Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/688

 The Proprietary Government of Carolina. other clause equally as idiotic^ to say nothing of its arrogance, was that which declared that there should be no discussions or argu ments with reference to the provisions of the law, no expositions either written or other wise upon any passage or passages of the same, as such liberty with the text thereof would have a tendency to obscure or perplex the meaning. In direct disregard of that clause in the charter which so plainly specified the rights of the freemen of the colony this system of unjust and iniquitous law was foisted upon them, and the Proprietary Government de clared established. That it had not become constitutionally of force made no difference to these men who sought only to serve their own selfish interests irrespective of whose privileges they curtailed or whose rights were disregarded. The Province of Carolina should be theirs in the fullest sense. A very strange proceeding this was on the part of men anxious to induce colonization, and even then scattering abroad the most invitingly worded invitations, offering gilded induce ments to the settlement of the Province. Honors fell easy. Locke himself was made the first Landgrave, while the Proprietors abused their powers to the extent that, in stead of abiding by the clause which restricted the bestowal of favors and honors upon such of the inhabitants of the said Province as they (the Proprietors) should think " worthy to receive them," they were given to persons outside the Province, very often as a kind of return coin for value received. We may well believe that these men, the first Lords Pro prietors of Carolina, served their own selfish ends whenever they could. Thus, while they enjoyed the honors and profits arising from the titles and allotments of land, some of the Landgraves were never in Carolina, as for instance, James Carteret, Thomas Amy, John Price, and others. The Constitution provided that the eldest of the Lords Proprietors should be person ally in Carolina. He thus became the Pala

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tine's Deputy. But if such Lord Proprietor should be unable to give personal supervision over affairs of the Province and no other Pro prietor or heir of a Proprietor should be resi dent in the Province, then the Palatine should choose one of the Landgraves from the Grand Council of the colony. It was probably with the view to strengthening this provision that nearly all the Governors under the Proprie tors were made Landgraves. The Hon. Edward McCrady, in his History of the Pro prietary Government of Carolina, very signifi cantly remarks: "Besides the Governors, but three or four Carolinians, i. e., inhabitants of the Province, were deemed worthy of be ing appointed Landgraves." There was one grain of common sense in all this mass of folly on the part of the Lords Proprietors. This was that they i realized that this grandly worded and elaborately outlined scheme of government could not be launched at full headway upon a colony com posed in a large degree of men of independent and adventurous spirit. They saw therefore the wisdom of preparing a set of temporary laws, which were entrusted to the Governor. These were to be in force until gradually those outlined in the Fundamental Constitu tions took their place. This wisdom took its flight the moment that event began to shape itself. As may be supposed, no system that em bodied within it man's slavery, especially the slavery of those who had once tasted free dom, could long hold together. The dream of a landed aristocracy in connection with an extensive villanage was too elaborate and too devoid of the elements of adaptability for a new country permeated with the spirit of self-assertion. The old feudal system was fast dying out, even in Europe, where it had taken to itself a growth hardy enough to last for years. But now its very tap-root had fallen into decay. It was worm-eaten through branch and stock. None but a visionary mind could have seen any hope for the flour ishing of the sickly plant in the vigorous soil