harleston boys were
more excited over the 28th of June, the battle of Fort Moultrie, than
over the national Fourth of July.]

In claiming this individuality, nothing more is claimed for Virginia and
for South Carolina than would be conceded to Massachusetts and
Connecticut; and we believed then that Massachusetts and Connecticut
would not have behaved otherwise than we did, if the parts had been
reversed. The brandished sword would have shown what manner of _placida
quies_ Massachusetts would have ensued, if demands had been made on her
at all commensurate with the Federal demands on Virginia. These older
Southern States were proud of their history, and they showed their pride
by girding at their neighbors. South Carolina had her fling at Georgia,
her fling at North Carolina; and the wish that the little State had been
scuttled at an early day was a plagiarism from classical literature that
might have emanated from the South as well as from the North. Virginia
assumed a superiority that was resented by her Southern sisters as well
as by her Northern partners. The Old North State derided the pretensions
of the commonwealths that flanked her on either side, and Georgia was
not slow to give South Carolina as good as she sent. All this seemed to
be harmless banter, but the rivalry was old enough and strong enough to
encourage the hopes of the Union leaders that the Confederacy would
split along state lines. The cohesive power of the Revolutionary war was
not sufficiently strong to make the States sink their contributions to
the common cause in the common glory. Washington was the one national
hero, and yet the Washington Light Infantry of Charleston was named, not
after the illustrious George, but after his kinsman, William. The story
of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill did not thrill the South
Carolinian of an earlier day, and those great achievements were actually
criticized. Who were Putnam and Stark that South Carolinians should
worship them, when they had a Marion and a Sumter of their own? Vermont
went wild, the other day, over Bennington as she did not over the
centenary of the surrender at Yorktown. Take away this local patriotism
and you take out all the color that is left in American life. That the
local patriotism may not only consist with a wider patriotism, but may
serve as a most important element in wider patriotism, is true. Witness
the strong local life in the old provinces of France. No student of
his