A history of the University of South Carolina online

should inform the president in writing that he could not in
conscience "consent that his son or ward should engage in
the religious worship conducted by the chaplain." The laws
of 1853 contain a chapter on "Devotional Exercises and the
Lord's Day," which decreed thus: "1. Divine service shall
be performed in the College Hall, at least once on every
Lord's Day, and on whatever days may be set apart for
religious observance by the Governor of this Commonwealth,
or the President of the United States. There shall also be
daily prayers in the chapel, on the mornings of every day,
and the evenings of every day except Saturday.



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 233

"2. The students of the College shall constantly, season-
ably, and with due reverence, attend the prayers and the
public worship above specified.

"3. No student shall be statedly excused from morning
and evening prayers without a special vote of the Board of
Trustees.

"4. The President of the College may grant a dispensation
from attending public worship in the College Hall on the
Lord's Day and other days set apart for the purpose in the
three following cases : 1. When the parent or guardian of
a student resides in Columbia, and desires his son or ward
to attend public worship with his own family. 2. When a
student is a communicant with some religious denomination,
having regular worship in the town of Columbia, and dif-
fering from that to which the chaplain belongs. 3. When
the parent or guardian shall inform the President in writing,
that he cannot, in conscience, permit his son or ward to
engage in the religious worship conducted by the Chaplain."

"5. Occasional permissions to attend elsewhere than in the
College Hall, the President may grant at his discretion the
occasions being rare and extraordinary.

"6. Students are required to keep the Lord's Day with
becoming reverence, to abstain from their usual diversions
and exercises, and from all behaviour inconsistent with that
sacred season.

"7. The Professor who has charge of Sacred Literature
and Evidences of Christianity shall officiate as Chaplain
of the College. (This had been true since 1835. The first
chaplain was Rev. William Capers for a few months in 1835.
His Bible is preserved in the library. Succeeding chaplains
were presented with Bibles by the sophomore class, which
were deposited in the library at the expiration of the
chaplain's term of service).

"8. In the absence of the Chaplain, it devolves upon the
Faculty to see that morning and evening prayers are had in
the chapel, and public worship observed in the College Hall,
unless the Chaplain himself should have made arrangements
to have his place supplied."



234 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

At this time it was decided to have morning prayers on
Sunday one hour later than in week days. Public worship
in College Hall on Sunday and other days set apart for the
purpose was to be held at 10.30 in the forenoon and when
there was afternoon service, at 3.30.

"No student shall play on any instrument," says the same
regulations, "of Music, or engage in diversions and sports
on the Lord's Day, and all lounging under the trees, or col-
lecting in groups about the campus, or before the entries, or
any of the College steps, for the purpose of amusement or
conversation on that day, is expressly forbidden."

During the life of the first university religious exercises
were all voluntary, although held at the times usual before
1860. In the catalogue of 1883-84 appears the statement
that students are required to attend the religious exercises
held in the chapel on Sunday morning, as well as the daily
morning prayers. The requirement about morning prayers
has remained. Great objections to the South Carolina Col-
lege were being raised about this time by the denominational
colleges. On account of this opposition chapel was again
required to show that the college was not an irreligious insti-
tution. Sunday services were conducted until the chaplaincy
of Professor J. William Flinn, when in the catalogue of
1894-95 appears the paragraph, "All students, except those
excused for special reasons by the President shall attend
every Sunday, the full morning service of some one of the
city churches. Attendance on such services shall be ascer-
tained and recorded at the chapel roll-call on Monday morn-
ing following, each student answering 'Yes' or 'No' as
to his attendance. Excuses must be made in writing to the
President as for other absences." The excuse has still to be
made, only now on a slip of paper prepared for the purpose.
Roll-call, which was instituted at the time chapel was
required, was changed during President Sloan's adminis-
tration to a system of numbered seats. The practice arose
among the churches of the city to begin morning service at
11.15, in order to allow the students to attend services in
the chapel and reach church in time for the sermon.



