Governor of South Carolina

“ Under the constitution of 1895 the governor holds office for two years and is eligible for re-election. The governor and the lieutenant-governor must be thirty years old and must have been citizens of the United States and citizens and residents of the state for five years. The governor has a veto power, extending to the separate items in appropriation bills, which may be overcome by a two-thirds majority in each house of the General Assembly ”

“ They recommended that the governor open a correspondence with the South Carolina delegation in Congress and concert such measures with them, during the recess of the legislature, as the events of the present Congress might make necessary; they expressed high confidence in the zeal, firmness, and discretion of the governor and the delegation in Congress, but asked that such measures as they might decide upon as best be laid before the legislature or the people. ”

“ Oh, don't be afraid, Governor!) —I dare not take too personally this expression of your good-will. It is not myself but the great state of South Carolina that you honor, and on behalf of mine own people, who have always stood sturdily for the great principles of the constitution; (Cheers) who have failed in no hour of the country's need, but have tilled their fields in peace and defended them in the dark days of war, I thank you, my friends, with all my heart, again and again. ”

“ He seemed quite insane, declaring himself to be the governor of South Carolina and I locked him up in a corn-crib for safe keeping."
"Any man," said Jerry, lifting her chin slightly, "who would impersonate the governor of South Carolina would, beyond question, be utterly insane and an object of compassion. Professor Griswold, will you please produce your imaginary Appleweight, as at this hour Mrs. Atchison usually serves tea. ”

“ In South Carolina Governor Chamberlain claimed to have been elected on the Republican ticket, and General Hampton on the Democratic ticket. The President is not made the judge of who is elected governor of a state, and an attempt to exercise such a power would be a plain act of usurpation. The constitution of South Carolina is much like that of Ohio. ”

“ Whenever a majority of the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Comptroller General, and the State Treasurer, or of such other body as the General Assembly may provide, transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that the Governor is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Lieutenant Governor shall forthwith assume the powers and duties of the office as acting Governor. ”

“ There are some wicked men who have caused both North Carolina and South Carolina a great deal of trouble, but they must not be punished in this state, but in South Carolina, which is just over there somewhere. There are many reasons for that which would be very tiresome to tell you about, but the principal one is that Barbara Osborne, the daughter of the governor of South Carolina, is the snippiest and stuck-upest person I have ever known, and while your brother and I are in charge of this state I have every intention of annoying her in every way I can. ”

“ Her Governor, Colonel Pickens, in his inaugural, regretfully "looks back upon the inheritance South Carolina had in the common glories and triumphant power of this wonderful confederacy, and fails to find language to express the feelings of the human heart as he turns from the contemplation." The ties of brotherhood, interest, lineage, and history are all to be severed. No longer are we to salute a South Carolinian with the "idem sententiam de republica," which makes unity and nationality. What a prestige and glory are here dimmed and lost in the contaminated reason of man! ”

“ Its great object is the public good, in promoting of which all are equally concerned. It is a constitution which has a remedy within itself for every political disorder, which, when properly applied, must ever contribute to its stability and duration. After the model of this British constitution the government of Carolina now assumed a form like the other regal ones on the continent, which were composed of three branches, of a Governor, a Council, and an Assembly. ”

“ This paper thoroughly Democratic, its editors gentlemen who were in the Confederacy through the whole war and firm in their devotion to the lost cause, sees that the only hope for South Carolina is supporting the honest, intelligent New England Governor, who says he is Republican from conviction and never ... a Democrat; that he has no sympathy for Democracy or desire to be in its councils ... that as Governor he means to give ... honest government. The news ... takes the Governor at his word and ... him on, while newspapers over the border in Georgia mock and deride. ”

“ The success of the assembly in electing a few administrative officers and holding them accountable to themselves was an important acquisition, and was followed by a further gain of power in the same direction. Governor Glen, addressing the [334] authorities in England (October 10, 1748) , said in substance “that a new modelling [766] of their constitution,” in South Carolina, “would add to the happiness of the province and preserve their dependence upon the Crown, any weakening [of the] power of which and deviation from the constitution of the mother country is in his opinion dangerous. ”

“ After transferring his forces to Fort Sumter, he [Major Anderson] addressed a letter to this Department, under date of the 31st December, 1860, in which he says: ‘Thank God, we are now where the Government may send us additional troops at its leisure. To be sure, the uncivil and uncourteous action of the Governor [of South Carolina] , in preventing us from purchasing anything in the city, will annoy and inconvenience us somewhat ”

“ On the 27th of November the legislature assembled at Columbia, and on their meeting the governor laid before them the ordinance of the convention. In his message on that occasion he acquaints them that "this ordinance has thus become a part of the fundamental law of South Carolina;" that "the die has been at last cast, and South Carolina has at length appealed to her ulterior sovereignty as a member of this Confederacy and has planted herself on her reserved rights. The rightful exercise of this power is not a question which we shall any longer argue. ”

“ He answered the Governor with official and South Carolina impressiveness. "There is no indication of diminution of the prevailing pressure," he said.
"Well, that's what I thought,"said the Governor, "so I'm going to whoop her up."
"What do you expect to whoop up, sir?"
"Atmosphere, and all that," said the Governor. "Whole business has got to get a move on. I've sent for a rain-maker."
"Governor, you are certainly a wag, sir," said Jode, who enjoyed Barker as some people enjoy classical music, without understanding it. ”

