was generally wanting in the advocates of royal government. Men of ardor for the most part sided with the former; but the latter were chiefly composed of the ignorant, the selfish, and the timid. Vigorous and decisive measures characterized the popular party, while their opposers either acted without system, or from timid counsels which were feebly executed.

No revolution was ever effected with greater unanimity, or with more order and regularity. The leading men in every part of the province, with very few exceptions, from the first moments of the contest, exerted themselves in the cause of their country. Their abilities and influence gave union and system to the proceedings of the people. A few persons in the colony hated republican governments; and some ignorant people were induced to believe that the whole was an artful deception, imposed upon them for interested purposes, by the gentlemen of fortune and ambition on the sea coast. But among the independent enlightened freemen of the province, who loved liberty and had spirit to risk life and fortune in its support, there were very few to be found who took part with the royalists.

Γ

SECTION III.

Of the Formation of a Regular Constitution.

Till the year 1776, the opposition to Great Britain was conducted on such temporary principles, that the repeal of a few acts of parliament would have immediately produced a reinstatement of British government-a dissolution of the American army-and a recommencement of the mercantile intercourse between the two countries. The refusal of Great Britain to redress the grievances of the colonies, suggested to some bold spirits, early in 1776, the necessity of going much greater lengths than was originally intended.

A few penetrating minds foresaw that the love of dominion in the parent state, and the unconquerable love of liberty in America, would forever obstruct a cordial reconciliaiton; but the bulk of the people still flattered themselves with the fond hopes of a re-union.

Public affairs were in confusion for want of a regular constitution. The impropriety of holding courts of justice under the authority of a sovereign against whom all the colony was in arms, struck every thinking person. The impossibility of governing a large community by the ties of honor, without the authority of law, was equally apparent. But, notwithstanding the pressing weight of all these considerations, the formation of an independent constitution had so much the

appearance of an eternal separation from a country, by a reconciliation with which many yet hoped for a return of ancient happiness, that a great part of the Provincial Congress opposed the necessary measure. At the very time when they were suspended on this important debate, an express arrived from Savannah, with an act of parliament, passed December 21, 1775, confiscating American property, and throwing all the colonists out of his majesty's protection. This turned the scale-silenced all the moderate men who were advocates for a reconciliation-and produced a majority for an independent constitution. In less than an hour after that act was read in the Provincial Congress, an order was issued to seize for the public, the Port Henderson, a Jamaica vessel loaded with sugar, which had put into Charlestown on her way to London; though she had the day before obtained leave to pass the forts, and would have sailed the same afternoon on her intended voyage.

A law of the national parliament, which had thrown the colonies out of his majesty's protection, convinced the most lukewarm that America, legally discharged from her allegiance to the King of Great Britain, must now take care of herself.

So strong was the attachment of many to Great Britain, which they fondly called the mother country, that though they assented to the establishment of an independent constitution, yet it was carried, after a long debate, that it was only to exist "till a reconciliation between Great Britain and the colonies should take place." The friends of reconciliation believed that it was the dictate of sound policy, and in no respect incompatible with the true honor and dignity of the parent state, to redress the grievances of the American colonies. The great body of the people would have rejoiced at such an event, and would with cheerfulness have returned to the class of peaceable citizens in the ancient line of subordination. They therefore only framed a temporary constitution, consisting of three branches, on the model of the British government. The Provincial Congress which formed this constitution, in conformity to the example of their revolutionary predecessors in 1719, voted themselves to be the General Assembly of South Carolina. They elected thirteen of their most respectable members to be a Legislative Council: they also elected a President and vice president; six privy counsellors to advise the president; a chief justice and three assistant judges; an attorney general; secretary; ordinary; judge of the admiralty; register of mesne conveyances.* The newly elected Presi

These several offices were filled as follows: Members of the Legislative Council-Charles Pinckney, Le Roy Hammond, George Gabriel Powel, William Moultrie, Rawlins Lowndes, Stephen Bull, Thomas Shubrick, Richard Richard

dent, John Rutledge, took an oath to discharge his duty faithfully, and made an impressive speech on the occasion. The Legislative Council and General Assembly presented an affectionate address to the President, by which they engaged to support him with their lives and fortunes." A solemn compact was thus established between the people and their chief magistrate. Every department of government was organized on the representative system, and went into immediate operation.

From this time forward, the public business was conducted agreeably to the fixed rules of the temporary constitution. Instead of resolutions of the congresses and committees, bills were brought in and debated, both in the Assembly and Legislative Council, deliberating apart and uninfluenced by each other. On their being agreed to by both houses, they were presented to the President for his assent. When duly enacted by the three branches of Legislature, they were carried into execution by the President and privy council. An act of Assembly was passed in this session for preventing sedition and punishing insurgents and disturbers of the public peace.'

By this law, treason and rebellion assumed a new form, and the penalties of these crimes were legally denounced against the aiders and abetters of British government.

