xt71jw86hm6c https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt71jw86hm6c/data/mets.xml Powell, Lyman P. (Lyman Pierson), b. 1866. 1900  books b92-125-29177621 English G.P. Putnam's Sons, : New York ; London : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Cities and towns Southern States. Historic towns of the southern states  / edited by Lyman P. Powell. text Historic towns of the southern states  / edited by Lyman P. Powell. 1900 2002 true xt71jw86hm6c section xt71jw86hm6c 

















   HISTORIC TOWNS

      of the

  SOUTHERN STATES



       edited

          by

  Lyman P. Powell












  New York  London

G. P. Putnam I a sone

        1900

 
This page in the original text is blank.

 
















                 PREFACE

THE triad of volumes dealing with the older
     American Historic Towns along or near
the eastern coast is now complete. The three
volumes, like the chapters of which they are
composed, have their inevitable limitations.
While neither in historical value nor in literary
quality has it proved practicable to secure a
uniformity of standard, editor and contributors
have done the best they could, and they now
feel assured that the series has proved its
right to exist. It is quickening interest in our
historic towns, bringing to light important
facts, picturing for the patriotic reader who
may not be free to make personal visits the
places he would visit if he could, and making
clear to him many things he would not be
likely to learn in the towns themselves, how-
ever long a stay he might be free to make.
                     iii

 






Preface



   Like the preceding issues, this volume has
a patriotic and educational purpose, but it goes
forth also on an irenic mission. The editor's
father, dead almost a quarter of a century, lived
in a little border town where in war times love
and hate alike were hot.  An avowed and
fearless Unionist, he was also a true and faith-
ful pacificator. As Mr. Rule has said of Louis-
ville, James B. R. Powell " occupied a position
similar to that of Tennyson's sweet little hero-
ine, Annie, who, sitting between Enoch and
Philip, with a hand of each in her own, would
weep,

   " ' And pray them not to quarrel for her sake.'"

   In planning and in shaping this volume, the
editor hopes that he is proving himself worthy
of an honored father, whose name he would
connect in this way with the work and with the
series.
  His special acknowledgments are due to
his wife, Gertrude Wilson Powell, for discrimi-
nating and invaluable assistance at every stage,
and to Professor W. P. Trent, who, in addition
to the preparation of a comprehensive Intro-
duction, has ever been ready with such counsel



iV

 







                 Preface                v

and suggestions as enhance in many ways the
value of the volume.
                      LYMAN P. POWELL.
ST. JOHN'S RECTORY,
LANSDOWNE, PENNSYLVANIA.
   August io, i900.

 
This page in the original text is blank.



 























CONTENTS



BALTIMORE
ANNAPOLIS
FREDERICK TOWN'
WASHINGTON
RICHMOND ON THE
JAMES .
WILLIAMSBURG
WILMINGTON
CHARLESTON
SAVANNAH
MOBILE .
MONTGOMERY
NEW ORLEANS.
VICKSBURG
KNOXVILLE
NASHVILLE
LOUISVILLE
LITTLE ROCK .
ST. AUGUSTINE



                         PAGE
St. George L. Sioussat  .   I
Sara Andrew Shafer.   .  47
Sara Andrew Shafer.   .  75
Frank A. Vanderlip.   .I


William Wirt Henry.     IS
Lyon G. Tyler.   .    .  85
Joseph Blount Cheshire  . 219
Yates Snowden.    .  . 249
Pleasant Alexander Stovall 293
Peter J. Hamilton.    . 327
George Petrie.    .   . 379
Grace King   .    .   . 411
H. F. Simrall.    .   . 433
Joshua W. Caldwell.   . 449
Gates P. Thruston .   . 477
Lucien V. Rule    .   . 503
George B. Rose    .   . 537
George R. Fairbanks.    .557



Vii

 
This page in the original text is blank.



