Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1857-07-18
TIE PALMETTO REGIMENT.
ny ONE. OF TIE TWO HUNDRED.

The South Carolinians have ever been
distinguished for their chivalrous and mill
tary spirit. The history of the American
revolution is luminous with the record of
their victories. But even history has not
done justice to their part in that glorious
struggle. Herself exempt and secure from
the griefs and burdens which irritated and
oppressed the other colonies, she, special
creign, South Carolina was the foremost
and the boldest to strike the blow Of resis-
tance, and the most patient, enduring and
unconquerable, during seven years Of war
which laid its heaviest hand upon her peo-
pie. 1t was her people who were hunted
down by the merciless guerillos -Rawdon
and Tarleton; her people whom a violated
faith offered up upon the gil bet, to crafty
humbled pride and baffled alice 1t was
her fertile fields that were solated, her
beautiful gardens that were ravaged by the
hand Of the destroyer, until there was not
a rose of the Wilderness left on it's stalk
To tell where the garden had been.
II was the spirit Of her Sumters and Ma
rions that flickered through the long night
of despair and desolation, as au assurance
that liberty had yet hope and champion.
1t would not, perhaps, he claiming too
much to say, that but for tho part which
South Carolina bore in the revolution, it
would either not have begun, or have been
unsuccessful. One of the greatest victories
of the war was achieved by her own peo.
pie, under her own palmetto flag, behind
the palmetto logs of Fort Moultrie
Lexington, glorious as it was, was less
victory than that Of Charleston, and Bunker
Hill was defeat; while Kings Mountain
was more than Yorktown victory.
Fort Moutrie, Monks Corner, Fort Motto
Eutaw Springs, Camden, Cowpcns, Kings
Mountain, and Ninety.Six, where Koscius-
ko led her sons to battle these are her his
toric battle-feds, and they lose none oil
their lustre when compared with the bright
est in the country's history.
South Caroliuians are a peculiar people
That they have grave faults, and follies, in.
separable from their virtues, and naturally
attendant upon their circumstances and his.
tory, / am not so blind or uncanded as tc
deny. Homogeneous and isolated, disaffcc.
ted to the union, proud Of their ancestry
and Of their history, they cherish, even to
disdaip, the idea OF their own superiority.
They bear now in their habits and man
ners the traces. of their origin, and these
have but slightly changed in three hundred
years. Having furnished such names tc
the civil and military history of the coun
try, their pride and self-esteem may be ex
eused ifnet justified. InciyA history Soul
Carolina possesses such names as Lowndes
Pinckney, Hayne, Legare, McDufie apd
Calhoun in military history, such as Lnr
ems, Moultrie, Sumter, Marion, Butler, and
Andrew Jackson. -
This pride is perhaps an. .upamiable feel
ing; it is certainly to others an offensive
feeling. 1t is common to sueer at or affec
to ridicule the courage, orin cant langnag,
"the chivalry," of South Carolina. Tni
springs not from an honest doubt of thesu
perior courage Of CaroliDians, but from
resentment, q jealousy, an intoleraono o
that superiority.
1t has its origin in mean litteness o
the heart, a vanity or pretension that i
humbIed at the eonfessioDof iuferiority.--
No Athenian doubted hejustice Of Afis
tides, and yet they ostracised hil1 Wher
one who voted for the ostracism was askec
why he had done such injustice to gooc
man. he replied that he knew Aristides wai
Just, but he was tlyed Of hearing Aristide,
called Just. The sneers atSoath CaroIip,
chivalry come from the same origin.
The military spirit, or courage, or chival
s5, - Is may severely be designated, oftb'