For an adequate idea as to how the commonwealth is governed it would be necessary to trace the development of the institutions of the State from the colonial period on down the years. In the preceding chapter this growth has been touched upon somewhat. Unfortunately space permits only a plain outline of the machinery of the government of the present day under the Federal Constitution and the State Constitution of 1895. The attempt is made to present this outline briefly, preceding it with this pertinent extract from the introduction of McCrady's "History of South Carolina under the Proprietary Government":

"Despite political turmoil, hurricane, pestilence, and fire, the tomahawk of the Indian and the sword of the French and Spaniard, we shall find gradually developing from an emigrants' camp to social order and settled government, and carrying on successfully at their extreme end of the line of English colonies the experiment of representative government. We shall find them laying the foundation of great fortunes, building churches, quarreling over religion, but, withal, strenuously maintaining it and curiously mixing Puritan fanaticism with high church dogma, founding schools and libraries, and laying so broad and deep the foundations of jurisprudence that that structure has continued to this day to rest upon the Code of Laws adopted in 1712."

The reference in the above is to the following from the same source:

"It will be remembered that during Governor Ludwell's administration the Proprie tors had disallowed the enactment of a habeas corpus act upon the ground that it was not necessary to reenact any statute of England, as such statute applied to this colony proprio vigore under the charter. That theory was now abandoned, and under Craven the habeas corpus act of King Charles the Second, was formally reenacted. Then followed the adoption of Trott's great work,-a general codification of the Eng: lish statutes, applicable to the condition of the new country, and a compilation of all colonial acts then in force.

"This was for the time a stupendous work. There had been before this several instances of compilation of colonial statutes in other provinces, a brief mention of which, in this connection, will not be without Interest here. In Massachusetts Nathan Ward had compiled the perpetual laws enacted by the General Court as early as 1641.this work was entitled the Body of Liberties, sometimes called 'Liberties,' or 'Book of Liberties.' There were also several revisions by the Plymouth Colony General Court-1636, 1658, and 1671. In Virginia the laws in force in 1662 were collected out of the Assembly Records, digested into one volume, and revised and confirmed by the General Assembly, and in 1684 a complete collection of all the laws in force, with an Alphabetical Table annexed, was made. In 1673 was published the book of General Laws for the people within the jurisdiction of Connecticut, collected out of the records of the General Court, then lately revised with emendations and additions established and published by the General Court of Connecticut holden at Hartford in October, 1672. In New York there had been a collection of the laws from 1691 to 1694, and in 1710 the laws as they were enacted by the Governor's Council and General Assembly from 1691 to 1709 were compiled and published. Following Trott's collection of the laws of South Carolina in 1712, which we are now considering, the laws of Pennsylvania, collected Into one volume, were published by the Governor and Assembly of the province in 1714; there was a collection of the laws of New Hampshire in 1716; and a partial collection of the laws of New Jersey was made in 1717. These works were all compilations, or collations as they were sometimes termed, of the colonial statutes and laws in force in the respective provinces at the time of their collection, and were made either by private individuals or by enactments of the colonial legisla tures. And such was a part of Trott's work-that relating to the compilation of the laws of the province; but far the most important was the codification of the English statutes, to which we can find no other like and contemporaneous work in America. This work was more than a compilation. It was a codification embodied in a single act. The act was entitled 'An act to put in force in this Province the several statutes of the Kingdom of England or South Britain therein particularly mentioned.' It comprised an actual revision of the whole body of the statutory law of England, and the selection from it of such statutes not only as were then applicable to the condition of the colony at the time, but which would become so on its further development. The statutes selected, and modified when needful, were one hundred and sixty-seven in number, covering one hundred and eighty pages royal octavo of the second volume of the Statutes at Large. Strange to say, the preamble to this most important act, which is unusually brief, gives no intimation of the magnitude of the measure and assigns the most inadequate reasons for its enactment. The occasion for the act stated is that 'many statute laws of the Kingdom of England or South Britain by rea son of the different way of agriculture and the differing production of the earth of this Province from that of England are altogether useless, and many others (which other wise are very apt and good) elther by reason of their limitation to particular places or because in themselves they are only executive by such nominal offices as are not

1. MARTIN F. ANSEL, Governor. 2. T. G. MCLEOD, Lieutenant-Governor. 3. R. M. McCown, Secretary of State. 4. J. FULLER LYON, Attorney-General. 5. R. H. JENNINGS, State Treasurer. 6. A. W. JONES, Comptroller-General. 7. O. B. MARTIN, State Superintendent of Education. 8. F. J. WATSON, Commissioner of Agriculture, Commerce and Immigration. 9. J. C. BOYD, Adjutant and Inspector-General.

