V. CHAP. the veto should be reversed. After a three days' adjournment, which was required by the rules before 1778. a rejected bill could be again brought forward, Rawlins Lowndes, the newly elected president, gave his sanction to the re-enacted bill.1 The new constitution might be altered by legislative authority after a notice of ninety days. None but freeholders could elect or be elected to office; and for the higher offices the possession of a large freehold was required. In any redistribution of the representation of the state, the number of white inhabitants and the amount of taxable property were to be considered. The veto power was taken from the president. Till this time the church of England had been the established church in South Carolina. The toleration of Locke and Shaftesbury was now mixed with the religious faith of its people. Not the Anglican or Episcopal church, but the Christian Protestant church, was declared to be the established religion of the state; and none but Protestants were eligible to high executive or any legislative office. The right of suffrage was conferred exclusively on every free white man who, having the requisite age and freehold, acknowledged God and a future state of rewards and punishments. All persons who so believed, and that God is publicly to be worshipped, might form religious societies. The support of religious worship was voluntary; the property then belonging to societies of the church of England, or any other religious societies, was secured to them in perpetuity. Richard Hutson to George Bryan, from Charleston, S. C., 14 March, 1778. John Rutledge to Henry Laurens, 16 Feb., 1778, and 8 March, 1778. In F. Moore's Materials for History, 94, 103106. Ramsay's History of South Carolina, i. 129–138. V. The people were to enjoy forever the right of elect- CHAP. ing their own pastors or clergy; but the state was entitled to security for the due discharge of the 1778. pastoral office by the persons so elected. Of slaves or slavery no mention was made unless by implication. The constitution having been adopted on the nineteenth of March, 1778, to go into effect on the following twenty-ninth of November, all resident free male persons in the state above sixteen years, refusing to take the oath to maintain it against the king of Great Britain and all other enemies, were exiled; but a period of twelve months after their departure was allowed them to dispose of their property. In October, 1778, after the intention of the British to reduce South Carolina became known, death was made the penalty for refusing to depart from the state, or for returning without permission.1 The planters of South Carolina still partook of their usual pastimes and cares; while the British ministry, resigning the hope of reducing the north, indulged the expectation of conquering all the states to the south of the Susquehanna. For this end the British commander-in-chief at New York was ordered to despatch before October, if possible, a thousand men to re-enforce Pensacola, and three thousand to take Savannah. Two thousand more were destined as a re-enforcement to St. Augustine. Thus strengthened, General Prevost would be able to march in triumph from East Florida across lower Georgia. The new policy was inaugurated by dissensions between the minister for America in England and 1 Statutes of South Carolina, i. 150; iv. 452. 1778. Germain to Clinton, 8 March, V. CHAP. the highest British officials in America, and was followed by never-ending complaints. Lord Carlisle 1778. and his associate commissioners deprecated the seeming purpose of enfeebling the establishment at New York by detachments for different and distant services. "Under these appearances of weakness," so they reported, "our cause has visibly declined."1 Sir Henry Clinton threatened to evacuate New York and to retire to Halifax,2 remonstrated against being "reduced to a starved defensive," and complained of being kept in command, "a mournful witness of the debility" of his army; were he only unshackled with instructions, he might render serious service.* Every detachment for the southern campaign was made with sullen reluctance; and his indirect criminations offended the unforgiving minister. 1 Lord Carlisle and other commissioners to Germain, New York, 5 Sept., 1778. 2 Clinton to Germain, 27 July, 1778. • Clinton to Haldimand, 9 Sept., 1778. 4 Clinton to Germain, 8 Oct., 1778. CHAPTER VI. SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES. 1778. VI. EARLY in the year, Juan de Miralez, a Spanish CHAP emissary, appeared in Philadelphia. Not accredited to congress, for Spain would not recognise that body, 1778. he looked upon the rising republic as a natural enemy to his country; and through the influence of the French minister, with whom he had as yet no authorized connection, he sought to raise up obstacles on all sides to its development. He came as a spy and an intriguer; nevertheless congress, with unsuspecting confidence, welcomed him as the representative of an intended ally. Of all the European powers, Spain was the most consistently and perseveringly hostile to the United States. With a true instinct she saw in their success the quickening example which was to break down the barriers of her own colonial system; and her 1 Luzerne to Vergennes, 17 Dec., 1779. Gérard to Vergennes, 16 and 29 July, 1778. VI. CHAP. dread of their coming influence shaped her policy during their struggle. She was willing to encourage 1778. them so far as to exhaust the resources of Great Britain by one campaign more; but she was bent on restraining France from an alliance with them, till she should herself have wrung from their agents at Paris all the concessions which she deemed essential to the security of her transatlantic dominions, and from France all other advantages that she could derive from the war. She excused her importunities for delay by the necessity of providing for the defence of her colonies; the danger that would hang over her homeward-bound troops and commerce; the contingency of renewed schemes of conquest on the part of the Russians against the Ottoman empire; the succession of Bavaria; the propriety of coming to a previous understanding with the Netherlands, which was harried by England, and with the king of Prussia, who was known to favor the Americans.1 Count Montmorin, the successor of d'Ossun as French ambassador at Madrid, had in his childhood been a playmate of the king of France, whose friendship he retained, so that his position was one of independence and dignity. As a man of honor, he desired to deal fairly with the United States, and he observed with impartiality the politics of the Spanish court. On receiving a communication of the despatch, which embodied the separate determination of France to support the United States, Florida Blanca quivered 1 Count Florida Blanca to Count de Aranda, 13 Jan., 1778. Communicated with other documents from the Spanish archives by Don Pascual de Gayangos. |