made receiver-general; Nicholas Trott, attorney-general; Job Howes, surveyor-general; and Rhett, Broughton, and other men of ability, adhering to the government in its hour of peril, increased thereby the power of the dominant party. Colonel Moore, being sent out by Johnson (December, 1703) with fifty Carolinians and one thousand Indians, ravaged the country of the Apalatchees, allies of the Spaniards, and utterly defeated them and a body of Spanish troops that came to their assistance. Three years later, in August, when yellow fever was prevalent and five or six deaths a day, in the small population of Charles Town, was not a rare occurrence, a French fleet of five vessels under Le Feboure, aided by the Spanish governor at Havana, suddenly appeared off the harbor. Troops were disembarked at several points. A council of war was held, and the Carolinians determined to go out and meet the enemy. Colonel Rhett, Captains Fenwicke, Cantey, Watson, and others, with many gentlemen as volunteers, defeated the invaders, and brought 230 French and Spanish prisoners into town. Thus perished the first attempt to take Charles Town by a naval force, a feat which never yet has been accomplished. The governor, handsomely rewarded by the Proprietors, thanked the troops for their valor and their unanimity at a time when violent estrangements existed between political parties in the colony.
We must now revert to 1704, and relate the occasion of these estrangements. The governor and dominant faction favored Episcopacy. Lord Granville, the new Palatine, was an uncompromising zealot for the Church of England. It was determined to establish that Church in South Carolina. This was not contrary to the charter; but most of the colonists were dissenters, and it would be useless at that juncture to endeavor to win over a majority of the assembly to the support of such a project. The assembly stood prorogued to the 10th of May. They were summoned earlier; and on the 4th a bill was proposed and read, requiring “all persons that shall hereafter be chosen members of the Commons House of Assembly, and sit in the same, to take the oaths and subscribe the declaration appointed by this bill, and to conform to the religious worship of this Province, according to the Church of England, and to receive the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper according to the rites of said Church.”[759] Some of the members called for the reading of the charter: but the opposition was soon overcome; the bill passed and was ordered to the governor and council, who passed it and returned it to the House; Landgrave Morton, of the council, being denied leave to enter his protest against it. It was pushed through the requisite proceedings and ratified under date of the 6th. It was passed by one majority,—twelve for it and eleven against it; seven members being absent. Some who voted in the negative are said to have been Episcopalians. The assembly was then prorogued till October. It was required by this law that in case a representative elected refused to qualify as directed, the next on the sheriff’s return should be entitled to the seat, or the next, and so on till the list was exhausted; then only should a new writ be issued. The effect was not only to exclude dissenters, but ten men could elect a member against the votes of a thousand. Another tyrannical abuse of party power was exhibited in an Act establishing Religious Worship (passed on the reassembling of the Commons), which authorized a lay commission for the trial of ecclesiastical causes. Dalcho says in his Church History, that they “were authorized to sit in the judgment-seat of spiritual officers, and thus to wrest the ecclesiastical authority out of the hands of the Bishop of London.” This gave offence to Churchmen. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, by whose liberality the colony had been greatly benefited, resolved not to send or support any missionaries in South Carolina, till the law, or at least that clause of it, should be repealed. The dissenters, already elected members of assembly, were not allowed (on reassembling in October) to enter their protests against the conduct of the Church party. The Rev. Mr. Marston was called to account by the commission and deprived of his benefice, for opposing the action of the oligarchy. But the case was carried to a higher tribunal, the House of Lords in England. Upon an able representation of the matter, redress having been refused by the Proprietors (under lead of Granville), a report was made to the queen, which caused the annulment of these two provincial laws. Nor was this all; the Board of Trade recommended the annulment of the proprietary charter (April, 1706). Since the accession of James II. there had been a disposition in the English authorities to revoke the charters to companies or individuals, and bring all the American colonies into a closer dependence on the Crown. Though the surrender of the Carolina charter was not on this occasion effected, yet it was manifest to the colony that an authority more potent than that of their lordships was interested in their welfare.
Lord Granville was succeeded in the Palatinate by Lord William Craven, and Colonel Edward Tynte was made governor. The once dominant faction, which had been transmuted, said Archdale, by Johnson’s “chemical wit, zeal, and art” into a High Church party, now fell asunder. Much attention had been awakened in England to the fortunes of the colony by the publications of Archdale and of Oldmixon and the “Case of the Protestant Dissenters;” and Governor Tynte entered upon his duties with kindly assurances and the wish to “render Carolina the most flourishing colony in all America.” He did not live long, and Colonel Charles Craven, brother of the Palatine, and previously an officer in the colony, was appointed in his place (December, 1710). Since the days of Joseph West, “moderate, just, pious, valiant” (says Archdale), no man more capable and beloved than Charles Craven had governed South Carolina. A sentence from an address of his to the Commons (April, 1712) shows the spirit of his administration. However great the honor of this office might be, “yet I shall look on it as a greater glory if, with your assistance, I could bring to pass so noble designs as the safety of this province, the advancement of its riches, and, what is more desirable” than riches, the unanimity and quiet of its people. “To what a prodigious height hath the united provinces risen in less than a century of years, to be able to create fear in some, envy in others, and admiration in the whole world!” The people, aroused by the expectation or apparent reality of their increasing importance, voted £1,500 for the erection of a State House and £1,000 for a residence for the governor. Unparliamentary altercations gave place to a generous emulation for the public welfare. The governor expressed the “greatest tenderness” towards all dissenters and assured them that nothing should ever be done by him injurious to their liberties. Though the law excluding them from the assembly was repealed, yet the Episcopal party retained ascendency and the public support of the Church (by a new Church Act) was continued. The parish system was inaugurated, and