In 1725, county and precinct courts had been appointed; but afterwards various changes took place in the judicative department. A court of king's bench and common pleas, were established; also a court of chancery and a court of vice admiralty. The court of chancery was composed of the governor and council, and a register and master of the court was appointed. The officers of the vice admiralty court were appointed by the lords of the admiralty in England. A chief justice appointed-by the king, presided in the courts of king's bench and common pleas, to whom was associated certain assistant justices, appointed by the provincial legislature, which was styled the general assembly. The other officers of these courts were an attorney general, a provost marshal (or sheriff) and clerks. There was a secretary of the province, a surveyor general, and other civil officers, who were appointed by the crown. The clergy were elected by the freeholders of the parisli. Justices of peace, and militia officers were appointed by the governor and council. The law respecting the formation of juries was revised and established. In 1739, the representative assembly consisted of forty-four members, who were eligible every three years, by the freeholders of sixteen parishes. Several townships were marked out, containing 20,000 acres each, intended for so many distinct parishes: But Williamsburgh township was for the most part, settled by Presbyterians from Ireland. At the revolution the church establishment fell with the royal government, to which it was an adjunct, and all Christians became entitled to equal privileges. The imposts to defray the charges of government amounted in 1725, to 222,2601. 188. 10d. In 1734, to 41,5117. 9s. 10d.-and in 1750, to 150,000l. sterling. In 1748, the rate of interest was changed from ten to eight per cent. In 1777, it was again changed from eight to seven per cent. which is the present established rate of interest. The general court held in Charlestown, having swallowed up the county and precinct courts, and being the only court of criminal and civil jurisdiction in the province (except the courts of justices of peace, which had jurisdiction in all civil causes as high as twenty pounds current money) great oppression and inconvenience was felt by the people living remote from the seat of justice; by parties, witnesses and jurors, who were obliged to attend the court, and especially by suitors and prosecutors, who were often worn out by "the law's delay," insulted by "the insolence of office," and ruined by costs and expenses most unreasonably incurred, and cruelly exacted. The facility thus afforded to thieves and dishonest debtors, to escape from the punishment due for crimes committed, and the payment of just debts, drove the people of the middle, and part of the upper country, then the frontier settlements, into the most disorderly and violent measures. The laws which were found inef fectual to restrain and punish horse thieves, and other notorious offenders, were also disregarded by good and honest men, who undertook to do themselves justice, and to punish the guilty by arbitrary authority. The authority of the civil magis trate was held in contempt, as insufficient for the maintenance of order, and the regular execution of the laws. Some efforts were made to repress these disorders, but they were found unavailing. The regulators, as they were called, consisted of respectable planters; and others, who demanded a better system, for the more regular, equal and vigorous, as well as prompt administration of justice. On the other hand, the instruments employed by the government to subdue this spirit of rebellion and enforce the existing system, were men of little or no character or respec tability; the obsequious tools of men in power, who abused their authority, and battened on the general distress. At length, in 1769, a remedy was reluctantly ap plied, and anarchy and unlawful violence yielded to the majesty of the law. An act passed for laying off several districts, or circuits, and authorizing the holding of courts of general sessions and common pleas therein, twice a year, for the trial of causes criminal and civil arising within the same, respectively, as nearly as may be, as the justices of assize and nisi prius do in Great Britain." Circuit courts were by this act to be held at Orangeburgh, Ninety Six, (now Cambridge), the Cheraws, Georgetown, Beaufort, and Charlestown-to sit six days, each. But the courts to be held in Charlestown, were not strictly speaking circuit courts. Those courts were regarded as are the courts of Westminster hall, in England. All writs and other civil process issued from, and were returnable to the court of common pleas in Charlestown; and the practice was similar to that which relates to the courts of assize and nisi prius. By this act the judges were authorized to determine without a jury in a summary way, on petition, all causes cognizable in the circuit courts, for any sum not exceeding twenty pounds sterling; except where the titles of land should be in ques tion. But each party might claim and have the benefit of a jury trial. The office of provost marshal was abolished, and sheriff's and clerks were appointed. Many objections were raised to planting the remote colonies of North America; and some sagacious politicians, who saw far into futurity, foretold, that after draining the mother country of inhabitants, they would soon shake off the yoke, and erect an independent government.. This accordingly happened. After struggling some time against the current of the revolution, the authority of the royal government gradually sunk, and finally perished in 1775, when a tem, porary constitution or form of government was