South Carolina—A Colony and State [pp. 668-688]

SOUTH CAROLINA-A COLONY AND STATE.
est attributes of that most perfect and God-like conception of the
human intellect-legal justice.
In referring to these famous constitutions of Locke, I will venture
to make a suggestion, which, although perhaps a digression, naturally
occurs to me here; and that is, that they may have been in sonme
degree misunderstood. It may be a too refined and fanciful theory,
but I cannot help thinking that they assume a very different charac ter if they are considered as the form of a government for a free white
race based on a population of slaves, than -they do as usually re garded. For instance, take this provision:
"In every seignory, barony, and manor, all leet men shall be under the juris diction of their respective lords of the seignory, barony, or manor, without appeal
from him. Nor shall any leet man or leet woman have liberty to go off the land
of their particular lord, and live anywhere else without license obtained from
their lord under hand and seal.
"All the children of leet men shall be leet men, and so to all generations."
Apply this to the settlers of Carolina, to free Englishmen any where in John Locke's time, and nothing can be more absurd or re volting. Could a philosopher like Locke have so presumptuously
defied the great truth of human progress, so misread the history of
his own country, as to declare of the Anglo-Saxon race anywhere,
that " all the children of leet men shall be leet men, and so to all
generations"? But if we suppose that he looked forward to the
application of these constitutions to a country peopled by two racesone superior, the other inferior; one white, the other black; one
master, the other slave-is it not very possible that this was an ingenious provision by which he hoped in time to attach the laborer to
the soil, to convert slavery into serfdom?
I cannot enter now into a fill analysis of our successive constitutions. In the remarks, necessarily very brief and desultory, which I
have now made, it has been my object to show that these three elements: 1. The mixed character of our early settlers; 2. The common law habit of thought, and the political theories of 1688, peculiar
to our early English settlement; 3. The institution of slavery-have
combined to form the social and political character of the State.
That our social character was strongly marked, individual, independent, brave, just and courteous. That our political constitution was
a tompromise between an aristocratic institution and a democratic
sentiment, which has resulted in a form of State government at pnce
conservative and liberal-a constitution under which our material
interests have prospered. Our history has been illustrated by great
men, and our whole community have in quiet and safety, for many
generations, led an honorable, prosperous and happy life. And that
this mixed character, both social and political, has been a peculiar
and influential element in the general history of the country. Of
course I do not arrogate to Carolina the sole possession of this character or influence. They belong to the whole South. They are the
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