SOUTH CAROLINA. 



635 



the same is hereby, confirmed and declared valid, to 

 all intents and purposes, as if the same had been 

 conducted in strict accordance with the technicalities 

 and provisions of existing laws. 



SEC. 2. That immediately after the passage of this 

 act it shall be the duty of the acting mayor and al- 

 dermen of the city of Charleston, on demand, to turn 

 over all the property, books, and papers pertaining 

 to their several respective offices, to the persons de- 

 clared by them to have received, on the 10th day of 

 November, A. D. 1868, the largest number of votes 

 for the several offices of mayor and aldermen of said 

 city, and to vacate and surrender to said persons their 

 several and respective offices. 



SEC. 3. That for each and every day's detention or 

 holding of the office of mayor or alderman of the 

 city of Charleston, contrary to the provisions of this 

 act, the person or persons so offending shall be sub- 

 ject to a penalty of fifty dollars, the said penalty to 

 be recovered in an action of debt by the person or 

 persons aggrieved and kept out of office thereby. 



SEC. 4. Any laws continuing in office persons elected 

 or appointed to office previous to, or during, or under 

 the late provisional government of South Carolina, or 

 under or by virtue of any military orders, shall be 

 held not to apply to or continue in office the present 

 acting mayor and aldermen of the city of Charleston, 

 but as to them said laws shall be held to be null and 

 void. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this 

 act are hereby repealed. 



This measure elicited a protracted and ani- 

 mated discussion in both branches of the Gen- 

 eral Assembly. Its opponents contended that 

 the settlement of the question belonged to the 

 judicial department of the government, and was 

 not a subject for legislative action; while on 

 the other hand many precedents were cited to 

 sustain the authority of the Legislature "upon 

 the principle that the law-making power has a 

 right to dispense with the compliance with the 

 formalities or requirements of its own acts." 



The bill having become a law on the 1st of 

 March, the refusal of the acting mayor and 

 aldermen, to surrender possession of their 

 offices rendered it necessary again to appeal to 

 the courts. Accordingly the claimants sought 

 to obtain possession of the offices and papers 

 by means of a writ of mandamus, which, how- 

 ever, being decided by the court not to be the 

 proper remedy, a writ of quo warranto was 

 then obtained from the Circuit Court; but it 

 was not until the 1st of May that the contest 

 was ended by the decision of the court in favor 

 of the candidates who had received the highest 

 number of votes. In rendering this decision, 

 Judge Carpenter said : " The act of March 1, 

 1869, does not amend the charter. It makes 

 an election regular and valid which was before 

 irregular and defective. The State government 

 had constituted certain persons its political 

 agents to conduct the election; they conducted 

 it in an irregular and illegal manner. The con- 

 ditions upon which it should have been held 

 were prescribed by the political powers of the 

 State ; the same powers might have neglected 

 to require the performance of those conditions 

 before the election, had a right to waive them 

 afterward, deemed it expedient to do so, and 

 did make it valid and legal. The power con 

 ceded, the expediency and propriety of the 

 measure, are considerations exclusively for the 



Legislature. The statute is unambiguous, its 

 language explicit ; the law has spoken, and it 

 becomes my imperative duty so to decide." In 

 consequence of this decision, no further oppo- 

 sition was manifested, and, on the 3d of May, 

 Mayor Pillsbury, and the aldermen elect, as- 

 sumed control of the city government. 



The relations between laborers and em- 

 ployers have formed a prominent topic of dis- 

 cussion during the past year, as being closely 

 allied with the industrial reconstruction of the 

 State. A large proportion of the laborers, being 

 freedmen employed upon farms and plantations, 

 have had occasion to complain of the unjust 

 conditions imposed upon them by planters in 

 contracts for labor, and of the insufficiency of 

 the wages, and the uncertainty of their prompt 

 collection. Another alleged cause of complaint 

 has been the obstacles encountered by thrifty- 

 laborers in their efforts to purchase land in 

 parcels commensurate with their limited means. 



In consequence of these grievances, a State 

 Labor Convention, composed chiefly of colored 

 delegates, was held in the latter part of No- 

 vember at Columbia, the object of which was to 

 obtain from the General Assembly then in ses- 

 sion the legislation necessary to protect the 

 laborer from the alleged rapacity and dis- 

 honesty of his employer. In a memorial pre- 

 sented to the Legislature, the position and the 

 wants of the agricultural laboring-class of the 

 State were defined, and a redress of their 

 grievances asked in the following terms : 



"We pray that your honorable body will provide by 

 statute : 



1. That the claim of the agricultural laborer for 

 wages due shall operate as a preferred lien upon the 

 land that he works, and that the planter or owner of 

 said land shall not sell or alienate the same, until 

 such claim is satisfied. 



2. That the Governor shall appoint a discreet and 

 proper person in each county who shall be designated 

 as 'commissioner of contracts." Such persons shall 

 be charged with the duty of examining and attesting 

 all contracts between the planter and laborer, and 

 shall act as advisory counsel of the laborer upon all 

 questions that may arise under his contract. He shall 

 make a quarterly report to the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Statistics, setting forth the number of laborers in his 

 county, how employed, and the rate of wages paid, 

 and the names of planters and laborers who may have 

 violated their contracts, all of which shall be laid be- 

 fore the General Assembly, at the commencement of 

 each session thereof, and shall be published for gen- 

 eral information. 



3. That the suits of all classes of laborers and em- 

 ploye's for wages due them shall have precedence on 

 the calendars of the courts, over all other civil suits, 

 and shall be heard at the first term of the court after 

 the declaration of the plaintiff in the same shall have 

 been filed. 



4. That the Governor shall be authorized to appoint, 

 in each county, an officer whose duty it shall be to 

 make up the list of jurors, and superintend < the draw- 

 ing of the same, in order that the laboring-classes 

 may have a fair representation on the juries, a privi- 

 lege which is practically denied them in the rural 

 districts, under the operation of the present system. 



5. That, when lands are sold under execution, the 

 sheriff shall divide them, as nearly as practicable, into 

 tracts not exceeding fifty acres each, in order that the 

 small capitalists may be enabled to purchase. 



We believe that this measure will greatly facilitate 



