The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-08-30


upon its ruins. Maryland was then, from
this, as well as antecedent influences, array.
ed againts the politics Of Virginia, and re-
PEELED from her near neighbor to subordi-
nate position of qualified partisanship with
Massachusetts.
Of all the Southern States, South Caro-
lima was, however, the only one, that
yielded any substantial support to the
administration of Washington, and the
Federalist party. The Huguenots, who
moulded the institutions of that State, were
the Puritans of France, as were the Pill
grims, of England. The former were, in
part, an expatriated alistecracy; the latter,
exiled plebeians. In their religious expe-
rience there was this common bond OF SYM
pathy.
The same influence also united them fra.
ternally with their co-relig ;onists in Eng
land.
Another fact The influential men of
South Carolina, who were generally of the
aristocracy, had, most of them, been educa>
ted in England and, probably, above any
other body of men in this country, were sim
cere admirers of the British Constitution.
Against England they cherished no impla-
cable hatred.
And, although the people of New Eng
land were, in truth, democratic in all their
habits, institutions and instincts and as
patriots had been foremost in the Revolu.
tionary War; yet, when peace was restored,
the influential men of that section-the
Adamses and a few others only excepted
were so far from indulging in any feeling Of
resentment towards the Mother Country"
that they ardeutIy desired the cultivation of
mutual good will, with the most intimate
social and commercial intercourse.
Owing to superior q Advantages for MARI
time enterprise, which were in such con
trast with the poverty of her soil, New
England, of necessity, embarked in ship.
building and navigation, and secured at an
early day the commercial supremacy on this
continent. The bulk other trade was with
England and its Colonies. 1t was this con-
trolling influence that modified the senti-
ments and feelings of her citizens and directs
ed their actions in subsequent events.
Charleston, S. c., was at that time
seaport of considerable importance, and
her merchants sympathized, in this regard,
with their brethren of Boston and when
later, the Democracy imposed retaliatory
restrictions on British navigation-the en-
barge and coincident measures-Massacbu
sets and South Carolina were in an accord
of opposition to the Democracy.
In the early sessions of Congress, they
co operated on the great, and then exciting,
question of the assumption of the State
debts by the general government, in which
they had common interest.
The original colonization of the territory
now embraced within the limits of South
Carolina, was under grant from Charles
the First, to his Attorney General. Its
first constitution, called the Grand Model"
by the great John Locke, was an imagined
perfection of the Baronial and Feudal
system {; and although it proved to be an
Utopian failure, its Ideas were deeply root
ed in the aristOcratic CarOlinian mind and
have never been entirely eradcated.
The first proprietors we're mostly English
loyalists and churchmen gentlemen of de-
cayed fortunes, in search of advancement in
the wilds of America. Although the
Church of England was established by law,
all Protestants, including English Dissent
ers, were soon invited to settle there, and
enjoy the most perfect federation. Colo
MES of Presbyterians came from the North
of1reland and from Scotland, and small
number of Protestants from Hollan and
Germany: but it was the Huguenot immi
grafton, caused by the revoca ton of the
Edict of Nantes, that gave the fla
ishing touch, form and expression, to
the South Carolinian character. The
Puritan Pilgrims were mostly descendants
of the oppressed Saxons, whom the Nor.
mans had conquered and ruled as an inferi-
or race; and who, when the distinction be,
tween Norman and Saxon disappeared, be-
longed to the common people of England.
They hated aristocracy.
The Huguenot refugees were in part, of
the old noblesse and landed proprietors
with mechanics and peasants, representing
the social relations of France in the seven
tenth century. They respected aristocracy
The Huguenots had passed, in the reli-
gious wars of France, through an ordeal OF
fire and blood. Their only alternative from
death was recantation or expatriation. The
Puritans felt constrained to leave their ma
tive land because they did not there enjoy
sufficient freedom in expressing their hatred
| of the established RELIGION A ftorwc r1O