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PALMETTO STATE RATIFIED CONSTITUTION ON MAY 23, 1788
Exactly 221 years ago today, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution and enter the newly-formed United States of America.
After meeting in Charleston (actually, it was still Charlestown) over the course of two weeks, the convention voted 149 to 73 to approve the document. Four men — John Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Charles Pinckney and Pierce Butler — would sign the Constitution on behalf of the state.
Of course, South Carolina always has to do things a little differently. And ratifying the Constitution was certainly no exception.
“This Convention doth also declare, that no section or paragraph of the said Constitution warrants a construction that the states do not retain every power not expressly relinquished by them, and vested in the general government of the Union,” read one line of the South Carolina’s ratification message to Congress.
That passage would form some of the basis for South Carolina’s future Constitutional quarrels with the federal government, and eventually, the state’s secession from the Union in 1860.
And with discussions over secession and nullification popping up in places like Texas, I have a feeling it won’t be last we hear of South Carolina’s significant role in ratifying the Constitution.
Anyway, with all that said, here’s wishing a happy birthday to the Palmetto State.
state: “A political body, or body politic; the whole body of people who are united one government, whatever may be the form of the government. . . ” (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.)
In this sense of the word under which the various colonies signed up to form a union (which would also include its status as a colony before hand) South Carolina existed, first as “Carolina” and then later as “South Carolina,” since 1663. It’s status as a separate colony came about around 1712 and its elevation to a governmental body (from a proprietary body) came about in 1720.
Your use of “State of South Carolina” in referencing the last 221 years is technically accurate according to one definition of the word “State” in that you are attempting to reflect its membership in the federal republic or “union” under the U.S. Constitution (though there are about four years people will be arguing about for a long time to come).
However, your statement, out of proper context, could be misleading since the federal government did not bring the state into existence; rather, the states brought the federal portion of the government into existence with the Constitution.
South Carolina as a political state is around 346 or, if counting from 1720, 289 years old. Therefore, even though I’m giving you the full benefit of a doubt, I can find no valid reason for you to refer to as a “birthday” an event that is analogous to a “marriage.”
A more appropriate felicitation might be, “Happy Anniversary, South Carolina!” And, yes, it’s been a rocky marriage at times (like now).