Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/434

 428 Southern Historical Society Papers.

not there, but in cities and towns. The fire may be hid in flint for countless ages and the spark only be given out when the flint is struck by the steel. So the intellectual giants, reared in the free, fresh air of the country, have only given out their grand thoughts under the influence of other minds in populous places.

Thus, the men of the Old South, being cut oft from wealth, from mining, manufacturing, commerce, art, science and literature, found but two fields open in which they could distinguish themselves war and politics and into these they entered boldly and successfully, and became leading statesmen and renowned warriors. So the surround- ings of the Old South determined the destiny of its sons, just as the surroundings of the North determined that of its sons. Exceptional cases occurred at the South where fame was won outside of politics. Thus Audubon, of Louisiana, was the first, as he is the most distin- guished, of American ornithologists. Washington Allston, of South Carolina, ranks among the foremost of American painters. M. F. Maury, of Virginia, has done more for navigation than any one of this century, and he received more medals, diplomas and honors as a man of science from European nations than any other American. John Gill, of Newberne, North Carolina, is the true inventor of the revolver, that has revolutionized the tactics of the world. Dr. Clemens, of Salisbury, North Carolina, is the true inventor of the telegraph, which has made almost instantaneous the intercourse between the most distant nations of the earth. McCormick, of Virginia, was the first to put the reaper into the field, which has done so much to develop the vast grain fields of the West. Stevens, of South Caro- lina, was the first to use iron as a protection against artillery, and thus the whole system of naval warfare has been changed. Dr. Reed, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is the inventor of rifled cannon, which have made useless fortifications of stone and brick. Richard Jordan Catling, of Hertford county, North Carolina, is the inventor of the terrible gun that bears his name. The Georgians claim that their countryman. Rev. F. R. Goulding, is the inventor of the sewing-machine. General Gabriel J. Rains, by the construction of a peculiar friction primer, made the use of torpedoes success- ful in the Southern waters during the civil war, and demonstrated that weak maritime nations could be protected against the most powerful. The Le Contes, of Georgia, are to-day among our foremost men of science. Dr. J. Marion Sims, of South Carolina, had more reputation abroad than any other American physician. In literature, we have had such men as Marshall, Kennedy, Gayarre,