The relations of parent and child, guardian and ward, and master and apprentice, were fully declared.

All persons of color who should make contracts for service or labor should be known as servants, and those with whom they should contract should be known as masters.

"On farms or in outdoor service the hours of labor, except on Sunday, shall be from sunrise to sunset, with a reasonable interval for breakfast and dinner. Servants shall rise at the dawn in the morning, feed, water and care for the animals on the farm, do the usual and needful work about the premises, prepare their meals for the day, if required by the master, and begin the farm or other work by sunrise. The servant shall be careful of all the property and animals of his master, and especially of the animals and implements used by him, shall protect the same from injury by other persons, and shall be answerable for all property lost, destroyed or injured by his negligence, dishonesty or bad faith.

"All lost time, not caused by the act of the master, and all losses occasioned by the neglect of the duties hereinbefore prescribed, may be deducted from the wages of the servant; and food, nursing and other necessaries for the servant while he is absent from work on account of sickness or other cause may also be deducted from his wages. Servants shall be quiet and orderly in their quarters and on the premises, shall extinguish their lights and fires and shall retire to rest at seasonable hours. Work at night, and outdoor work in inclement weather, shall not be exacted unless in case of necessity. Servants shall not be kept at home on Sunday, unless to take care of the premises or the animals thereon, and in such cases only so many shall be kept at home as are necessary for these purposes. Sunday work shall be done by the servants in turn, except in cases of sickness or other disability—when it may be assigned to them out of their regular turn. Absentees on Sunday shall return to their homes by

sunset.

"The master may give to the servant a task at work about the business of the farm, which shall be reasonable. If the servant complain of the task the district judge or a magistrate shall have power to reduce or increase it. Failure to do a task shall be deemed evidence of indolence, but a single failure shall not be conclusive. When a servant is entered into a contract he may be required to rate himself as a full hand, three-fourths, half or one-fourth hand, and,

according to this rate, inserted in the contract, shall be the task and the wages.

"Visitors or other persons shall not be invited or allowed by the servant to come or remain upon the premises of the master without his express permission.

"Servants shall not be absent from the premises without the permission of the master.

"The servant shall obey all lawful orders of the master or his agent, and shall be honest, truthful, sober, civil, and diligent in his business. The master may moderately correct servants who have made contracts and are under eighteen years of age.'

The servant might for certain causes stated depart from the master's service, and when wrongfully discharged might recover wages for the whole period of service according to the contract.

The rules and regulations prescribed for master and servant were made applicable to persons in service as household servants, conferring the same rights and imposing the same duties, with certain modifications made necessary by the difference in the services.

Provision was made for the proper care of persons of color who should be paupers and for the punishment of those who should be adjudged by a jury of three freeholders, in a magistrate's court, to be vagrants.

The act to establish district courts provided that "the judges first elected under this act shall not be commissioned until the Governor shall be satisfied that they will be permitted to exercise the jurisdiction committed to them." The commissions were withheld accordingly.

In response to the proclamation of the Governor, the Legislature assembled in extra session on Tuesday, September 4, 1866-called for the purpose of "recommending such modifications of existing laws with reference to persons of color as will entitle the tribunals of this State to exercise jurisdiction over them in all cases, and such a reorganization of these tribunals as may be best adapted to this end."

On the Governor's suggestions, coupled with his statement that he had satisfied himself that the district courts would not be permitted by the military authorities to exercise jurisdiction over persons of color, the Legislature at this and the regular session

following proceeded to amend the "code" in several important particulars.

By an act to amend the act to establish district courts the special powers given in relation to persons of color were abrogated, and these courts were made an inferior tribunal for the trial of certain causes, civil and criminal, without reference to the race or color of the parties. Changes of procedure, not necessary to mention, were made, and the judges were required to organize their courts immediately upon the passage of the act.

By an act to amend the act to amend the criminal law, all special provisions as to persons of color were repealed, and the statute was made applicable to all persons, without regard to race or color.

It was further enacted that "all persons hitherto known in law in this State as slaves or as free persons of color shall have the right to make and enforce contracts, to sue, to be sued, to be affiants and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, convey and assign real and personal property, make wills and testaments, and to have full and equal benefits of the rights of personal security, personal liberty and private property, and of all remedies and proceedings for the enforcement and protection of the same, as white persons now have, and shall not be subjected to any other or different punishment, pain or penalty for the commission of any act or offense than such as are prescribed for white persons committing like acts or offenses."