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 235

For the first thirty years the performance of chapel
services was laid on the president, who acted himself or had
some one to act for him. When the college was reorganized
in 1835, the professor of Sacred Literature and Evidences
of Christianity was required to fill the office of chaplain.
The charter of the university in 1866 enjoined on the trustees
the care that one of the professors should be a minister of
the gospel, who should be charged with the duties of the
chaplain, with additional salary. This has continued a part
of the provisions of the acts affecting the changes from col-
lege to university and vice versa. Section 10 of the act
approved December 23, 1890, specifies that the president
shall not be an atheist or infidel, which is a part of the
present charter.

Chapel services have always been onerous. Even as early
as 1806 it was necessary for the board to require the pro-
fessors to attend chapel. Absences from chapel figure largely
in the monitors' bills. In one of Professor ThornwelPs
reports as chaplain while Preston was president is the reve-
lation that for a month there had been no chapel services
during the absence of the president. No professors attended,
so that the trustees asked Professor Williams to go in order
to help Dr. Thornwell and officiate in his place whenever
necessary.



236 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY



CHAPTER XVII.



LAW SCHOOL.

As early as 1810 President Maxcy recommended to the
board of trustees the establishment of a professor of law
to lecture to the two higher classes. A resolution of the
legislature for the year 1823 requested the trustees of the
college to consider the "propriety and advantage of estab-
lishing a Professorship of Law in that institution, and to
report to this house, at the next session, the manner in which
such a Professorship may be established, so as to be most
advantageous to the community, and least expensive to the
State." In reply, the trustees expressed the opinion that
the chair should be formed with a liberal salary and small
fees for its enlargement, but that the course should be given
only to graduates. With that the matter ended.

The act creating the University of South Carolina
approved December 19, 1865, empowered the trustees, if they
deemed it proper, to give a license to one or more persons
to form classes for instruction in law under terms and con-
ditions and with tuition fees prescribed by the board. A
year later an act to amend the preceding act required the
trustees to establish as soon as practicable a school of law
with one professor, who was on the same footing as the other
professors.

Acting under the provisions of this act, the board in
January, 1867, elected Chancellor J. A. Inglis to the pro-
fessorship of law. He, however, declined, preferring to con-
tinue the practice of law in Baltimore. In the following
June Colonel A. C. Haskell accepted election to the chair
and occupied it until August, 1868, when he resigned to
resume the practice of law. The course in law offered to
students at that time embraced the various branches of
common law and equity, commercial, international and con-




PROFESSORS OF LAW.



A. C. Haskell, 1867-68.
J. D. Pope, 1884-1908.



C. D. Melton, 1869-1875.
M. H. Moore, 1901-1910.



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 237

stitutional law. It was supposed to extend over two years,
but could be taken in one. A moot court was conducted
under the supervision of the professor for the purpose of
perfecting the students in the details of practice. The junior
class studied "Blackstone's Commentaries; Chitty on Con-
tracts; Kent's Commentaries; Constitution of South Caro-
lina; Constitution of the United States; Lectures with
reference to Vatel on the Law of Nations ; and other treatises
on Public and Constitutional Law." The seniors were
engaged in the study of "Stephen's Pleading; Greenleaf's Evi-
dence ; Williams' Law of Executors ; Bayley on Bills ; Smith's
Merchantile Law; Russell on Crimes." The textbooks in
equity were Mitford's Pleading and Adams' Equity. Statute
laws and State Reports were treated in connection with
the subjects as they arose. Professor Haskell reported that
four students had followed his course; of these two gradu-
ated at the close of the session in June, 1868.

During the following year the law school was allowed to
lapse; in the summer of 1869 Hon. C. D. Melton was elected
to the professorship, which he held until his death on the
5th of December, 1875. His successor was Chief Justice
Franklin J. Moses, who conducted the school until his death,
March, 1877. There was no attempt to fill the chair. At the
close of the collegiate year in June, 1877, the University
which had been turned over to the negroes since October,
1873, was closed.

The course of study remained the same under the last two
professors as it had been under Colonel Haskell.

