most largely into the Constitution, the matter still remains in dispute. Bancroft has gone so far as to say, "As to Pinckney's plan, no part of it was used and no copy of it has been preserved," and yet at a meeting in Washington in 1902 of the American Historical Society a paper on the Charles Pinckney plan was read by John Franklin Jameson, of the University of Chicago, which

proved that the Pinckney plan entered much more largely into the Constitution than has been generally admitted. "It is perhaps sufficient to remark in conclusion," Mr. Jameson said, "that, as a maker of the Constitution, Charles Pinckney evidently deserves to stand higher than he has stood of late years, and he would have a better chance of doing so if in his old age he had not claimed so much." It is certain that John Rutledge, Chairman of the Committee of Detail, kept

Charles Pinckney's plan constantly in view, and that a great many of his articles, preserving even the numbers, passed into the Constitution. Alexander H. Stephens and other high authorities have said Charles Pinckney's plan entered more largely into the Constitution than any other; and South Carolina should see to it that justice is done her great representative in this Convention, who, though he was the youngest member of that body, was certainly one of the ablest and most influential.

Carolina in the Convention.-Washington, as President of the Convention, had the finest opportunity for observing the ability of the members, and he pronounced John Rutledge the finest orator of the body, and afterward named him as the first Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, under the Constitution, and on the resignation of John Jay, appointed him Chief Justice. George Ticknor Curtis, in his very elaborate work on the Constitution, among the nine most intellectual members names Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and among the six of the next grade of distinction he names two South Carolinians, John Rutledge and Charles Pinckney. So, of the fifteen most distinguished members, in his estimation, South Carolina had three. Certainly in the making of the Constitution South Carolina acted a prominent and influential part, and this distinguished part in the formation of the Federal Government should attach our people to it.

CHAPTER XV

WAR OF 1812

War of 1812.-The War of 1812, which has been called the Second War for Independence, must ever furnish a subject of great interest to all students of our history. The colonies had gained their nominal independence, and they had been acknowledged by King George III as free and independent States, but these acknowledgments on paper were not acknowledgments in the heart and mind of the English people who had so grudgingly granted them.

Both the English people and the English government, therefore, found many ways of showing ill-will and contempt for the American people. Hence we find united with intolerable aggressions on the seas the "poignant scorn" of all European society, due to the unjust censures of American life by literary men and women of great prominence. These censures and detractions were written in ignorance of American conditions, and they were also deeply influenced by prejudice and resentment.

Intolerable Outrages. The aggressions upon American rights on the high seas became so outrageous under the "decrees" of France and the "orders" of England that Americans could bear them no longer without sacrificing their self-respect. The War for Independence would have had no successful issue, no practical

good results, unless these aggressions were stopped at once, and the Americans resolved to put an end to them, by forceful resistance, if necessary. A great many sailors had already been taken by force from American vessels and put into service on English ships, and many merchantmen flying the American flag were detained in European ports by French men-of-war, while Napoleon was declaring the Stars and Stripes to be but "a painted rag." It is interesting to see how South Carolina acted in this great crisis, and the contrast between her and Massachusetts at this momentous period is certainly highly instructive in an historical way. The nation's flag was universally despised; the nation's enterprise and activity on the seas were obstructed and outraged by the mighty powers of France and England. Massachusetts at that time acted as if she felt no indignation, and threatened, if the spirit of resistance to these aggressions carried us to war, that she would leave the Union and set up a government of the New England States. South Carolina, on the other hand, showed a lofty pride in the nation's existence and reputation, and a firm purpose to resist, even to the point of the most desperate sufferings, any further disregard of our national dignity. A delegation was sent from South Carolina to the Federal Congress fired with the spirit of independence and resistance to outrage. Men were chosen from several sections of the State for their eminent abilities and high spirit to exert their utmost influence with Congress to have war declared against

England, despite the enormous disparity between her war power and that of this young nation.

South Carolina Takes the Lead.-Among the men sent to the House were John C. Calhoun, William Lowndes, Langdon Cheves, and David R. Williams. Judge Wilds had been selected in the Pedee section, but died before he could serve, and General Williams was put in his place. When these representatives of South Carolina laid hold of the situation with the vigor of grasp that was inspired by the devotion of the State, the Speaker of the House, the gifted Henry Clay, of Kentucky, recognizing the need of such services in declaring and conducting the war, placed them all on committees that gave them leadership in their respective departments. Calhoun was second on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Porter, of New York, soon retired and left him Chairman, and he wrote and submitted the bill declaring war and made the main speech in its support. Langdon Cheves was made Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, and, upon the resignation of Mr. Clay, to serve on the commission to treat for peace, he became Speaker of the House, and Williams served as Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. So the conduct of the war was, in a very large degree, in the hands of these South Carolinians, so far as the powers of Congress could be exercised in that conduct. Had the nation been fortunate enough to have at its head at that crisis an able war President, the prosecution of the war would have reflected a higher degree of credit upon the vigor of our national life.