throw much light upon the vexed question as to how far the fundamental constitutions sent over by the proprietors were adopted by the people. It being the express duty of the committee to report a constitution of government, they must necessarily have had under consideration the four setts of constitutions previously furnished by the proprietors. These fundamental constitutions, so summarily disposed of by Dr. Cooper, and others, must have obtained to some extent,* otherwise it is difficult to account for the existence of Landgraves and Cassiques, who not only possessed the lands belonging to those titles, but exercised powers ex dignitate "which it was necessary the colonists should sanction before they could be effective. The following facts connected with this subject have never been considered.

66

We have seen that, until 1682, no law could be proposed to the Parliament without first receiving the sanction of the Council and Palatine Court. But we know that many laws were passed previous to this period; although the earliest in our statute books is dated 1682. Not to mention others, there was one passed as early as 1671, entitled "An Act for the ascertaining the rates of Scantlings of Pipestaves," and under said act George Beadon and John Pinke, coopers, were appointed viewers of Pipestaves in this province. These laws could not have been passed without the consent of the Palatine Court; and the representatives of the people, in passing them, necessarily recognized the jurisdiction of that court, and consequently of the fundamental constitutions, which alone established it. It would be easy to give other reasons to show that these constitutions were of some force; how far they obtained, it is difficult, nay impossible, to say, from the present materials we have for history. The public offices in England could supply, no doubt, much to elucidate this confused but interesting period of our history. What we now possess, rather enables us to show that the received opinions are not correct, than to form any definite and certain conclusions of our own.†

*Surely; they are stated expressly by the historians to have lasted for twenty-three years, in partial use at least, and to have been surrendered to the dislike of the people, in Archdale's administration.-—[Editor Southern Quarterly Review.

+We are quite at a loss to determine upon what grounds it is questioned that the fundamental constitutions were left totally unused. Our histories afford no sanction to the doubt. Our writers distinctly assert the experiment,

About this time, too, the question as to how far the power of the governor and deputies extended in the ratification of laws, was settled by an instruction from the proprietors. For the first twenty years, the proprietors exercised the right of repealing any law that was disagreeable to them, although assented to by their representatives, the governor and deputies, in council. The instruction above alluded to is important, as it shows how far the revolutionists of 1719 had a right to complain of the repeal of the three acts, which was the immediate cause of the outbreak. This instruction declared that the governor and deputies had no power to ratify any act passed by the Parliament, which related to the courts of justice, officer's fees, the election of members of the Assembly, or the chartered rights of the proprietors. Now, two of the three acts certainly related to these subjects; the third was merely a tax act, but was, in some of its clauses, repugnant to the English laws of trade. Several circumstances, between the date of this instruction and the revolution, had happened, which, when generally stated, seemingly extended the power of the Council over these subjects; but they will not stand an accurate investigation. A convention of the people had been called, which changed the representation in the Assembly from twenty to thirty members. But this was done under the administration of Governor Archdale,-himself a proprietor, and who acted in that capacity rather than as a governor of the province,-for when the Assembly attempted to modify and explain the proceedings of the constitution, by an act, the Governor refused to admit any power in the Assembly to touch upon the subject.

The great cause of the revolution of 1719, as of all other revolutions, was undoubtedly the inefficiency and want of fitness in the existing government; but the facts connected with it, and constituting its individuality, seem to be as follows.

The government was very aristocratic in its tendencies, whilst the condition of the province, and the opinions of the citizens, demanded a different state of things. More

and the rejection of this system after several years of trial. The Parliaments were formed under these constitutions, and enacted laws. The laws themselves are described in our common histories.-[Editor Southern Quarterly Review.

over, the population was not homogeneous, and the English, the dominant race, oppressed the French, not only because they were dissenters from the Church of England, but also because they were Frenchmen. In this cosmopolite age and country, it is difficult to appreciate the ingrained hostility that existed between the races; and it was rather increased in South-Carolina by the constant disturbances with the Indians, instigated by the French settlers on the Alabama and Mississippi rivers.* In looking over the names of the public officers, and members of Assembly, one is constantly struck with the recurrence of the same family names, as possessing almost an hereditary right to the emoluments and honours of government; whilst the Huguenots, educated and intelligent men, the foremost in all industrial pursuits and mechanical inventions, were excluded, by the rigid enforcement of the testact, from all participation in the government. At one time their marriages were declared unlawful when contracted according to their customs and religion—their children bastards, and their property liable to confiscation. It is not asserted that these measures were sanctioned expressly by the proprietors; on the contrary, upon the presentation of a remonstrance of the French inhabitants, accompanied by a threat of emigration unless these oppressions were put an end to, they instructed their governor to grant them all the rights and privileges promised by the charter. Some concessions were thus made, and the "act to make aliens free and equal, and granting liberty of conscience to all Protestants, ratified by Governor Blake, (himself a dissenter,) quieted, for a time, the minds of the people. But the dispute was unfortunatelv revived with fresh animosity by the Church Act, passed in the early part of the administration of Sir Nathaniel Johnson. Upon the passage of these acts, the dissenters despatched Joseph Boone to England, to solicit their repeal. Presenting memorials to the Queen and Parliament, he finally succeeded in his mission, much against the wishes of the proprietors. Thus was the dissenting population disaf