 






















                 ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                     PAGE
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C. Fronfispicce

                      BALTIMORE
OLD COURT-HOUSE (1768) ANI) POWDER MAGAZINE      .     5
   From an old print in the possession of the Maryland His-
       torical Society.
EDWARD FELL, IN UNIFORM OF PROVINCIAL FORCES     .     6
   From original painting in possession of William Fell
       Johnson.
MOALE'S SKETCH OF BALTIMORE IN 1752                   13
   From the original in the possession of the Maryland His-
       torical Society.
BATTLE MONUMENT     .    .   .   .    .   .   .    .  17
MOUNT CLARE, 1760, RESIDENCE OF CHARLES CARROLL, BAR-
     RISTER    .    .   .    .   .   .    .   .    .  19
Boos HOUSE, NEAR WHICH LAFAYETTE'S TROOPS ENCAMPED    23
JOHN EAGER HOWARD .      .   .    .   .   .        .  27
   From the painting by Rembrandt Peale, owned by R.
       Bayard.
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH   .   .    .   .    .   .   .    .  31
   From an old copper print, owned by Rev. J. S. B. Hodges.
BELVIDERE, 1786, THE HOME OF COLONEL JOHN E. HOWARD   35
   From the original in the possession of the Misses McKim,
       Belvidere Terrace, Baltimore, Md.
BUST OF JOHNS HOPKINS    .   .   .    .   .    .   .  43
   From the original in Johns Hopkins Hospital.
SEAI OF BALTIMORE                                     45
                           ix

 









x                  Illustrations


                     ANNAPOLIS
                                                  PAGE
GEORGE CALVERT, FIRST LORD BALTIMORE                48
   Reproduced from an old print.
CECILIUS CALVERT, SECOND LORD BALTIMORE             49
   Reproduced from an old print.
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE AND THE TREATY TREE              55
THE STATE HOUSE             .      .     .          57
CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON, 1737-I832  .   .    6o
THE OLD HOUSE OF BURGESSES, NOW USED AS THE STATE
     TREASURY                             .6I
THE BRICE HOUSE.                                 . 62
THE PEGGY STEWART HOUSE          .     .    .       64
THE BURNING OF THE " PEGGY STEWART"     .   .       65
   From the painting by Frank B. Mayer.
THE NAVAL INSTITUTE.    .   .   .   .   .   .       69
   (Where the battle-flags are kept.)
THE OLD GOVERNOR'S MANSION, NOW THE NAVAL ACADEMY
     LIBRARY       ..                    .         72
THE SEAL OF THE NAVAL ACADEMY   .   .   .   .   .   73


                 FREDERICK TOWN


PROSPECT HALL. THE DULANY MANSION   .   .   .   .81
ROSE HILL, THE HOME OF GOVERNOR THOMAS JOHNSON   .  86
GOVERNOR THOMAS JOHNSON AND FAMILY  .   .   .    .89
   From the painting by Charles Wilson Peale.
FRANCIS SCOTT KEY  .    .   .   .   .   .   .    .  91
CHIEF JUSTICE ROGER B. TANEY.   .   .   .   .    .  92
THE OLD REFORMED CHURCH         .   .   .   .    .  95
BARBARA FRIETCHIE  .    .   .   .   .   .       .   96
HOME OF BARBARA FRIETCHIE   .      .     .97
THE HATED BRITISH TAX-STAMP, 1765-1766              99

 











                   Illustrations


                   WASHINGTON

PIERRE CHARLES L'ENFANT
STATUE OF GEN. WINFIELD SCOTT, WASHINGTON
THE CAPITOL
   From the Congressional Library.
THE CITY OF WASHINGTON IN I8oo
   From an old print.
THE WHITE HOUSE
   From the northeast.
STATE, WAR AND NAVY BUILDING
   From the southeast.
THE " OCTAGON HOUSE" USED BY PRESIDENT AND 'MRS.
       MADISON DURING THE REBUILDING OF THE WHITE
       HOUSE IN i8I4
GRAND STAIRCASE IN THE HALL OF THE CONGRESSIONAL
       LIBRARY .
THE UNITED STATES TREASURY
   From the southwest.
ROTUNDA OF THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY, WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON MONUMENT
   Looking across the "flats."
THE SEAL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

