The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1841-02-03
AGRICULTURAL.
From the Carolina Planter.
ORATION,

From the Carolina Planter.
ANNIVERSARY GRAFTON, .
Ofthc State Agricultural Society OF Souul
Carolina, bg Gen. Geo. McDnte; READ
before the Society, on the 26th No0em-
Der, 1910, at their annual nneet'Hg' IN
the Hall of the House Of Representa-
tipes.
CONCLUDED.
/ cannot, therefore, recommend more
;mnortant reform to our planting commu-
nitv. than to get out of debt with all Prac-
ticable despach, if already involved init,
and resolve for the future never to be In
yoIved in it again. Such resolution,
generally adopted and firmly maintained,
would do more to promote the lndePen-
dence and substantial prosperity of an
agricultural State, than all the quackerles
of legislation united. Imagine for one
moment, the great moral and political
change which would be produced, If 1t
could be truly announced at this moment,
that every cultivator of the soil, within
the wide limits of South Carolina, was en-
tirelv free from the shackles of debt. 1t
would be glorious day of jubilee. The
fatal spell Of pecuniary influence would
be dissolved at once, the shackles of de-
pendence would fall from the arms OF the
indebted, and every citizen would walk
abroad in the majesty of genuine indepen-
dence and freedom.
But let us consider the effect which
this general and habitual freedom from
debt, would produce upon the progress OF
individuals in accumuIating wealth, and
upon the aggregate prosperity OF the
whole class of planters. Taking expe-
rience for our guide, it can scarcely be
doubted, that those who have uniformly
kept out of debt, and have never pur-
chased property till they had the money
in hand to pay for it, have generally accu-
mulated fortunes more rapidly and much
more certainly than those who have pur-
sued the opposite policy. Every step they
take is so much permanently gained
They are exposed to no backsets; they
arc affected by no vicissitudes in trade,
and stand firm and unmoved amidst those
great, and now frequent and periodical
convulsions, by which those who are in
debt are always shaken and often over
whelmed.
Instances will no doubt occur to every
one who hears me, of men who have ha-
bitually made smaller crops than their
neighbors, and who have yet in series of
wears, grown wealthy much faster, by this
very simple rule, which once heard laid
down by friend. He never made large
cotton crops, and was regarded as bad
planter. And when asked how he got
rich so much faster than his more ener-
getic neighbors, he replied: "My neigh
bors begin at the wrong end of the year.
They make their purchases at the beg in
ming of it, on credit; / make mine at the
end of it, and pay down the cash." And
here / am reminded of saying of the
late John Randolph, of Virginia; man
not more remarkable for his genius and
eccentricity, than for the profound phllo-
sophical truths which sometimes escaped
him, like the responses of an inspired ora
Gle. In the midst of one of his splendid
rhapsodies in the Senate of the United
States, he suddenly paused, and fixing his
eye upon the presiding officer, exclaimed,
s'Mr. President, have discovered the phi
losophers stone. II consists in these four
plain English monosyllables: PAY AS YOU
CO." Now, I will venture to say, that
this much nearer approach than alche-
my will ever make, to the great object OF
its visionary researches. And in recon-
mending this maxim to the cotton planters
of the State. have still kept in view, not
only the individual interest of each plan
ter, separately considered, but the COM
mon interest of the whole community of
planters. For this reform, like the others
have suggested, independently of the
direct benefit it will confer on each indi-
vidual planter, will benefit the whole, as a
class, by checking over-Productlon. One