The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-09-23
The Original South Carolina Gen,
tlemen.

the merit Of conciseness--" The Sid's Of
S9uh ~-galina l0ds founded 5g G1Rl,m.q."
Further az, bncnt saith not We are en- |
lightened with no definition Of what con- /
stituies gentleman, (theme Of many a
protracted Lycem debste); but as the |
" gentlemen who founded Carolina are |
mentioned in antithesis 10 the witch !
burning Puritans who settled New En- !
gland, and who are forcibIy described in
the alliteratiye trilogy, brutal, bigoted
blackguards, we might infer, even If the
"chivalry" had not sufficiently informed
us, that the founders of that sovereignty
were those dashing Cavaliers who lash
through the reigns Of The English
Charles. This gentle origin has long
been favOrite theme of CarOinian elo-
quence they have generally been lis
tened 10 with the meekness beftting
those who stand in the presence Of scions
of such lofty sires. And the only flaw,
in re, is that the whole theory is stu
pendous fiction.
II 10 one of the advantages which we
do not share with the Old World peoples,
that az their origins go back to the ante
historical period, annalists were able 10
luuuiEN AuNAA iaAlNN ~ BtCNNuffs anu TIC
medieval chrOniclers have lels US some
neat specimens Of what can be done in
the way Of dcvisiug national beginnings
under the influence OF what Ctrote styles
the "mythOpmic propensity" Oh, that
Carolina's origin rounded off into those
hazy, purpureal mist mOrns! But then,
there are the documents in that accursed
State Paper Ofllcc-those musty Colonial
statutes-ahd the accounts left by Hew-
att, Chalmers, and other inquisitive old
chiel, who went round takin' notes! IL
onecould but wipe out those miserable me-
mentoes, what "mythOpGic propensites'
might one not indulge in?
When, two hundred years ago the
Lords ProprietOrs TO whom the Province
Of South Carolina was given in free and
common socage, set themselvse to colo
nizing their demesne, they first succeeded
in packing off gang whom the earliest
historian of South Carolina designates
as persons of low and INDECENT circum-
stances" SO far from being Cavaliers,
the great majority were poor dissenters,
and their first Governor, SAYIE, was a
| Presby terrain Mr.. Russell records his
| typical Carolinaian as remembering that"
| heIcame from race of English gentlemen
who had been prosecuted by the ances-
| toI 8 of the Puritans of New England
| But the only persecution" from which
any of those gentlemen" fed, was what
| old HEWITT calls =" the rigOr of unmerci-
| full creditors" "YOuth reduced to misery
by passion and excess" he adds, Gem
barked for the new settlement where
they found leisure to reform" AS for the
hatred which the correspondent describes
them as entertaining for the Yankees, it
was certainly not shared by their ances-
tors, for the early settlers of South Caro-
lima used their best endeavOrs to promote
emigration from New England, trying
'to make everything easy for them !"
and at one time the whole colony was
preserved from starvation by the gener-
Osity of the people Of Massachusetts
whose assistance they implored So
much for one lie
AT a later date, towards 1890, large
Irish immigration begins to pour in
They were followed by a few arrivals
from Scotland and France and "some
Dutch settlers eniiccd from New York. q
"But of all other countries" says one oil
the earliest original authorities, "none
has furnished the province with so many
inhabitants as Ireland. Indeed, so nu-
merous were they that the lands in Ire
land were in danger of lying waste."-
What the Irish were in those days-halI
slaves half savages-may'notb be altogeth.
er unknown TO the intelligent reader Of
history. The next considerable infiu1
was Of gentlemen from Germany, and
the episode is rather a curious one. One
STUNPEL, who had been an officer in the
King of Prussia's army, Succeeded il
enticing five or six hundred low bred
people of his native country" to emigrat,
10 the West Indies, but on arriving il
London he abandoned them, when " Iii,
Majesty, remembering that the colony o
South Carolina had not its proportion 0
white inhabitants, signilied his desire o
transporting them TO that proynce!"-.
Whittier, accordingly they went Mr.
, Russell reports the Carolinians as con
j trasting the elements which peopled thei
, country, with those that settled New
, | England, adding: "The North attractc,
! | hOrdes Of ignorant Germans and Irish
/ and the scum of Europe, while the Soutl
a | repealed them" We have seen what tn
! facts are. So much for another lie.
? One hundred years (l761) after tn
/ commencement of the colonization q
q South Carolina, the whole white popula
f ton numbered $4,000; (negroes, 10000
n what they were we have seen--Irisl
S Dutch, Germans, poverty stricken Eng
. lish Dissentera; and they are the father
. Of all such as do claim TO be "chiyalry!
There are some episodes in the sOci'
history of South Carolina, too, which III
gentlemen" omitted in their cock and
- bull stories To the eminent correspondent
o of our heavy old London namesake, bI
r which are worth bearing in mind in a
. estimate Of their present character. Tht
y il was not stated that the Carolinians /,
u many years during the Seventeenth Ger
u tury) devoted themselves ZealOuslV
" piracy; Charleston being the common an
!, welcome resort Of all the pirates on Il
u Spanish Main thatas an old annalist h,
- it, "the Governor of s, Carolina, the pr,
= prietary deputies and the principal inhal
= itants all degraded themselves 10 lev
u with the meanest Of mankind, by assist
j. ing pirates" and that il required Il
= power of james ii. and Anne and Wi
&c liam, to put a stop 10 il. Moreover, man
&c pirates purchased land from the colonis
), and took up their residence in the cour
Il try, and became the sires Of many "geI
t. tlemen." Nor was il stated that no sma
Il number.of the chiyalry are themselv,
v descended from bondsmen on America
'e SOIL as the old colonial legal regulation
3 fully prove that white servants, viii
or without indenture were held
bondage and sold as chatlles :