             RICHMOND ON THE JAMES

GRAVE OF POWHATAN ON THE JAMES
COLONEL WILLIAM EVELYN BYRD
   From a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller
OLD STONE HOUSE, BUILT IN I737
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF RICHMOND
WASHINGTON MONUMENT AND CAPITOL, RICHMOND, \IR-
       GINIA
HENRY CLAY
THE MARSHALL HOUSE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
RICHMOND IN FLAMES



xi



PAGE
105
uS8
123


127


129


'33





I37


'39
'43


'45
149


150



I53
157


x6o
163



167
i69
172

'77

 









xii                Illustrations

                                                  PAGE
MONUMENT TO GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, RICHMOND .   . 179
THE WHITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY, RICHMOND      180
MONUMENT OVER CONFEDERATE DEAD AT HOLLYWOOD       181
SEAL OF RICHMOND     .          .83

                   WILLIAMSBURG

"OLD POWDER-HORN       .     .     .     .        I86
INTERIOR OF BRUTONPARISH CHURCH AT WILLIAMSBURG, VA. I89
COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY                         3..93
JACOBUS BLAIR            .    .   .             . 195
    The founder of William and Mary College.
BENJ. S. EWELL                                    1.97
JOIIN TYLER, SR.           ..200
MARY CARY, WASHINGTON'S EARLY Lov  .              205
CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL  .     .    .     .209
GEORGE WYTHE   .           .    .           .   . 213
JOHN TYLER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES  .   . 215
SEAL OF WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE    .   .   .   . 217

                    WILMINGTON

RESIDENCE OF JAMES SPRUNT  .                .   . 223
   Formerly the residence of Governor Dudley.
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, EDENTON, N. C., FROM THE SOUTHEAST. 225
   Begun in 1736.
HARNETT'S HOUSE, "HILTON," NEAR WILMINGTON  .   . 230
"ORTON HOUSE" .    .   ,   .   .   .   .    .   : 232
THE WALLS OF ST. PHILIP'S CHURCH, BRUNSWICK  .  . 234
   Showing part of the corner-stone broken out and rifled by
       Federal soldiers in 1865.
COMMISSION OF LOUIS DE ROSSET AS CAPTAIN IN THE
     FRENCH ARMY, SIGNED BY LOUIS XIV., AND COUNTER-
     SIGNED BY TELLIER .   .   .   .   .   .    . 2,37
HUGH WADDELL           .   .    .   .   .   ,   .

 










                   Illustrations                  xiii

                                                   PAGE
WILLIAM HOOPER OF NORTH CAROLINA, SIGNER OF THE DEC-
     LARATION OF INDEPENDENCE     .     .          241
HEADQUARTERS OF LORD CORNWALLIS, WILMINGTON  .  . 243
COMMISSION OF LOUIS DE ROSSET AS CAPTAIN, GIVEN BY
     WILLIAM AND MARY     ..                       245
SEAL OF WILMINGTON      .       .       .    .     247

                   CHARLESTON

PLAN OF CHARLESTON  ..    .    .    .    .   .     253
   From a survey by Edward Crisp in 1704.
ST. PHILIP'S CHURCH, CHARLESTON .   -   .    .   . 255
A MODERN CHARLESTON RESIDENCE   .   .    .   .   . 259
DEFENCE OF FORT MOULTRIE    .   .   .   .    .     263
   From a painting by J. A. Oertel.
THE ATTACK ON FORT MOULTRIE BY THE BRITISH FLEET,
       I776    .   .   .    .   .   .   .   .    . 265
PHILADELPHIA STREET (COON ALLEY).   .    .   .   . 279
   Scene in rear of St. Philip's Church.
THE ATTACK ON CHARLESTON BY THE FEDERAL IRONCLAD
       FLEET, APRIL 7, 1863       .          .   . 281
MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM MOULTRIE               .   . 285
   From a painting by Col. J. Trumbull.
ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, CHARLESTON             .   . 289
SEAL OF CHARLESTON  .      .      ..             . 292