adopted. The acts of assembly most worthy of being recorded, which were passed during this period, were as follows: In 1731, a quit rent law, a jury law, and an act allowing of a solemn declaration in room of an oath. In 1733, to lay off counties; respecting the surveying of lands. In 1737, against selling offices-and regulating the courts. In 1739, to authorize the building of a market in St. Philip's parish. In 1740, for the government of slaves. In 1744, an attachment act—and regulating white servants. In 1746, a patrol law-and to empower the governor and a majority of the count cil to hold a court of chancery. In 1747, to authorize the arming of slaves. In 1748, to reduce the rate of interest from ten to eight per cent. In 1769, to establish courts, build gaols, &c. THIRD PERIOD. Amidst the tumult of civil strife, the laws were silent, and their place was not always supplied by those of humanity. A form of government was instituted in 1776, pursuant to which an executive magistrate was elected, who was invested with extraordinary powers, under the name of president. This however, soon gave place to the constitution which was established in 1778, conformably to the Decla ration of Independence; and the executive officer was named governor. This con stitution survived the revolution, and part of it is still in force, being referred to, and unchanged by the constitution of 1790. Certificates issued in 1774, to satisfy the demands of public creditors. These passed as paper money, at par. The revolution gave birth to other paper curren cies, which soon occasioned a depreciation. The current money, now called old currency, was still in pretty good credit in the beginning of the year 1777, although about three millions of pounds were then in circulation. About one million was the amount in circulation in 1764. A flood of continental paper currency, in addition to other paper money, vastly encreased the tide in circulation, and the country was inundated. The depreciation was rapid, and ruinous. In 1780, the British government being partially re-established in Charlestown, and other places, in the lower country, a kind of military government was exercised. In Charlestown a board of police was instituted, and civil authority revived. Com Inissioners were appointed by the board of police to take into consideration the nominal and real value of the paper money which had been the medium of traffic, and settle a scale of depreciation, by which contracts might be governed according to equity and good conscience. These commissioners reported ably, and in detail, and the proposed scheme was partially carried into effect. After the revolution the state legislature, in 1783, proceeded on similar principles, and a scale of depreciation was fixed by an act of assembly. The British government was totally extinguished by the evacuation of Charlestown in 1782, and the capture of lord Cornwallis in Virginia. The legislative authority was exercised at Jacksonsborough in 1782, and civil rule under the constitution of 1778, was completely restored. The legislative acts of this period, worth mentioning, are as follows: In 1775, an act to prevent counterfeiting notes issued as the representatives of specie. In 1776, to prevent sedition, and punish insurgents. In 1777, to reduce the rate of interest from eight to seven per cent. In 1778, to regulate the rates of wharfage and storage. In 1782, to repeal the laws which make paper currency, or bills of credit a legal tender in payment of debts; and dispose of certain estates, and banish certain persons, who had joined the British during the war. FOURTH PERIOD. Upon the restoration of peace and civil order, the attention of the government was directed to the police and jurisprudence of the country. Several acts of assembly were revived and amended. British sterling was now the only standard of value; but the English guinea passed at twenty-one shillings and nine pence, and the Spanish dollar at four shillings and eight pence. An act was passed to ascertain the weight and value of the gold and silver coin in circulation. The scale of depreciation was fixed in regard to paper currency. The mode and conditions of surveying and granting the vacant lands, was settled; and a court of chancery was established. Charlestown was incorporated by the name of Charleston. As the population of the country extended, the circuit court system established in 1769, was found inadequate to the due and equal administration of justice. To remedy this evil, it was proposed to establish courts of inferior jurisdiction, after the model of the county court system of Virginia and North Carolina. Mr. Justice Pendleton, one of the associate judges, and an active member of the house of representatives (for these offices were not then incompatible) was the able advocate of this scheme. By his influence and strenuous exertions, it was adopted in 1785. An act passed to lay off the state into counties, and establish county courts. The public buildings for the accommodation of these courts, were to be erected at the expense of the respective counties, and a tax was to be laid for that purpose by the county courts. The courts were to be held once in every three months by the justices of peace of the several counties respectively; and their jurisdiction extended to the hearing and determination of all causes at common law, to any amount where the debt was liquidated by bond or note of hand, or where the damages in certain actions did not exceed fifty pounds, and in other personal actions where the damages did not exceed twenty pounds, or where the titles of land did not come in question. In criminal cases their jurisdiction was extremely limited. The modes of proceeding were prescribed