Part 960

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1862 (May). The arming of the Freedmen at Hilton Head.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (MAY: SOUTH CAROLINA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1863 (April). The repulse of the Monitor-fleet at Charleston.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (APRIL: SOUTH CAROLINA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1863 (July). Lodgment of Union forces on Morris Island, and assault on Fort Wagner.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JULY: SOUTH CAROLINA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1863 (August-December).- Siege of Fort Wagner. Bombardment of Fort Sumter and Charleston.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-DECEMBER: SOUTH CAROLINA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1865 (February). Evacuation of Charleston by the Confederates.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (FEBRUARY: SOUTH CAROLINA).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1865 (February-March).- Sherman's march through the state. The burning of Columbia.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (FEBRUARY-MARCH: THE CAROLINAS).

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1865 (June). Provisional Government set up under President Johnson's Plan of Reconstruction.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY).

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SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1865-1876. Reconstruction.

"After the close of the war, two distinct and opposing plans were applied for the reconstruction, or restoration to the Union, of the State. The first, known as the Presidential plan [see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY)], was quickly superseded by the second, known as the Congressional plan; but it had worked vast mischief by fostering delusive hopes, the reaction of which was manifest in long enduring bitterness. Under the latter plan, embodied in the Act of Congress of March 2, 1867 [see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1867 (MARCH)], a convention was assembled in Charleston, January 14, 1868, 'to frame a Constitution and Civil Government.' The previous registration of voters made in October, 1867, showed a total of 125,328, of whom 46,346 were whites, and 78,982 blacks. … On the question of holding a constitutional convention the vote cast in November, 1867, was 71,087; 130 whites and 68,876 blacks voting for it, and 2,801 whites against it. Of the delegates chosen to the convention 34 were whites and 63 blacks. The new Constitution was adopted at an election held on the 14th, 15th, and 16th of April, 1868, all State officers to initiate its operation being elected at the same time. At this election the registration was 133,597; the vote for the Constitution 70,758; against it, 27,288; total vote. 98,046; not voting, 35,551. Against the approval by Congress of this Constitution the Democratic State Central Committee forwarded a protest," which declared: "The Constitution was the work of Northern adventurers, Southern renegades, and Ignorant negroes. Not one per cent. of the white population of the State approves it, and not two per cent. of the negroes who voted for its adoption understood what this act of voting implied." "The new State officers took office July 9, 1868. In the first Legislature, which assembled on the same day, the Senate consisted of 33 members, of whom 9 were negroes and but 7 were Democrats. The House of Representatives consisted of 124 members, of whom 48 were white men, 14 only of these being Democrats. The whole Legislature thus consisted of 72 white and 85 colored members. At this date the entire funded debt of South Carolina amounted to $5,407,306.27. At the close of the four years (two terms) of Governor R. K. Scott's administration, December, 1872, the funded debt of the State amounted to $18,515,033.91, including past-due and unpaid interest for three years."

_W. Allen, Governor Chamberlain's Administration in South Carolina, chapter 1._

"Mr. James S. Pike, late Minister of the United States at the Hague, a Republican and an original abolitionist, who visited the state in 1873, after five years' supremacy by Scott and his successor Moses, and their allies, has published a pungent and instructive account of public affairs during that trying time, under the title of 'The Prostrate State.' The most significant of the striking features of this book is that he undertakes to write a correct history of the state by dividing the principal frauds, already committed or then in process of completion, into eight distinct classes, which he enumerates as follows:

1. Those which relate to the increase of the state debt. 2. The frauds practiced in the purchase of lands for the freedmen. 3. The railroad frauds. 4. The election frauds. 5. The frauds practiced in the redemption of the notes of the Bank of South Carolina. 6. The census fraud. 7. The fraud in furnishing the legislative chamber. 8. General and legislative corruption. …

Mr. Pike in his 'Prostrate State,' speaking of the state finances in 1873, says; 'But, as the treasury of South Carolina has been so thoroughly gutted by the thieves who have hitherto had possession of the state government, there is nothing left to steal. The note of any negro in the state is worth as much on the market as a South Carolina bond.'" This reign of corruption was checked in 1874 by the election to the governorship of Daniel H. Chamberlain, the regular Republican nominee, who had been Attorney-General during Scott's administration. "Governor Chamberlain, quite in contrast with his predecessors, talked reform after his election as well as before it," and was "able to accomplish some marked and wholesome reforms in public expenditures." In 1876 the Democrats succeeded in overpowering the negro vote and acquired control of the state, electing General Wade Hampton governor.

_J. J. Hemphill, Reconstruction in South Carolina (Why the Solid South? chapter 4)._

Generally, for an account of the measures connected with "Reconstruction,"

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY), to 1868-1870.

SOUTH CAROLINA: End--------

SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1889. Admission to the Union.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1889-1890.