* But he who reads this history will see that the Carolinians were just as active in inciting the savages against the Frenchmen on the Alabama and Mississippi, as ever were the latter in doing similarly amiable offices for the settlers along the Ashley and the Edisto.-[Editor Southern Quarterly Review.

fected, and made to look forward to the Crown for protection, with a practical illustration of the fact that the proprietary power was at best only a delegated, and not a supreme one, and that the proprietors themselves were subject to the laws of England.

Nothing, however, contributed so much to the rapid development of the revolution, as the Tuscarora and Yemasee wars. In the limits of this article, it is impossible to trace out the details of these events as they deserve. The causes of both were pretty much the same; the intolerable and inhuman oppression of the natives by the traders, if not sanctioned, most certainly was not suppressed, by the government. The Tuscarora war has generally been described as comprising but one expedition under Col. Barnwell. This is a mistake.* Col. Barnwell, though very successful in his attack upon their camp, was himself wounded, and afterwards brought home to recover his health. Lieut. Gen. James Moore then took command, and put an end to the war, with great eclât to himself. The expenses of this war, the building of Fort Johnson, and the expedition to St. Augustine, were so great, that the planters asserted that they could not be discharged by taxation without ruining the country. At their solicitation, therefore, and chiefly for their benefit, Gov. Craven, in 1712, passed the celebrated Bank Act, enlarging the currency by stamping £52,000 on bills of credit. There was scarcely any opposition to it at the time; the proprietors had several copies sent them, and showed no symptoms of disapproval. About three years afterwards, however, influenced by the representations of Chief Justice Trott, who was personally inimical to Gov. Craven, and who desired his dismissal from office, they sent out an instruction, condemning the conduct of their governor, depriving him of some of his privileges and perquisites, and vesting in Judge Trott, an unconstitutional negative upon all the laws that might hereafter be proposed; at the same time demanding a repeal of the obnoxious Bank Act. Gov. Craven submitted this instruction to the Assembly, in a feeling and able speech,-showing the indignity that had been put upon him, and declaring his intention of re

* The mistake is that of our correspondent. Our histories distinctly mention the two expeditions of Barnwell and Moore, and do full justice to the achievements of the latter.-[Editor Southern Quarterly Review.

66

turning home and yielding up, in form, an authority which was in reality possessed by his greatest enemy. The reply of the Commons is remarkably bold and direct. They assume the cause of the governor as their own; they stigmatise the conduct of Judge Trott in no measured terms, and are not very respectful to the true and absolute lords proprietors" themselves. They finally induce the governor to remain in office, on condition that two agents be sent over to England to vindicate his character and the Bank Act before the proprietors. Joseph Boone and R. Berresford were commissioned nominally for these purposes; but there are reasons to believe that they also had instructions to use every means to throw off the proprietary yoke. If not, such instructions were shortly afterwards superadded. These agents had been despatched scarcely a month, before the Yemassee war broke out,—an event which contributed more than anything else to make the government of Carolina royal.

The Yemassees were of the great Mobilian or Choctamuskogh stock of Gallatin, comprising the three powerful families of Creeks, Choctaws and Chickasaws. They seem to have been of the tribe of the Creeks, and drew into the conspiracy against the English the whole of that nation, the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Thus, this war was with the whole Mobilian race, numbering between eight and ten thousand warriors, assisted by the Catawbas. The Catawbas, an isolated race, bounded on the north by the Tuscaroras, an Iroquois tribe, their most deadly enemies; on the east, south and west by the Mobilian and Cherokee races; had hitherto been able to maintain its ground only by a strict alliance with the English. Acting as an outpost to the colony, they restrained the incursions of the Northern Indians, and served to keep in awe the small tribes between them and Charlestown, by cutting off the possibility of a retreat. Their defection, therefore, immediately let loose upon the settlements the Santee, Wateree, Congaree, Waccamaw and Pedee Indians.

Gloomy, indeed were the prospects of the colony at this time; yet, not for a moment, did its spirit sink under accumulated treachery and distress. Its frontier settlements destroyed, many of its inhabitants massacred, its slaves driven off to St. Augustine, the public records breathe, neNEW SERIES, VOL. VI.-NO. 12.

22