Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1852-1852, 1852-04-20
found We would esteem him brilliant specimen

found we would esteem linn a brilliant specimen
Of the modern eccentric. ,..-.,.. ..a
The Great interest Of South Carolina to which
MI Others are at present merely subordinate is
the ,lanting interest; that is the head spring,
the main fountain of our strength; and here,l it
nav he we have committed an error in having
planted too much, and pursued it to the exclusion
of other callipgs. To trade and commerce, to
ships and steamboats,, to banks, railroads, turn
pixies and lately to plank roads, We have not
been inert and in politics, State and national,
is no labor trouble or expense, to join me in the
project thus stated. These lands of so little val
tie now, should be rescued it is desirable and
it is practicable Take common sense view or
any other view of it, and fancy you will con-
cur with me.
Much has been written and said, and many
plans and propositions offered and tried, cheap
and easy means of transportation of our staple
to market. What bring before You is Of high
or consideration that is increasing the great sta
pie ITSELF
The work can be done by the planters along
the river and not by northern contractors or EN-
igrant laborers. 1t will not require the outlay
of a dollar, or employment of a man beyond the
limits of the State.
On looking round for objections, but two pre-
sent themselves. 1t may interfere with the nav
iration of the river, which is so slight now that
river navigation is nearly abandoned, that no
opposer would resort to that plea. The other,
It would interfere with individual boundaries,
Lunatic Asylum, her Bank Of the State and its
branches; indeed her munifcence has been ever
on liberal scale. No sectional interests are
recognized. A long pursuit Of this policy may
eventually burthen posterity with our debts,
and be it 50, if we put them in possession OF
ample means of payment, to which we arc
prompted by every duty and worthy motive.
Can it be possible that the great author of all
things who placed these fertile lands where they
arc, did not intend them for the use of man!
They can be used and it becomes us to make an
effort to appropriate them to our benefit; or
shall they remain a wilderness or worse than
wilderness in our midst as it were to taunt us!
Shall we fold our arms and remain as we are;
shall we use no effort to make the waste places
glad, the crooked paths straight, to set our hou-
ses in order, not to die but to livc9 Should
succeed in waking up my fellow citizens from
their apr aren't apathy, to investigate my preml-
ses and push their enquiries in search of new
schemes of utility, shall feel that l have been
the humble instrument of doing great good 1t
entirely too much time and talent have been ex
pended, which has had the effect to put us ahead
in politics and behind in almost every thing
else, but especially in domestic industry and ell
terprise, in. which We humby confess that other
and apparently less favored portions of our eoun-
try have gained the advance on us. We have
lived too easy in the past for our present or flu
ture good; We have not used our birth-right to
the greatest advantage, and have most unwisely
sighted the gifts of nature. Other quarters of
the country have raised our food for us, when we
could as we'll have raised it ourselves, while our
raw cotton has been sent off to enrich old and
new England and other sections, many of whom
we see now only as foes instead of friends.
In the retrospect there is but little to Aattcr or
console US; the present only is ours, aud may
the future historian, in making true record,
have it to say, that in the beginning of the Sc
cond half of the nineteenth century, the sunny
South was born again, her people became prae-
tcal, they We're struck with new views, and
learnt their duty, and like enlightened men they
done it, the result of which was they prospcrcd
and went on to prosper, had plenty Of earth'>
good things and were happy