The Sword of the Senate The Sword of State

This sword rests in the customary rack on the Senate rostrum in front of the President's chair during the daily sessions and is carried by the Sergeant-at-Arms on all State occasions.

The present Sword of State was presented to the Senate February 20, 1951, as a personal gift to South Carolina by Lord Halifax, former British ambassador to the United States. The sword was fashioned by master craftsmen of London, England, having a pointed straight blade, the upper portion of which is etched with a design containing the State Flower, the yellow jessamine. One side of the design is centered with the State Seal. It has a golden curved guard and a handle wrapped with gold braid.

This sword replaces the cavalry sword that was used after the Sword of State disappeared from the Senate rostrum in 1941. The cavalry sword was presented on March 5, 1941, and is carried in the Senate Journal of that date as follows:
"Mr. Means, on behalf of the Charleston Museum, which is the oldest like institution in the U.S., presented to the Senate a cavalry sword made in 1800 and used in the War of 1812 and in the War of the Confederacy, to replace the Sword of State recently stolen from the Chamber."
This sword has been returned to the Charleston Museum.

Facts as to the history of the Sword of State and of the one that mysteriously disappeared in 1941 were secured from A.S. Salley, Historian Emeritus, and are as follows:
Earliest mention found is in Journal of the "Commons House of Assembly of South Carolina" for Friday, May 5, 1704, wherein it is stated that:
£26 11s. 3d. (about $129) be paid for a Sword of State, "for the Rt. Hon. the Governor and all succeeding Governors for the Hon. of this Government."

The Governor and the eight deputies of the eight Lords Proprietors of Carolina constituted the Upper House of the General Assembly. The Sword of State was secured and used by the Grand Council until that body passed out of existence with the overthrow of the government of the Lords Proprietors in South Carolina in December 1719.

Thereafter it was used by His Majesty's Council for South Carolina, at least until June 23, 1722, when Arthur Middleton, President of the council, and acting Governor, informed the Commons House that it was "no way proper to be used by any of His Majesty's Governor" and suggested that the House give it to the "Corporation of Charles City (Charleston) and Port, to be carried before the Mayor."
Says Mr. Salley:
"Whether this suggestion was carried out and a new sword procured, the writer has so far been unable to ascertain, but throughout the records of His Majesty's Council for South Carolina down to the Revolution evidence is found of the use of a Sword of State. On March 26, 1776, South Carolina adopted a Constitution independent of the government of Great Britain and elected John Rutledge, President of the State. He was inaugurated on the following day, and the Journal of the Lower House records that His Excellency was preceded by the sheriff bearing the Sword of State and the Officers of the Legislative Council."

"The same sword of State," says Mr. Salley, "has been in constant use ever since, being borne by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate instead of the Sheriff of Charleston District (now County) as then."

"That this sword of State was made in Charles Town (now Charleston) by a local silversmith is evidenced by the fact that it contains no hallmarks, which would not be the case had it been made in England."