New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-04-13
IS6I-fgfI.


fixed on the barbor of Charleston. ;. e.,
where Fort Sumter, flying the United
States flag and garrisOned 10y small
body Of United states troops, was beng
homharded by forces in the service of
the newly organized Confederate govern
mont The status of the federal forts in
the territory Of the seeded states being
at that time undetermined the Confed-
eracy decided TO settle ii by an appeal
10 arms. 1t was appropriate mat the
first hostile gun trained on the Stars ana
Stripes should be fired on South caro-
lima soil That state was the EXTREMIST
exponent of the economic and polltical
doctrines which temporarily disrupted
the Union. II had attempted in Presi-
dent JacksOn's time 10 assert the rlght
t. nullify tariff legislation unacceptable
ia il. because under the slave system ii
was tied down 10 the production OF cot
ton. which il sold abroad and did not
want to be obliged To pay duties on the
| foreign manufactured articles which IL
| imported in exchange for its popular
| stable. Slave labor committed il To free
trade and state rights. and rs the most
devoted advocate and most conspicuous
victim of the slave labor system IT he
came the natural leader in the movement
| III favor of secession when the NorthS
purpose to set bounds to the extension oil
slavery was Enthusiastically manifested.
I Olmsteds remarkably precise and ac-
curate observations i'll his journey
| through the seaboard states Of the South
! lust before the war showed that South
! Carolina had been economically ruined
I by slave labor. II was the coStliest labor
system possible. and il had the further
evil effect of preventing the proper utili-
cation of the free white labor supply
which the South possessed hut let 20 10
waste As Wendell Phillips justly said
/ before Sumter was fired on. South Caro-
| lima. impoverished and bankrupt. was
willing TO throw down the gauntlet of
war To the North for the sake of the
very ideas on which its own prosperity
! had gone to shipwreck 1t was unreason
carried to the extreme of self-destruc-
! IL.
dignity which attach TO sincere devotion
! 10 an abstraction. however mistaken and
however unworthy of the sacrifices which
| !; demands.
! Beauregard's guns opened conflict
which cost North and South losses be-
| fore which both would at that time have
shrunk back appalled, The great gain
of the struggle was Il unified country.
/ But the South's special compensation
was the destruction of the antiQuated
! industrial system for whose preservation
/ if had fought In the Southern armies
| il became n common saying that. so far
/ as the South was concerned. IL was "a
rich mans war and Il poor mans fight
! The poor whites. disregarded in the
South's economy. bore the burden of its
struggle to preserve slavery, and the
I breakdown of the COnfederacy enamel
pated them more completely than it
cmancipated the negroes. The progress
which the South iS now making is due
largely 10 the social upbeaval following
the war. which brought the non-slave
owning white element to the front and
gave il at last an outlet for lis long dor
maut energy. South Carolina and the
other cotton states can be profoundly
grateful that the era of the patrician cot
ton planter archaic and wasteful. has
yielded 10 the era Of the cotton manu-
facturer. with its diyersifcation of indus
try, fuller utilization of labor and con
slant creation of new wealth.
Charleston went wild with enthusiasm
fifty wears ago over the distinction Of
having helped 10 fire the first shot ut
Fort Sumter. The other day III adyertis-
ing its claims To attention as Il rising
metropolis 1t boosted of being the seat
Of federal navy yard and the headquar-
tiers of 81 federal coast artillery district.
What more convincing evidence could re
given that fifty years have healed the
scars of the great combat Of 1S61-'G5 and
brought Il universal acQuiescence in its
! hard won results: