the
planter princes. Meanwhile the one character utterly condemned and
ostracized was the man who was mean to his slaves. Even the coward was
pitied and might have been liked. For the cruel master there was no
toleration.

The _ante-bellum_ society had immense force. Working under the slavery
which brought the suspicion or hostility of the world, and which
practically beleaguered it within walls, it yet accomplished good
things. For the first sixty-four years of the republic it furnished
the president for fifty-two years. Its statesmen demanded the war of
1812, opened it with but five Northern senators supporting it, and its
general, Jackson, won the decisive battle of New Orleans. It was a
Southern statesman who added the Louisiana territory of more than
1,000,000 square miles to our domain. Under a Southern statesman
Florida was acquired from Spain. Against the opposition of the free
States, the Southern influence forced the war with Mexico, and annexed
the superb empire of Texas, brought in New Mexico, and opened the
gates of the republic to the Pacific. Scott and Taylor, the heroes of
the Mexican war, were Southern men. In material, as in political
affairs, the old South was masterful. The first important railroad
operated in America traversed Carolina. The first steamer that crossed
the ocean cleared from Savannah.

The first college established for girls was opened in Georgia. No
naturalist has surpassed Audubon; no geographer equalled Maury; and
Sims and McDonald led the world of surgery in their respective lines.
It was Crawford Long, of Georgia, who gave to the world the priceless
blessing of anaesthesia.

The wealth accumulated by the people was marvellous. And, though it is
held that slavery enriched the few at the general expense, Georgia and
Carolina were the richest States, per capita, in the Union in 1800,
saving Rhode Island. Some idea of the desolation of the war may be had
from the fact that, in spite of their late remarkable recuperation,
they are now, excepting Idaho, the poorest States, per capita, in the
Union. So rich was the South in 1860, that Mr. Lincoln spoke but
common sentiment when he said: "If we let the South go, where shall we
get our revenues?"

In its engaging grace--in the chivalry that tempered even Quixotism
with dignity--in the piety that saved master and slave alike--in the
charity that boasted not--in the honor held above estate--in the
hospitality that neither condescende