The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-04

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incoming immigrants, finding titles unset
tied near the Potomac, pressed on, pas
struggling Winchester. up the valley
Only some Germans fingered and bull
Strasburg. 1t Is well known that Lore
Fairfax himself decided to settle in the
valley, and built there house which came
to be called. magniloquently, Greenway
Court. 1t was by no means the dignified
mansion which he had proposed to erect
neither could 1t be compared with some
OF the dwellings on the James River, for il
was simply long one story building with
low caves, having an Office adjacent, which
long survived. Although the intended
manor house was never erected Fairfax
lived in considerable state and was locally
renowned for hunting and hospitality.
J AS Mr., Hamilton reminds us, he has claim
upon our gratitude through his employ
| ment Of the young surveyor George Wash
| ington, who thus acquired a knowledge of
| the Western country, and by the experience
| gained In frontier wars became qualified
for high military command.
Although We are accustomed to think
Of Virginia in the colonial period as even
less urban and more exclusively agricul-
tural than IL Ia now, Mr.. Hamilton points
out that in the third quarter of the eight
zenith century the Old Dominion possessed
in Norfolk a city of much more importance
than Baltimore then was, and surpassed
only by Philadelphia, New York. Boston,
Charleston and perhaps Newport. 1t had
1000 inhabitants at the end OF the French
wars Q7es), and thirty-fv years earlier
William Byrd could speak Of it as having
the air Of a city more than Williamsburg
the capital, or any other place in the colony.
st. Paul's churchyard in Norfolk goes
back to the seventeenth century. Norfolk
retained its prominence despite the efforts
made by Byrd OF Westover to rival it. He
owned a place at the Falls of the James
which he called Shocco, and there about
1873 he had the surveyor Mayo lay OF
town to be known as Richmond. The set
Element grew slowly, although in eight
years there were enough people in it to
justify the erection Of st. Johns Episcopal
Church, which was soon to be made men,
orable by Patrick Henrys appeal for lib
erty or death. 1t seems that Petersburg
also owes its origin to Byrd, who used to
joke about his cities in the air
About the middle OF the eighteenth CEN
fury South Carolina contributed one
sixth to the whole foreign trade OF the
American colonies. Charleston was by far
the richest seaport in the southern part Of
America, and a contemporary visitor,
Josiah Quincy, recorded that in grandeur
the city surpassed all that he had ever seen
or expected to see on this side Of the Allan
tic. IN l774 Charleston established Cham
Der Of Commerce, but many years pre-
viously its shipping interests had attained
m RI al n N
cleared from this single seaport $50 vessels,
besides forty from Beaufort and twenty
four from Georgetown. There is reason to
ported by the public and intended for the
use Of the community at large las distin-
guished from a college library was the one
founded at Charleston In 1893. 1t Is said
that shortly before the Revolution there
were thirty-Ave newspapers In all America,
OF which fourteen we're In New England,
four in New York and nine in Pennsylvania,
while Virginia and North Carolina had two
each, Georgia one and South Carolina three,
It follows that In proportion to the white
population South Carolina headed the list,
for there was in that colony one newspaper
to every fifteen or twenty thousand white
people; In Massachusetts, at the time there
was but one to every fifty thousand. 1t Is
sometimes taken for granted that educa-
ton was at low ebb in South Carolina be-
fore tho Revolutionary War. The reverse
seems to have been true. Mr.. Hamilton's
researches have convinced him that from
early In the seventeenth century there was
not parish In South Carolina where educa-
ton could not be obtained. There was
theatre in Charleston before 1875; 1t ante
dated the one In Philadelphia, and proba-
bly, was the first opened In the country.
Concerts, also, were given at an early date;
Josiah Quincy gives an account OF one which
he heard when he visited Charleston before
the secession Of the colonies from the mother
country. There was an organization for
mutual insurance against fire in 17S5; this
was earlier than the one over which Frank
lin presided in Philadelphia. Evidently
there was a good deal OF luxury In Charles
ton during the latter part Of the colonial
era. The intercourse with the mother coun-
try was more frequent than was that of any
other colony, and It was remarked that
British manners were preserved more care
fully In Charleston than in any other Ameri- |
can town.
1t Ia we'll known that during the later years |
OF the seventeenth and the first three
quarters Of the eighteenth century the i
colonies received large number of immi-
grants from Continetal Europe. This was
especially true Of Pennsylvania and Caro-
lima. Most Of the Huguenots who crossed
the Atlantic after the revocation Of the
Edict Of Nantes came to Carolina, but
some settled in more northern provinces.
The Germans were distributed from Penn i
sylvania to Georgia. The most important |!
immigration. however, both numerically |
and intellectually, was that Of the Scotch |
Irish from the North Of Ireland. Turned |
by the Alleghanies OF Pennsylvania south |
wardly into Virginia, they spread thence |
to the Carolinas and even to the region on !
the right bank Of the Savannah River. We !
are cautioned, however by Mr. Hamilton !
a against assuming that all the Scotch Irish I
ultimately encountered in the Southern !
colonies came by way Of the Virginia val !
ley Some came directly from Ireland |
Many Irish, for example, are mentioned |
from time to time as arriving at Charleston.
They were almost always Presbyterians |
from Ulster. Papists, as Irish Catholics
were called, were not welcomed, and very
few Of them came to any colony except /
before the Revolutionary War ,
1t Is we'll known that even in Maryland,
which a Catholic had founded, Catholics
l. H. LII NJ