USA > South Carolina > A sketch of the history of South Carolina to the close of the proprietary government by the revolution of 1719. With an appendix containing many valuable records hitherto unpublished > Part 10
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* In Albemarle, Pol. Ann. 292.
12*
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governor himself was not free from blame. Their own deputies fell under the blow, as well as the com- moners of the grand council; and' these the people thought fit to elect again. Did they inveigh against any indulgence to the English pirates who visited the coast ? The people were not disposed to hang thiem while their monarch encouraged with unusual honors the chief captain of the band. Did the proprietors demand their quit-rents in money ? The people said there was no mint in Carolina, and coin was scarce. Did they refer to the powers granted by the charter ? The people were willing to be governed by the charter, which made their concurrence necessary for the adop- tion of a plan of government.
Thinking that a governor from abroad would be more devoted to their interests," Sir Richard Kyrle, of Ireland, was appointed to succeed Morton in April, 1684. The proprietors expressed to him their hope, from his abilities and activity, that the affairs of Caro- lina would be in a better condition than before ; they pointed out the evils they wished him to remedy ; cautioned him against the Spaniards, who had never been good neighbors, and advised him to put the province in a state of defense.+ In the summer after his arrival the governor died, and the council again turned to Joseph West, who wrote to the proprietors in October that he had been chosen in place of Kyrle, and received in answer their congratulations upon his election and another commission from themselves. It appears that when Kyrle died, West was not in the pro-
* Archd. Preface. Proprietors to Kyrle, April 29, 1684 t MISS. Appendix.
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vince, as he had often before had occasion to be ab- sent. Col. Robert Quarry acted as governor for a few months." He never received a commission from the proprietors, and his brief service was marked by such indiscretion in favoring the pirates, as caused his being subsequently deprived of the office of secre- tary of the province.
When West succeeded in September, 1684, two years had elapsed since he had resigned the office to Morton. The difficulties of political affairs had greatly increased. The choice of members of par- liament, as directed by the proprietors, was still warmly opposed by the inhabitants of Berkley county, whose able leaders, Maurice Matthews, James Moore, and Arthur Middleton was displaced from council for sending away Indian slaves. But if in any measure the proprietors had clear justice on their side, it was in disposing of their lands in the province as it suited themselves, provided they did not disturb the rights already granted. In the first Fundamental Constitutions and agrarian laws they had declared that lands should be held for the rent of a penny an acre, "or the value thereof," which was a principal inducement for many persons to emigrate to Carolina. But now it was declared, that lands should be held only by indentures in which the words "or the value thereof" were stricken out, and a re- servation added of re-entry on failure of paying the quit-rent. This unfortunately operated to the injury of many who had settled at an early period, and who
* Lett, of Cardrosse, July 17, 1684. Proprietors to Sothell, May 13, 1691-Appendix.
.
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from poverty or other circumstances had not taken out an official conveyance of the lands to which they were entitled. To the opposition excited against this measure, and the reasonable request that, as money was scarce, the rents might be paid in merchantable produce of the land, the lords proprietors only re- plied : " We insist to sell our lands our own way."* Above all, on the 12th of March, they wrote to Gov. West certain instructions, containing thirty-eight ar- ticles, which repealed all former instructions and temporary laws, and ordered the third Fundamental Constitutions (of January, 1682) to be subscribed and put in practice. The members of the grand council, who represented the people, filed a protest against these instructions, which sought with so de- cisive a step to change the government of the colony.
Had there been room for compromise, and West had been permitted to settle the disputes by his own moderation and wisdom, he would not have been found disheartened and preparing to leave the pro- vince. The last act to which he affixed his signature, was designed to improve the health of the city he had founded, and to provide for the security of its citizens during their nightly repose.+
Joseph West began his services to the colony in London on the 1st of August, 1669.1 He con- tinued them as commander of the fleet that bore the emigrants and Gov. Sayle in safety to Carolina, on the 17th March, 1670. As keeper of the public stores he distributed food and clothing to the needy during
* MSS. Appendix. + 7 Stat. 2. # MSS. Appendix.
