Government shutdowns date back at least to the 1750s in colonial South Carolina. Between 1751 and 1776, they were a regular part of the colony’s politics.
Government shutdowns have become increasingly common in the last decade, and many Americans view this as a failure of our ability to compromise. Whether reflecting on the 2013 shutdown over Obamacare, the 2018 battle over legalizing foreigners present in our country illegally, or the current dispute over a border wall, politicians on both sides have shown an inability to work with each other while virtue signaling to their respective bases.
Such obstinacy is not without historical precedent. In fact, it dates back at least to the 1750s in colonial South Carolina. Between 1751 and 1776, government shutdowns were a regular part of the colony’s politics. These shutdowns concerned fundamental constitutional disagreements among the British ministry, the colonial legislature, the governor, and the governor’s council. Most importantly, the shutdowns were an important means by which the colonists prepared to resist the British in the American Revolution.
This era of government shutdowns in South Carolina was a period of brinkmanship. The most aggressive actor in each instance was the colonial legislature, the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly.
Members of the legislature refused to compromise on any constitutional principles, mostly concerning their status as an independent legislature and their sole authority over their colony’s finances. The legislators fought fiercely to protect their liberties and privileges against British ministers, the governor’s council, and the governor. The Commons House repeatedly threatened to shut down the government rather than agree to legislation it opposed.
The first major shutdown in South Carolina occurred in 1756, over which body had more authority to act as a legislature: the Commons House or the Governor’s Council. The Council asserted it had a historical right both to advise the governor and to serve as a legislative upper house similar to the British House of Lords.
Specifically, the councilors insisted on their right to modify money bills initiated by the Commons House. The Commons House denied the Council’s right to sit as an upper house and its authority to modify legislation regarding public funds. In the view of the Commons House members, they were the only legislature and the only body capable of managing public funds.
The issue came to a climax when the members of the Council and the Commons House refused to pass the colony’s annual tax bill.
