INSTITUTIONS, GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 429 



established in the different Districts, and various Judicial Circuits were 

 formed, the Judges and Chancellors alternating with each other in the 

 different Circuits, while appeals were heard in Charleston and Columbia 

 by a full Appellate Bench. The pursuits of the people were almost en- 

 tirely agricultural, the chief staples of the State, cotton and rice, being 

 mainly worked by the aid of African slave labor. The political differ- 

 ences between the Northern and Southern States which culminated in 

 the civil war, though always existing, did not interfere with the internal 

 prosperity of the State. In 1800 the white poj)ulation had increased to 

 291,300. In the United States Census of 1860 the white population is 

 rated at 391,105 and the colored at 004,332. In the civil war South Car- 

 olina put more than 50,000 soldiers into the field, and when the war was 

 over, in 18G5, more than 12,000 of her male population had laid down 

 their lives in the struggle for independence. The result of the war left 

 the State in a j)rostrate and exhausted condition. An immense amount 

 of public and private property had been destroyed. Columbia, the capi- 

 tal, had been burned by the Federal armies, and the whole machinery of 

 government was subverted and overthrown. Under the authority of the 

 United States Congress a convention was called in 1868 to frame a new 

 Constitution. The present Constitution of South Carolina was framed 

 by that convention, and was submitted to the registered voters of the 

 State at an election held on the 14th, 15th and 16tli days of April, 1868, 

 and was adopted and ratified by them. 



LEADING PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



The leading principles of the Constitution may be briefly summarized 

 as follows: 



All men are born free and equal, endowed with certain inalienable 

 rights, among which are the rights of enjoying and defending their lives 

 and liberties, of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and of 

 seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. Slavery is prohibited, 

 as well as involuntary servitude, except in the shape of confinement with 

 labor, inflicted as a punishment for crime, of which the party shall have 

 been duly convicted. All political -power is declared to be derived from 

 and vested in the people alone, and they have the right at all times to 

 modify their form of government as the public good may demand. Every 

 citizen owes paramount allegiance to the Constitution and government of 

 the LTnited States, and no law of this State passed in contravention thereof 

 can have any binding force. The American Union is declared to be in- 

 dissoluble, and the State shall ever remain a member thereof, and shall 

 resist any effort to dissolve it. The right of the people peaceably to 



