The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-03-18
CHI Al ES TON.
THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 1s, 1869.
Tho Westminster Review and South
Carolina.


We have all heard of the benighted for
eiguer who, when about to run the block
ade during the war, wanted to know whether
anything grew in South Carolina besides
rsttlesnakes and palmetto trees. We are
we'll aware that the continental and insular
uuwashed are firmly convinced that oil
Southerners have fat noses and kinky
heads. We are accustomed to hear it said
that there is neither intelligence, refine
ment nor wealth outside of Old and New
England And yet it is strange that South
Carolina should still be q terra ineognita to
the traveller and the critic, and hat a jour
nal of so high literary charas:er as the
Westminster Review should know as little
of the cradle of the rebellion as of the
sartorisl peculisri,ies Of the man in the
moon or the vagrant wanderings of rum
away comet. But, knowing the fog of pre-
judice through which We are dimly seen,
and the peculiar manner in which travellers
"do" the South, we are inclined to be indul-
gent aud TO extend our hearty forgiveness
10 all who are innoo ntly at fault. Yet must
we, when misrepresented, take up the cudg-
els in our own behalf, and say good word
for ourselves, even although we offend the
majesty of ON Buglish reviewer.
The Westminster Review quotes the fol.
lowing paragraph from "Last Winter in the
"Uni.ed Siates," q book written BY F. Bar
nam Z.ncke: "South Carolina is utterly and
"helplessly crushed. It's best estates were
sin the sea islands, which, as they were
A.very fertile and their produce fetched
exceptionally high prices, were densely
"inhabited by blacks. The result has been
ethat throughout South Carolina the most
"abjeet and irreooversble poverty rsigns,
sspreoisely where formerly there was most
"abundant wealth." and tho reviewer then
says: "For this State there appears to be
ono resurrection, except in some new order
"of things, under which aeT set Of pro-
s'prietors will occupy tho land, and cult
"vste it with Northern capital, and some
.swhat in the Northern fashion" We pro-
pose to confne ourselves to the statement
that throughout this State irrscousra6ls pow
erty reigns, that this State is utterly and
hslples,ly crushed, and that for this State
there appears to be no rcdWrectio~.
At the close of the war it did seem that
we had left all hope behind, and there were
many of our people who cried increasingly
"We are utterly and helplessly ruined"
Others fed despairingly from theis native
State TO seek home among strangers.
And they found their excuse in the ssmbre
pail which covered our desolate land.
Four hundred thousand slaves, valued at
two hundred million of dollars, were SET
free in South Carolina alone. Lands which,
with slave labor to work them, brought eighty
and ninety dollars per acre, became drug
in the market. The newly emancipated
negroes, rich in oil the novelty of freedom
and revelling in the expectation of oonts-
GATED acres. confscated beasts of burden,
and confscated granaries and barns, secuted
the very name of work. Sherman, like q
destroying angel, had swept across the
State, leaving blackened walls, and smoking
ruins and weeping women and children, 10
mark his bloody path aud stand eternal
monuments of the licensed feroci,y of bis
soldiery. The flower of our young men had
fallen under the bahner Of tho Sou h.
under the ross which was borne with honor,
aud is as venerable now as when il ajated
over serried rauks flushed with the ruddy
wine of victory. Our old msn were faint
aud weary; cur women were filed With scr
rowing care Then we were pennlless and
desolate, With no ray of light to cheer OUT
murky way.
But it was blood, not water, which filed
the veins of our people. The hands which
cculd WELD the glaive might guide the
| plough. The brain which had directed the
evolutions of thousands might plan the
campaigns Of commerce. Tue muskct gave
way 20 the hoe; the laundering caisson to
the loaded cars Of trade. Each true msn
was enrolled in the army of every day life
There was no wrangliug Tor precedeuce.
They who could not lead were content to
follow; aud, armed with sclf-rcverence,
acknowledge aud self control, our people
worked-aud are working still.
And what have been the fruits CT four
wears of work and self denial? The hard
ships of the war taught economy. The ln-
certainty of free negro labor taught sclf,
reliance and self help. The difficulty OF
borrowing mouey made it hard to contract
new debts, and the terrible weight Of old
liabilities made men slow to add to their
burden. In one year from the close of the