The age-herald., 1897-09-12

was the enemy of those who named him only in honor. Gen. John B. Gordsn, of the present time. is descended, in the female line, from the founder of the Milford" plantation, French Santee. At the bloody anglen at SpCutsylYania Court House, 1864. as Gen. Lee retrsated before Gen. Grant, Lee in person took Oo sl1l9a = lead apparently a fofl5rn hope The young Gordon appeared at his commanders side and. reminding him Of his higher duty to the army and the country, claimed the right himself to head the charge and meet it's conse- quences.
 The descendants of Cavaliers and Hu- guenots came out of the revolutionary war, at least, all who espoused the doubtful cause Of Independence, thor oughly unified in public sentiment. The year after the federal government went into erect, in 1790, a new State Consti- tuition framed by them. for the mo.A part, was set up in the State. It was
 a low country" organic law It was
 the work of a single class of society,
 and that the large planter class.
 But the distinguishing merit of con- stitutional government in South Caro-
 lima was at last enforced not by the
 low country, but by the up country.
 The up country, designated by the ter
 ritory north of an imaginary line pass
 ing through Camden and Columbia, was settled by Scotch-Irish. Gen. Andrew
 Pickens was their most prominent leader. They were small and prosperous
 farmers, owning but few slaves. They
 were the Carolinians who fought at
 Kings Mountain. The low country
 grew very jealous of the superior repre-
 sentation of the up country in the Leg 1slature, for 1t was the low country that
 paid the bulk of the taxes. Hence, by the Amendment of 1907 a condition al-
 most verging upon war between the sections was terminated in phenomenal unity of the elements of population fol- lowed. The Amendment of 1907 was an original experiment in American consti- tutional government and one of the hap piest results. It perfected a bond of in- terests. The Amendment divided the lower branch of the Legislature into two equal interests. Sixty-two mem- bers were assigned to numbers of popu-
 lation and sixty-two to taxes assessed | The Senate had one member for each | county (districD except. Charleston | which had two, regardless of either | wealth or population. Thus stood the Constitution of South Carolina until al- | tered after Appomattox.
 
 The distinguished industrial prosperi- | ty of the French Santee having been
 maintained by African slavery exclu-
 sively, it will not be held amiss to men,
 tion the Santee canal, cut 1790-97, to con- | meet the Santee with the Cooper river l and thus give transportation to the | heavy freights of the plantations to the ! wharves of Charleston, the canal hay
 ing employed 1000 negroes in the seven 1 years the work occupied. It was pri-
 vate enterprise exclusively. The intelli- 1 gence of the negro and the trust re- | posed in him by his master then are in- ! dcated by the following occurrences: l MT. Ravenel wished to irrigate Wan | toot" for rice culture He spent the summers in Charleston, and it was in | the summer season only that conven- | fence required the work should be done | by his own farm labor. It was his habit to summon to the city his negro fore man or driver" to receive instructions for the work. The negro was taken into a large room from which the carpet had been removed and upon the naked floor had been drawn in white chalk the system of ditchirg and changing the courses of streams necessary The man fastened all that upon his memory, for he could neither read nor write, and the | enterprise was successfully achieved l Mexico" to keep out the freshets of the | Santee. He promised his driver, George" his freedom as soon as the
 undertaking was accomplished. On
 these terms George was duly emancipa-
 ted, and lived out his days in view of
 the scenes of his triumph
 | More and more the Santee overf1owed. The fields were abandoned, finally, in 1S36 No soul alive now in habits the houses of the settlement or tills the fields. The whole life of French Santee l is out. The plantations are waste and l jungle. In every Southern State live 1 descendants of the first settlers there. JOHN WTTHERSPOON DuBOSE. 
 Wasted Lives.