between Churchmen and Dissenters. A test act requiring members of the assembly to conform to the Church of England and to take the sacrament of the Eucharist according to the rites and usages of that Church (1704) was defeated only through the intervention of the Whig House of Lords in England. By an act of the 30th of November 1706, which remained in force until the War of American Independence, the Church of England was made the established religion. After a few years of peace and prosperity there came another attack upon the proprietors which culminated in the revolution of 1719 and the downfall of proprietary rule. Acting on the advice of Chief Justice Nicholas Trott (1663-1740) the proprietors adopted a reactionary policy, vetoed several popular laws, and refused to afford protection from the attacks of the Indians. The people rebelled, overthrew the existing government and elected their leader James Moore (1667-1723) as governor. The result of the revolution was accepted in England, and the colony at once came under royal control, although the rights of the proprietors were not extinguished by purchase until 1729. Theoretically South Carolina and North Carolina constituted a single province, but, as the settlements were far apart, there were always separate local governments. Until 1691 each had its own governors, from 1691 to 1712 there was usually a governor at Charleston and a deputy for the northern settlements, and after 1712 there were again separate governors. The first attempt to define the boundary was made in 1732, but the work was not completed until 1815.
The change from proprietary to royal government scarcely affected at all the constitutional development of the province. The popular branch of the assembly continued to encroach upon the powers of the governor and council. By 1760 the council had almost ceased to exercise any real control over legislation. They rarely initiated or amended a bill of any kind, never a revenue measure. Public officials chosen nominally by the General Assembly were really the nominees of the lower house. In the conduct of his executive functions the governor found himself constantly hampered by committees of the Assembly. In other words, whether they were conscious of the fact or not, the South Carolinians throughout the colonial era were tending towards independence. The demands of the British government after 1760 were not especially unreasonable or tyrannical, but they were made upon a people who were too long accustomed to having their own way. As the spirit of rebellion developed the sentiment in favour of colonial union gained in strength. Thomas Lynch (c. 1720-1776), Christopher Gadsden (1724-1805), and John Rutledge (1739-1800) attended the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, an inter colonial committee of correspondence was appointed in 1773, and delegates were sent to the Continental Congress in 1774 and 1775. A council of safety appointed by a Provincial Congress practically took charge of the government in June 1775. The Assembly was formally dissolved on the 15th of September, Governor William Campbell (d. 1778) fled from the town, and royal government came to an end. In the conflict with the mother country the people had the advantage of long experience in fighting. There had been wars with the Spanish in 1686, 1702-04, 1740, with the Spanish and French in 1706, with pirates in 1718, with the Yemassee Indians in 1715 and the Cherokees in 1760-61, and a slave uprising in 1739. The state suffered severely during the War of Independence, the numbers and influence of the Loyalists serving to embitter the conflict. In the summer of 1776 the British, under Sir Henry Clinton and Sir Peter Parker attempted to capture Charleston and summon the South Carolina Loyalists to their standard, but on the 28th of June the fleet was repulsed in an assault on Fort Moultrie. Clinton returned, however, early in 1780, and, as he surrounded the city on all sides with an overwhelming force, General Benjamin Lincoln, who was defending it with about 7000 men, surrendered (May 12) to avoid certain destruction. The British thereupon overran the whole state, and until near the close of the war a new American army, first under Horatio Gates and later under Nathanael Greene, was engaged in driving them out. The principal engagements fought within the state were Camden (Aug. 16, 1780), King's Mountain (Oct. 7, 1780), Hobkirk's Hill (April 25, 1781), and Eutaw Springs (Sept. 8, 1781).
The most significant feature in the early history of the state was the struggle between the Low Country, which centred about Charleston, and the Up Country, which was settled largely by Scotch-Irish, who came down the mountain valleys from North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. The great planters of the low country had wealth, the small farmers of the up country had numbers. Under the first state constitution, adopted in March 1776, the low country element maintained the ascendancy which they had possessed during the colonial period. In 1786 they were forced to consent to the removal of the seat of government to Columbia (final removal, 1790) and in 1808 to a reapportionment of the representation, based partly on wealth and partly on numbers. There was to be one representative for every sixty-second part of the whole number of white inhabitants of the state and one for every sixty-second part of the taxes raised by the legislature. More harmonious relations were in time established, partly because of improvements in the methods of transport, but mainly as a result of outside pressure in the form of criticism of slavery and the adoption by the national government of an economic policy which favoured the manufacturers at the expense of the agricultural interests. In 1832 there was a majority from each section in favour of Nullification (q.v.), and the legislature called the famous Nullification Convention, which met at Charleston the 19th of November, and five days later passed the Ordinance of Nullification declaring that certain acts of Congress imposing import duties “are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null and void and no law, nor binding upon this state, its officers or citizens.” President Jackson was ready to use force against the state; and the tariff, over which the whole disagreement had arisen, was changed in such a way as to effect a compromise with the state. From about 1828 to 1861 South Carolina superseded Virginia as the leader of the South. She stood for states' rights and free trade. John C. Calhoun was her political philosopher and George McDuffie her political economist. Her secession, on the 20th of December 1860, was followed by the formation of the Southern Confederacy, the bombardment of Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861) and the Civil War (1861-65). Although few battles were fought within her limits, because of the distance from the frontier, South Carolina made many sacrifices in the interest of her section. With a white population of 291,300 at the beginning of the conflict, the state put into the field during the four years 62,838 effective men, with an enrolment, including reserves, of 71,083, of whom 22% were killed on the field or died in prison. General W. T. Sherman's march across the state (February-March, 1865) was accomplished by an enormous destruction of property by fire and pillage.
All the misfortunes of the war itself are insignificant when compared with the sufferings of the people during the era of Reconstruction (1865-1871). In accordance with the liberal views of President Andrew Johnson, the white people assumed control of affairs shortly after the close of hostilities, and James L. Orr (1822-1875) was chosen governor. Congress reversed this policy (1867), disfranchised the majority of the whites and transferred political power to negroes, Northern adventurers and disreputable native whites. There followed an orgy of crime and corruption. The Assembly Hall was furnished with clocks costing $600 dollars each, sofas at $200, and other articles in proportion. A restaurant and bar were kept in the State House at which the members of the legislature and their friends could procure refreshments free of cost. The debt of the state was increased from $5,000,000 in 1868 to more than $18,000,000 in 1872. Crime among the negroes became so frequent that the whites were compelled to form a secret organization for protection (see Ku Klux Klan). In the spring of 1868 the state adopted a new constitution in conformity with the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, and elected state officers and congressmen, and on the 25th of June the state was readmitted
