THE FIRST CHIEF JUSTICE OF CAROLINA. BY A. M. BARNES.
THE drafting of the Great Fundamental Constitution, called the Grand Model, that masterpiece of tomfoolery emanating from the visionary Locke, gave a black eye to the law; in fact, knocked it out ere it had entered the ring, so to speak. For this ex traordinary scheme for the establishing of an aristocratic government " in a colony of ad venturers in the wild woods, among savages and wild beasts " declared it " a base and a vile thing to plead for money," and provided that no one save a kinsman should be al lowed to plead another's cause until he had taken oath that he was not to be paid for so doing. In place of lawyers and the systematic administration of the law, there was the far cical judicature of the Grand Council. This court of mockery consisted of the Palatine, the seven Proprietors, and forty-two counsel lors, as they were called. Each of these counsellors was required to take oath that he would give faithful aid to the Governor in dispensing equity and upholding justice. This might have been very well had the Grand Council been invested, at this early day, with the power of independent action. But this great legal body, so pompously styled "The Senate of Carolina," could then take no important step within itself. For as a part of this Grand Council, the majority of the Proprietors, resided on the other side of the Atlantic, there must be consultation with them; then the long wait till they,, in turn, conferred with the Royal Government, and prepared and forwarded their various "opinions," "decisions," etc. And, as fre quently happened, their opinions did not at all coincide with those held by the Grand Council. Thus there sprang up, and greatly to the harassment of the people of the Colony, a
dual judicature, a kind of legal monstrosity with two heads, the one constantly getting in the way of the other. This brought about jealousies, collisions, and what not, while the people had to put up with delays and irregularities not only exhaustive of patience but of purse. And while they waited for the adjustment of some claim of vital import, the Grand Council was consuming its time and wasting its eloquence with such affairs as that of the sentencing of one Thomas Screman, "who did feloniously take and carry away one Turkey Cock of the price of tenn pence lawful money, contrary to the peace of our Sovereign Lord, the King." ' It is no wonder the people became restive under such a farcical administration of the law, and began vigorously to petition for a more satisfactory status of legal affairs. Letter after letter was written the Proprie tors. Among them went one from the eloquent Florence O'Sullivan, Deputy of Sir George Carteret, which document has been carefully preserved. O'Sullivan showed that he righteously believed it impossible for the country to get along without lawyers. He wrote : "Wee pray you send us an able counsel lor to end controversies amongst us and put us in the right way of the management of yo' collony ... if you please to stand by us," etc. It is a remarkable proof of both the stub bornness and stupidity of the Proprietors that the request of O'Sullivan and others met with no response until twenty-nine years after it was made! In 1698 the Proprietors, discovering that their own interests required more attention paid to the Courts in their Colony, sent out 1 McCrady's History of the Proprietary Government of Carolina, p. 149.
