foreign alliances." At the same time, they reserved to their colony the sole right of forming its own constitution and laws. The people of North Carolina were the first in America to vote an explicit sanction to independence.

The border colony on the south had shown equal decision. So early as July 1775, Sir James Wright, the able governor of Georgia, had frankly written home: "God grant conciliatory measures may take place; there is not an hour to be lost; the state of affairs will not admit of the least delay." The people of Georgia met in congress; a council of safety maintained an executive supervision; local affairs were left to parochial committees; but the crown officers were not molested. The militia officers were compelled to sign the association, and a ship which arrived with two hundred and four slaves was forced to go away without landing them. In September two hundred and fifty barrels of powder were taken by the "liberty" people from a vessel at Tybee.

"Twelve months ago," said the people of Georgia in 1776, "we were declared rebels, and yet we meet with no opposition; Britain may destroy our towns, but we can retire to the back country and tire her out." On the appearance of a small squadron in the Savannah, Joseph Habersham, on the eighteenth of January, with a party of volunteers, confined Sir James. Wright under a guard in his own house. The other crown officers either fled or were seized.

The provincial congress, which assembled in Savannah on the second of February, elected Archibald Bulloch, John Houstoun, Lyman Hall, Button Gwinnet, and George Walton their delegates to the continental congress; and, being so remote from the seat of congress, they declined to give them any other instruction than this: "Keep in view the general utility, remembering that the great and righteous cause in which we are engaged is not provincial but continental; and concur in all measures calculated for the common good." In this way the delegates of Georgia were left free to join in declaring independence whenever it should be the choice of the continental congress.

A few days after this instruction was adopted, the royal governor, taking with him the great seal of the province,

escaped by night to Bonaventure, rowed through Tybee creek to the Scarborough man-of-war, and reported "Georgia to be totally under the influence of the Carolina people; nothing but force could pave the way for the commissioners." His flight imposed upon the congress of Georgia the necessity of framing a constitution, which, on the fifteenth of April 1776, was accepted as "the groundwork of a more stable and formal government." Archibald Bulloch was elected its first president, and on the first day of May was charged by the council of safety to enforce all the resolutions of congress, without regard to any individual or set of men; "for," they reasoned, “no government can be said to be established while any part of the community refuses submission to its authority." Accepting the supreme command of the colony, Bulloch answered: "The appointment is derived from the free and uncorrupt suffrages of my fellow-citizens. I shall enforce and carry into execution every resolve and law of" the "congress" of Georgia.

CHAPTER XXV.

HOW SOUTH CAROLINA ADVANCED TO INDEPENDENCE.

FEBRUARY-JULY 1776.

THE American congress needed an impulse from the resolute spirit of some government springing wholly from the people. On the eighth of February 1776, the convention of South Carolina, by Drayton their president, presented their thanks to John Rutledge and Henry Middleton for their services in the American congress, which had made its appeal to the King of kings, established a navy, treasury, and general post-office, exercised control over commerce, and granted to colonies permission to create civil institutions, independent of the regal authority. The next day arrived Gadsden, the highest officer in the army of the province, and he in like manner received the welcome of public gratitude. In return, he presented the standard which was to be used by the American. navy, representing in a yellow field a rattlesnake of thirteen full-grown rattles coiled to strike, with the motto: DON'T TREAD ON ME. When, on the tenth, the report on reforming the provincial government was considered and many hesitated, Gadsden spoke out for the absolute independence of America. The majority had thus far refused to contemplate the end toward which they were irresistibly impelled. One member avowed his willingness to ride post by day and night to Philadelphia, in order to assist in reuniting Great Britain and her colonies; the elder Laurens "bore his testimony against the principles of Common Sense;"'" but the criminal laws could not be enforced for want of officers; public and private affairs were running into confusion; the imminent danger of invasion

was proved by intercepted letters; so that necessity compelled the adoption of some adequate system of rule.

While a committee of eleven was preparing the organic law, Gadsden, on the thirteenth, began to act as senior officer of the army. Companies of militia were called down to Charleston, and the military forces augmented by two regiments of riflemen. In the early part of the year Sullivan's Island was a wilderness, thickly covered with myrtle, live-oak, and palmettos; there, on the second of March, William Moultrie was ordered to complete a fort large enough to hold a thousand men.

Within five days after the convention received the act of parliament of the preceding December which authorized the capture of American vessels and property, they gave up the hope of reconciliation; and, on the twenty-sixth of March 1776, asserting "the good of the people to be the origin and end of all government," and enumerating the unwarrantable acts of the British parliament, the implacability of the king, and the violence of his officers, they established a constitution for South Carolina. The executive power was intrusted to a president who was endowed with a veto on legislation and was commander-in-chief; the congress resolved itself into a general assembly, till their successors should be elected by the people in the following October. The numerous and arbitrary representation, which had prevailed originally in the committee of 1774 and had been continued in the first and second congress of 1775, was confirmed by the new instrument, so that Charleston kept the right of sending thirty members to the general assembly. The old laws prescribing the qualifications of the electors and the elected were continued in force. A legislative council of thirteen was to be elected by the assembly out of their own body; the assembly and the legislative council elected jointly by ballot the president and vice-president. The privy council of seven was composed of the vice-president, three members chosen by ballot by the assembly, and three by the legislative council. The judges were chosen by joint ballot of the two branches of the legislature, by whose address they might be removed, though otherwise they were to hold office during good behavior.

On the twenty-seventh, John Rutledge was chosen president, Henry Laurens vice-president, and William Henry Drayton chief justice. On accepting office, Rutledge addressed the general assembly: "To preside over the welfare of a brave and generous people is in my opinion the highest honor any man can receive. In so perilous a season as the present, I will not withhold my best services. best services. I assure myself of receiving the support and assistance of every good man in the colony; and my most fervent prayer to the omnipotent Ruler of the universe is, that under his gracious providence the liberties of America may be forever preserved."

On the next day the oaths of office were administered ; then, to display the existence of the new constitution, the council and assembly, preceded by the president and vicepresident and by the sheriff bearing the sword of state, walked out in a solemn procession from the state-house to the exchange, in the presence of the troops and the militia of South Carolina. The people, with rapture and tears of joy, crowded round the men whom they had chosen to office from among themselves.

Early in April the legislative bodies addressed the president: "Conscious of our natural and unalienable rights, and determined to make every effort to retain them, we see your elevation from the midst of us to govern this country, as the natural consequence of unprovoked, cruel, and accumulated oppressions. Chosen by the suffrages of a free people, you will make the constitution the great rule of your conduct; in the discharge of your duties under that constitution we will support you with our lives and fortunes."

In words penned by Drayton and Cotesworth Pinckney, the assembly condemned the British plan of sending commissioners to treat with the several colonies as a fraudulent scheme for subverting their liberties by negotiations, and resolved to communicate with the court of Great Britain only through the continental congress.

When, on the eleventh of April, they closed their session, "On my part," said Rutledge, "a most solemn oath has been taken for the faithful discharge of my duty; on yours, a solemn assurance has been given to support me therein. The