the forms of process-and the manner of trial. The right of appeal to the superior, or circuit courts was provided. This system was afterwards, at different times altered and amended. In 1791 it was new modelled. Three judges or justices of the county courts, were chosen for each county, by joint ballot of the two houses of the legislature, to hold the respective courts, which were held semiannually for the trial of causes; but they were allowed no compensation for their services. Two intermediate courts were holden annually, for the transaction of business relating to roads, taverns, and the poor. Although the administration of justice in these courts was irregular, and in many instances unequal, owing chiefly to the want of legal information in those who were appointed to preside therein, yet they were a great convenience to the community, considering the defects of the circuit court system of that day; and much good, as well as some evil, resulted from their establishment. It was an important step towards the attainment of that improved system which at present exists. The county court establishments never extended to the districts of Charleston, Georgetown and Beaufort. The inhabitants of those districts were opposed to it; and it was provided, that no county courts should be held in those districts till a majority of the taxable inhabitants should petition for them. At the close of the war, many were deeply involved in debt; and the accumulation of interest during the revolution aggravated the distress into which they were plunged. A great many others, on the establishment of peace and independence, misled by their sanguine hopes, or regardless of consequences, improvidently contracted debts, which they were unable to pay when they became due. The legis. lature was repeatedly importuned to interpose between debtor and creditor, for the purpose of giving relief to the former, without doing injustice to the latter. This could not easily be done. Various expedients were resorted to, the tendency of which was finally to utterly ruin the debtor, and in most instances, greatly injure the creditor. Debtors however, obtained temporary relief, which served to still their clamours, and alleviate their present distress. Amongst other means employed for the relief of debtors, and to supply the scarcity of cash, (which always accompanies the balance of trade, now greatly against the country) an act was passed in 1785, to establish a medium of circulation by way of loan. The bills which issued pursuant to this act, passed as money, under the denomination of paper medium. Some temporary advantages resulted from this measure; but it was the ruin of many, and the public ultimately suffered by it. In the same year an act passed to effect a revisal, digest and publication of the laws of the state. The preamble to this act states, that "from the long neglect of compiling into one body the acts of the legislature of this state, and presenting the same for the information of the people, the laws have not only multiplied to a great and unnecessary degree, but have also run into obscurity and confusion; and it being necessary to revise and digest the laws enacted under the authority of the British crown, and continued of force, together with those passed since the abolition of that authority; and by corresponding additions, alterations and amend ments adapted to the spirit and principles of a republican government, remove the present well grounded complaints of the people for want of such revisal, digest and publication,"-therefore the act was provided. It provides for the appointment of three commissioners, and empowers and directs them to form "a complete and accurate digest of the state laws, with such additions, alterations and amendments" as they should see fit; and to require the production of such records and other public documents, &c. as should be necessary. They were directed to make the establishment of county courts a part of their system; and they were allowed two years for the accomplishment of their task. The commissioners chosen were, Mr. Justice Pendleton, Mr. Justice Burke, and Mr. Justice Grimké. In 1789, the commissioners were called on by the legislature for a report on the subject of their appointment; in consequence of which a'copy of their digest was laid before the house of representatives. Mr. Justice Pendleton had died a short time before the meeting of the legislature. Mr. Justice Burke, in a letter addressed to the president of the senate, in consequence of a resolution of that body calling for the digest, goes at large into an explanation of the nature of the work, its plan and execution. This letter was ordered to be published; and amongst other pertinent and forci ble observations which it contains, are the following: "thus the laws of this country, on which depend the lives and property of the people, now lie concealed from their eyes, mingled in a confused chaos, under a stupendous pile of old and new law rubbish, past all possibility of being known, only to the law professors. I will venture to aver, that there are but very few of our lawyers, that have all our laws, or can point out which of them are in force, or otherwise. The ablest of them could not in all cases, have separated the grain from the immense heap of chaff, without much time and labour in searching for it." If the complaint of this distinguished magistrate and eminent politician, was well founded, how much more reason have we at this day to complain, when the same evils are multiplied, and become more inveterate, by the accumulation of new laws, and the lapse of time? The digest prepared by the commissioners was not adopted; but many of the laws contained therein, were afterwards passed