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"M" is for Mace

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"M" is for Mace. The mace is a symbol of the authority of the South Carolina House of Representatives. The scepter-like object rests in a rack at the front of the Speaker’s podium whenever the House is in session and is sometimes carried in processions. The Mace has been used by South Carolina legislative bodies, with some interruptions, since it was made for the Commons House of Assembly in 1756.  It was crafted by Magdalen Feline, a master London goldsmith. It is approximately forty-eight inches long, weighs almost eleven pounds, and is fashioned of silver burnished with gold. It is topped by a symbolic royal crown. Around the cylindrical mace-head are four decorative panels from the colonial great seal of King George II.  South Carolina’s is the oldest mace in continuous use by any American legislature.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.