                     SAVANNAH

THE POST OFFICE        .    .   .   .   .    .    295
HOUSE WHERE THE COLONIAL LEGISLATURE ASSEMBLED IN
       1782 ... 297
HEADQUARTERS OF WASHINGTON DURING A VISIT TO SA-
       VANNAH          .      .     .     .      . 299
THE JASPER MONUMENT         .     .     .          303
THE BURIAL PLACE OF TOMOCHICHI  .                  307
CHRIST CHURCH       ..309

 











xiv



Illustrations



OAKS AT BETHESDA ORPHANAGE UNDER WHICH WHITEFIELD
     PREACHED.
GREAT SEAL OF GEORGIA IN COLONIAL DAYS
OLD FORT, WHERE POWDER MAGAZINE WAS SEIZED IN 1775 .
GENERAL OGLETHORPE .
COUNT CASIMIR PULASKI
FORT PULASKI
R. M. CHARLTON, POET, JURIST, U. S. SENATOR.
SEAL OF SAVANNAH



                      MOBILE

FACSIMILE PAGE OF BAPTISMAL RECORD (1704) WITH THE



       AUTOGRAPH OF BIENVILLE
PLAN OF MOBILE AND OF FORT LOUIS IN 171I
THE BAY SHELL ROAD AT LOVERS' LANE
MOBILE IN I765
THE ELLICOTT STONE
PLACE WHERE AARON BURR WAS CAPTURED
JOHN A. CAMPBELL
RAPHAEL SEMMES IN i86I
C. S. S. " FLORIDA" ENTERING MOBILE BAY,
   From a painting by R. S. Floyd.
HOME OF AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON
AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON
SEAL OF MOBILE



           . 333
            337
            343
            349
             351
            354
           . 362
            364
SEPT. 4, I 862  367


           . 373
            376
           . 378



                   MONTGOMERY

OLD CANNON OF BIENVILLE .
DEXTER AVENUE DURING A STREET FAIR



OLD BUILDING IN WHICH
     1825  .
ALABAMA STATE CAPITOL
     AUGURATED .



LAFAYETTE BALL WAS GIVEN IN


WHERE PRESIDENT DAVIS WAS IN-



380
387


389



. 396



PAGE

3IO
3I2

314
3i6

319
32I
323
325

 











                   Illustrations


FIRST PAGE OF THE PERMANENT CONSTITUTION OF THE CON-
     FEDERATE STATES, AS REPORTED BY THE COMMITTEE.
   This is in the handwriting of Gen. Thos. R. R. Cobb,
     who was a member of the committee. Taken from the
     original, which is in the possession of Mr. A. L. Hull,
     Athens, Ga.
THE PERMANENT CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE
     STATES.
   As reported by committee and amended by Congress, is in
     the possession of the daughter of Mr. Alex. B. Clitherall,
     Mrs. A. C. Birch, Montgomery, Ala.
THE POLLARD RESIDENCE, BUILT BEFORE THE WAR
MONUMENT TO CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS ERECTED ON THE



     CAPITOL GROUNDS BY THE LADIES' A
     CIATION
JEFFERSON DAVIS    .
SEAL OF MONTGOMERY.

                   NEW ORLEANS
TOMB OF AVAR, CITY PARK .
THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, NEW ORLEANS
CHARTRES STREET AND CATHEDRAL
THE URSULINES CONVENT
THE JACKSON MONUMENT
CANAL STREET, NEW ORLEANS
THE CABILDO, OLD COURT BUILDING, JACKSO
ST. FRIES CATHEDRAL
SEAL OF NEW ORLEANS .



xv

PAGE


401








403





406



[EMORIAL ASSO-
            . 407
            . 408
            . 410



            . 413
            . 4I5
            . 419
            . 421
            . 423
      .   . 427
N SQUARE   . 428



                     VICKSBURG
MEETING OF GENERALS GRANT AND PEMBERTON AT THE
     "STONE HOUSE" INSIDE THE REBEL WORKS ON THE
     MORNING OF JULY 4, i863.
   (From an actual sketch made on the spot by one of the
     special artists of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper,
     now in the collection of Major George Haven Putnam.)



