The assembly elected Colonel Brewton powder-receiver. The governor, as military chief, required the assembly to order forthwith the keys to be delivered to Major Blakeway, whom he had commissioned. The House refused. The governor offered a compromise: “My officer shall keep the magazines and give receipts to your officer for all powder delivered into his keeping.” “What is the use,” replied the House, “of a powder-receiver who does not keep the powder?” “But I insist upon keeping it,” said the governor, “for I am his majesty the king’s lieutenant.” He soon saw an advertisement by the House, signed by their Speaker, declaring their right to appoint “all officers who receive a settled salary out of the public treasury of this province,” and to “put out, call to account, and put in place,” at discretion, all such officers; and commanding, under penalty, the powder-tax to be paid by all ships to the officer elected by the assembly.
The people, however, were fond of Governor Johnson. They did not always harmonize with strangers sent over to govern them. But Johnson was almost one of themselves, and they admired him for his conspicuous bravery. He had gone personally in pursuit of the pirate Worley, and after a desperate encounter brought in alive only the chief and one of his crew, they having been smitten down with dangerous wounds; and he had immediately caused them to be tried and executed. At this time, too, Colonel Rhett had captured Bonnet, pursuing him into Cape Fear River, and brought him and about thirty of his crew to Charles Town, for speedy execution. The people knew that the governor was in duty bound to promote the cause of the Proprietors. But some of his adherents they justly regarded with ill-will. There had been, as before mentioned, a change, very acceptable to the people, in the mode of electing their representatives. Trott and Rhett had had great control in elections while the ballot was in Charles Town; and the former had been writing to their lordships against the new method of election by parishes. To the surprise of the governor and of all but Trott, orders came from London to disallow that method, to dissolve the assembly, and to summon another to be chosen by the old method; to repeal also the act for electing the powder-receiver, and other laws, such as that for the rehabitation of the Yemassee lands by bringing over Irish settlers to live there, which the people deemed of great importance to the welfare of the colony.[761] The argument was, with their lordships, What right have the assembly to alter anything determined by us? It is true our deputies sanctioned these laws; but we are not bound by what our deputies do, being ourselves the head and source of legislative power in our colony. The people thought, on the other hand, that an enactment by the assembly ratified by the governor and council, the appointed agents of the Proprietors, should not be set aside by the mere whim of a few persons on the other side of the Atlantic, or by the dictation of a man like Nicholas Trott. This gentleman had now to confront the long-delayed denunciation of Whittaker, Allein, and other prominent lawyers, who had for years endured his arrogance and tyranny in court. Thirty-one articles of complaint against him were presented to the assembly, and by them communicated to the governor and council. They knew the allegations to be well founded, and united with the assembly in requesting the Proprietors to restrict their favorite’s power. It had even been ordered from London that no quorum of the council should sanction a law unless Trott was one of the quorum. For a time, too, the whole judicial power was in his hands. Francis Yonge, a member of the council, deputy of Lord Carteret, and surveyor-general, was deputed, with suitable instructions, to proceed to London and confer with the Proprietors (May, 1719). Lord Carteret was absent on an embassy. The others kept Mr. Yonge waiting, without conference, for three months; then sent him back with sealed orders. In fact, some of the Proprietors were minors; others lived away from London; the few who exercised authority left many matters to their secretary: and thus, says Yonge, “a whole province was to be governed by the caprice of one man.” If the secretary managed the Proprietors, Trott and Rhett managed him. When the sealed orders were opened, it was found that Chief Justice Trott was thanked, the governor reprimanded, his brother-in-law, Colonel Broughton, turned out of the council, together with Alexander Skene and James Kinloch; Mr. Yonge alone being permitted to remain, in courtesy to the absent Palatine (Carteret) whose deputy he was. A new council was appointed, and the governor again ordered to dissolve the assembly and call a new one under the old method of election.
The deputies excluded from the council and other prominent gentlemen now became active among the people. The arguments they used must have been: Have not the Proprietors, spurning all appeals, protected a tyrannical judge, and continued him in power over the lives and property of the people? Have they not refused to part with an acre of their immense uncultivated domains for public use in supporting the garrisons? Have they not obstructed our efforts to bring an increase of settlers here for the strengthening of our frontiers, and divided out the land, by thousands of acres, for their own emolument? To foster the power of a few favorites, have they not annulled our laws for the equitable representation of the people by fair and peaceful elections? Have they helped the colony in its distress, beat back the Spaniards, resisted the invasion of the French, suppressed the pirates, or quelled at any time an Indian horde? Can they now, masters as they claim to be, protect us in any emergency? And if, after all these provocations, we choose to rebel and throw off their vaunted absolutism, where are their forces to check our revolt? Will King George, our sovereign, to whom we appeal for protection, furnish them with an army to reduce us to submission? Influenced by such sentiments, the people came again to the polls at Charles Town, to elect their last assembly under the proprietary government. Mr. Yonge, who was there, tells us, “Mr. Rhett and Mr. Trott found themselves mistaken, in fancying they could influence the elections when in town, so as to have such members chosen as they liked, for it proved quite the contrary; they could not get so much as a man chosen that they desired. The whole people in general were prejudiced against the Lords Proprietors to such a degree that it was grown almost dangerous to say anything in their favor.”
