South Carolina State House Tour
May 19, 2021
Photographs and charts by David Smitherman
The South Carolina State House is a beautiful Classical Revival style building built in part during the Civil War and finished several decades later.














The claim in this inscription that “these were men whom power could not corrupt” seems disingenuous. It was the wealthy slaveholder politicians that led the southern states to leave the Union and start the Civil War. I suspect many small family farmers wanted nothing to do with that war but had little choice as the politicians forced it on everyone to take sides, meaning that you either support the Confederacy or risk giving up everything you have worked for including your land and maybe your life.

The inscription quote “Reverence to God and unfaltering faith in a righteous cause…” shows how deep racism in the South persisted in 1912 and still does today as we continue to tolerate such disgusting claims on our monuments.











References: Photographs and slides by David Smitherman, and data collected from onsite inscriptions and brochures, Wikipedia, and Google Maps.