The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-11-09
CRADLE OF SECESSION.
One of the Most Remarkable Districts in
America.
Washington Post.
America.

the fire upon the Star of the West;
George McDu&e, who served in the
House and Senate with Clay, Web
ster and Calhoun man Of great ar
gumentative and oratorical ability;
James Henry Hammond, United
States Senator from South Carolina,
who made national reputation as
oMud-sill Hammond" for his refer
ence in the debate on the Kansas
question to the slaves or negroes as
the necessary "mud-sills" Of society;
the Buffers, who have for three gen.
erations served South Carolina in the
National House and Senate-Major
Gen. M. G. Butler, in the recent
Spanish war, and now a member Of
the Cuban commission, lives in Till
mans County; Major Gen. Joseph
Wheeler, born within five miles Of
Augusta on the Georgia side. Two
Of the Major Generals appointed from
civil life in the recent war sprung
from this productive soil. James
Longstreet, the Confederate Lieuten-
ant General, was born six miles from
Augusta, in the County Of Tillman
and Butler, and six miles from
the birthplace Of Tillman, William
Lowndes Yancy, who was powerful
member of Congress in ante-bellum
times, q man Of singularly great ora
torical gifts and we'll remembered by
the older part Of the present genera
ton for his speeches in Cooper Union,
Faneull Hall, and throughout the
North in the campaign Of 1860, was
born and reared near the homes Of
Stephens and Watson. Louis 1.reze-
want WigfaM, United States Senator
from Texas, and among the expelled
Senators in 1861, was born and reared
in the district, and he it was who, on
April 13, 1851, upon seeing the flag Of
Sumter descend, rode out to the fort
and made the final demand of surren-
der to Major Anderson. j. L. M.
Curry, United States minister to
Spain in 1884 and at present the
director of the Peabody and Slater
educational funds, came from Coun-
ty adjoining Watson's. Hilary A.
Herbert, recent Secretary Of the Navy,
was born in this district, at Laurens,
s. c., the same town in which Presi-
dent Andrew johnson conducted a
tailor shop. Eli Whitney, though
Northern born, lived for some years at
Augusta, and here invented and per-
fected his cotton gin, the greatest
achievement ever made for the agri-
cultural and commercial South.
Peculiarly worthy Of observation,
and fact that has not been widely
noted, is that Thomas E. Watson and
Herschel V. johnson were from this
the same-distriet the two men
who, in 1906, and the other in 1860,
in similar great convulsions Of the
Democratic party, received nomina-
tions for Vice Presidency, and there
by, probably, in both instances de-
feated the darling wishes of the Dem
ocratic party. Itis remarkable that
the country should have gone to ex-
actly the same locality, to wit, mar
row strip Of land in Eastern Georgia,
and undesignedly SO, for Vice Presi-
Dental candidates in these two crises,
and for the only two Vice Presiden-
tial candidates that have been taken
from the South since 1859. johnson
lived within thirty miles of the home
of Watson.
This listle district has been from
the beginning Of the Government the
birthplace Of the "isms' from the
South; it is the NewIEngland Of the
n
South in this respect. Here "Nulli6-
cation" and Secession" had their
birth. Here was the cradle of the
Confederacy, between these two ridges
Of mighty hills that form the water
shed of the Savannah, and as the Con-
federacy was born and rocked here, so
it came here to die. and received here
It's sepulchere. This happened in a
peculiar way, with double coinci-
dence of remarkable power. The first
secession meeting in South Carolina
was held at Abbeville, near the house
of Armistead Burt, with one or two
hundred yards,) in grove that has
ever since been called Secession
Grove" and within nine miles of the
birthplace of Calhoun. By accident,
the last meeting Of the Confederate
Cabinet was held at Abbeville, in the
house of Armistead Burt; within sight
Of the Grove of Secession. On the
evacuation of Richmond and the re-