429

43'






435

 









xvi



Illustrations



GENERAL U. S. GRANT .
PLAN OF THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG
SEAL OF VICKSBURG

                    KNOXVILLE
JOHN SEVIER, FIRST GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE
WILLIAM BLOUNT, GOVERNOR OF SOUTHWEST TERRITORY
UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE
HUGH L. WHITE
ADMIRAL FARRAGUT
WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW, THE " FIGHTING PARSON"
BATTLE OF FORT SAUNDERS .
SEAL OF KNOXVILLE

                     NASHVILLE



JAMES ROBERTSON.
THE FIRST RESIDENCE OF ANDREW JACKSON
FORT RIDLEY, AN OLD NASHVILLE BLOCKHOUSE
ANDREW JACKSON.
THE HERMITAGE MANSION, RESIDENCE OF ANDREW JACKSON
JAMES K. POLK
TOMB OF JAMES K. POLK, NASHVILLE .
THE STATE HOUSE
THE PARTHENON, NASHVILLE, TENN.
SEAL OF NASHVILLE



                    LOUISVILLE
GEORGE D. PRENTICE  .
   From an old painting owned by the Polytechnic Society of
       Kentucky.
DANIEL BOONE
   From a painting in the possession of Col. R. T. Durrett,
       Louisville, Ky.



PAGE
. 442
 445
 447



 450
 452
. 459
 464
 465
. 467
 473
. 475



48I
483
485
489
491
493
495
497
499
501



505


50S

 











                   Illustrations                   xvii

                                                    PAGE
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK                                  510
   From a painting in the possession of Col. R. T. Durrett,
       Louisville, Ky.
BLOCKHOUSE AND LOG CABINS ON CORN ISLAND, 1778, FIRST
     SETTLEMENT OF LOUISVILLE, Ky.            .     513
   From an old print in the possession of Col. R. T. Durrett,
       Louisville, Ky.
RESIDENCE OF GEORGE ROGERS CLARK ON THE INDIANA
     SHORE, OPPOSITE LOUISVILLE      ..  .    .     55
   From an old print in the possession of Col. R. T. Durrett,
       Louisville, Ky.
THE CITY HALL   .   .   .    .   .   .    .   .   . 519
ON THE TOBACCO BREAKS   .    .   .   .    .   .      523
THE KEATS HOUSE (THE ELKS BUILDING) .     .   .   . 527
THE COURT-HOUSE     .   .    .   .   .    .   .   . 529
A SCENE AT THE WHARF                 .    .   .   . 533
SFAL OF LOUISVIi.i.E  .      .   .                   535

                    LITTLE ROCK

THE " LITTLE ROCK," TO WHICH THE CITY OWES ITS NAME 539
LITTLE ROCK LEVEE   .   .   .    .   .   .    .   . 540
NEW STATE HOUSE         .      .   .   .      .   . 543
OLD STATE HOUSE     .   .      .   .   .    .   .    545
THE HOUSE WHERE THE ARKANSAS LEGISLATURE WAS HELD
     INI835    .    .   .   .    .   .   .    .     5 546
ALBERT PIKE    .    .   .      .   .   .    .   .    547
RoBERT CRITTENDEN   .   .   .      .   .    .   .    548
THE OLD FOWLER MANSION .     .   .   .               549
   Now the residence of John M. Gracie.
THE CRITTENDEN RESIDENCE                  .       . 550
   The first brick house built in Little Rock. Now the home
       of Governor James P. Eagle.
THE OLD PIKE MANSION    .    .   .   .               551
   Now the residence of Colonel John G. Fletcher.

