South Carolina

was one of the original thirteen States of the American Union. It was partially explored by the Spaniards in 1525, who named it Chicora. French Huguenots under Ribaut attempted to plant a colony at Port Royal in 1562, but the colonists soon abandoned the undertaking and returned to France, In 1670 William Sayle and a party of English men founded Charleston. Charles II. gave the territory between 29° north latitude and 36° 30’ north latitude to eight of his favorites (1663), and in 1665 he i ued a charter to the proprietors by which the virtual control of the colony was placed in their hands. They employed Locke, the philosopher, to draw up a constitution which should provide an ideal government. Locke’s Fundamental Constitutions, or the ‘‘Grand Model,’ attempted in vain to set up the feudal system and was formally abandoned by the proprietors in 1693. In 1700 the colony was separated from North Carolina, the boundary being fixed in 1732. South Carolina became a royal colony in 1729. The Southern boundary caused a dispute with Georgia which was settled in 1787 in favor of Georgia. South Carolina then ceded her western territory, consisting of a strip twelve miles wide, to the general government. During the Revolution the important battles of Fort Moultrie, Cowpens, King’s Mountain, Camden and Eutaw Springs were fought 1n South Carolina. The first constitution was made in 1776, the present in 1867. The National Constitution was ratified May 23, 1788, by a vote of 149 to 73. For some years the Federalists retained control of the State because of the wealth and influence of their leaders. In 1800 Pinckney refused the offer of the Democrats in the Legislature to choose electors favorable to Jefferson and himself and stood by his colleague, Adams, in his defeat. From this time the State was solidly Democratic. By the famous compromise of 1808 the apportionment of representatives was made according to population and taxes, The State protested against the gro inequality of the tariff of 1828 by the ‘* South Carolina Exposition,” in which the doctrine of nullification was defended. In 1832 the tariff of 1828, the ‘‘tariff of abominations,’’ was modified, but the principle of protection still retained, whereupon South Carolina in convention at Columbia on November 24, 1832, declared the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 null and void and prohibited payment of duties after February 1, 1833. Henry Clay’s compromise tariff was pa ed in 1833, and at the same time a force bill became law; on March 11, 1833, the nullification ordinance was repealed. South Carolina was the mother of sece ion, and after 1850 she was ready to secede at any time when she could rely upon the aid of the other States. December 20, 1860, an ordinance of sece ion was pa ed to sustain which the State furnished 60,000 troops out of a population including only 47,000 voters. April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired on. South Carolina was re-admitted June 25, 1868. From 1868 to 1873 the (‘* carpetbag’’) State government was exceedingly corrupt. In 1870 and 1871 the Ku-Klux Klan aimed at the suppre ion of the negro vote by outrage. In 1876 the Republicans carried the State in a disorderly election. Since that time the State has been steadily Democratic. The population of South Carolina in 1790 was 249,033; in 1890 it was 1,151,149. 242