Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/34

 Ohio had subscribed almost nothing. Why should South Carolina cover Kentucky with railroads? Why, again, should the promoters of the enterprise wish for banking privileges when the whole country was crowded with banks already? He urged the legislature to withhold the desired subscription of $1,000,000 until the success of the road was more fully assured. His advice was not followed, but we may learn two important facts from his remarks: first, that the South suffered 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 discouraged, however, by Governor McDuffie's pessimism. They organized their bank, purchased 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