"You judge from the common saying, instead of a knowledge front
observation, I fear," said the Captain.
"Lord, sir! you must not judge me by that rule. Carolinians, sir,
always appreciate intelligent strangers, for they always exert a
healthy influence, and never meddle with our institutions; so you
see it wouldn't do to follow the pestilent notions of petty
scribblers, lest we should form wrong opinions."
"But tell me," said the Captain, "do you consider yourselves
Americans in South Carolina?--the pilot must have led me astray."
"Americans! yes, indeed, the true blood at that, and no man of
tip-top judgment ever questioned it. But you must mark the
difference; we ha'n't Yankees, nor we don't believe in their
infernal humbuggery about abolition. If it wasn't for South Carolina
and Georgia, the New-Englanders would starve for want of our cotton
and rice. It's the great staple what keeps the country together; and
as much as they talk about it, just take that away, and what would
the United States be? We South Carolinians give no symptoms or
expressions of what we mean to do that we cannot maintain. We have
been grossly insulted by the Federal Government, but it dar'n't come
at us and just give us a chance at fair fight. We'd show 'em the
thunder of the Palmetto, that they'd never trouble our sovereignty
again.
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