The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-28

| a controlling hand on their under
takings, whereby some tax was to be
gathered in, we are not surprised to
| find them resisting and finally fight
ling shoulder to shoulder.
| What had happened in South Car
DINA in the century that had passed
since the Huguenot migration? A
compact ariStocratic state and social
fabric had grown up and the MEM
bers of it were reaping the usual re-
wards; good government and fine har-
vests whether from the sea or land.
| The community had grown rich; fam
| lily trees had been planted and were
being sedulously cultivated pride of
opinion and sterling worth, often
| twin companion, had found place
more prominent than at the begin
ming; education, the printers art, and
the orators tongue confirmed mrn in
their faith in each other, their COM
! mon past and the promising future.
| Handsome brick mansions with wide
/ lawns and terraces in front and spa
cious back lands in the rear, with
marble mantelS and mahogany side
boards inside, all still in existence and
| open to the travellers inspection, at
test the soIidity of this wealth, this
responsibility, this homogeneous civil
| ization.
| The outcome of the friendship and
! kinship with the New Highlander, of
| this accumulated wealth and of the
common oppression (seemingly so at
any rate) IN the days of George III,
was the formation in 1887 of union
of States which for a hundred years
past had been practically independ-
ent; and consequence of the closer
| union" as Washington termed it, was
| the inevitable struggle for supremacy
| between the more powerful parts OF
| the nascent nation--as natural con-
| sequence as was the war and strife
| between Austria and Prussia under
similar circumstances in the period
of 1915 to 1866. One party must
come out of this conflict the master,
the other being submerged contribut-
/ ing only negatively to the future
| greatness of the nation which was to
! be, l. e. after 1865
| 1t had been South Cardinals quick
| response to Washington's plan of
| union her bargain concerning inter-
State and international commerce
and the slave trade with New Eng
land which placed Virginia, North
! Carolina and New York-all anti-na
tional in sentiment-between con-
verging fires. What would be the role
of South Carolina in the new Union?
This all the world knows, for her light
was not hid under a bushel." 1t is
| almost needless to say that negro
| slavery, q warm climate, cheap lands
and a European market all cooper
ated to differentiate this region from
all others AristOcratic and relig
ious prejudice added their share. But
| whatever the causes South Carolina
/ was capable, compact and ambitious
| for power liz the years just before and
/ after 1900. Virginia was also and for
| similar reasons equally ambitious and
| more powerful but less consciously
aristocratc. A coalition of these two
| dominant Southern centres of intlu-
| cnce in the Union gave them control
with Virginans for Presidents-for
n quarter OF century-to 1925.
! But silently and unobstrusively, so
| far as the elements of growth were
concerned, the East had gone on
| steadily gaining power by more rap
| idly increasing population, by coming
more into harmony with the Demo-
/ cratic tendency of the world by the
resort to manufacturing and the
| opening up of new markets, by min
| istering to the wants of the South
| and especially by securing from her
the privilege and guarantee of pro-
/ lection against competition from the
| outside world.
| A realization of the advantages
| gained by their rivals in this way
came home to South Carolina in 1924
| 1S2S-contemporary with the rise of
real democracy with Jackson at its
head. The beginning of a new era
is clearly seen in the records of the
/ years immediately following. Collection
| district free-holders led by the fa
! nous Robert Barnwell Rhett, now
| young man under thirty years of age,
| declared that in resistance lay the
| only hope OF safety for the civilization
| of South Carolina and of the South,
he meant also the only hope for the
/ continuance of power in the hands Of
| his section. The great Calhoun. then
| Vice-president and political mentor to
! the redoubtable Jackson, was soon
won over to a line of policy directly
/ contrary to all his past career. Cal
| noun, the representative in his State,
| of that strong and practical Scotch
Irish element which had dominated
/ the up-country, the one great man of
| the lower South, soon to be both pro-
phct and priest to millions of his fell
/ lows, joined fortunes with Charleston.
with the old aristocracy of the East
and South of his State. This change
| in his career meant the marriage of
/ upper with lower South Carolina, the
| beginning, strange as it may seem TO
say it, of a characterization of the
commonwealth, of its unity and final
| unanimity in 1860.
| In another letter we shall see how
South Carolina won Alabama, Missis-
sippi, Louisiana, Texas, then Georgia,
Virginia and North Carolina: how
! Robert BarLwel Rhett, of Charleston;
/ William Lowndes Yancey, of Ala
/ bama; Roger A. Pryor, and the South
side of Virginia became the builders
of nation within. nation over
whose destinies Jefferson Davis was
to preside for short and stormy sea-
son. VIM. e. DODD.
| Out of the Mouths of Babes.