Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-06-17
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Written for the Yorkville Enquirer.
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
OF THE
Early Settlement of South Carolina.
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK
BY REV. ROBERT LATHAM.

| CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK.
Thomas Smith, the successor of Philip Lud.
we'll, was amongst the first settlers of South
Carolina. He was a native of Devonshire,
England. On account of the religious intol'
erance and prosecutions which existed in Eng
land at that time, he, with his brother James,
came to South Carolina in the year 1871.
They we're amongst the first individuals who
settled on Oyster Point, the present site of the
city of Charleston. The lots owned by them
were, on the laying out of the city at first,
numbered Al and 81. They were living
where Charleston is now situated as early as
1872 James Smith left Carolina and went
to Boston.
Thomas Smith was man of property and
highly respected by the people and proprie'
tors. On the removal of Colleton, he was
chosen Governor, but Sothell coming into the
colony previous to bis being formally inducted
into Office, sothell asserted his priority and
was as we have seen, to the injury of all par
ties, made Governor At different times the
proprietors had made grants Of land to Smith,
and he had purchased large amount besides.
He also married the widow Of John D'Arsens,
to whom the proprietors had made grant of
twelve thousand acres Of land. In 1851 he
| was made landgrave, which, by the regula-
-tioss=of the proprietors, entitled him to the
enormous amount of forty-eight thousand
acres of land. The whole, summed up, must
have made Thomas Smith the owner of not
much less than one hundred thousand acres
of land. He had held several Offices in the
colony before he was chosen Governor He
had been deputy Of the proprietors, sheriff
of Berkley county, and honored and respected
generally. We may safely conclude that
Thomas Smith was a good man. In 1893,
after the departure of Ludwell, Smith entered
upon the duties of his office as Governor Of
South Carolina. His long and intimate con-
nection with the colony, led both proprietors
and people, to look upon his induction into Of
fee as the dawn of new and prosperous era
in the history of the colony.
The instructions which we're given to Lud-
WE'LL we're repeated to Smith. The Difficult
ties which had sprung up between the people
and proprietors still continued-not, however,
so threatening in their aspect. From the out
set, the Fundamental Constitutions, and gen.
orally the instructions given by the proprie.
tors to the Governors, were stubbornly, and
sometimes violently, resisted by the people.
The charter given by the King was not OBJ
jected to, and both proprietors and people ap-
pealed to it. The former claimed that the
charter gave them all the powers and prerog.
atives that they had inserted in the Funda-
mental Constitutions, and in the instructions
which, at various times, they had sent to the
different Governors of the Province. This
was denied by the people, and giving this in
terpretation to the charter, they persistently
opposed everything that seemed to them to be
an encroachment upon their chartered privi-
leges. At different times, concessions were
made and liberties granted by the proprietors,
but the people had become irritated, and
either could not or would not see that the
changes made in the Fundamental Constitu-
tions were for their good. One of the in
stances in which the eproprietors yielded to the
clamors among the people for more liberty, is
contained in the changes which they were
"prevailed upon" to make, in 1852, on the
Fundamental Constitutions of 1869. The
following is the 6fty-frst law of what, by the
propretors, was honored with the high sound.
ing title of Fundamental Constitutions, and
which they unhesitatingly said were to ere
main the sacred and unalterable form and
rule of government of Carolina forever :"
"The Grand Council shall prepare all matters
to be proposed in Parliament. Nor shall any
matter whatsoever be proposed in Parliament,
but what hath first passed the Grand Council !;
which, after having been read three several
days in the Parliament, shall, by a majority
of votes, be passed or rejected" The Grand
Council was composed of the Governor, five
individuals chosen by the people, and five
deputies appointed by the proprietors. The
deputies were generally men Of illiberal views,
and opposed and thwarted every effort of the
Governors in conducting the government of
the colony on Democratic principles. The
powers granted them by the Fundamental
Constitutions were very great. The Parlia-
ment could do but little more than approve
of what was done by the Grand Council.
Whether for the interest of the colony, or
whether from necessity, we will not undertake
to say, but in 1852 the ffty-6rst law of the
Fundamental Constitutions was so altered as
to grant the "juryes of the countyes" 10 pro.
pose laws to the Parliament. 1t was also
granted by the same instructions of 1882
that in the event the Grand Council had
made no arrangement for the proposing of
law likely to benefit the colony, any member
of the Parliament might take cognizance of
it and propose it to the house." This was
great concession on the part Of the proprietors,
but the people seem not to have seen it, or to
have been too much irrtated in feeling, to
give the proprietors due credit for the privi.
lege This practice continued in the colony,
and the Colonial Parliament began to resem.
BILE, more closely, that of England.
Notwithstanding the character of Thomas
Smith, be found it no easy task to discharge
the duties of Governor of South Carolina.
The difficulties and fsuds existing between
the English and French colonists had been
partially adjusted by Sothell, but still the
line of demarkation which separated the two
nationalities was clearly visible. Sothell did
many bad things, but he did some good things.