It happened at this conjuncture that war was again declared by England against Spain, and an attack from Havana was in preparation either on Charles Town or the island of Providence. Advices being sent to the colony, the governor called together the council and such members elect of the assembly as he could collect, to provide for repairing the fortifications; and as the recent repeals had left him without adequate funds, he proposed an immediate voluntary subscription. The members of the assembly whom he consulted told him the duties provided by law would suffice. “But the Act raising these duties is repealed by the Proprietors.” They replied, “They did not and would not look on their repeal as anything,” and dispersed to their homes. The governor then ordered a muster of all the provincial troops. This afforded an admirable opportunity for a complete combination. An association of leading citizens was secretly formed; the people assembled at the muster; they almost unanimously signed the resolutions submitted to them by the association, and agreed to support whatever measures they should adopt. The first notice the governor had of these proceedings was a letter signed by Mr. Skene, Colonel Logan, and Major Blakeway (28th November), telling him the whole province had entered into an agreement “to stand by their rights and privileges, and to get rid of the oppression and arbitrary dealings of the Lords Proprietors,” and inviting him to hold his office in behalf of the king. The members elect of the assembly, in the mean while, held private conferences and matured their plans.
On meeting at the time required by their writs (December 17), they waited upon the governor, as was customary; and Mr. Middleton, in their name, informed him that they did not look upon his present council as a legal one (the Proprietors having appointed twelve members, instead of seven, the usual number of deputies), and would not act with them as a legal council. Anticipating, it appears, a dissolution, they had resolved themselves into a convention, delegated by the people, and passed resolutions so revolutionary in character as to alarm the governor and his few adherents, who resorted to every menace and means of persuasion without moving the assembly or convention from their fixed purposes. The governor, therefore, issued a proclamation dissolving them. The proclamation was torn from the marshal’s hands; and the convention issued a proclamation, in their own names, ordering all officers, civil and military, to hold their offices till further orders from them. Having failed to win Johnson to their interest, they elected their own governor, Colonel James Moore.
Johnson, who had gone up to his plantation, hearing that the people intended to proclaim Moore governor in the king’s name, hastened back and used every effort to prevent it. But he found the militia drawn up, colors flying at the forts and on all the ships in the harbor, drums beating, and every preparation made for proclaiming the new governor. An eye-witness says it would be tedious to tell all the frantic ex-governor did. But the leaders of the revolution had sent Mr. Lloyd to keep with him under pretence of friendship and adherence, and prevent any rash action on his part. The troops began their march, inspirited by patriotic harangues, and escorted the members of the convention to the fort: where, by the united acclamations of the people, James Moore was proclaimed governor of South Carolina in the name of the king of England (December 21, 1719).
A council of twelve was chosen, as in other colonies under the royal government; and the convention then resumed its functions as a legislative assembly, and proceeded to enact such laws as the state of the province required. They addressed a letter to the Board of Trade explanatory of their action, and their agent in England (Mr. Boone, with whom also Colonel Barnwell was sent to act) laid before the king an account of the misrule of the Proprietors and implored his protection. Johnson and the Proprietors were equally active, and the decision of the English government was anxiously awaited by both parties. During nearly a year such anxiety continued; and as the clergy in the province were unwilling to perform the marriage ceremony without, as previously, a license from Johnson as governor, and a large number of people followed his advice and example in not paying taxes until executions were issued against them, he supposed he had a party ready to reinstate him. But it was not till he received aid from the crews of several English men-of-war that he formed a plan of seizing the government. The Spanish fleet (to resist which the people had been mustered) had not come to Charlestown, but had gone to the island of Providence, and had been there repulsed by Governor Rogers. The “Flamborough,” Captain Hildesley, and “Phœnix,” Captain Pearce, arrived in Charlestown harbor in May, 1721; and chiefly, it appears, by the advice of Hildesley, Johnson appeared in arms with about 120 men, mostly sailors from the “Flamborough,” and marched against the forts, whose garrisons were obeying the orders of Governor Moore. The forts opened fire upon them. Whereupon, Captain Pearce was deputed by Johnson, together with some of his council, to negotiate with the revolutionists. They refused to negotiate; for they knew from their agents that the regency in England had determined to protect the colony, and that General Francis Nicholson had been appointed provisional royal governor. Johnson requested to see the orders of the regency and the despatches from the agents. As soon as he read them, he disbanded his men and gave up all opposition to the existing government. Nicholson’s commission is dated 26th September, 1720. He arrived in the colony 23d May, 1721, and was gladly received by Governor Moore, the assembly, and the people. The revolution was now complete; although the surrender of the proprietary charter, for such a sum of money as was finally agreed upon, was not effected till 1729.