SOUTH MOUNTAIN, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (SEPTEMBER: MARYLAND) LEE'S FIRST INVASION.

SOUTH RIVER, The.

The Delaware and the Hudson were called respectively the South River and the North River by the Dutch, during their occupation of the territory of New Netherland.

SOUTH SEA: The name and its application.

See PACIFIC OCEAN.

SOUTH SEA BUBBLE, The.

"The South Sea Company was first formed by Harley [Earl of Oxford, Lord Treasurer of England] in 1711, his object being to improve public credit, and to provide for the floating debts, which at that period amounted to nearly £10,000,000. The Lord Treasurer, therefore, established a fund for that sum. He secured the interest by making permanent the duties on wine, vinegar, tobacco, and several others; he allured the creditors by promising them the monopoly of trade to the Spanish coasts in America; and the project was sanctioned both by Royal Charter and by Act of Parliament. Nor were the merchants slow in swallowing this gilded bait; and the fancied Eldorado which shone before them dazzled even their discerning eyes. … This spirit spread throughout the whole nation, and many, who scarcely knew whereabouts America lies, felt nevertheless quite certain of its being strewed with gold and gems. … The negotiations of Utrecht, however, in this as in other matters, fell far short of the Ministerial promises and of the public expectation. Instead of a free trade, or any approach to a free trade, with the American colonies, the Court of Madrid granted only, besides the shameful Asiento for negro slaves, the privilege of settling some factories, and sending one annual ship. … This shadow of a trade was bestowed by the British Government on the South Sea Company, but it was very soon disturbed. Their first annual ship, the Royal Prince, did not sail till 1717; and next year broke out the war with Spain. … Still, however, the South Sea Company continued, from its other resources, a flourishing and wealthy corporation; its funds were high, its influence considerable, and it was considered on every occasion the rival and competitor of the Bank of England." {2972} At the close of 1719 the South Sea Company submitted to the government proposals for buying up the public debt. "The great object was to buy up and diminish the burthen of the irredeemable annuities granted in the two last reigns, for the term mostly of 99 years, and amounting at this time to nearly £800,000 a year." The Bank of England became at once a competitor for the same undertaking. "The two bodies now displayed the utmost eagerness to outbid one another, each seeming almost ready to ruin itself, so that it could but disappoint its rival. They both went on enhancing their terms, until at length the South Sea Company rose to the enormous offer of seven millions and a half. … The South Sea Bill finally passed the Commons by a division of 172 against 55. In the Lords, on the 4th of April [1720], the minority was only 17. … On the passing of the Bill very many of the annuitants hastened to carry their orders to the South Sea House, before they even received any offer, or knew what terms would be allowed them!—ready to yield a fixed and certain income for even the smallest share in vast but visionary schemes. The offer which was made to them on the 29th of May (eight years and a quarter's purchase) was much less favourable than they had hoped; yet nevertheless, six days afterwards, it is computed that nearly two-thirds of the whole number of annuitants had already agreed. In fact, it seems clear that, during this time, and throughout the summer, the whole nation, with extremely few exceptions, looked upon the South Sea Scheme as promising and prosperous. Its funds rapidly rose from 130 to above 300. … As soon as the South Sea Bill had received the Royal Assent in April, the Directors proposed a subscription of one million, which was so eagerly taken that the sum subscribed exceeded two. A second subscription was quickly opened, and no less quickly filled. … In August, the stocks, which had been 130 in the winter, rose to 1,000. Such general infatuation would have been happy for the Directors, had they not themselves partaken of it. They opened a third, and even a fourth subscription, larger than the former; they passed a resolution, that from Christmas next their yearly dividend should not be less than fifty per cent.; they assumed an arrogant and overbearing tone. … But the public delusion was not continued to the South Sea Scheme; a thousand other mushroom projects sprung up in that teeming soil. … Change Alley became a new edition of the Rue Quincampoix.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1717-1720.

The crowds were so great within doors, that tables with clerks were set in the street. … Some of the Companies hawked about were for the most extravagant projects; we find amongst the number, 'Wrecks to be fished for on the Irish Coast; Insurance of Horses, and other Cattle (two millions); Insurance of losses by servants; To make Salt-Water Fresh; For Building of Hospitals for Bastard Children; For Building of Ships against Pirates; For making of Oil from Sun-flower Seeds; For improving of Malt Liquors; For recovering of Seamen's Wages; For extracting of Silver from Lead; For the transmuting of Quicksilver into a malleable and fine Metal; For making of Iron with Pit-coal; For importing a Number of large Jack Asses from Spain; For trading in Human Hair; For flitting of Hogs; For a Wheel for a Perpetual Motion.'