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the first years of the settlement. As the commercial and agricultural agent of the proprietors, he was rewarded by their relinquishing to him the property he held in charge. As register of the colony, as tem- porary governor by the people's choice on several occasions, and finally as landgrave and three times governor by commission, he won the strong attach- ment of the colonists and the confidence and respect of the proprietors. In a government carefully planned to be an aristocracy, and under the fostering direction of distinguished nobility in England, he, a plebeian, faithful, wise, and modest, became, for fifteen years, the guiding spirit of all that was good and successful .*
On the retirement of West, the council chose Mor- ton governor, and the proprietors sent him a com- mission in September, 1685. The parliament con- vened in November consisted of eight deputies of the lords proprietors and twenty commoners, of whom one was absent. Gov. Morton, in obedience to the instructions previously sent, called on all the mem- bers to subscribe the Fundamental Constitutions of 1682. Twelve of the nineteen representatives re- fused to do so, because they had already subscribed those of July, 1669. Whereupon the governor ordered them to quit the house ; it availed nothing that they protested against the tyranny of their
* I have not been able to discover anything relating to the life of Col. West, after his retirement from office. His leaving the province is stated on authority of a brief notice in some MS. notes from papers in London. His plantation on Ashley River is mentioned in Oldmixon 452 ; 2d Carr. Coll. If he returned to live in Carolina, his name is found no longer in connection with public affairs.
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ejectment ; and the remaining seven, together with the eight deputies, enacted all the laws passed at that session of parliament.
In the summer of 1682, the lords proprietors had entered into an agreement with Lord Cardross, and other Scotch gentlemen, (who proposed to send ten thousand emigrants,) to grant them a large tract of land in Carolina.# For their sakes an alteration was made in the Fundamental Constitutions, because they thought it would not sufficiently secure them against oppression. The chosen place of settlement was again the favorite but unlucky situation of Port Royal. Like the French Protestants, they were led hither by the desire to escape tyranny and religious intolerance at home. Here Lord Cardross arrived in 1683, and founded Stuart's Town. He was accom- panied by about ten families, among whose names were those of Hamilton, Montgomerie, and Dunlop.
The settlers at Ashley River received the Scotch with but little favor at their arrival, on account of their connection with the Fundamental Constitutions, against the adoption of which a large portion of the people were then strongly opposed. Jealousies also soon arose with regard to the political powers of the new settlement. Cardross claimed, from his agree- ment with the proprietors, co-ordinate authority with the governor and grand council at Charles Town, which occasioned the most arbitrary proceedings against him. Overcome by the heat of midsummer and prostrate with sickness, he was summoned to appear before the grand council for usurpation of
* MS. Letter to l'ercival, Oct. 18, 1690 -- Appendix.
EARLY IHISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 143
power in the province. Other difficulties equally dis- heartening disturbed the little colony at Port Royal, and brought most vividly to their recollection the fate of Ribault and his followers. Wina and Antonio, two noted Indians, were busy in fomenting hostilities among the tribes in the vicinity, and against the set- tlers of Stuart's Town. The Spaniards at St. Au- gustine, for whom some of these Indians were spies, were preparing to dispute the possession of the land. Five pieces of cannon, lying unmounted at old Charles Town, the proprietors ordered to be given to Lord Cardross for the defense of Port Royal. It appears, however, that being disappointed in his plan of settling in Carolina, and disgusted with his arrest and ill usage by the colonists at Charles Town, he returned to Scotland, and took an active part in the political revolution which was then at hand.
Shortly after, the Spaniards, in 1686, while peace still subsisted between England and Spain, came suddenly with three galleys, and landed at Edisto. Their force included negroes and Indians. They broke open the houses of Gov. Morton, and Mr. Grimball, secretary of the province, who were at Charles Town, and pillaged them to the value of three thousand pounds sterling, carrying off the money, plate, and thirteen slaves of the governor, and murdering his brother-in-law. They than attacked the Scotch settlers at Port Royal, who had but twenty-five men in health to oppose the invaders. The Spaniards killed some and whipped others, whom they took captive, in a barbarous manner, and plundered and utterly destroyed the settlement.
