Lowndes, Rawlins
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The chief theme in the early history of the Commons House was its transformation from an impotent institution to an imperious political body that jealously guarded its immense authority.
Lowndes’s talent and influence in national affairs did not go unrecognized by his contemporaries. He declined two offers to become secretary of war and also turned down diplomatic appointments to Russia, Turkey, and France.
The chief theme in the early history of the Commons House was its transformation from an impotent institution to an imperious political body that jealously guarded its immense authority.
Although Manigault did not actively practice law, his legal training enabled him to pursue a political career, collect debts owed to London merchants, and manage the South Carolina business and plantation interests of absentee landowners.
At the beginning of the 1770s, the Commons House of Assembly was embroiled in the latest in a series of fierce power struggles with royal officials, known as the Wilkes Fund Controversy. Coupled with new imperial initiatives, these clashes convinced the colony’s elite that if it wanted to control the political destiny of South Carolina, then separation was the only answer.
Rutledge played a prominent role in writing the federal Constitution. He advocated a national government of greatly increased but still limited powers and entrusted to an executive and a Congress designed to consist of gentlemen made relatively independent of public opinion.
Lincoln had the misfortune to preside over the single worst defeat of American forces during the Revolutionary War, the loss of Charleston.
