South Carolina Ratifies the Constitution
On May 23, 1788, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the United States Constitution, marking a significant moment in the formation of the United States. The ratification came after intense debates and political maneuvering, reflecting both support and opposition within the state. South Carolina's delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 played key roles in shaping the Constitution, particularly regarding issues like the slave trade and taxation. The state's history, including its experiences during the American Revolution and its geographical vulnerabilities, influenced many citizens' views on the necessity of a strong national government. However, opposition arose from local planters who feared that the Constitution would limit their political and economic interests. The South Carolina legislature ultimately ordered elections for a ratifying convention, where Federalists prevailed in securing the state's support for the Constitution. The final vote revealed a clear majority in favor of ratification, with the resolution emphasizing that powers not granted to the federal government were reserved for the states. This event solidified South Carolina's place in the early framework of the United States, contributing to the establishment of the Union.
South Carolina Ratifies the Constitution
South Carolina Ratifies the Constitution
On May 23, 1788, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the federal Constitution. Historians accordingly list South Carolina eighth in the chronology of the admission of the 50 states to the Union. Of course, South Carolina and the other 12 colonies had assumed statehood more than a decade before the meeting of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, when they promulgated the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.
Four delegates represented South Carolina at the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787. Pierce Butler, an English noble by birth, came to America as an officer in the British army. He eventually sold his commission and settled in the New World. Butler, 43 years old in 1787, had served in the South Carolina legislature and had recently won election to the federal Congress. Charles Pinckney, brilliant but annoyingly aggressive, was only 29 years old and one of the convention's youngest members. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, only in his early forties in 1787, had risen to the rank of brigadier general during the American Revolution. A cousin of Charles Pinckney, he had received his education at Oxford University in England and was a prominent lawyer. John Rutledge, then in his late forties, was the leader of the South Carolina contingent. Rutledge, who served South Carolina as congressman, governor, and chancellor, was a renowned orator and was influential in the drafting of the Constitution.
Charles Pinckney was one of the more active members of the convention. After Edmund Randolph presented Virginia's proposals for an ideal Constitution on May 29, 1787, the brash young South Carolinian submitted his own plan of union. The Pinckney plan did not have the breadth of the Randolph resolutions, but it did prove useful on a number of minor points to the Committee of Detail, which made the first full draft of the Constitution.
John Rutledge of South Carolina was the chairman of the Committee of Detail, on which Edmund Randolph of Virginia, Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts, Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania also served. Rutledge and Randolph were influential in the committee's decision to recommend that the Constitution not interfere with the slave trade, allow no tax on exports, and require a two-thirds vote of both houses to impose levies on imports. In later debate the convention accepted the provision concerning taxes on exports but, on the advice of a compromise committee composed of one delegate from each state, forbade interference with the slave trade only until 1808 and authorized the Congress to place duties on imports by a simple majority vote.
The Philadelphia convention completed its work on September 17, 1787, and official copies of the proposed Constitution first appeared in South Carolina on October 4 of that year. Propaganda pieces from Pennsylvania in support of the new government and from New York in opposition to it soon followed in the newspapers. By December groups of South Carolinians formed on each side and issued their own arguments.
South Carolina's vulnerability to attacks from the sea by foreign enemies or on the frontier from Native American tribes fostered a general approval of the proposed Constitution. The state had suffered greatly during the American Revolution, and looked for protection by creating a strong national government. Low -country planters, a number of whom were experiencing financial difficulties, were the chief opponents of the new frame of government. These planters tended to be parochial in their political outlook, and also disliked the provisions of the Constitution that discouraged legislation favorable to debtors.
Convening in January 1788, the South Carolina legislature (despite the objections of former governor Rawling Loundes, who opposed the Constitution) ordered the election of delegates for a ratifying convention and established April 11 and April 12 as the dates for the election. The Federalists achieved success in the contests for delegates and were ready to assume control of the ratification caucus when it convened on May 6. With the conclusion foregone, the delegates spent two weeks in desultory debate and issued a resolution declaring that all powers not expressly delegated by the Constitution to the central government were reserved to the states. Then, the South Carolina representatives, by a margin of 149 to 73 votes, ratified the Constitution of the United States on May 23, 1788.