“ This famous proclamation accorded with the views of the people in all sections of the Union except the southern states. In South Carolina it was characterized as “the edict of a dictator.” The governor urged the people to protect the liberty of the state, and Congress empowered the President to employ the forces necessary to insure the collection of the revenue. ”

“ Not only Governor Pickens and his Council, but nearly all the influential citizens, were opposed to bloodshed. They demanded independence and Fort Sumter, but desired and hoped to get both by argument. They believed, or tried to believe, that at last the Administration would hearken to reason and grant to South Carolina what it seemed to them could not be denied her with justice. The battle-cry of the "Mercury," urging precipitation even at the expense of defeat, for the sake of uniting the South, was listened to without enthusiasm, except by the young and thoughtless. ”

“ But was it not enough to make them pause and reflect when Judge Daniel E. Huger, Judge William Smith, Colonel William Drayton, Judge J. P. Richardson, Chancellor Desaussure, Judge David Johnson, Judge William Johnson, Judge J. B. O'Neall, Judge Lee, Governor Richard I. Manning, Governor Bennett, Colonel Taylor, Joel R. Poinsett, James L. Petigru, Hugh S. Legaré, and many others, distinguished alike for their virtues, talents, patriotism, and public services, not only regarded them as dangerous political heresies, but as the very seeds of disunion, discord, and revolution? ”

“ South Carolina especially was frantic. The spirit of the State was accurately expressed by R. Barnwell Smith at a Fourth of July celebration: "If the fire and the sword of war are to be brought to our dwellings, ... let them come! Whilst a bush grows which may be dabbled with blood, or a pine tree stands to support a rifle, let them come!" [1498] At meetings all over the State treasonable words were spoken. Governor James Hamilton, Jr., convened the Legislature in special session and the election of a State convention was ordered. ”

“ The governor recommended that the legislature raise an army of 12,000 men, to be called the "State Guard." This the Union men said would be a standing army, dangerous to the liberties of the people—the first step toward the establishment of a military despotism. The governor would go even farther than the proscription of Union men from office by the "test oath," for he recommended a "bill of pains and penalties" to be enforced upon those who should disobey the ordinance, and an "act of treason" to apply to those who should raise their hands in defense of the Union. ”

“ The Governor writes very good proclamations, nevertheless, and his confidence in South Carolina is unbounded. “If we stand alone, sir, we must win. They can’t whip us.” A gentleman named Pringle, for whom I had letters of introduction, has come to Charleston to ask me to his plantation, but there will be no boat from the port till Monday, and it is uncertain then whether the blockading vessels, of which we hear so much, may not be down by that time. ”

“ The county in which the crime occurs is, without regard to the conduct of the officers, liable in damages of not less than $2000 to the legal representative of the person lynched; the county is authorized, however, to recover this amount from the persons engaged in the lynching. A fourth unusual feature is that South Carolina has applied the principle of direct primary nominations to all elective officials from governor down. United States senators are in practice elected by the people, for the legislature merely registers the result of the primary. ”

“ But when such offices are bestowed on ignorant or needy persons, because they happen to be favourites of some powerful and clamorous Lord at court, without any view to the interest and happiness of the people, then avarice and oppression commonly prevail on one hand, and murmur and discontent on the other. The appointment of Governor Glen was so far proper, as he possessed those qualifications which rendered his government respectable, and the people living under it for several years happy and contented. ”

“ The note of any negro in the state is worth as much on the market as a South Carolina bond.'" This reign of corruption was checked in 1874 by the election to the governorship of Daniel H. Chamberlain, the regular Republican nominee, who had been Attorney-General during Scott's administration. "Governor Chamberlain, quite in contrast with his predecessors, talked reform after his election as well as before it," and was "able to accomplish some marked and wholesome reforms in public expenditures." ”

“ The President's proclamation proved a conundrum to the State Rights men in many ways. Some believed that it would overawe many of the less ardent in the state, and they therefore made much of Governor Hayne's counter-proclamation. [29] Many doubted that Jackson had intended more than to frighten South Carolina and felt that perhaps his appeal to Congress for more power was simply to furnish a means of retreat when Congress should have repealed the tariff and yielded to South Carolina. ”

“ Then opening his bag of earth, and laying the same at the governor’s feet, he said: “We freely surrender a part of our lands to the great king. The French want our possessions, but we will defend them while one of our nation shall remain alive.” Then delivering the governor a string of wampum, in confirmation of what he said, he added: “My speech is at an end—it is the voice of the Cherokee nation. I hope the governor will send it to the king, that it may be kept forever.”
SERGEANT JASPER AT FORT MOULTRIE, 28th June, 1776. (From the History of South Carolina.) ”

“ There is something very unnatural and odious in a government a thousand leagues off. A whole government of our own choice, managed by persons whom we love, revere, and can confide in, has charms in it for which men will fight. Two young gentlemen from South Carolina in this city, who were in Charlestown when their new constitution was promulgated, and when their new Governor and Council and Assembly walked out in procession, attended by the guards, company of cadets, light horse, etc., told me that they were beheld by the people with transports and tears of joy. ”

“ A majority of the leaders, however, felt that immediate military preparation was necessary, and many men eagerly aided the governor in his attempts to get a force ready for the field in the shortest time possible. ”

“ At the opening of the new century, we must cease to look upon South Carolina as the home of indigent emigrants, struggling for subsistence. While numerous slaves cultivated the extensive plantations, their owners, educated gentlemen, and here and there of noble families in England, had abundant leisure for social intercourse, living as they did in proximity to each other, and in easy access to Charles Town, where the governor resided, the courts and legislature convened, and the public offices were kept. ”