Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/150

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A Year of Campaigning
131

the Cherokee Indian case, in which event they might join and make common cause with that state.[1]

One of the most bitter opponents of nullification was the able and sarcastic editor of the Columbia Free Press and Hive.[2] It was such a disgrace in South Carolina to have any connection with manufacturing interests that men would fight if accused of it. In the course of his campaign the Free Press and Hive editor appears to have printed a list of John Preston's property to show that the latter was interested in some manufacturing enterprises. It was thought that this

  1. Poinsett Papers: William Smith to D. E. Huger, February 16, 1831.
  2. The following is a good sample of his style, from the issue of February 12, 1831: "This disorganizing demon [party spirit] loves to appear clad in the robes of patriotism and breathing the language of disinterested public spirit; often, ere the unsuspecting are aware, he insinuates himself into public favor, and when he finds his grasp on the popular feeling sufficiently firm he indites a vocabulary of his , own, in which innovation signifies reform and reform revolution; laughing with demoniac pleasure to see the friends of order and constitutional reform startled at the development of his frightful stratagems, he kindly attempts to soothe their fears by an appeal to their chivalry, telling them of their womanish nerves and offering them the insolvents' security by kindly offering to eat all the bodies which may fall in a war of his exciting." The editor then denounced these "political blacklegs" and "gamblers."