Charleston, 13 November, 1860.
My dear Jane:
You see how saving I am getting to be, as I will not waste a sheet of paper because it is scratched. There is certainly reason for it, and we have fallen on evil days. It is sorrowful to see things that impair our respect for our countrymen, and nothing can be more efficient to produce that feeling than the scenes that are passing. It is barely possible that Georgia may recoil from the [action] that the Secessionists are driving to. The South Carolina men show by their precipitancy that they are afraid to trust the second thought or even their own people, and if the Georgians take time to reflect they will probably come to the conclusion that there is no necessity for action. But that is very uncertain.
* * * Last night the West Point Mill was burnt; the Governor had $5,000 in it. I was commiserating him and Joe under the load of debt that they are caught in this revolutionary day, when this new addition to the Governor's troubles is upon him. * * * Adieu.
YOUR BROTHER
SOURCE: James Petigru Carson, Life, Letters and Speeches of James Louis Petigru: The Union Man of South Carolina, p. 361-2
“It is sorrowful to see things that impair our respect for our countrymen, and nothing can be more efficient to produce that feeling than the scenes that are passing.”
Yep, history rhymes.
5.56mm