Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/24

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS ing the Eevolution? Sir, I honor New Eng- land for her conduct in that glorious struggle. But great as is the praise which belongs to her I think at least equal honor is due to the South. They espoused the quarrel of their brethren with a generous zeal which did not suffer them to stop to calculate their interest in the dispute. Favorites of the mother country, possessed of neither ships nor seamen to create a commercial rivalship, they might have found in their situ- ation a guaranty that their trade would be for ever fostered and protected by Great Britain. But trampling on all considerations either of interest or of safety, they rushed into the con- flict, and fighting for principle, periled all in the sacred cause of freedom. Never was there exhibited in the history of the world higher ex- amples of noble daring, dreadful suffering, and heroic endurance than by the Whigs of Carolina during the Revolution. The whole State, from the mountains to the sea, was overrun by an overwhelming force of the enemy. The fruits of industry perished on the spot where they were produced, or were consumed by the foe. The "plains of Carolina" drank up the most precious blood of her citizens! Black and smo- king ruins marked the places which had been the habitations of her children ! Driven from their homes into the gloomy and almost impenetrable swamps, even there the spirit of liberty sur- vived, and South Carolina (sustained by the example of her Sumters and her Marions) 14