The district courts were thereupon duly organized, the judges were commissioned, and these tribunals (sitting quarterly) proceeded to hear and determine the causes within their jurisdiction.

Governor Orr, in his message to the Legislature (November 28), informed that body that "the acts passed at the late extra session were transmitted to the military commandant of the Department of the Carolinas, at Charleston, and on the 1st day of October last, by general orders, he remitted all cases in which the inhabitants of this State were concerned, civil and criminal, to the civil authorities."

The Governor further stated: "Experience will demonstrate the wisdom of your enactment authorizing negroes to testify in all cases. It takes away the impunity which bad men have long enjoyed in tempting these ignorant people to perpetrate crime for the benefit of the tempters. The result of the experiment at the late fall terms of the courts has been entirely satisfactory, and most of the freedmen

who have been called to the witness stand have manifested a highly creditable desire to tell the truth."

The relations of master and servant, as set forth in the "code," may be said not to have been established in any instance.

The second regular session of the General Assembly opened November 26, 1866, and adjourned December 21-being the last meeting of that body under the Constitution of 1865.

In his message Governor Orr informed the Legislature that he had been officially notified of the passage by Congress of the resolution proposing to the States the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Of this proposition the Governor said:

Do not its first and last sections, if adopted, confer upon Congress the absolute right of determining who shall be citizens of the respective States and who shall exercise the elective franchise and enjoy any and all of the rights, privileges and immunities of citizenship? The sections referred to not only do this, but they subvert the theory and practice of the Government by abrogating the right of fixing the elective franchise, conferred upon the respective State governments, and by giving the Representatives of Oregon or California in Congress the power to declare what shall constitute the measure of citizenship within the limits of Georgia or South Carolina.

The third section, if its spirit were carried out, would not only disorganize the State government in all its departments, but would render it nearly impossible for the people of South Carolina at least to recognize a government until Congress by a two-thirds vote, in the case of each individual person, removes the disability.

[The third section above mentioned reads as follows: "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability."]

There are other objections of a grave character which might be urged; and among these it may be mentioned that if the amendment is adopted we not only have no guaranties that our Representatives would be admitted to Congress, but there are unmistakable indications that they would still be excluded. It is unnecessary, however, to dwell upon a subject which has been so far decided by the public

3-R. S. C.

opinion of the people of the State, that I am justified in saying that if the Constitutional amendment is to be adopted let it be done by the irresponsible power of numbers, and let us preserve our own selfrespect and the respect of our posterity by refusing to be the mean instruments of our own shame.

The Legislature shared with Governor Orr the feeling that the people of South Carolina could not honorably accept the terms proposed by Congress in the Fourteenth Amendment. Adverse action was taken by the Senate unanimously, and by the House with but one dissenting vote-that of Mr. P. J. Coogan, of Charleston.

At this session James B. Campbell, of Charleston, was elected Senator of the United States, for the long term, succeeding the short term for which the Hon. John L. Manning had been elected. Upon this action, the latter surrendered his credentials, and Mr. Campbell was elected for the short term also.

Judge Wardlaw submitted a "code" as a "substitute for the legislation induced by the emancipation of slaves," of which the House Committee on the Judiciary reported that "many sections of the bill would be impracticable at present, though the whole bill is full of useful suggestions for future legislation when time has reconciled labor and capital in their new relations." In order that "the labor and learning bestowed on the bill should not be lost," the committee suggested that "it ought to be preserved by being printed with the reports and resolutions of this session"-and this was accordingly done. Some of the sections of this "code" were enacted in the laws, already noted, making the changes suggested in the Governor's message submitted at the extra session.

THE PRESIDENT'S POLICY CONTINUED.

In April, 1866, a further step towards the restoration of South Carolina to full relations with the National Government was taken by the appointment of the Hon. George S. Bryan, of Charleston, to be judge of the United States District Court. John Phillips was made district attorney; Daniel Horlbeck, clerk; and J. P. M. Epping, marshal-all of Charleston.

Under the scheme of President Johnson there had been appointed a large number of Federal officials-customs collectors, internal revenue collectors and postmasters. With very few exceptions these appointees had to vacate because they could not take the required "test oath" (act of June 22, 1862), whereby each affiant had to