Members of the Senate Republican Caucus reacted to the override, and thanked their colleagues for their votes on the bill:

“Our agencies need to be looking out for South Carolina, not for the state of Georgia,” said Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler. “DHEC was wrong to issue this permit, and it was the legislature’s job to step in and right that wrong. We look forward to working with Governor Haley on any number of issues this session, but we just don’t see eye to eye on this one.”

“The governor’s veto of this resolution was just as off base as DHEC’s decision,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell. “This is not about separation of powers – it’s about reining in a rogue agency that wasn’t following science or the law. Our vote today is not only about protecting our port infrastructure and the environment; it’s about sending a message that state agencies are not free to disregard the law.”

“Georgia’s dredging plans, as approved by the DHEC board, kills the Jasper port. That approval by our own state board was a slap in the face to those who have worked so hard over the past five years to make that port a reality,” Senator Tom Davis said. “It boggles the mind to think the DHEC board would tell Georgia it was ok to dump its spoil on the Jasper port site until the year 2060, but that’s exactly what it did. Today’s action by the Senate represents a step toward trying to undo the damage.”

“Today it’s a great day in South Carolina. Rather than standing for the people of Georgia, the Senate unanimously voted to protect the interests of the people of South Carolina,” Senator Larry Grooms said.

“I am disappointed that Governor Haley is choosing to hide behind a flawed separation of powers argument in defending her agency appointees’ disastrous decision to sell out the interests of South Carolina to Georgia,” McConnell said.

“This isn’t about a conflict between the executive and legislative branches – it’s about what’s right for South Carolina. It is not only within the legislature’s purview to act to protect the environmental and economic future of South Carolina, but also its duty to serve as a check on renegade state agencies that act beyond their power and against the interest of South Carolina. This resolution passed the House and Senate unanimously, and I have no doubt it will be overridden quickly and with similar voting margins.”

Connect with Senator McConnell on his Facebook.

I¹d like to ask you to travel with me. NOT to a different place. But to a different time.

In fact, let us keep our feet grounded at THIS place. On this very spot.

But let us travel back together exactly one hundred and fifty years. To a time when the course of events – when the course of history itself – was about to take a dramatic turn.

The date is NOT April 12, 2011 but April 12, 1861. The cannons are poised to fire on Fort Sumter.

General Beauregard has given the order to fire the first shot – the shot heard round the world. The shot that will trigger a struggle commonly called the American Civil War or the War Between the States.

By whatever name, it was an epic confrontation. A great, tragic, violent explosion. In a few short years, nearly 700,000 Americans would lose their lives. It continues to be the bloodiest conflict in American history.

As we stand here, on April 12, 1861, let us briefly consider the context of the moment.

What was the sequence of events? What brought us to the point where fellow Americans were poised to engage each other in such a deadly battle?

Just a few months earlier, the State of South Carolina made what the leaders of the day hoped would be a purely political and legal decision. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina voted to secede from the federal union.

It¹s important to remember: at that time, the question of whether or not a state could leave the union was still unresolved. The view in South Carolina was that the union had been freely formed by the various States and that any State that so desired could freely depart from it.

Today, many scholars agree on one point: If the question of secession had been brought before the United States Supreme Court of 1860, it is very likely that the court would have ruled that the States did indeed have the right to secede. But the question was not to be resolved in court but on battlefields. Fate had other plans.

Abraham Lincoln, who had just been elected president with only 39.8% of the vote, had no intention of allowing the union to dissolve.

So, the moment South Carolina seceded, Major Robert Anderson, who commanded a small group of federal soldiers at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island, began to worry. The guns at Fort Moultrie pointed toward the sea. He had no defense from the land.

Just six days after the articles of secession were signed, on December 26, 1860, Major Anderson secretly moved his garrison of 87 men off shore, to Fort Sumter, where he could protect his position and aim his guns at Charleston.

The Confederates viewed the occupation of Fort Sumter as a provocative act and demanded that Major Anderson leave the fort immediately.

Still hoping for a peaceful solution, the Confederates dispatched three messengers to Fort Sumter, on a small boat, displaying a white flag, to make a final plea.

The date was April 11, 1861, which would have been yesterday afternoon, one hundred and fifty years ago.

The three Confederate envoys, with their flag of truce, were allowed to enter the Fort. And they offered Major Anderson terms for a dignified departure. They promised safe transport. His men could keep their weapons and all their personal property.

Finally, as gesture of good will, Anderson and his men were told they could salute the Stars and Stripes as they departed from the Fort.

No one knows how the course of history might have changed if Major Anderson had accepted those terms. But in the end, diplomacy failed. Anderson rejected the offer. And the three Confederates returned to shore.

As they put oars to water and slowly crossed the harbor to the shore of historic Charleston, we can only imagine how they felt or what they expected the future might hold.

But it didn¹t take long for the answer to come. Early on the morning of April 12, 1861 exactly one hundred and fifty years ago from this day, on this very spot, the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter. Fire was briefly returned, but 34 hours later, Major Anderson was forced to surrender the fort.

Above the smoke that filled Charleston harbor on this day, 150 years ago, the central question remained. Were the states that formed the union free to leave it?

The editor of the Charleston Mercury said it well: “The god of battle must now decide the issue.”

Today, we all know how that question was resolved. We know the American people are, and forever shall be, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We know a POSITIVE result of war was that it ended the institution of slavery, not just in the South but all over the nation.

And we also know that the War changed the way government operates in America. A loosely knit republic became a more centrally dominated nation, based on a new concept of federalism, with a more powerful presidency and a Congress whose laws ultimately prevail.

And finally we know that the War Between the States triggered generations of disputes and controversy between regions, races and cultures.