 









xviii             Illustrations

                                                PAGE
CUSTOM-HOUSE AND POST OFFICE .554
LITTLE ROCK UNIVERSITY.                          555

                  ST. AUGUSTINE

THE OLD CITY GATE    ... 558
PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES, FOUNDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE  56o
OLD FORGE .562
OLD SPANISH FORT ON MATANZAS RIVER .             565
THE OLDEST HOUSE IN ST. AUGUSTINE   .   .     . 569
RUINS OF THE OLD SPANISH FORT AT MATANZAS INLET  . 573
HOTEL PONCE DE LEON                              579
SEAL OF ST. AUGUSTINE.                           581

 














             INTRODUCTION

               BY W. P. TRENT

PROBABLY the first feeling of the reader
   who glances over the table of contents of
this volume will be one of surprise at the num-
ber of Southern towns of historical importance
that the editor has seen fit and been able to
include. Neither from our study of American
history nor from our study of geography have
we been led to look upon the Southern States
as a region characterized by urban develop-
ment. Those of us who took the pains to
examine the statistics of the census of i890
remember that the South stood far behind the
other sections in this respect. We remember,
too, to have seen in our histories the thickly
settled New England township contrasted with
the large, sparsely settled Southern county.
In literature the South has figured as a region
of plantations and manor houses inhabited by
                    XiX

 






Introduction



cavaliers and chatelaines and old family slaves,
possessors of all the feudal virtues, or else as
the home of a curious race, presumably Cau-
casian, known as " crackers," and of equally
curious mountaineers known as " moonshiners."
An exception is made, of course, in favor of
New Orleans, the home of the creole and the
carnival; of Charleston, the home of secession;
of Richmond, the home of the Confederate
government; and of St. Augustine, the home
of hotels; but on the whole it is probable that
the average American of other sections, unless
he be a drummer or a valetudinarian tourist,
rarely thinks of the South from the point of
view of its towns, historic or unhistoric.
  For this state of affairs no one is to blame.
The great growth of municipalities in the
North, East and West -the colossal develop-
ment of New York, Chicago and Philadelphia,
of Boston and Baltimore and a dozen other
great cities - has naturally cast in the shade
the urban status of a section that contains no
city of three hundred thousand inhabitants. It
is true that much is heard of the New South
with its commercial future; but probably the
pushing Atlanta is almost the only Southern
city that has in the last few decades impressed



xx

 






Introduction



itself to any marked degree upon the nation's
consciousness.
  Nor is it surprising that it is only since the
Civil War that the urban development of the
South has begun to be of importance even to
close students of the past and present of the
section. From the time of the earliest settle-
ments to the present day agriculture has been
the dominant industry. Virginia tobacco, Car-
olina indigo and rice, far Southern and South-
western cotton - these staples have meant
more to the South than manufacturing or com-
merce. She developed seaports, which grad-
ually lost their relative standing among the
ports of the country and administrative and
distributing centers; but there was no crowd-
ing of operatives into manufacturing towns, no
haste on the part of country-bred youths to
leave their native fields for the shops and ware-
houses and offices of the city. The gentle-
man's son looked forward in most cases to
being a planter; the small farmer's son grew up
in an environment that did not stimulate am-
bition. Cotton was king, and his court was
bound to be a rural one.
  It is not to be supposed, however, that
during the period from 1820 to i86o, which



xxi

 






Introduction



witnessed the amazing growth of manufacturing
and commercial centers in the North and East
and the still more wonderful rural and urban
development of the West, the South was en-
tirely content with the spread of her cotton-
fields and oblivious to the stagnation or the
slow growth of her towns. Her country-gen-
tleman class was doubtless content with this
state of affairs, and her politicians actually
boasted of it, being put on the defensive in
all respects on account of the attacks made
upon slavery; but the leading inhabitants of
the towns regretted the backwardness of their
section and devised various schemes for remedy-
ing it, while the merchant class openly com-
plained of the fact that young men were taught
to look down upon every pursuit other than
planting. This is but to say that the people
of the South were not so different at bottom
from their hopeful, energetic fellow citizens of
other sections as has sometimes been imagined.
They were Americans tied down to one occu-
pation and rendered unprogressive by the ham-
pering influences of a belated institution.
  This fact does not appear on the surface; in-
deed it becomes apparent only to the careful stu-
dent of sources of which the Southern historian



xxii

 