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144 EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
The few who remained from this unfortunate band found refuge in Charles Town. Their brief history is such as might have been foreseen from the inju- dicious policy of the proprietors in their agreement with the Scotch noblemen. As a distinct colony it was too weak to occupy a disputed territory; and for separate political interests it was too near the colo- nists at Ashley River, who were just struggling, after many hardships, and still against much opposition, into a consistent form of government, with its requi- site legislative and judicial branches.
Party strife was forgotten in the excitement occa- sioned by this incursion of the Spaniards. Gov. Morton summoned the parliament in Oct. 1686, and an act was passed for raising a force for the immediate invasion of the Spanish territory. An assessment of £500 was made,* and all the powers of the grand council vested for the time in the governor, and any four of the councilors. Two vessels were fitted out and four hundred men well armed were ready to sail for the conquest of St. Augustine.+ This armament was suddenly stopped by the arrival from Barbadoes of James Colleton, brother of the proprietor, and who had in August been created a landgrave and governor of Carolina.j. He threatened to hang the colonists if they persisted in their project, and they reluctantly returned on shore. While all were burning with indignation at so unexpected and unworthy a termi- nation of their efforts, the lords proprietors wrote to Colleton, " We are glad that you have stopped the
* 2 Stat. 15. t Letter to Randolph, Appendix-
# Letter to Sothell. Commission dated Aug. 1686.
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expedition against St. Augustine. If it had pro- ceeded, Mr. Morton, Col. Godfrey and others might have answered it with their lives.""
The colonists believed that the charter justified the course they had taken. The proprietors more truly maintained that it allowed "only a pursuit in heat of victory, but not a deliberate making war on the King of Spain's subjects, within his own territories ; nor do we claim any such power. No man, however, can think that the dependencies of England can have power to make war upon the king's allies, without his knowledge or consent."+ They did not reflect that they were themselves to blame for the attack on the Scotch settlement, but remonstrated that the colonists must have foreseen that retaliation would have been made for the encouragement given to the pirates who plundered the Spaniards. They ordered " a civil letter" to be addressed to the governor of St. Augustine, inquiring by what authority he acted. This course failed to obtain redress. How bitterly the colonists regarded their discomfiture may be judged from their subsequent complaint of Colleton that he " did, contrary to the honor of the English nation, pass by all the bloody insolencies the Span- iards had committed against this colony," and entered into a contract of trade with them, "for the hopes of a little filthy lucre," burying in silence their atroci- ties upon " Englishmen who wanted not courage to do themselves honorable satisfaction."
At the period of the settlement of Carolina, the
* Proprietors to Colleton, Oct. 1687.
# Letter to Sothell, Appendix 13 K
+ Pol. Ann. p. 320.
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hostility of the French and English against the Spaniards had engendered a degree of private animo- sity that might well be compared to the inimical dis- position then existing between Catholics and Protest- ants. Among the buccaneers of Tortuga were men accustomed to the perils of war, who, scorning the epithet of pirate, turned from the capture of Spanish galleons to the sack and pillage of fortified cities. The booty of a single marauding expedition was esti- mated at millions of dollars. The greater the magni- tude of a crime, or the more it is characterized by boldness and power, the less do men seem to despise and condemn it. The last eminent leader of the buccaneers was Henry Morgan, a Welshman, whose piratical fleet included several vessels from New Eng- land. For his daring exploits in the Spanish domin- ions in America, he received the honors of knight- hood from Charles II. of England, and was appointed governor of Jamaica.
In 1684, during the war between France and Spain, privateers were fitted out in Carolina without hin- drance. The pirates who at the same time frequented the coast, spent their money with a lavish hand ; and were not unwelcomed in the province, at least by those who were benefited by supplying their necessi- ties, and who, like their king, looked with leniency upon bold misdeeds directed against the commerce and towns of the Spaniards, who in the colony were especially regarded as enemies. Col. Quarry, who acted as governor on the death of Sir Richard Kyrle, was accused of admitting pirates to- Charles Town, and of receiving money from them. A few years
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later, Gov. Morton permitted two pirates to bring into the harbor their Spanish prizes, and allowed Morgan to come into town by consent of the grand council.
