SOUTH CAROLINA
159
SOUTH CAROLINA
the Revolution the course of South Carolina was a
succession of cumulatively forcible resistances to in-
terference on the part of the ])roprietors, and, after
1721, when the Crown assunieil contml, on tlu' part of
the sovereign and the royal go\<'rniirs, interspersed
with the dissolving of popular assemblies, the annul-
ment of governmental decrees, and a scries of bloody
campaigns against the Indians, with the gradual
formation of two distinct social classes, the rise of
Charleston as a mart of trade, a seat of wealth and
fashion, and a virile and cosmopoUtan community.
The colony warmly sympathized with the northern
colonies, the royal governor being forced to abdicate,
taking refuge on a British man-of-war in September,
1775. A State Constitution w;i.s first adopted on 26
March, 1776, and, by a vote of 149 to 73, the national
Constitution was ratified on 2:i May, 17S8.
Early in its state history South Carolina evinced a feeling for States' Rights, which made it the leader in the southern agitation that led up to the Civil War. A Nullification Act was passed in 1832 in opposition to the high tariff upon importations passed by the Federal Government; but the trouble was temporarily reUeved by the passing of a compromise tariff in the succeeding session of Congress. Serious difficulties arose upon the election of Lincoln to the presidency. On the day of his election both Houses of the State Legislature in joint session passed a resolution pro- viding for a state convention to consider the with- ilrawal of the state from the Union. In November the Legislature passed an act authorizing such a con- vention, declaring that "a sovereign State of the L'nion had a right to secede from it; that the States of the Union are not subordinate to the national gov- ernment, were not created by it, and do not belong to it; that Ihey created the national government; that from them it derives its power; that to them it is responsible; and that when it .abuses the trust reposed in it they, as equal sovereigns, have a right to resume the powers respectively delegated to it by them." Orators now stumped the state, vigilance committees were organized, assemblages of negroes were dispersed, and the delegates chosen on 3 December, 1860, met at Columbia on the 17th, adjourning to Charleston, owing to.the prevalence of smallpox. On 20 December an <irdinance declaring that "the union now sub- sisting between South Carolina and other States under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved" was unanimously adopted forty- five minutes after it was submitted. A proclamation to this effect was read and adopted amid scenes of the wildest enthusiasm. All federal office-holders at once resigned. A new banner Wiis adopted for "The Inde- pendent Commonwealth". A committee was ap- pointed to wait on the president and treat for the po.sses.sion of public lands within the state. They urged the president to immeiliately withdraw all national troops from Charlest<m harbour and pre- sented him with a resolution of secession. Lincoln was courteous but firm. He repUed that he would present their demands to Congress, but gave them to understand that he should defend Fort Sumter. A taunting reply was ff)rthcoming from the commission- ers which the ])r('sident rleclined to answer. The com- niissii)ners returned und. on 12 April, 1861, South Carolinians attacked Fort Sumter, compelled its evacuation by federal troops, and the state for four years became one of the most energetic and zealous defenders of the Confederacy.
At the close of the war a provisional government was set up by the president on .30 June, 186.5, and a state convention, in the fall of the same year, re- pealed the ordinance of secession and declared slaverj' abolished. .\n election was held in Novem- ber and a state government was elected which con- tinued in office until superseded by the military government in 1867 — South and North CaroUna
being included in one military district. The state
passed safely through the terrors of the Recon-
struction Period. On 14 January, 1868, at a con-
vention compo.sed of 34 whites and 63 blacks the
Constitution was adopted and ratified at an election
the following year, which chose 85 negroes and 72
white men for the State Legislature. On 13 July,
1868, the Fourteenth .\mendment was ratified and
the military authorities were withdrawn. The Fif-
teenth Amendment was ratified by the State Legis-
lature, 11 March, 1869.
In the city of Charleston, from 1 December, 1901, to 1 May, 1902, a "South Carolina Interstate and West Indian Exposition" was held, which eloquently demonstrated the dev'elopment of the Southern states since the Civil War and the industries and resources of Cuba, Porto Rico, Mexico, and South .\merica.
B. EccteMaslical. — In the stormy period of re- ligious dissent that characterized the early colonial years of the CaroUnas, Catholics bore no part; nor indeed does there appear any e^'idence of the presence of a single active Catholic in South Carolina until after the Revolution. This religious dissent came from the Quakers and a growing class of colonists, indifferent to religious ideals, who objected to the en- forced estabUshment of the Church of England, in- volving on their part the payment of three-fourths sh;ire for the maintenance of a rehgiousestabhshment representing a minority. But the hj^jothetical pres- ence of Catholics was tluly provided for in the Acts of 1696 renewing toleration, by the usual parenthetical intrusion of the phrase — "Papists only except eil". Indeed it was not until a generation after the Revolu- tion, with its disestalilishiiient of the .\nglican Church in the states of North and South Carolina, that the Metropolitan of the United States solicited the pope to erect a southern diocese for the bands of Cath- olics scattered through Georgia and the CaroUnas who were already becoming inthfferent and malcontent, if not actually heretical. To include these states in its territory, the See of Charleston was erected by Pius VII, 11 July, 1820, and the Rev. John England, the parish priest of Killorgan and Ballymoodaii, Ire- land, was consecrated its bishop .at the Cathedral of St. Finnbar, refusing at the same time to take a special oath of allegiance to the King of England. The bishop embarked for the L'nited States on 22 October; set about his onerous duties with indefatig- able assiduity; founded the first Catholic newspajier of America, "The United States' Catholic ^iis- cellany", which, with a slight intermission, endured up to the Civil War; established The Philosophical and Classical Seminary- of Charleston for Catholics and non-Catholics alike; organized, in 1830, the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy; drew up a model Constitution for the Church, and incorporated its trustees. Bishop England combined in a remark- able degree practical insight, indomitable energy, and wide culture, while strugghng against baffling dif- ficulties.
In 1850, during the episcopate of Bishop Reynolds, the See of Savannah was erected with jurisdiction over Georgia and Exstcrn Florida, and the Diocese of Charleston henceforth comprised the Camlinas with a Catholic population estimated at SOOO. The Ci\-il War WTOught terrible havoc with Catholic lives and Church property, culminating in the horrors of Sherman's march to the sea, and Bishop Lynch displayed remarkable energ)^ in building up again his ruined and penniless tliocese. The \'icariate ,\pos- tolic of North Carolina wiis erectetl by a Papal Bull, 3 March, 1868, so that under the present episco|)ate of Bishop Henry P. Northrop, the Diocese of Charles- ton comprises simply the .Stale of South Carolina. There are in the diocese 108 religious women, nov- ices and postulants, 19 secular priests, 12 churches with resident priests, 17 missions with churches, 75