In 1884 the law school was reorganized under Colonel
Joseph Daniel Pope with a two years' course, which was
generally taken in one. Professor Pope and the president
formed a special faculty for the consideration of matters
relating to the law school. Professor Pope was given the
fees arising from tuition and a small fixed salary ; later this
professorship was made co-ordinate with the others. Special
provision was made for short courses by leading members
of the bar. The applicant for this school had to be nineteen
years of age, have a good English education and know enough



238 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

Latin to enable him readily to understand the law terms
and maxims.

As first outlined, the junior class was instructed in
"Organization and Jurisdiction of Courts of United States
(Supreme, Circuit, and District Courts) and South Caro-
lina (Supreme, Common Pleas, Sessions, Probate, and Trial
Justice Courts); Sources of Municipal Law; Domestic
Relations; Personal Property, and title to same; Adminis-
tration, Wills, Contracts, Bailments, Bills and Notes, Prin-
cipal and Agent, Corporations; Criminal Law, and herein
of Torts and nuisances; Public and Private Law, Law of
Evidence." The seniors were given "Pleading and Practice;
Law of Real Property; Equity Jurisprudence; Law of Con-
veyancing; Trial of Title to Land; Maritime Law and Law
of Nations ; Statute of Law of the State on subjects not read
with the text and lectures of the course; Deeds, Recording,
Habeas Corpus, etc." The juniors were required to write
essays; the seniors were trained in court details in a moot
court.

In 1892 Professor Pope delivered in the chapel at the
request of the Law Association of the South Carolina College
an address on "The History and Advantages of the South
Carolina College", which was published by the trustees under
the title of "The State and the College."

The course remained about the same until M. Herndon
Moore was elected adjunct professor of law in 1901, at which
time Professor Pope was made professor emeritus and dean.
Constitutional History and Constitutional Law taught by
Professor R. Means Davis were added to the course at this
time. Professor Moore became full professor in 1906, and
Professor John P. Thomas, Jr., was added to the faculty.
Beginning with 1903, a series of lectures on various phases
of law was for several sessions given by prominent jurists
of the State. The lectures of the year 1904-'05 were pub-
lished as Bulletin No. 3 of the University.

On the death of Professor Pope, March 21, 1908, Professor
Moore became dean of the law school, and J. Nelson
Frierson, Esq., of the Buffalo bar, a native of South Caro-



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 239

lina, was elected to fill the vacancy in the law faculty.
Professor Moore had begun soon after his coming into the
school to work for improvement of the standard of instruc-
tion by raising the requirements for entrance to the school
and by extending the course. A distinct advance had been
achieved before he was stricken in the midst of his activities
and died March 1, 1910. E. Marion Rucker, Esq., a graduate
of the South Carolina College, class of 1885, then practicing
law at Anderson, taught his classes for the remainder of
the session, when he was elected to the chair. Professor
Thomas became dean of the law faculty.

Students now remain two years in the law school,
although a few men drop out occasionally before graduation
and take the State examination. The law faculty plans to
extend the course to three years. It is strongly recom-
mended that wherever possible the study of law should be
deferred until after the completion of a college course. The
school now occupies the lower floor of the center building
of Legare College; but these rooms are not adequate, and
as soon as possible a law building is to be erected. In
1912-13 the enrolment was 97.

The course at the present time, divided among the three
professors, is in abstract: First Year, First Term: Intro-
duction to the Study of Law, Domestic Relations and Law
of Persons, Contracts, Agency (Including Master and
Servant), Crimes and Criminal Procedure, Bailments and
Carriers; Second Term: Equity Jurisprudence, Partner-
ship, Suretyship, Torts, Insurance, Common Law Pleading,
Bankruptcy. Second Year, First Term: Evidence, Cor-
porations (Private), Real Property, Personal Property and
Sales, Wills and Administration, Negotiable Instruments;
Second Term: Real Property, Constitutional Law, Con-
flict of Laws, Code Pleading and Practice and Federal Pro-
cedure, Municipal Corporations, Damages, Trusts, Legal
Ethics.

Mrs. S. Reed Stoney presented a medal to the University
in 1909 in honor of her father, Professor Pope, to be known
as the "Pope Medal", competition for which is open to mem-



240 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

bers of the senior class "for the best essay bearing upon any
subject connected with Equity." The winner's name is
placed upon the medal and he is entitled to wear it until
the close of the following session.