Introduction



has not yet made full use. These sources
are the local newspapers and the fairly numer-
ous magazines-particularly the financial and
commercial De Bow's Review published at New
Orleans.  The Southern historian, like his
brothers of the North and East until recently,
has laid disproportionate stress upon the colo-
nial history of his section or else upon its polit-
ical history, and thus has failed to bring out
the interesting struggle between the old and
the new economic orders of things that took
place in the South down to the time of the
Civil War. Hence it is that in the present
volume we find in many chapters the gap be-
tween the surrender at Yorktown and the fir-
ing upon Sumter covered by only a few para-
graphs. Some of the towns had a most in-
teresting history during these years,-as we
may judge from Dr. Petrie's chapter on Mont-
gomery,- but it has not yet been written.
  When it is, we shall get abundant evidence
of a heroic if, on the whole, unsuccessful strug-
gle for urban development. Charleston in
particular made a most gallant fight to recover
the importance as a port which she had lost
through the rivalry of Baltimore and New
Orleans. Her leading citizens, some of whom



xxiii

 






Introduction



labored for the cause of public education and
of literary and scientific development with an
earnestness that should not be forgotten in
spite of the paucity of results, saw clearly that
something must be done to enhance the city's
wealth and growth if the State herself, or, in-
deed, the section, was to maintain an important
place in the union of rapidly developing com-
monwealths. They saw, furthermore, what
this something must be. The cotton of the
South and the agricultural and other products
of the great West must be drawn away from
Northern ports to ships lying in the harbor of
Charleston. The distance to be traversed and
the mountain barriers made all thought of a
canal similar to the one that had brought fortune
to New York out of the questi6n, and the hopes
of enterprising citizens centered on the newly
invented railway. As early as i83I the first
steam locomotive used successfully on rails in
this country was put on its tracks at Charles-
ton by the South Carolina Railroad Company,
and, as Mr. Snowden tells us in his chapter, the
longest railway in the world was at one time
contained within the borders of what is not
familiarly known as a progressive State. It
was but a short time before ambitious plans



XXIV

 






Introduction



were set on foot to connect Charleston with
Cincinnati and the West.
  The full story of these plans-of the faith-
ful labor expended upon them, and of their
ultimate failure, through no fault of the unself-
ish promoters -belongs to another place; but
a few words upon the subject may be pardoned
here on account of the light that will be thrown
upon the difficulties encountered by every
ante-bellum Southern city in its efforts at prog-
ress. The first steps taken by the friends
of the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston
Railroad Company were comparatively easy.
Charters were obtained from several States,
enthusiastic conventions of promoters were
held, engineers were put into the field to de-
cide between competing routes, and popular
subscriptions to the stock were opened in most
of the towns and villages. By November,
i836, South Carolina alone had subscribed for
nearly 2,775,000 of the 4,000,ooo needed to
start the enterprise. Within a few days this
latter amount was made up, and everything
looked bright. But Governor McDuffie in his
annual message pointed out unforeseen obsta-
cles. Kentucky had subscribed only 200,000,
and yet claimed six directors out of twenty-four;



xxv

 






Introduction



Ohio had subscribed almost nothing. Why
should South Carolina cover Kentucky with
railroads Why, again, should the promo-
ters of the enterprise wish for banking privi-
leges when the whole country was crowded
with banks already He urged the legisla-
ture to withhold the desired subscription of
i,ooo,ooo until the success of the road was
more fully assured. His advice was not fol-
lowed, but we may learn two important facts
from his remarks: first, that the South suf-
fered from the crude financial methods and the
fever for speculation that afflicted the rest of
the country. Second, that State jealousy was
a rock upon which any great Southern scheme
was liable to split. The theory of States-rights
united the Southern commonwealths politically
against the other sections, but in internal matters
it was a disintegrating agent of great potency.
  The promoters of the road were not dis-
couraged, however, by Governor McDuffie's
pessimism. They organized their bank, pur-
chased the road which already connected
Charleston and Augusta, known as " The
Charleston and Hamburg," began a branch to
connect the State capital, Columbia, with this
road, and commenced to realize on the popular



xxvi

 






