On this day 250 years ago in Charlestown (now Charleston), South Carolina, Chief Justice William Henry Drayton, in opening the State’s courts under its new constitution, instructed the grand jury that

In this Court, . . . you are now met to regulate your verdicts, under a new Constitution of Government, independent of Royal authority — a Constitution which arose according to the great law of nature and of nations, and which was established in the late Congress, on the 26th of March last — a day that will be ever memorable in this country

. . .

the law of the land authorizes me to declare, and it is my duty boldly to declare the law, that George III, King of Great Britain, has abdicated the government, and that the Throne is thereby vacant : that is, he has no authority over us, and we owe no obedience to him.

. . .

under our present happy Constitution, our Executive Magistrate arises according to the spirit and letter of Holy Writ: “Their Governours shall proceed from the midst of them.” Thus, the people have an opportunity of choosing a man intimately acquainted with their true interests, their genius, and their laws; a man perfectly disposed to defend them against arbitrary Ministers, and to promote the happiness of that people from among whom he was elevated, and by whom, without the least difficulty, he may be removed and blended in the common mass.

Again, under the British authority it was in effect declared, that we had no property; nay, that we could not possess any; and that we had not any of the rights of humanity. . . . But our Constitution is calculated to free us from foreign bondage; to secure to us our property; to maintain to us the rights of humanity

The words of Drayton’s Presentment to the Charlestown Grand Jury would echo in Philadelphia in the coming months and years.

Sources: https://www.amrevmuseum.org/virtualexhibits/season-of-independence/pages/charlestown-south-carolina-grand-jury-presentments-april-23-1776

Also on that day, the people of Charlotte County, Virginia passed a resolution to “immediately to cast off the British yoke” and support Independence.

https://jaykravetz.substack.com/p/april-23-1776-congress-strains-to