Why was the War fought? Was it about slavery or about state’s rights? What does the Confederate Battle Flag stand for? Is it a symbol of bigotry or a memorial to the valor of fallen soldiers?

Many of those emotional issues still rage. As we commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the War Between the States, some even argue that events like this should not even be held.

On both sides of the argument, some seek to politicize history to use it as a way to stir resentments, to divide people and to gain advantage in a contest of organizational politics.

Let me give you just one brief example.

Not long ago, an African-American state senator here in South Carolina, a dear friend, said he could understand why the Sesquicentennial is an important occasion for our City, our state and our nation. With a spirit of Christian love and forgiveness, he called for understanding between people and for mutual respect instead of ranker.

In response, some leaders in the African-American community attacked my friend, called him names and accused him of turning his back on his own people.

Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come to move beyond the petty disputes of the past. The American South is a place where blacks and whites have lived together longer and more completely than anywhere else.

With all its warts and wonders, its ups and downs, in times of laughter and tears, we have a common history and a shared culture. And the South is a place where the bonds of affection are strong and race relations have dramatically improved.

Those who seek to stir the ashes of ancient grievances would do well to heed the words of a song that was popular not too many years ago, and I quote:

“When you open up a quarrel between the present and the past, you sacrifice the future. It’s the bitterness that lasts.”

My prayer for this Sesquicentennial is that it will serve as the beginning of a new spirit. As we look back to those earlier times, let us focus on the POSITIVE qualities of our ancestors, regardless of their genders, races, creeds or cultures.

Let’s remember the incredible valor these soldiers displayed regardless of whether they wore the blue or the grey.

And let us also remember how inventive many were during desperate times. Just a few miles from here, in North Charleston, we are gradually unlocking the secrets held within the H. L. Hunley, the world’s first successful combat submarine.

Every day, the scientists who are now conserving the Hunley learn more and more about how brilliant her designers were. And we learn how brave the eight mariners were who lost their lives on a mission that changed the course of military history.

The men who fought and died on both sides were real men, who acted heroically. And the women who suffered with them were no less noble. They faced incredible odds. Their courage and their achievement should inspire us all.

Therefore, the time has come to focus NOT on the flaws and the failures of the past. The time has come to celebrate the many contributions the States of the old Confederacy made to the strength and to the character of the United States, the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

Over the next several years, from 2011 until 2014, we shall celebrate the Sesquicentennial of the War Between the States, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of that great conflict.

And this morning is the beginning. Very soon, we shall witness a reenactment of the very first shot. But there is also poetry in this moment.

The purpose of that first cannon shot was NOT to direct a blow at Fort Sumter. It was a shot known as a star cluster. And its purpose was to illuminate the sky. To bring a great blast of light to the early morning darkness, to help those gathered here, 150 years ago, see the course they had chosen and to help them take aim.

I cannot think of a better metaphor for our time. As we reenact this historic event, let us also think of that first shot as lighting the way for a new generation. Let it shed light on how far we’ve comes; how much we’ve learned; and how much we’ve grown. And let it cast a bright light on how much more we can accomplish with a new spirit of unity and mutual respect.

And also let it cast a renewing light on the inscription in an old monument on the State House grounds remembering those who answered the call of that coming conflict and those who made the supreme sacrifice. The monument reads:

“This monument perpetuates the memory of those who true to the instincts of their birth, faithful to the teachings of their fathers, constant in their love for the State, died in the performance of their duty… who have glorified a fallen cause by the simple manhood of their lives, the patient endurance of suffering, and the heroism of death… and who in the dark hours of imprisonment, in the hopelessness of the hospital, in the short sharp agony of the field, found consolation and support in the belief that at home they would not be forgotten.

Let the stranger, who may in future times read this inscription, recognize that these were men whom power could not corrupt, whom death could not terrify, whom defeat could not dishonor, and let their virtues plead for just judgment of the cause in which they perished… Let the South Carolinian of another generation remember that the State taught the men how to live and how to die, and that from her broken fortunes she has preserved for the children the priceless treasure of their memories, teaching all who may claim the birthright that truth, courage and patriotism endure forever.”

Those words are as fitting now as they were then, and our presence today in person and in spirit is a testimonial that here, at home, they have not been forgotten.

As we go forward with this commemoration, we salute all of those who wore the blue and the gray. Be they North or South, black or white, male or female, they were our fellow Americans marching to the same or different drums in another time. At the end of the war, they put aside their armed weapons and opened their physical arms to one another. They saw not hate in the others’ faces but duty in their fellow soldiers. From their long and costly war, they bestowed upon this country an enduring peace.

In summary, they have given us the past and left us with the future. What we do with that is now our challenge, so may God bless them, may God bless South Carolina, and may God bless the United States of America, the greatest country ever to exist on the face of the earth.

The Census Bureau’s statewide preliminary count reveals that South Carolina will receive an additional Congressional district which will give us added representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. When the final 2010 census figures are delivered to our State in March this year, the General Assembly will begin the process of redistricting to adjust State House and Senate districts and U.S. Congressional districts.

As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will have a Redistricting Subcommittee working on proposals for drawing the State’s 46 Senate districts and 7 Congressional districts. While we must comply with the laws governing how we develop plans for districts, it is equally important that we have public involvement to ensure that we draw districts that are both fair and truly representative of the areas they encompass.

The subcommittee will hold public input forums throughout the State to gather information about how the Senate should approach the redistricting process. One of these forums will be held in Charleston on Thursday, April 7, 2011. I encourage you to attend. More information about these hearings, the redistricting process, and committee meetings is posted on the Senate’s redistricting website at:

http://redistricting.scsenate.gov. If you do not have access to a computer, please call Debbie Hammond at 803-212-6625.