The courts of justices which had been shut for twelve months, were, with great solemnity, opened on the 23d of April, 1776, under the sanction of this temporary constitution. On that occasion, William H. Drayton, Chief Justice, under the appointment of the Provincial Congress, gave an interesting charge to the grand jury, in which he vindicated the proceedings of his native country as just in themselves, and justified by what was done in England in 1688. The charge concluded thus: "I think it my duty to declare in the awful seat of justice, and before Almighty God, that, in my opinion, the Americans can have no safety but by the Divine favor, their own virtue, and their being so prudent as not to leave it in the power of the British rulers to injure them. Indeed the ruinous and deadly injuries received on our side, and the jealousies entertained, and which, in the nature of things, must daily increase against us on the other, demonstrate to a mind son, Thomas Ferguson, John Kershaw, Henry Middleton, David Oliphant, Thomas Bee.

John Rutledge, President. Henry Laurens, Vice President. W. H. Drayton, Chief Justice. Thomas Bee, John Mathews and Henry Pendleton, Assistant Judges. Alexander Moultrie, Attorney General. John Huger, Secretary. William Burrows, Ordinary. Hugh Rutledge, Judge of the Admiralty. George Speed, Register of Mesne Conveyances.

Members of the Privy Council-James Parsons, John Edwards, Thomas Ferguson, William H. Drayton, Charles Pinckney, Rawlins Lowndes.

in the least given to reflection upon the rise and fall of empires, that true reconcilement never can exist between Great Britain and America: the latter being in subjection to the former. The Almighty created America to be independent of Britain: let us beware of the impiety of being backward to act as instruments in the Almighty hand, now extended to accomplish His purpose; and by the completion of which alone, America, in the nature of human affairs, can be secure against the craft and insidious designs of her enemies who think her prosperity and power already by far too great. In a word, our piety and political safety are so blended, that to refuse our labors in this divine work, is to refuse to be a great, a free, a pious and a happy people!

"And now, having left the important alternative, political happiness or wretchedness under GoD, in a great degree in your own hands, I pray the Supreme Arbiter of the affairs of men so to direct your judgment as that you may act agreeably to what seems to be his will revealed in his miraculous works in behalf of America bleeding at the altar of liberty!"

The sentiments contained in this charge, from the bench of justice, were re-echoed from the grand juries in the different districts. This first General Assembly, agreeably to the constitution they had framed, was dissolved by their own act and a general election for members of the Legislature was immediately held throughout the State. Such was the union of the people, and so general their acquiescence in the measures adopted by their representatives, that the former members were almost universally returned. The new Assembly met on the 6th of December, 1776, and in a few days after, rechose the former President and Vice President. The government had energy, and was cheerfully obeyed. So much tranquility reigned in every part of South Carolina, that after the departure of the British fleet and army in July, and the termination of the Cherokee expedition in October, 1776, events which shall hereafter be more particulary explained, the bulk of the people were scarcely sensible of any revolution or that the country was at war.

The policy of the rulers in departing as little as possible from ancient forms and names, made the change of sovereignty less perceptible. The inhabitants had long been in the habit of receiving laws from a General Assembly and Council. The administration of the government in times. past, on the demise of the Governor, had been uniformly committed to one of the Council, under the title of President. The people felt themselves secure in their persons and properties, and experienced all the advantages of law and govern

ment.

These benefits were communicated under old names,

though derived from a new sovereignty. Their ancient laws and customs were generally retained. The kingly office was dropped, and the revolution took place without any violence or convulsion.

South Carolina was the first of the united colonies that formed an independent constitution; it rested on the fundamental point, that the voice of the people was the source of law, honor and office. Criminal prosecutions, which were formerly carried on in the name of the King, were, from that era, carried on in the name of the State. The same offices, with nearly the same duties and powers that had existed under the royal government, were continued under the popular establishment, but with this difference, that the officers obtained their places by the vote of the Legislature, and not from the appointment of the Crown. The majesty of the people took the place that had formerly been occupied by the kingly office. By this substitution, a change of government was easily and almost insensibly effected. The respect which, for time immemorial, had been attached to Kings as the vicegerents of deity, and contributed to the support of their power, was transferred to those who, by public suffrages, were brought forward as substitutes of the people. Each individual thought that by honoring and supporting the men thus elected to public office, he honored himself as an unit in the mass of common sovereignty from which all power was derived.

SECTION IV.

Of the Attack of the Fort on Sullivan's Island, by Sir Peter Parker and Sir Henry Clinton, and the Invasion of the Cherokees by Colonel Williamson.

Soon after a regular form of government was adopted, a formidable attack from Great Britain gave an opportunity of ascertaining its energy. Governor Campbell, from the time of his abandoning the province, had been assiduous in his attempts to procure a military force to reduce it to obedience. He represented the friends of royal authority as needing only the countenance of a small military force to give them an opportunity of embodying for the establishment of British government; that Charlestown might be easily reduced, and that the reduction of it would restore the province to its former tranquility; Crown officers and their friends, the royalists, associating chiefly with one another, and not knowing or not believing the numbers, the resources, nor the enthusiasm of the opposite party, deceived themselves and communicated their delusions to the rulers in Great Britain.