“W” is for Wilkes Fund Controversy

“W” is for Wilkes Fund Controversy. In December 1769 the Commons House of Assembly appropriated £1,500 for the defense fund of British radical John Wilkes. Through long practice the Assembly had gained financial control by issuing money from the public treasury without the consent of the governor or council—repaying it from the next year’s tax bill. London’s response was a “Special Instruction” that forbid the colony’s treasury to issue any money without the governor’s signature. The Commons House of Assembly, regarding the instruction as an attack on its customary rights, refused to comply. Legislative government effectively came to a halt. No tax bill was passed after 1769 and no legislation after 1771. The Wilkes Fund Controversy generated a constitutional crisis that first polarized and then broke the back of royal government in South Carolina.