as separate acts of assembly, viz: The act constituting the circuit courts, courts of record, and giving them original and final jurisdiction; the acts for the distribution of intestates' estates, and the abolition of the rights of primogeniture, and the act concerning escheats. Another part of the digest provided for a uniformity of decision and practicè, by the institution of a court of errors and motions, to be held at the seat of government, at the conclusion of the circuits. This improvement was engrafted in the constitution of 1790. Other innovations and amendments contemplated by the commissioners were not approved. They recommended the vesting of the equity jurisdiction in the circuit courts, and abolishing the court of chancery: They provided a new system for the punishment of crimes, in which banishment was a prominent feature; and they presented a reform of the law concerning juries. In 1786, an act passed for removing the seat of government from Charleston to a town to be built on the Congaree river, to be called Columbia, and provision was VOL. I. made for the purchase of suitable lands for that purpose. The seat of government was accordingly not long afterwards established at Columbia, and the public re eords were removed to that place. In 1787, and 1788, acts passed for appointing escheators, and regulating escheats for establishing the bounds of prisons, and for the suppression of vagrants: and in 1789, the circuit courts were constituted courts of complete, original and final ju risdiction. In the same year an act passed, directing the manner of granting probates of wills and letters of administration. 1 The delegates of the people, met in general convention at Columbia, in June 1790, established a constitution for the government of the state, conformably to the principles of the constitution of the United States. In this instrument the struggle for power, and equal rights, between the lower and upper country is manifest, and a spirit of compromise and mutual concession may be discerned. The removal of the seat of government to Columbia had been firmly opposed by a great majority of the people of the lower country, who always reluctantly yielded to an equal participation of power and privileges, with those of the upper and middle country, many of whom were emigrants from other states, and whose manners and habits did not assimilate to those of the parishes in the lower country. The public offices were divided by the convention between the metropolis, and the seat of government, for the greater accommodation of the inhabitants of the sea coast, and the adjacent parishes. Two treasurers were provided; one to keep his office at Columbia, and the other in Charleston. The offices of secretary of state, and surveyor general, were to be kept at both those places; the principals to reside at the one place, and their deputies at the other. The meetings of the judges at the conclusion of the circuits for hearing and deciding cases and points of law, by way of appeal, were also established at Charleston, as well as at the seat of gov ernment. Thus a sort of duplicate government was instituted, and the ancient predominancy of the lower country in a great measure preserved. And the apportionment of the representation in the legislature, was well calculated to maintain that predominancy. It was extremely unequal; the lower country having a much greater representation, upon any principle of fair and equal government, than the upper and middle country. This disproportion encreased every year, by the progress of population, and became so glaring as to excite considerable discontent and animosities. An association was formed, not long after the establishment of the constitution, the object of which was to bring about a reform in the representative system. Robert Goodloe Harper, esquire, who was at the head of this association, and had published a pamphlet on the subject, afterwards, as a member of the house of representatives, brought the matter before the legislature. It was warmly opposed by the members from the lower country generally, and was rejected by a large majority. In process of time, however, as the upper and middle country encreased in population, and improved in education and knowledge, while the lower country remained stationary in these respects, a more yielding and liberal spirit was manifested; and the more sagacious and calculating part of the community of the lower country, being convinced of the propriety and necessity of a reform, became reconciled to the measure; and a new arrangement of the representation in the legislature was established in 1809, as it now stands in the constitution. A feeble opposition was made to it on general principles; but the mode of reform was the subject of considerable debate. It was declared to be the opinion of the convention, that the legislature should make effectual provision for revising, digesting and publishing the laws of the state, so as that a general knowledge thereof might be diffused among the citizens. This object, about which the convention, and different legislative, assemblies, prior to 1790, appear to have been very anxious, seems to have excited no interest, nor attracted the attention of any subsequent legislature: and indeed the community in general seems to have considered it with indifference, or passed it over unnoticed, as a matter of no importance. In the year 1791, the legislature proceeded to alter and amend the laws relating to the judicial department of the government. The courts of equity were directed to be held at three different places in the state; and witnesses were to be examined in open court. The mode of obtaining injunctions was declared, and other regulations established. |