Charles II., however, being anxious to preserve a neutrality with the belligerent powers, caused an order to be sent to Carolina forbidding the fitting out of privateers; and in the following year, as soon as James II. ascended the throne, he directed an act to be passed in the province for the suppres- sion and punishing of pirates." Yet it was not an easy task to check the evil suddenly by an enact- ment. In 1687 Sir Robert Holmes was dispatched by the king to the West Indies, with a commission for destroying the pirates; and the governor and council at Charles Town were strictly enjoined to afford every assistance to his fleet. The former act was revived in the province, ; and the disgraceful favor for a while shown to the pirates now effectually ceased; and arrest and execution awaited them throughout the borders of Carolina.
The colonists were now convinced that, under the charter, they were restricted, in case of invasion, to self-defense, notwithstanding their far spreading and unprotected frontier. They were, however, again at fault in interpreting their charter privileges as ex- empting them from the restraints imposed on com- merce by the famous navigation acts of the British parliament. No merchandise could be imported into the colonies, under penalty of forfeiture, except in
* 2 Stat. p, 7.
t 2 Stat. 25; Pol. Ann. 319.
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English vessels navigated by Englishmen .* A simi- lar penalty attached to the exporting of the princi- pal articles of colonial produce to any other country than those under the English crown; and even the transportation of the enumerated commodities, sugar, tobacco, cotton, indigo, &c., could not be made from the southern to the northern colonies without the payment of heavy duties. To the mother country, or more properly to her merchants, was reserved the monopoly of all profits from the increasing commerce of America. In 1685, George Muschamp arrived at Charles Town as the first collector of the revenue; and the governor and council were instructed "not to fail to show their forwardness in assisting in the collection of the duty on tobacco transported to other colonies ; in seizing ships that presumed to trade con- trary to the acts of navigation."+ The colonists, nevertheless, persisted in trading as they pleased ; believing that their charter, having been granted subsequently to the passing of the navigation act, was of superior force. In this view they received no support from the proprietors, who, on the contrary, exerted themselves to suppress what they termed an "illicit traffic." Mr. Muschamp seized a vessel for violation of the laws, because manned by sailors three fourths of whom were Scotchmen. Irritated by the adverse decision of the court at Charles Town, and by the pretensions of the people, ¿ he sent such com- plaints to the commissioners of the customs at home, that the matter was referred to the attorney-general;
" Sec Banc. U. S., 2, p. 42 et seq. + Pol. Ann. 322.
# Appendix.
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and writs of two warrants issued against the Caro- lina charters. It had become the policy of James to revoke all proprietary grants, and bring the colonies possessing them more immediately under the royal government.
An opposition similarly excited in the New Eng- land colonies against collectors of the customs, gave occasion for suppressing their charters, and placing them under a single governor, Sir Edmund Andros. The high position of the lords proprietors would not, perhaps, have been then sufficient to protect their interests, had they not wisely offered to treat for a surrender of their privileges, and by gaining time, "eluded the force of a blast that had laid the char- ters and governments of New England in ruins."*
The course of events in England was rapidly tend- ' ing to the great revolution of 1688, which drove James II. from the throne, and permanently secured the most cherished rights of the people. At the same time, the tyranny of Andros was producing throughout New England a powerful popular reac- tion in favor of their charter government. The Eng- lish revolution was essentially a Protestant triumph ; and the proprietary charter of Maryland having been granted to Catholics, was soon revoked without the necessary judicial forms, and a royal government in- stituted by King William. Pennsylvania and Dela- ware, Virginia, New York and New Jersey, as well as New England, were now governed under the king's commission. Yet the proprietors of Carolina con- tinued an uninterrupted control over their vast pro-
* MSS. Appendix ; Pol. Ann. 323. 13*
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vince, because enjoying "the hereditary right of com- plaining in person of their wrongs, they could in- terest a powerful body in their favor."*
Though the storm had spent its violence at a dis- tance from the settlement here, still its influence was distinctly felt in the political agitations which in- creased from day to day. . The proprietary govern- ment with all its temporary laws and Fundamental Constitutions, and its charter too, began to be weighed in the balance with the higher government on which the proprietors themselves depended-which could demand the money of the people as well as their obe- dience, and had fleets and armies to repel every foe. Henceforth the policy of the opposition party tended to a bolder and more definite development, and seemed to aim, as opportunity offered, at a govern- ment by the charter, and greater freedom in conduct- ing the affairs of the province according to local circumstances ; or else a change from the incomplete powers of the proprietors to a closer dependence on the crown.
