Thread by @IJSanders

1. South Carolina has had seven different constitutions during its long history. And the second oldest of any member of the Union. Which is why this week we’re diving into its constitutional heritage. #50Weeks50Constitutions

2. Like New Hampshire, SC was quick to adopt a constitution after the War of Independence broke out. A “Provisional Congress” drafted a stop-gap version, adopting it on March 26, 1776.

3. The delegates still harbored hope that reconciliation with the mother country was possible, stating that although they were “traduced and treated as rebels, we still earnestly desire” “an accommodation.”

4. 2 years later things had changed. Having declared its independence along with 12 other colonies, in March 1778 the general assembly adopted a new constitution, creating a 2d house of the legislature & among other things, made Protestantism the official religion of the state.

5. But in the long run that wasn’t good enough either. The biggest issue in SC politics in those days was the balance of power between the affluent Low Country (by the coast) and the rural, poorer Up Country, in the state’s interior.

6. The Low Country’s representation in the legislation was far stronger than their number warranted. A new constitution was adopted in 1790, but it didn’t solve this problem. It also kept a weak governor (no veto) & property ownership requirements for voting.

7. It wasn’t until 1810 when an amendment to the SC constitution abolished property requirements that the Up Country gave it control of at least the state house.

8. The 1790 Constitution held up until another war, the Civil kind. The Secession convention of 1860 didn’t change the old version much, but added explicit language to announce the state’s attempt to leave the Union.

9. A few years & many lives (& a brief 1864 Constitution) later, the state adopted a constitution in 1865, recognizing the Union’s supremacy, but not otherwise too different, although it did allow for popular election of presidential electors for the first time.

10. Readmission to the Union became a BIG deal in the Reconstruction Congress, which ordered new constitutions for most ex-confederate states. SC’s new version was revolutionary. 3/5 of the delegates to its convention were black & all men were given the right to vote.

11. But these gains were not to last in the Jim Crow south. In 1895, under the heavy influence of Senator “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman, a new constitution was adopted which effectively disenfranchised the state’s blacks. These changes were to last into the civil rights era.

12. As we’ll learn in future threads in this series, this was a common theme in southern constitutions: strong protections in Reconstruction constitutions followed by retrenchment in the decades that followed.

13. Sources:

scarchivesandhistoryfoundation.org/south-carolina…

Graham, The South Carolina State Constitution (2011)

Underwood, The Constitution of South Carolina (1986)