But the most strange of all, perhaps, was 'For an Undertaking which shall in due time be revealed.' Each subscriber was to pay down two guineas, and hereafter to receive a share of one hundred with a disclosure of the object; and so tempting was the offer that 1,000 of these subscriptions were paid the same morning, with which the projector went off in the afternoon. … When the sums intended to be raised had grown altogether, it is said, to the enormous amount of £300,000,000, the first check to the public infatuation was given by the same body whence it had first sprung. The South Sea Directors … obtained an order from the Lords Justices, and writs of scire facias, against several of the new bubble Companies. These fell, but in falling drew down the whole fabric with them. As soon as distrust was excited, all men became anxious to convert their bonds into money. … Early in September, the South Sea stock began to decline: its fall became more rapid from day to day, and in less than a month it had sunk below 300. … The decline progressively continued, and the news of the crash in France [of the contemporary Mississippi Scheme of John Law-see FRANCE: A. D. 1717-1720] completed ours. Thousands of families were reduced to beggary. … The resentment and rage were universal."

_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope), History of England, 1713-1783, chapter 11 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN: _A. Anderson, History and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce, volume 3, page 43, and after._

_J. Toland, Secret History of the South Sea Scheme (Works, volume 1)._

_C. Mackay, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, chapter 2._

SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, The.

The organization of the so called Confederate States of America, formed among the states which attempted in 1861 to secede from the American Union, is commonly referred to as the Southern Confederacy. For an account of the Constitution of the Confederacy, and the establishing of its government.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY).

SOUTHERN CROSS, Order or the.

A Brazilian order of knighthood instituted in 1826 by the Emperor, Pedro I.

SPA-FIELDS MEETING AND RIOT, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1816-1820.

SPAHIS.

In the Turkish feudal system, organized by Mahomet II. (A. D. 1451-1481), "the general name for the holders of military fiefs was Spahi, a Cavalier, a title which exactly answers to those which we find in the feudal countries of Christian Europe. … The Spahi was the feudal vassal of his Sultan and of his Sultan alone. … Each Spahi … was not only bound to render military service himself in person, but, if the value of his fief exceeded a certain specified amount, he was required to furnish and maintain an armed horseman for every multiple of that sum."

_Sir E. S. Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks, chapters 6 and 10._

"The Spahis cannot properly be considered as a class of nobles. In the villages they had neither estates nor dwellings of their own; they had no right to jurisdiction or to feudal service. … No real rights of property were ever bestowed on them; but, for a specific service a certain revenue was granted them."

_L. Ranke, History of Servia, chapter 3._

See, also, TIMAR.

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SPAIN: Start--------

SPAIN: Aboriginal Peoples.

"Spain must either have given birth to an aboriginal people, or was peopled by way of the Pyrenees and by emigrants crossing the narrow strait at the columns of Hercules. The Iberian race actually forms the foundation of the populations of Spain. The Basks, or Basques, now confined to a few mountain valleys, formerly occupied the greater portion of the peninsula, as is proved by its geographical nomenclature. Celtic tribes subsequently crossed the Pyrenees, and established themselves in various parts of the country, mixing in many instances with the Iberians, and forming the so·called Celtiberians. This mixed race is met with principally in the two Castiles, whilst Galicia and the larger portion of Portugal appear to be inhabited by pure Celts. The Iberians had their original seat of civilisation in the south; they thence moved northward along the coast of the Mediterranean, penetrating as far as the Alps and the Apennines. These original elements of the population were joined by colonists from the great commercial peoples of the Mediterranean. Cadiz and Malaga were founded by the Phœnicians, Cartagena by the Carthaginians, Sagonte by immigrants from Zacynthe, Rosas is a Rhodian colony, and the ruins of Ampurias recall the Emporium of the Massilians. But it was the Romans who modified the character of the Iberian and Celtic inhabitants of the peninsula."

_E. Reclus, The Earth and its Inhabitants: Europe, volume 1, page 372._

SPAIN: B. C. 237-202. The rule of Hamilcar, Hasdrubal and Hannibal in the south.- Beginning of Roman conquest.

See PUNIC WARS: THE SECOND.

SPAIN: B. C. 218-25. Roman conquest.

"The nations of Spain were subjugated one after another by the Romans. The contest began with the second Punic war [B. C. 218], and it ended with the defeat of the Cantabri and Astures by Augustus, B. C. 25. From B. C. 205 the Romans had a dominion in Spain. It was divided into two provinces, Hispania Citerior, or Tarraconensis, and Hispania Ulterior, or Baetica. At first extraordinary proconsuls were sent to Spain, but afterwards two praetors were sent, generally with proconsular authority and twelve fasces. During the Macedonian war the two parts of Spain were placed under one governor, but in B. C. 167 the old division was restored, and so it remained to the time of Augustus. The boundary between the two provinces was originally the Iberus (Ebro). … The country south of the Ebro was the Carthaginian territory, which came into the possession of the Romans at the end of this [the second Punic] war. The centre, the west, and north-west parts of the Spanish peninsula were still independent. At a later time the boundary of Hispania Citerior extended further south, and it was fixed at last between Urci and Murgis, now Guardias Viejas, in 36° 41' North latitude."