in nor suitable for the constitution of this government are thereby become Impracticable here.' With this very unsatisfactory explanation of the occasion of the work, the act provided that the statutes or parts of statutes of the kingdom of England enumerated in an elaborate table annexed, consisting of statutes from the time of the great charter in the ninth year of King Henry the Third, which was itself specifically mentioned, to the eighth year of Queen Anne, should be of the same force in the province as if they had been enacted in the same. The text of the enumerated statutes was given in full and included in the enactment. It was also provided in the same act that all and every part of the common law of England, when the same was not altered by the enumerated acts or inconsistent with the particular constitutions and customs and laws of the province, and excepting such as had relation to ancient tenures which were taken away by acts of Parliament of 12 Charles II, c. 24, doing away with the court of Wards and Liveries and Tenures in capite and by Knight's service, was to be of full force in the province. There was also excepted that part of the common law which related to matters ecclesiastical which were inconsistent with or repugnant to the settlement of the Church of England in the province as there established. The Governor with his Council were constituted a Court of Chancery, with the same powers as those exercised by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of Great Britain, in England. The courts of Record in the province were to have the powers of the King's or Queen's courts. All the statute laws of England not enumerated in the act (such only excepted which related to her Majesty's customs and acts of trade and navigation) were declared impracticable. It was provided that nothing in these acts should be construed to take away or abridge the liberty of conscience, or any other liberty in matters ecclesiastical, from any of the inhabitants of the province, but that the same should still be enjoyed according to the powers and privileges granted to the true and absolute Lords Proprietors by their charter from the Crown, and the several acts of assembly of the province then in force.

"A remarkable circumstance in connection with this act is the undue haste in which a measure of such great importance was hurried through the legislature. It appears by the Journal that it was read in the Assembly, for the first time on Wednesday, the 26th of November, 1712, and immediately passed by that body with some amendments. It is not mentioned by whom this act was introduced. It was sent at once to the Governor and Council. That body hesitated to act so inconsiderately upon so grave and important a measure, and returned it with a message on the 28th, saying: We take it to be a bill of that consequence that it will require your, as well as our diligent care to overlook all the statutes, that we may know whether all or any part of them are adopted to the nature and constitution of the government of the province. We give to you as our advice and opinion that the best way for both Houses to be satisfied in a case of this consequence will be to commit the bill to a committee of both Houses to examine the said statutes in which we shall readily join with you in appointing a Committee to join a Committee of yours.' This suggestion of the Governor and Council was at first accepted by the House, and a committee appointed to examine the bill and the several English statutes with instructions to report at the next session of the General Assembly; or if in case that Assembly should sit no more, the committee were to report to the next sitting of the succeeding General Assembly. What occurred to change this course of proceeding, and to demand immediate action upon the bill, is not disclosed in the Journal, nor is there any other contemporaneous statement. The entries in the Journal merely show that the bill was read a second time on December 5th, and a third time on the 11th, and that it was ratified on the 12th. The committee probably shrank from so arduous a labor as the revision of these statutes, or perhaps felt themselves incompetent to the task. and determined to accept Trott's work as it stood. It is, perhaps, after all as well that they did so. Their crude attempts to amend may have rather marred than improved a compilation which has remained the groundwork of all subsequent general legislation in South Carolina for nearly two centuries."

No attempt will be made to trace the evolution of South Carolina laws from this time to the time of the adoption of the Constitution of 1895, under which the people of the State are now living.

This Constitution provides for three coördinate branches of the Governmentthe Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial, and forever they are to be equal and distinct.

Rights of the People. In the Declaration of Rights it is stated that all political power is vested in the people, and the people alone have the right to change their form of government; that representation shall be according to population; that the Legislature shall not limit freedom of speech; that the privileges of citizens shall not be abridged in any way without due process of law; that property shall be assessed at its value; that the people must first consent to the levying of any special tax before it can be collected; that bills. of attainder and ex post facto laws shall not be enacted; that the right of the suffrage shall always be protected by proper franchise laws; that all elections shall be open to all possessing qualifications provided for by the Constitution of the State that property qualifications are not necessary for the holding of public office; that acceptances of challenges to fight duels work forfeiture of the right to hold office; that no office shall be held for life; that temporary absence from the State does not forfeit citizenship once obtained; that no laws shall be suspended except by the General Assembly; that all court proceedings. shall be public and the defendants shall have speedy trial; that all persons be secured against the search of their premises without due process of law; that no person for offenses (not minor) shall be required to answer without a proper indictment; that private property shall not be taken for private use without consent of the owner, nor for public use without just compensation to the owner;

that no person shall twice be placed in jeopardy for the same crime; that the rights of all accused persons shall be fully protected; that excessive bail shall not be required that corporal punishment shall not be inflicted; that the power to punish for contempt shall not extend in any contingency to imprisonment in the State Penitentiary; that the right to refuse bail in capital offenses extends only when the proof is evident and the presumption of guilt great; that the jury in all prosecutions for libel must be the judges of the law and the facts; that treason against the State shall consist wholly in levying war or in giving aid and comfort to enemies of the State; that no person can be convicted of treason except upon the testimony of two persons who witnessed the same overt act, or upon open confession in court; that the privilege of habeas corpus shall only be suspended in cases of rebellion, or invasion, when the public safety demands such a course; that the right of trial by jury shall be preserved inviolate; that militia must be maintained by the State alone; that the military power shall always be subordinate to the civil authority; that the General Assembly alone can give authority for the exercise of martial law; that all navigable waters must forever be maintained and considered as public highways.

