Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-06-03
Misturp 1T 8, Garuliua.
Written for the Yorkvillc Enquirer.
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
OF THE
EarIy Settlement of South Carolina
BY REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK. }

BY REV. ROBERT LATHAM
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK.
Joseph Morton was, for various reasons,
removed from the Office of Governor of South
Carolina, and James Colleton was commits
stoned to be his successor. The proprietors
complained that Morton was too favorable in
his treatment of the pirates who secured the
high seas, and permitted the people to govern
him, rather than he govern the people. Re-
specting the former charge, no doubt Morton,
as we'll as most of the other Governors who
succeeded him, as also some of his successors,
might have pleaded guilty still, he and they
had the consolation of knowing that they were
treading in royal footsteps. Charles the
Second had made Henry Morgan, native of
Wales, knight and commissioned him Gov
ernor of Jamaica. All this was done because
Morgan, with piratcal fleet, had plundered
the Spanish dominons in America. A treaty,
in the meantime, had been entered into be-
tween England and Spain, which marked out
the bounds of the domnions Of each nation.
In this treaty, peace was mutually pledged.
As we have already seen, the Spanish in
America paid but little attention to the trea-
ties of their sovereign, and the English people
at least winked at the wanton practice of her
robbers on the high seas. The colonists had,
at least, some precedent for receiving the pi-
rates into Charles Town, and some excuse for
treating them kindly.
Joseph Morton was not to be censured be-
cause he could not govern the people of Car
olina as the proprietors desired them to be
governed. This was simply impossible, as the
preceding history indicates, and the future
history will fully confirm. The proprietors
could form no correct idea of the conditions
and necessities of the people; and besides, they
seem to have been men of contracted notions,
and, to an objectionable extent, wanting
common sense. Only about fifteen years had
elapsed but no less than six individuals had
held the responsible office Of governor. Nor,
ton had held the office twice, and West three
times None of these persons had met the
expectations and carried out the wishes and
instructions of the proprietors. AS the chief
officer in the province was the governor, the
failure of the proprietors scheme was laid to
his charge The remedy in each case for these
evils, the propretors thought to be the re-
moval of the governor. Consequently, in
1886 Joseph Morton was removed, and in
August of the same year James Colleton was,
in due form, commissioned Governor of all
that part of Carolina which lies south of Cape
Fear.
The troubles and difficulties which hereto.
fore existed in the colony now began to as
sumo huge proportions. John Colleton was
one of the original proprietors. He died and
his brother Peter succeeded him as proprie'
tor. James was the brother of John and
Peter. At the time that James Colleton was
commissioned Governor of South Carolina,
he was residing in Barbados. In order to
add dignity to his office and influence to his
person, the proprietors made him landgrave
and gave him forty-eight thousand acres OF
land in free tenure forever His first appear
ance to the coonists was when he met them
on their way to attack St. Augustine under the
command of Morton as Governor Of the pro-
vince and John Godfrey as commander OF
the military forces. His first salutation was
that he would hang the last one of them in
the event they persisted in the expedition
The threat had the effect of causing the ar
mament to return to Charles Town, but en-
gendered bitter feelings in the people toward
the new Governor and created no love for the
proprietors. The people thought, and so de-
clared, that the fame of England had been
tarnished, and disgrace brought upon the
province of Carolina. James Colleton com.
menced his gubernatorial career with unfa
vorable omens, and it terminated without
honor to himself or profit to the proprietors
He was, in every respect, a fit representative
of the proprietors; but totally unqualified tc
meet the emergencies of the occasion. He
was bound to the proprietors by the ties Of
blood and by the stronger ties of CASTE He
was interested in the prosperity of the colony
since he was the owner, by grant, of a large
landed estate. He was admitted to be man
of family and intellectual endowments and
culture. Such man, similarly situated
might have played with success the part of a
petty tyrant over a vast multitude of poverty
ridden tenants in the Old World but such q
thing was impossible on the banks of the
Kyewaw or Wando, where the birds chanted
liberty in an unbroken forest, and each hu
man being was permitted to breathe the all
of freedom. Difficult as it was at that time
to rule England, it was even more difficult tc
govern the infant colony in South Carolina a
The people, at least most of them, had left
their native homes in Europe and come to
America that they might be free, and free
they would be. Not that they had deter
mined to be aset of outlaws, for although in
1890 there was not single law in force in
the colony, still the people were law-abidiug
All they demanded was to be governed in
accordance with the charter granted by the
King of England in 1868, and the constitu
tions drawn up by the proprietors in 1869
The charter the proprietors could not alter
but the constitutions were changed time and
again, and in 1857 they declared, in letter
addressed to Governor Coleton, that the con
stitutions of 1859 were "nothing but a copy
of an imperfect original" Every thing seem
ed to widen the breach between the proprie
tors and people.