The Old South. 429
Wirt, Gilmore, Simms, Hawks, Legare, Hayne, Ryan, Timrod, the Elliotts, of South Carolina, Tichnor, Lanier, Thornwell, Archibald Alexander and his sons, Addison and James W , Bledsoe, Mrs. Welby, Mrs. Terhune, &c. Brooke, of Virginia, solved the problem of deep sea sounding, which had so long baffled men of science. But the other day, General John Newton, of Virginia, was at the head of the Engineering Department of the United States. Stephen V. Benet, of Florida, is now head of the United States Ordnance Department, and Dr. Robert Murray, of Maryland, is Surgeon General.
Most of the Southern inventions were lost to those whose genius devised them, because the Old South had no foundries or machine shops in which they could be made, and no great centres of trade by which they could be put upon the market. With rare magnanimity, Southern congressmen had voted for protective tariffs fishing boun- ties, and coast-trade regulations, which did so much to build up the big cities and great commerce of the North and to fill its coffers to overflowing. Even Mr. Calhoun had voted to protect " infant indus- tries," believing that the infants would in the course of time learn to crawl and walk, and do without pap. But that time has not yet come. Thomas Prentice Kettell, a Northern man, estimates that in these three ways the Old South contributed from, 1789 to 1861, $2,770,000,000 of her wealth to Northern profits Our statesmen knew, surely, that their own section would never get one dollar in return from this enormous expenditure. But they were patriotic enough to be willing to make the nation rich and prosperous, even at the ex- pense, for a season, of their own beloved South. My countrymen ! that Old South was a generous Old South. The world scoffs at such generosity, and says " it don't pay." The Old South believed with the wise man, that "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and loving favor rather than gold and silver." But the world does not think with Solomon and the Old South, and chooses great riches rather than the good name, and gives its loving favor to the holders of the gold and silver. But while the Old South had some success in literature, art and science, the character of its people ought to be judged mainly by what they accomplished in the two departments to which their efforts were mostly restricted politics and war. Did the Old South give to the country wise statesmen and brave warriors? This will be the subject of the present investigation.
Mr. Bancroft says: "American Independence, like the great rivers of the country, had many sources, but the head spring which colored all the stream was the Navigation Act." The whole of New England