Recurring to the period of Morton's administration, we find the commoners excluded from parliament returning to their homes, and spreading disaffection everywhere. The dissenters, who had left England in considerable numbers during the recent struggles of episcopacy and papacy had, at first, in changing from a worse to a better condition, naturally supported the submissive party in the colony. In particular, Joseph Blake, whose daughter Governor Morton had
* Revolt Am. Col. p. 261.
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married, added his influence in checking and allaying the "extravagant spirit" of the discontented.# But the more extravagant spirit of the instructions sent to Carolina threw the majority of the people, how- ever different their principles were on some matters, into the ranks of the opposition party.
The proprietors had hitherto been greatly disap- pointed in the conduct of their chief officers, who had generally opposed their views, or exerted them- selves too feebly to promote them. But in Landgrave Colleton they reposed entire confidence, "expecting much from his talents, but more from his attach- ments."+ He built himself a fine mansion at old Charles Town, received from the parliament an ampler support than had been enjoyed by former governors, was entitled by his nobility to 48,000 acres of land, and being secure of the goodwill of the proprietors through the influence of his brother, he no doubt looked forward to prosperity and happiness in the new home to which he brought his family.}
The proprietors indeed had never been more faith- fully represented. But the period had arrived to prove whether rigor or concession should be their true policy. They had refused to ratify the acts of the last parliament for the invasion of St. Augustine, yet they were anxious that the colonists should be prepared to defend themselves. Measures were adopted [Jan. 1687] for raising a store of powder by levying a duty of half a pound of it for every ton according to the registered tonnage of all vessels
* Archdale and Oldmixon.
+ Pol. Ann. 323.
# Oldmixon and Hewit.
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arriving in the province. Galleys were built, and beacons set up from the Edisto and Westoe Rivers round to Charles Town. The navigation acts were better enforced, and a check put, as previously men- tioned, upon privateering and the visits to the coast of piratical crews.
There are no statutes on record of any parliament from July, 1687, to December, 1690. In this inter- val fierce contests distracted several parliaments that were held. It appears that in 1687 a committee, in- cluding the governor, were appointed to examine the Fundamental Constitutions, with the hope that such alterations might be made as to render them accepta- ble both to the proprietors and people. * "The work grew voluminous suddenly," and was afterward abandoned amidst angry dissensions, the people with impracticable pertinacity still recurring to the set sent out with Governor Sayle. At length Colleton, & "in some passion," produced in parliament (14th
February, 16SS) a letter from the proprietors (dated March 3d, 1687), ; in which they "utterly denied the Fundamental Constitutions of July, 1669, de- claring them to be but a copy of an imperfect origi- nal." Since the delegates of the people had never assented to any set, as required by the charters, they " unanimously declared that the government is now . to be directed and managed wholly and solely accord- ing to the said charters." The delegates took another step forward, and "denied that any bill must neces- sarily pass the grand council before it be read in par-
* Letter to Sothell-Appendix.
t See Appendix.
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liament; and did proffer, for the maintenance of peace and justice, to assent to and approve of any law for that end, to be made according to the directions and commands in the said royal charters." During two sessions of parliament all legislative proceedings were defeated, even including the militia act which was necessary for the safety of the colony ; for Governor Colleton and the deputies insisted on proceeding ac- cording to the Fundamental Constitutions, by having all bills first pass the grand council. Finally, in December, 1689, the proprietors instructed Colleton to call no more parliaments in Carolina without orders from them, "unless some very extraordinary occasion should require it."# As the acts were usually made for twenty-three months only, the consequence of these instructions was, that in 1690 not one statute law was in force in the colony!
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