The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-05-26
South Carolina Society.

Ipe latest of the valuable and very inter-
esiing papers on the condition of South Caro-
INA which 'A South Carolinian'' has been
contributing to the Atlantic Monthly treats
OF social relations in the Palmetto State, and
describes a condition of society there which
IS as novel to most Northerners as that of
Eng!and-alter which indeed it is framed.
Inc state OF things which existed in South
Carolina before the war obtains to large ex-
Tent now. The old class distinctions are
strictly preserved, and, since the downfall of
tue Chamberlain government the whilom rice
ard cotton planters exercise as absolute sway
in the state as they did in 1860, when they
owned thousands of acres and held hundreds
of slaves.
Tod day the lines are as sharply drawn as
they were two decades ago, between the aris-
toctscy-the men of ancient names -, the
respectable whites, and the ''poor" whites
or sandhillers. The old rulers, those who for
seventy years represented South Carolina in
the national councils and quite monopolized
the state government, do now, in spite Of loss
oflordship over the black man, loss of landed
possessions, and loss of other property, exer-
else complete and almost unquestioped con-
troll. They compose the highest circle of So
ciety, and, while the power which wealth
gives has departed from them, their greater
intelligence, their long undisputed social
superiority, and the great strength which
custom has over the minds of men, enable
them to retain, scarcely impaired, their ancient
pre-eminence. They are looked up to as of
old as far better than their fellow men, as enti-
tied to special consideration, as born to rule.
Many of them have been driven by poverty
to work. Naturally they choose mental rath-
er than physical labor. They monopolze the
learned professions, and are compelled to
seek other occupations, becoming insurance
agents, sewing machine agents, clerks of cor
poratons &c. But they keep UP their old
customs and traditions. Whenever they are
forced for a livelihood to go into the ranks of
the respectable" whites there is a tacis un-
derstanding that they do not thereby identify
themselves with the class, and are looked up
to with as much awe and respect as ever.
The line drawn between the men of line
age, the gentlemen" and other classes of
society, is as distinct as before the war, and
no native white South Carolinian dreams of
stepping over it. What the arstocrat claims
the plebeian yields without a murmur and as
matter of course. The commercial men of
the state cherish all their old aversion to poll
tics, deeming politics the exclusive pursuit of
gentlemen, and they feel as much, perhaps
more offended than DO the aristocrats them
selves when men Of meaner blood mix in pub.
lie affairs. The mass of the white people of
the state regard the political ascendency of
the old ruling class as part of the eternal fit
ness of things, and public position as its
blrthright which any man would be presump-
tuous to question.
1t will be years before this condition of af-
fairs can be changed. AS long as the masses
are content to be ruled and ask no share in
governing, so long will the aristocrats con-
DUCT the government. Change must be
wrought, if wrought at all, by the indepen-
dent, progressive, pushing Northern immi-
grants, people who have always been taught
that one man is as good as another if he be-
haves himself, and that public position is the
reward of talent and industry and audacity.
These men are not to be put down. With
time and opportunity as allies they can ac-
complish anything. 1t is the knowledge of
this, the dread of Northern pluck and radi-
calsm which causes the Southern leaders to
oppose immigration from the North, and to
socially estracize and otherwise persecute the
Norther settler who believes he should have a
voice in the government he helps to support,
who has tull confidence in his ability to ad-
minister it il called upon, and who has an
honorable ambition for that call.