the representatives were increased to thirty-six. The turbulence of elections at Charles Town gave place to unmolested elections in the respective parishes. Libraries and a free school were open to all, and religious and educational advancement was promoted. Under Craven’s prosperous administration, it even seemed likely that the public debt would be liquidated, which had begun with the unlucky expedition against St. Augustine. But fresh expenditures were demanded in assisting North Carolina in her conflicts with the Tuscaroras; and scarcely had Barnwell and Moore rested from that campaign, when the most disastrous Indian war that South Carolina ever had to encounter broke suddenly upon her unsuspecting inhabitants. The Yemassees had been employed against the Apalatchees, and, at a later date, against the Tuscaroras. Being enticed by the Spaniards, whom their chiefs often visited, and being largely in debt to the English traders and irritated by their oppressive misconduct, they turned their experience in war against those who had taught them to fight, and, hoping for help from St. Augustine, began an indiscriminate slaughter on the line of settlements westward from Charles Town. Knowing the colonists to be formidable opponents, they had allured into conspiracy with them other Indian nations, notably the Creeks. So wide-spread was the combination formed that the governor asked assistance from other colonies. North Carolina in response sent aid under Colonel Maurice Moore (brother of James Moore), a friendly service which was gratefully appreciated and acknowledged by the assembly. But “expedition is the life of action,” said Craven; and not awaiting assistance, he fought the foe at once, and Colonel Mackay, in another direction, surprised their town, in which they had vast quantities of provisions and plunder, and attacking a fort to which they had betaken themselves carried it by assault and completely routed them. This effectually checked the Yemassees, and dispirited the tribes engaged to assist them. The assembly met, and, despatching such business as was necessary, adjourned to take up their muskets. All available forces were raised and placed under command of Lieutenant-General James Moore and Colonels John Barnwell and Alexander Mackay. The Yemassees, though joined by the Apalatchees, were forced beyond the Savannah, and took up their residence in Florida. We have not space to narrate the heart-rending or romantic incidents of this contest. The Yemassees had acted prematurely; otherwise the disasters to the colony would have been far greater. Many lives were lost (estimated at 400), an immense amount of cattle, produce, and other valuable property destroyed, and it was said that the traders alone lost £10,000 in debts due them. But the invincibility of the colonists was so forcibly impressed upon the minds of the Indians that they entered into no more combinations, and never again, except in straggling parties, penetrated to the vicinity of the fortified English settlements.
On account of the death of Sir Anthony Craven, the governor returned to England, leaving Colonel Robert Daniel to be deputy (1716) till the arrival of Robert Johnson (son of Sir Nathaniel), who was appointed to succeed him. At this time the French were extending their cordon of forts from Canada down to Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, and courting the alliance of the Indians who dwelt on the outskirts of the whole line of English colonies. In view of these new dangers and of the deserted condition of the westward parishes of the colony, the Carolinians were compelled to keep up garrisons and troops of rangers from the Santee to the Savannah. The expense of defending themselves and their great losses in the recent Indian war caused an application to the Proprietors for relief. Lord Carteret, Palatine in place of the Duke of Beaufort (who, before, had offered on his part to give up the colony rather than have it in need of adequate relief and protection), wrote to the Board of Trade, “We, the Proprietors, having met on this melancholy occasion, to our great grief find that we are utterly unable of ourselves to afford our colony suitable assistance in this conjuncture; and unless his majesty will graciously please to interpose, we can foresee nothing but the utter destruction of his majesty’s faithful subjects in those parts.” The board asked if such of the Proprietors as were not minors were “willing to surrender the government to the king.” There was no king upon the throne now gratefully sensible of the distinguished services of a Clarendon, Monk, Berkeley, Carteret, or Craven. It was not, on the other hand, the influences of a Danson, Amy, Blake, or even the descendants of the original Proprietors, that formed a barrier to the manifest interests of the whole British nation; but it was the admirable love of justice in the rulers of England that saved to the Proprietors the lavish gift of Charles II., even after their confession of utter inability to help their colonists. It was evident, however, that the termination of the proprietary authority must come. The colonists made it come. We shall now relate how this was done.
The assembly had been forced to issue bills of credit; at first to meet the debts incurred by Moore’s expedition against St. Augustine. This easy method of making money was continued, and of course the bills depreciated. The London merchants complained, and the bills were ordered to be called in and cancelled. To do this required £80,000. This large sum the assembly undertook to pay in three years by a tax on the lands and negroes of the colonists. Before this could be effected the colonial income, applicable to other expenses, was reduced by a royal order to cease the tax of ten per cent on importations of British manufactures; and at the same time an expensive expedition became necessary to suppress the pirates who infested the coasts, and at times seized every ship leaving the harbor of Charles Town. If the Proprietors were unwilling “to expend their English estates to support much more precarious ones in America,”[760] whom were the colonists to ask for aid, except the king? When Governor Johnson met his first assembly, he inveighed against addresses sent to England without consulting the Proprietors as “disrespectful,” “unjustifiable and impolitic.” He then offered the distressed colonists a “donative” from their lordships of a small remission of quit-rents. The assembly declined the donative. They instructed their committee “to touch slightly (but not by way of argument or submission) on what the last two assemblies have done heretofore in addressing his majesty to take this province under his protection.” The governor was anxious they should accept the donative; and equally anxious they should, in return, order a rent-roll for the benefit of the Proprietors. He said, “As the assembly is to pass wholesome laws even to private persons, much more to the Lords Proprietors, who are our masters.” The assembly replied, “We cannot but approve of your honor’s care of their lordships’ interest, who are, as you say, your masters.” “If you look over their charters,” was the answer, “you will find them to be your masters likewise.” (December, 1717.)