In 1912 Mr. Edwin W. Robertson of Columbia endowed a
scholarship of the annual value of $190.



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 241



CHAPTER XVIII.



STUDENT LIFE ON THE CAMPUS.

The student body of the college and of the university has
not been large. It has always been a compact body knit
closely by ties of friendship and often of relationship. The
young men have always addressed each other by their
Christian and not by their surnames. Of course, there have
been cliques; but the spirit of the campus has been demo-
cratic even in the heyday of the aristocratic tone of the ante-
bellum state. No student however poor was looked down
upon because of his poverty. The two Lowrys, who were
held in the highest esteem not only by the students but also
by the citizens of the town, cooked their own meals, this at
the very beginning of the college. The late Judge Joshua H.
Hudson said he expected to cook his meals if he had not been
taken into the house of the President, William C. Preston:
he was first honor man of his class. George McDuffie,
James H. Thornwell, James H. Rion, not to name others,
all first honor men, were proteges. South Carolina fostered
the intellect of any son who showed that he could rise to
eminence, fully aware that she must make up for her small-
ness by the quality of her brain. The position of a man on
the campus has always depended upon his manliness.

A high sense of honor has ever characterized the students.
Professor Francis Lieber wrote in his journal (May 15,
1837) : "Not once have I appealed to their honor and found
myself disappointed. If you treat them en gens d'arme, of
course they not only try to kick, but you give a zest to
resistance." Their turbulency was later remarked by Dr.
Joseph LeConte, who was a professor here just after Dr.
Lieber departed for the North. In his Autobiography he
says that they were a turbulent set of men but the most
honorable in their college life he had ever met with.

16 H. U.



242 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

The reader of LaBorde's History of the South Carolina
College rises from his reading with the idea that the students
of the college were in a constant state of riot and revolt.
January and February, winter months, when the students
had to remain indoors much of the time, were the season
for a periodical uprising, a tide of lawlessness, a manifesta-
tion of energy that was not able to show itself otherwise.
On the 8th of February, 1814, a riot burst forth on the sus-
pension of three students that required the militia of the
town to quell : a professor was burnt in effigy, his house was
attacked with brick bats and his family placed in great
terror. Dr. Thomas Cooper, writing to Thomas Jefferson in
1822, gives him an account of an outbreak, in which the
professors "were threatened, pistols were snapt at them, guns
fired near them, Col. John Taylor (formerly of the Senate
from this place) was in company with myself burnt in effigy :
the windows of my bedroom have been repeatedly shattered
at various hours of the night, & guns fired under my win-
dow." About this time nearly every year trouble arose over
the Steward's Hall, until finally there came the "Biscuit
Rebellion" of 1853 and the breaking up of the commons
system.

"Boys will be boys" was no doubt repeated on occasion
by Adam ; but the passing of the old system carried with it
the old spirit. Much of the trouble of the professors would
have no doubt been obviated if there had been outdoor sports
or athletics to relieve pent up animal spirits. A game of ball,
perhaps, "town ball", or "cat", was played. Gray son says
in his life of Petigru that Stephen D. Miller was devoted
to ball. There was a small outdoor gymnasium of bars and
rings, a horse or two, where Flinn Hall now stands, after-
wards removed to the site of the infirmary. Major Penci
was engaged to teach fencing lessons. "Fisticuff" once
became a pastime in early days. Some of the students kept
horses. In consequence of the dearth of outlet the students
turned to pranks; of course the fact that the professors
undertook to catch offenders added zest to the escapade.
The chuckle of the student is still audible as he heard Pro-



