Daily Kennebec journal., 1881-01-17
NO. IA.
miseellaleoms.
THE GREAT CAPITOL.
An AAte.Rehel Hope that has Conc to
Seed.

An AAte.Rehel Hope that has Gone to
Seed.
Mr.. A. X. Mcclure Of the Philadelphia
Times Writes TO his paper as follows from
Columbia. 5. c.: "A painful history
may be studied hv walk around the ideal
capitol OF the south. Long before the war
it was the hope of South Carolinians that
separation from the North must come soon.
er or later, and that Columbia would be
the capital and center ef southern power.
Ii pervaded not only the lorily planters
who had their troops of docile slaves. but
the poor white man who struggled in ig-
norance and poverty by the side of the Of
ten more favored bondman. caught the
inspiration of his superiors, and how stub
borniy he maintained il was fearfhlly
attested on many battle fields. Like the
scarcely understood hope of the Russian
serf, that h,s people must one day worship
at the cradle of the church in CONSTANT
nople, the whitr serf of the South was en-
thused with no better understood hope OF
worshiping southern omnipotencc at the
cradle OF disunion IN South Carolina. IL
was tins dream that founded the unfinished
capital in this city. While planned osten-
sihly as the capitol of South Carolina on II
scale of grandeur worthy of Greece or Rome
| i'm their best days, it was the unwritten
law and the unconfessed hope OF the State
that the Palmetto capitol must be worthy
of the future confederacy rs the temple OF
its laws, and for years before the clash OF
disunion arms was heard. the expected
capitol of the slave empire was patiently
progressing. II is colossal in size and it
was conceived in degree of architect
ural magnifcance before which every
State capitol of the Union would have
paled into obscurity.
1t had been raised to the square, ready
for its richly ornamented copings and roof
when war arrested its construction, but
enough had been done to portray its mar
velous elegance. On the exquisitely
carved marble facings of the four fronts OF
the buildings are hewn inches for the
statutes OF the fathers of the new confcd-
cracv. and artistic circles tor commerating
| in has-relief those who deserved distinc-
ton above their co-laborers. But two OF
them are finished. and they present the
protiles of McDufiie and Hayne; and who
will fill the many vacant places. now that
the whole dream has perished, some fu-
turc generation must decide. In the pow
erty and desolation wrought by war and
carpet-bag profligacy, there is no hope for
the completion of this structure by those
now in active control of the State. The
era of severe economy has of necessity
followed the desolating tread Of the ad
venturer, and the unsightly picture oi
dilapidation and waste Is presented by the
building that was once the pride Of every
South Carolinian. The beautiful walls
are stained and their seams opened by the
ceseless ravages of time, and the rude
temporary finish made under the reign Of
the stranger to echo the voice Of the slave
as he enacted laws for his master adds to
the general dreariness that surrounds
Capitol Hill. Fluted or half finished col
umns ofimposing dimensions are scattered
about the grounds; elaborately wrought
massive granite cups are resting beside
the walls which await them. and the debris
of the finest Italian marble tells the story
of the magnificence that was designed for
this central alter of southern worship.
Two monuments stand in the unbecoming
rudeness that surrounds them. One tells
how the North and the South once fought
under the same flag in Mexico, by an ele-
giant bronze palmetto tree, on which Is
engraved the fallen heroes who overthrow
the legiops of Santa Anna. and the other.
erected by the ladies of South Carolina
tells in mute but eloquent marble how the
Confederate warrior braved and died for
his cause