A. J. BETHEA, Private Secretary to

DR. J. W. BABCOCK, Supt. Hospital for Insane.

The Suffrage.-In Article II the Constitution declares that all elections by the people shall be by ballot, which ballots must never be counted in secret; that no person shall hold two offices of honor or profit at the same time, except the party may also be an officer of the militia or a notary public. The qualifications for the suffrage are set forth in the Constitution in considerable detail. They are in brief as follows:

The voter must be a citizen of the United States, a man who has paid six months before election any poll tax then due, and can read and write any section of the State Constitution, or can show that he owns and has paid all taxes due the previous year on property assessed in the State at $300 or more. Previous residence of two years in the State, one year in the county, and four months in the town or the precinct is a requirement. All felons, and persons convicted of bribery, unless pardoned, the insane and paupers, are prohibited the ballot. Persons convicted of certain crimes, the insane, idiots and paupers, are deprived of the franchise. The General Assembly is required by law to provide all the machinery for the carrying out of the provisions of the Constitution as to the franchise. The same general requirements are made to apply to municipalities.

the Governor.

The Legislative Department.-There are two distinct branches-the House of Representatives and the Senate. The two bodies together constitute the General Assembly of South Carolina. The members of the House must number 124 and are chosen by ballot by the qualified voters at an election held every second year. The representation is by counties, one representative being allowed to every 124th part of the whole number of the inhabitants of the State.. If any county fails to meet this requirement, it is allowed one representative without regard to population. The Senate is composed of one member from each county, elected for a term of four years, and the elections are so arranged that every two years half of the body is elected. Senators must be at least 25 years and Representatives 21 years of age._ Annual sessions of the General Assembly are held beginning on the second Tuesday of January of each year. The per diem of the members is limited to 40 days. All bills for raising revenue must originate in

D. J. GRIFFITH, Supt. State Penitentiary.

the House. Every act or joint resolution having the force of law must relate to only one subject. Each must be read three times in each House on as many separate and distinct days, and must be duly ratified in the Senate Chamber, the members of both Houses being in attendance. Joint sessions are held in the Hall of the House of Representatives. The Lieutenant-Governor of the State is President of the Senate and presides over that body. The House elects one of its own members as Speaker. The old English custom of presiding officers wearing robes is practiced, and the Mace of the State is placed on the Speaker's desk at the opening of each day's session. The Constitution provides the class of laws that the General Assembly shall enact of a general character.

The Governor.-The supreme executive authority of the State is vested in the chief magistrate, who is styled "the Governor of the State of South Carolina." He is also commander-in-chief of the militia of the State. In him is vested the pardoning power, all applications for pardon, reprieves, commutations, etc., for conviction only being first submitted to the State Board of Pardons for its recommendations. The Governor is not bound by the recommendations, however. The Governor makes an annual message to the General Assembly, in which he gives information as to the general condition of the State and its affairs and recommends such measures as he may deem necessary or expedient. He has the power to convene the General Assembly in extra session whenever he deems it necessary. He commissions all officers of the State under the Great Seal of the State. He is required to reside in the capital except in cases of contagion or emergencies of war, except in case the General Assembly should sit in any other place, when he is required to reside wherever the sessions are held. The Governor has the power to veto any measure passed by the General Assembly, sending it back to that body with his reasons therefor. In order to pass a measure over the Governor's veto a two-thirds majority of both Houses is required. No measure can become law without the approval of the Governor, except in cases above named.

A. S. SALLEY, Secretary State Historical Commission.

The Governor must be elected by the people; his term of office is two years, or until his successor is qualified, and in case of his death the LieutenantGovernor succeeds to the office. No man can be Governor unless he is 30 years of age. Should there be a tie vote in the general election, the General Assembly selects the Governor viva voce, but the choice is confined to the two who have the same number of votes. Contested elections for Governor are always determined by the General Assembly.

The Lieutenant-Governor.-The Lieutenant-Governor, as all other elective State officers, is chosen by vote of the qualified electors in the same election as Governor. As President of the Senate the Lieutenant-Governor has no vote, unless the Senate is equally divided. The Senate elects a Presiednt pro tempore, who, in the event of the Lieutenant-Governor becoming Governor or acting as Governor, succeeds to the position of President of the Senate as well as Lieutenant-Governor.

.

EARLE SLOAN,
State Geologist.

Other State Officers.-The other constitutional State officers are the Secretary of State; the Comptroller-General, whose department has charge of all of the tax machinery of the State; the Attorney-General; the State Treasurer; the Adjutant and InspectorGeneral; the State Superintendent of Education, and three State Railroad Commissioners, who are elected by the people for terms, respectively, of 2, 4 and 6 years each.

legislative enactment, creating departments of government, there are also a Commissioner of Agriculture, Commerce and Immigration, whose term of office is four years; a State Geologist, whose term is four years; a State Bank Examiner, whose term is four years; a State Librarian, who is elected by the General Assembly every two years; and a State Dispensary Auditor, whose term