Collections of the South-Carolina Historical Society (Volume 4) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1887. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... ADDRESS. It was a custom of that grand old people, the Athenians, * in the palmy days of the Republic, to listen on certain solemn occasions to a fitting panegyric pronounced by an appointed orator, on the achievements of the past, the methods by which the State had won renown, the polity and conduct by which she had been illustrated. Such commemoration they deemed due to their ancestors, and also of nature to "determine every Athenian to suffer all things with intrepidity and patience in the cause of his country." Superior in many respects as is modern to ancient civilization, valuable hints may still be taken from a people who won for their country a distinction in arts and arms that has been the wonder of all succeeding ages. What themes more appropriate than similar ones, suggested by their example, could I find for the present occasion which specially directs our thoughts to South Carolina and her history, just as she is emerging from a long period of misrule and suffering. Sixteen years ago this State, with ten others, withdrew from this Federal Union, seeking safety, peace and happiness under a government within their own borders, so organized as to them seemed most likely to effect those objects. War was waged to force them again into the Union. It was successful, and the world has witnessed a fashion of administration, not to say of humanity, on the part of the victors, without a parallel in the history of recorded time. Emancipated slaves were at a word invested with all political power, a very large proportion of the white race was disfranchised, the intelligence, the virtue, the refinement, the wealth of the country were subjected to absolute ignorance, incapacity and vice; and there began a carnival of wrong, oppression, corruption and crime, support...