Royal Government.—We have before us the ninety-six articles of instruction to Nicholson (30th August, 1720) and the additional ones to Governor Johnson (1730), detailing the method of the royal government, and which continued in force, with some modifications, till the separation of the colony from the mother country. It is not necessary to give a full synopsis of this method. The enacting clause is “by the governor, council, and assembly;” and the assembly had the same powers and privileges as were allowed to the House of Commons in England. The Episcopal was the established Church, under jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. School-masters were licensed by the bishop or by the governor. If the governor died or left the province, and there was no commissioned lieutenant-governor, the eldest councillor, as president, acted in his stead. Special care was enjoined for the encouragement of the Royal African Company for the importation of negro slaves. If any part of the instructions was distasteful to the people, it was that which conferred equal legislative authority with the assembly upon the council; a council of twelve, nominated (or suspended) by the governor, and three of whom, with the governor, could form a quorum, in emergencies. On this point contests soon arose, the assembly thinking that the governor and three or more of their own neighbors or relatives, who happened to be councillors, ought not to have the power to counteract the deliberate will of the entire body of the representatives of the people; that is, of the freeholders who alone voted for members of the assembly.
But, for the time being, all were happy at their release from “the confused, negligent, and helpless government of the Lords Proprietors.” Governor Nicholson, on his arrival, found in all parties a cheerful allegiance to the king and zeal for the advancement of the colony.[762] Ex-Governor Moore was made Speaker of the assembly, with Nicholson’s cordial approbation, and all laws demanded by the condition of the province were promptly enacted. Peace having been declared between England and Spain, the new governor applied himself to the regulation of Indian affairs, and succeeded in bringing the tribes on the frontier into alliance with British interests. With peace and security everywhere, he addressed himself to forming new parishes, building churches and obtaining clergymen by the help of the London Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Additional free schools were established by bequests from three benevolent citizens, and the people generally emulated the public spirit of their good governor. In 1725 he returned to England, and the administration of his office devolved upon Arthur Middleton as president of the council. He had it not in his power to be the generous benefactor Nicholson had been, and his views of duty to the royal authority placed him in opposition to the progressive spirit of those with whom he had been associated in the recent revolution. His stubborn contest with the assembly prevented the enactment of any laws for three years. They thought it necessary for the good of the people to pass a bill for promoting the currency of gold and silver in the province. The council rejected it as contravening an act of Parliament in the reign of Queen Anne; and insisted on the passage of a supply bill by the assembly, to meet the expenses of the government. This the assembly refused unless their bill was first agreed to. Middleton resorted to prorogations and dissolutions. This availed nothing; for the people supported their representatives by reëlecting them. From 1727 to 1731 the same bill was eight times sent up to the president and his council, and always rejected. He prorogued them six times, and six times ordered new elections. Among other things in this contest, the assembly claimed the right to elect their clerk without consulting the council;[763] ordered an officer of the council to their bar, and put him under arrest for delay in making his appearance; and maintained that—as in Nicholson’s time—members elect should qualify by holding up the hand in taking the oath before the council, if they thought that best, instead of swearing on the Holy Evangelists, as the governor required them to do. The contest was not terminated until the arrival of Governor Johnson (December, 1730) as successor to Nicholson.
Sir Alexander Cumming had been sent to form a treaty with the Cherokees who lived near the head of the Savannah River and far westward,—a powerful nation with 6,000 warriors. They sent a deputation of their chiefs to England with Cumming to visit King George. It was important to secure the friendship of these Indians before the French should allure them to their interest. The chiefs returned from England in company with Governor Johnson. Middleton had before sent agents among the Creeks and Cherokees, to avert, if possible, the influence of the French, whose enterprise and energy were likely to become more formidable to the English settlements than the hostility of the Spaniards had been. While guarding against danger in this direction, they had to contend against molestations from their inveterate enemy in Florida. Runaway slaves were always welcomed there, were made free, and formed into military companies. Roving bands of the defeated Yemassees from the same refuge-place plundered the plantations on the frontier. No compensation could be obtained for such ruthless spoliation. At length Colonel Palmer was sent to make reprisals; and with about 300 men, militia and friendly Indians, he completely laid waste the enemy’s country up to the gates of St. Augustine, and taught them their weakness and the superior power of the English colonists. Unfortunately, no definite boundaries were settled upon between the claims of Spain and England.