_G. Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, volume 1, chapter 1._

See, also, CELTIBERIANS; LUSITANIA; and NUMANTIAN WAR.

SPAIN: B. C. 83-72. Sertorius.

Quintus Sertorius, who was the ablest and the best of the leaders of the Popular Party, or Italian Party, or Marian Party, as it is variously designated, which contended against Sulla and the senate, in the first Roman civil war, left Italy and withdrew to Spain, or was sent thither (it is uncertain which) in 83 or 82 B. C. before the triumph of Sulla had been decided. His first attempts to make a stand in Spain against the authority of Sulla failed complete]y, and he had thoughts it is said of seeking a peaceful retreat in the Madeira Islands, vaguely known at that period as the Fortunate Isles, or Isles of the Blest. But after some adventures in Mauritania, Sertorius accepted an invitation from the Lusitanians to become their leader in a revolt against the Romans which they meditated. Putting himself at the head of the Lusitanians, and drawing with them other Iberian tribes, Sertorius organized a power in Spain which held the Romans at bay for nearly ten years and which came near to breaking the peninsula from their dominion. He was joined, too, by a large number of the fugitives from Rome of the proscribed party, who formed a senate in Spain and instituted a government there which aspired to displace, in time, the senate and the republic on the Tiber, which Sulla had reduced to a shadow and a mockery. First Metellus and then Pompey, who were sent against Sertorius (see ROME: B. C. 78-68), suffered repeated defeats at his hands. In the end, Sertorius was only overcome by treachery among his own officers, who conspired against him and assassinated him, B. C. 72.

_G. Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, volume 2, chapters 31-33._

ALSO IN: _H. G. Liddell, History of Rome, book 7, chapter 62._

SPAIN: B. C. 49. Cæsar's first campaign against the Pompeians.

See ROME: B. C. 49.

SPAIN: B. C. 45. Cæsar's last campaign against the Pompeians. His victory at Munda.

See ROME: B. C. 45.

SPAIN: 3d Century. Early Christianity.

See CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 100-312 (SPAIN).

SPAIN: A. D. 408. Under the usurper Constantine.

See BRITAIN: A. D. 407.

SPAIN: A. D. 409-414. Invasion of the Vandals, Sueves, and Alans.

From the end of the year 406 to the autumn of 409, the barbaric torrent of Alans, Sueves and Vandals which had swept away the barriers of the Roman empire beyond the Alps, spent its rage on the unhappy provinces of Gaul. On the 13th of October, 409, the Pyrenees were passed and the same flood of tempestuous invasion poured into Spain. "The misfortunes of Spain may be described in the language of its most eloquent historian [Mariana], who has concisely expressed the passionate, and perhaps exaggerated, declamations of contemporary writers. 'The irruption of these nations was followed by the most dreadful calamities; as the barbarians exercised their indiscriminate cruelty on the fortunes of the Romans and the Spaniards, and ravaged with equal fury the cities and the open country. The progress of famine reduced the miserable inhabitants to feed on the flesh of their fellow-creatures; and even the wild beasts, who multiplied without control in the desert, were exasperated by the taste of blood and the impatience of hunger boldly to attack and devour their human prey. Pestilence soon appeared, the inseparable companion of famine; a large proportion of the people was swept away; and the groans of the dying excited only the envy of their surviving friends. At length the barbarians, satiated with carnage and rapine, and afflicted by the contagious evils which they themselves had introduced, fixed their permanent seats in the depopulated country. {2974} The ancient Galicia, whose limits included the kingdom of Old Castile, was divided between the Suevi and the Vandals; the Alani were scattered over the provinces of Carthagena and Lusitania, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean; and the fruitful territory of Bætica was allotted to the Silingi, another branch of the Vandalic nation. … The lands were again cultivated; and the towns and villages were again occupied by a captive people. The greatest part of the Spaniards was even disposed to prefer this new condition of poverty and barbarism to the severe oppressions of the Roman government; yet there were many who still asserted their native freedom, and who refused, more especially in the mountains of Galicia, to submit to the barbarian yoke.'"

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 31._

SPAIN: A. D. 414-418. First conquests of the Visigoths.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 410-419.

SPAIN: A. D. 428. Conquests of the Vandals.

See VANDALS: A. D. 428.

SPAIN: A. D. 477-712. The Gothic kingdom.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 453-484; and 507-711.

SPAIN: A. D. 573. The Suevi overcome by the Visigoths.

See SUEVI: A. D. 409-573.

SPAIN: A. D. 616. First expulsion of the Jews.

See JEWS: 7TH CENTURY.

SPAIN: A. D. 711-713. Conquest by the Arab-Moors.