condemnation¹¹. To remain blind to their own follies, is the sin of weak States; and we venture nothing when we say that it would be difficult to find a people more dragged down by their own ignorance than are the South Carolinians. And yet, strange as it may seem, no people are more energetic in laying claim to a high intellectual standard. For a stranger to level his shafts¹² against the very evils they themselves most deprecate, is to consign¹³ himself an exile worthy¹⁴ only of that domestic garment

 

Tar¹⁵ and feathers. in which all who think and write too freely, are clothed and sent away.

 

And though the sentiments we have put forth¹⁶ in this work may not be in fashion with our Southern friends, they will give us credit for at least one thing-picturing in truthful¹⁷ colors the errors that, by their own confessions¹⁸, are sapping the very foundations of their society. Our aim is to suggest reforms, and in carrying it out we have consulted no popular prejudice, enlarged upon no enormities to please the lover of tragedy, regarded neither beauty nor the art of novel making, nor created suffering heroines to excite an outpouring of sorrow and tears. The incidents of our story, which at best is but a mere¹⁹ thread, are founded in facts; and these facts we have so modified as to make them acceptable to the reader, while shielding ourself from the charge of exaggeration. And, too, we are conscious that our humble²⁰ influence, heretofore exerted, has contributed to the benefit of a certain class in Charleston, and trust that in this instance it may have a wider field.

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