Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/553

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may safely unite in the formation of one strong central government; that a multiplicity of peoples with entirely different interests and pursuits may still be one in sympathy, purpose and hope. Situated midway between the North and the South, not only is her climate a delightful mingling of both extremes, but the temper of her inhabitants is a dignified reserve and a spontaneous fervor of feeling happily proportioned. Able, on the one hand, to appreciate the spirit of progress which makes the North impatient of those conditions and tendencies which the South has wisely altered with caution; and, on the other hand, apprehending the principle of personal independence which causes the South to suspect Northern counsel as impelled by a desire to interfere with individual liberty, she has long occupied a position similar to that of Tennyson's sweet little heroine, 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."

Scarcely less sublime than Columbus pacing the deck of his ship at sea and looking wistfully westward in search of the new world he