The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-04-19

forms one general and striking con tiadiction, even fl there were no others, to the alleged want of light and shade in the national existence.
 Every one will remember the valgar notion with which a certain portion of the English public during the American civil war, became imprcgnated, namely, tha, the south was nation of gentlemen in the social sense. fighting agains, hordcs of canaille. There was, it Is true, a very numerous siave-holding gentry in the south, every man of whom would have been found fighting in the confed- crate lines but they formed mere frac- tion numerically of the slave-holding oli- garchy, the great mass of whom-nine- teen twentie,hs should say. at the low est estimation-were plain farmers and yeomen, neither fitted by their training and education to enter society as the world under stands 1t in their own country, nor in any other, and into whose heads such an idea would probably never have entered. Behind these came still greater number of poor whites, fighting, Tn a great measure, willingly, and whose enthusiasm in a cause that was in no T to the wonderful influence which the great shareholders exercised over all be- heath them, and the persistent skill with which they made the cause of the few ap- pear 10 be the cause of the many. Broad i ly speaking, m the south there were, and still to some extcn; are, three very distInc, classes iIying On the soil. The border lines of each were not always easy to de- hne, and there were subtle subdivisions within each but still all three stood out very clearly from one another as separate bodies m the social framework of the south, while immeasurably b.iow the lowe5.--the basis on which the whole or ganization rested. came the negro slaves. The proportion of these classes to one another varied Tn different states, and again in different counties within those states. Virginia, for instance, contained strong upper class, A strong middle class of sl,ve-holding yeomanry, and d comparatively small proportion of very poor whites. North Carolina was very weak Tn it's educated class. but had very large yeomanry and still larger white peasantry, If the expression may be al- lowed. In south Carolina again tGe midi dic class was smaller. The upper was both powerful and wealthy. whlle the poor white element both there and in Louisiana WAS very large. Virginia, of all the southern states, IS Considerably the o!des,. and has by far the long-s, and the fullest history. Maryla Il IS true. IS hu: little younger, and her colonial pe- nod is full Of color, but her siaveheld;rg tsNte al IL.
 of the war from long geographical con tact with northern influences, that she was by that tune quite a hybrid state When the Caroiinas, late in the seven teenth century, were represented only by scattered bands of pioneer refugees. aarassed on one side by the Indians and on the other by the proprie,ors in Eng land with ridiculous paper constitutions. sirsinia was large, prosperous, and weil-ordered community. intensely An glo-SaNon Tn blood, p:eludices and rclig- lon. Her climate was equally adapted to either black or white labor Her boun- dares embraced great variety of physi- cal features. from d level sea coast pierced with rivers io the wall of mountains tha, divides the Mississippi basin from ,he
 
 tor so long the red nan from the white So every facility was given for popuia- lauon purely English. and without any cause of dislike to English institutions such as was natural to the New England coionists, to spread themselves over the land and develop quietly into a commu- nity less unlike that which gave 1t bu,h than most of the other British settlements m America. Virginia, too, it must be remembered. is the parent sf other states whose territory was colonzed by her people. and whose habits and ways of thought were identical with her own.
 No part of America is quite free from sort of insensate craving, among its cd ncated classes. 10 connect their names with those of il.ustrious English houses, on grounds that Englshman. similarly circumstanoed and named, would not dream of. This disease IS common in the south, and particularly common in Nirglnia Any tradition that connects the provincial aristoerac.es of the south ern states world with an old pa,rician or igin IS pure sentimental fiction. that is not only contrary io common sense and 10 all evidence that can be collected. but IS Tn defiance of colonial history itself Nothing would be more interesting than to get al the early statistics of emigration but what may be called the "ca.aller delusion in Virginia, a dclusion 10 which the outside world, and, to some eA;ent. even historians, taking harmless local vanitles too seriously. have fallen vic um, IS the result of misconcep,ion oi the social framework oi the mother coun- try, natural to long and complete ces- sation ot intercourse with 1t, and to many other reasons. Among these are ,he meagreness of the records of the frs, generation or two that struggled shoulder 10 shoulder with the dangers and hard seips of new country, but had unques. uonably more serious things 10 think about than the distinctions of rank. Then there was the uatuial and parGonable longing of republican aristoeracy, hold ing iss position by an uncertain tenure. 10 add, If possible, the pleasing glamour ot ancient lineage to the more subs,an- hai pleasures of prescn, power Faneies. from want of contradiction. soon grow