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 243

fessor Lieber exclaim as he rose with bruised shins from the
bricks over which the nimble youth had jumped: "Mein
Gott. All dis for two tousant tollar." Fowl houses and
gardens have always been regarded as the student's legiti-
mate prey, especially those of the professors. Dr. Cooper's
horse was often painted, her tail shaved. When Blanche
died, it was proposed in all solemnity that she should be
honored by a public burial and a holiday. One of the presi-
dents hearing that his coach was to be dragged off hid himself
inside behind the tightly fastened curtains. When the
students had pulled it to the bottom of the hill and were
about to leave it, he stepped out and politely informed them
that they had better drag it back to the carriage house,
which they did. Professors' benches were tarred. A common
diversion was blackriding: the crowd hired horses or mules
and disguising themselves generally with black robes rode
around the campus bearing torches and making night hideous
with noise. Such amusement has occasionally been indulged
in by students of recent years. Bonfires have ever delighted
the collegian's heart, more particularly when the fire depart-
ment is brought out. In the fifties a favorite diversion was
tying a lighted fireball to the tail of a dog or a cow and
starting the animal down the campus, perhaps followed by
a crowd of yelling collegians. This was generally late at
night. An alumnus of the days of President Henry related
as a characteristic bit of college wit, that shortly after he
had arrived President Henry announced in chapel that there
were too many dogs on the campus, and that they must be
expelled. Next morning he noticed several dogs suspended
from one of the horse racks, and on inquiring the cause was
told that the students had changed the president's order
of expulsion into suspension. Once in the early (1812) days
of the Steward's Hall when the students were tired of the
meat furnished, they captured a steer destined for the table,
decorated his horns with wreaths, drove him to the Congaree
and there drowned him as a sacrifice to the river god. The
following stanza is said to belong to the ode commemorating
the event :



244 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

"Whitty Brooks and Old Brevard

By the horns did hold him hard
While Connor on his back did ride
Way down to the river side."

When Jack, the college servant, was sweeping out the
chapel, the bray of a donkey tied in the pulpit so frightened
him that he rushed into the air shouting that the devil was
in the chapel. During the years before the chapel steps
were changed from wood to stone, it was a great joke to
remove the steps and stand by to see how the faculty would
reach the chapel; this was usually done by walking up a
plank. The historian LaBorde devotes several pages to a
mock heroic description of such an ascent when he was a
student.

The first mention of the practice of duelling among the
students was in November, 1807, when John Mayrant, James
Goodwin and Powell McKra were suspended and reported
to the board for expulsion for participating in a duel. They
were finally restored to standing in the college on petition
from the student body and a promise of future good con-
duct, with the further understanding that this leniency was
not to be made a precedent. The president of the board also
addressed the assembled students on the harm of duelling.
In the next spring following a junior and a senior were sus-
pended for the same offence. They were not taken back.
Dr. Marion Simms tells of a college duel in his day : "I lived
in the age of duelling. I was educated to believe that duels
inspired the proprieties of society and protected the honor
of women. I have hardly a doubt that, while I was a student
in the South Carolina College, if anything had happened to
make it necessary for me to fight a duel, I would have gone
out with the utmost coolness and allowed myself to be shot
down. But my views on that subject were entirely changed,
a long, long time ago.

"There was a real duel in the South Carolina College just
after I graduated. It was between Roach, of Colleton, and
Adams, of Richland District. Roach was a young man about



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 245

six feet high and a physical beauty. Adams was no less so,
though not so tall. Both men were of fine families, and
Adams was supposed to be a young man of talent and
promise. It occurred in this way : They were very intimate
friends; they sat opposite to each other in the Steward's
Hall at table. When the bell rang and the door was opened,
the students rushed in, and it was considered a matter of
honor, when a man got hold of a dish of butter or bread or
any other dish, it was his. Unfortunately, Roach and Adams
sat opposite each other, and both caught hold of a dish of
trout at the same moment. Adams did not let go; Roach
held on to the dish. Presently Roach let go of the dish and
glared fiercely in Adams's face, and said: 'Sir, I will see
you after supper.' They sat there all through the supper,
both looking like mad bulls, I presume. Roach left the
supper-room first, and Adams immediately followed him.
Roach waited outside the door for Adams. There were no
hard words and no fisticuffs all was dignity and solemnity.
'Sir,' said Roach, 'What can I do to insult you?' Adams
replied, 'This is enough, sir, and you will hear from me.'
Adams went immediately to his room and sent a challenge
to Roach. It was promptly accepted, and each went up
town and selected seconds and advisers. And now comes the
strange part of this whole affair: No less a person than