               Introduction           xxvii

subscriptions to the stock. But they had not
counted on the panic of 1837 and the continu-
ing financial depression, in the midst of which
their bank was forced to suspend, nor had they
expected to lose by death their efficient presi-
dent, Robert Y. Hayne, Webster's famous
opponent. The great interstate scheme soon
shrank to state proportions; and by 1842 peo-
ple were congratulating themselves that they
had at least a gratifying extent of railway mile-
age within the borders of South Carolina itself.
This seems a small return for a large outlay of
energy, yet after a careful study of the compli-
cated history of the road it can scarcely be said
that General Hayne and his associates made
as bad a compromise with their magnificent
dreams as the majority of our more recent rail-
way promoters have done. Certainly the way
in which the public responded to their efforts
spoke well for the energy and the civiq intelli-
gence of a people of planters. The effects of
the panic and of Western indifference could
hardly have been foreseen; the banking at-
tachment was natural enough in an era of wild
banking to which the lessons of experience
were wanting; and, finally, the method of
securing capital by instalments of subscription,

 






Introduction



crude as it may seem, was almost the only
available one among a people whose capital
was in the main locked up in land and negroes.
We are warranted, therefore, in concluding,
from these early efforts to connect Charleston
with the West, and from later railroad enter-
prises of other Southern cities that cannot be
treated here, that the failure of the ante-be//um
South to show a marked urban development
was due not to the backwardness and inertia
of its influential citizens, but rather to unfavor-
able economic conditions that could not be
speedily overcome.
  The student of Southern history will reach
this conclusion by following other lines of inves-
tigation. It is a well-known fact that in the dec-
ade before the Civil War annual commercial
conventions were held in the leading Southern
cities. These conventions tended also to be-
come political in character and furnished an
opportunity for the exploitation of some rather
extreme propositions, such, for example, as that
looking to the reopening of the foreign slave-
trade. They serve to illustrate the important
part played by the ante-be//um towns in devel-
oping and intensifying the movement toward
secession; but it is more to the point here to



XXVlll

 






Introduction



observe that they were preceded by a series of
conventions more strictly commercial in char-
acter-gatherings that did all they could to stir
up the people of the South to the need of urban
development and to open their eyes to the fact
that their section was yearly falling behind in
wealth and political power.'
  This first series seems to have begun with a
gathering in Augusta, Georgia, in October,
I837, the object of the meeting being to allow
merchants the opportunity to discuss projects
for developing a direct trade between the
South and Europe. As the only speeches
that caused comment were made by two
" Colonels" and a " General," it is easy to
perceive that even in such a convention the
commercial classes were overshadowed. The
delegates met twice, however, the next year,
and afterwards at Charleston and Macon, the
presence of delegates from all the Southern
States being solicited and in part obtained.
These meetings did what they could to arouse
the South to commercial activity, on one
I The later series of conventions is well described by Mr. Edward
Ingle in his interesting and valuable volume, based mainly upon
magazine and newspaper research, entitled Southern Sidelights
(pp. 220-261) Mr. Ingle pays but slight attention to the earlier
series, which seems nowhere to have been fully described.



XXIX

 






Introduction



occasion viewing " with deep regret the neglect
of all commercial pursuits " that had thitherto
prevailed among the youth of the section.
That their efforts were no more successful than
those of the contemporary railway promoters
proves only that the failure of urban develop-
ment in the South was due not to the su-
pineness of the entire population but to the
presence of an institution during the existence
of which agriculture was bound to be the para-
mount industry. It is interesting to notice
that these efforts toward urban development
were contemporaneous with and in answer to
the agitation of the early abolitionists; that
they practically ceased during the movement
for territorial aggrandizement in Texas and the
Far West; and that they began in full force
when it became apparent that the South had
gained less of the new territory than she
thought she would. So true is it that all
Southern history has a political background!
  It is not, however, desirable that the present
Introduction should degenerate into a dry
historical essay devoted to certain obscure
points in the economic history of the South,
although it does seem important that the
reader should realize that the citizens of



xxx

 






Introduction



Southern towns between the years i 80o and
i 86o were not altogether lacking in enterprise
and foresight. Yet the period mentioned is so
interesting in many ways that it is hard to leave
it. It would be pleasant to sketch briefly the
efforts made to develop literary centers-
especially at Richmond and Charleston: the
esta