air which sprouted in
bristling defiance from his upper lip.

The company numbered about seventy, some with uniforms and some without,
and bearing all sorts of arms, from the old flint-lock musket to the
modern revolving rifle. They were, however, sturdy fellows, and looked
as if they might do service at "the imminent deadly breach." Their full
ranks taken from a population of less than five hundred whites, told
unmistakably the intense war feeling of the community.

Georgetown is one of the oldest towns in South Carolina, and it has a
decidedly _finished_ appearance. Not a single building, I was informed,
had been erected there in five years. Turpentine is one of the chief
productions of the district; yet the cost of white lead and chrome
yellow has made paint a scarce commodity, and the houses, consequently,
all wear a dingy, decayed look. Though situated on a magnificent bay, a
little below the confluence of three noble rivers, which drain a country
of surpassing richness, and though the centre of the finest rice-growing
district in the world, the town is dead. Every thing about it wears an
air of dilapidation. The few white men you meet in its streets, or see
lounging lazily around its stores and warehouses, appear to lack all
purpose and energy. Long contact with the negro seems to have given them
his shiftless, aimless character.

The ordinance of secession passed the legislature shortly prior to my
arrival, and, as might be expected, the political situation was the
all-engrossing topic of thought and conversation. In the estimation of
the whites a glorious future was about to open on the little state.
Whether she stood alone, or supported by the other slave states, she
would assume a high rank among the nations of the earth; her cotton and
rice would draw trade and wealth from every land, and when she spoke,
creation would tremble. Such overweening state pride in _such_ a
people--shiftless, indolent, and enervated as they are--strikes a
stranger as in the last degree ludicrous; but when they tell you, in the
presence of the black, whose strong brawny arm and sinewy frame show
that in him lies the real strength of the state, that this great empire
is to be built on the shoulders of the slave, your smile of incredulity
gives way to an expression of pity, and you are tempted to ask if those
sinewy machines may not THINK, and some day rise, and topple down the
mighty fabric which is to be reared on their backs!