The author's last visit to Marion -- interesting conversation on the importance of public instruction -- free schools shown to be a great saving to a nation.
I often went to see Marion. Our evenings were passed as might have been expected between two old friends, who had spent their better days together in scenes of honorable enterprise and danger. On the night of the last visit I ever made him, observing that the clock was going for ten, I asked him if it were not near his hour of rest.
"Oh no," said he, "we must not talk of bed yet. It is but seldom, you know, that we meet. And as this may be our last, let us take all we can of it in chat. What do you think of the times?""O glorious times," said I.
"Yes, thank God!" replied he. "They are glorious times indeed;and fully equal to all that we had in hope, when we drew our swords for independence. But I am afraid they won't last long."I asked him why he thought so.
"Oh! knowledge, sir," said he, "is wanting! knowledge is wanting!
Israel of old, you know, was destroyed for lack of knowledge;and all nations, all individuals, have come to naught from the same cause."I told him I thought we were too happy to change so soon.
"Pshaw!" replied he, "that is nothing to the purpose.
Happiness signifies nothing, if it be not known, and properly valued.
Satan, we are told, was once an angel of light, but for want of duly considering his glorious state, he rebelled and lost all.
And how many hundreds of young Carolinians have we not known, whose fathers left them all the means of happiness; elegant estates, handsome wives, and, in short, every blessing that the most luxurious could desire? Yet they could not rest, until by drinking and gambling, they had fooled away their fortunes, parted from their wives, and rendered themselves the veriest beggars and blackguards on earth.
"Now, why was all this, but for lack of knowledge? For had those silly ones but known the evils of poverty, what a vile thing it was to wear a dirty shirt, a long beard, and ragged coat; to go without a dinner, or to sponge for it among growling relations; or to be bespattered, or run over in the streets, by the sons of those who were once their fathers' overseers; I say, had those poor boobies, in the days of their prosperity, known these things as they NOW do, would they have squandered away the precious means of independence and pleasure, and have brought themselves to all this shame and sorrow?
No, never, never, never.
"And so it is, most exactly, with nations. If those that are free and happy, did but know their blessings, do you think they would ever exchange them for slavery? If the Carthagenians, for example, in the days of their freedom and self-government, when they obeyed no laws but of their own making; paid no taxes, but for their own benefit;and, free as air, pursued their own interest as they liked;I say, If that once glorious and happy people had known their blessings, would they have sacrificed them all, by their accursed factions, to the Romans, to be ruled, they and their children, with a rod of iron;to be burdened like beasts, and crucified like malefactors?
"No, surely they would not."
"Well, now to bring this home to ourselves. We fought for self-government;and God hath pleased to give us one, better calculated perhaps to protect our rights, to foster our virtues, to call forth our energies, and to advance our condition nearer to perfection and happiness, than any government that was ever framed under the sun.""But what signifies even this government, divine as it is, if it be not known and prized as it deserves?"I asked him how he thought this was best to be done?
"Why, certainly," replied he, "by free schools."I shook my head.
He observed it, and asked me what I meant by that?
I told him I was afraid the legislature would look to their popularity, and dread the expense.
He exclaimed, "God preserve our legislature from such `penny wit and pound foolishness'! What sir, keep a nation in ignorance, rather than vote a little of their own money for education!
Only let such politicians remember, what poor Carolina has already lost through her ignorance. What was it that brought the British, last war, to Carolina, but her lack of knowledge? Had the people been enlightened, they would have been united; and had they been united, they never would have been attacked a second time by the British.
For after that drubbing they got from us at fort Moultrie, in 1776, they would as soon have attacked the devil as have attacked Carolina again, had they not heard that they were `a house divided against itself';or in other words, had amongst us a great number of TORIES;men, who, through mere ignorance, were disaffected to the cause of liberty, and ready to join the British against their own countrymen.
Thus, ignorance begat toryism, and toryism begat losses in Carolina, of which few have any idea.
"According to the best accounts, America spent in the last war, seventy millions of dollars, which, divided among the states according to their population, gives to Carolina about eight millions; making, as the war lasted eight years, a million a year. Now, it is generally believed, the British, after their loss of Burgoyne and their fine northern army, would soon have given up the contest, had it not been for the foothold they got in Carolina, which protracted the war at least two years longer.
And as this two years' ruinous war in Carolina was owing to the encouragement the enemy got there, and that encouragement to toryism, and that toryism to ignorance, ignorance may fairly be debited to two millions of loss to Carolina.
"Well, in these two extra years of tory-begotten war, Carolina lost, at least four thousand men; and among them, a Laurens, a Williams, a Campbell, a Haynes, and many others, whose worth not the gold of Ophir could value.
