passion, to those of the "giddy-paced" and
excited multitude, and who, nevertheless, carries them "into act." That
man who can stand in the breach of universal public censure, with all
the fashions of opinion disgracing him in the thoughts of the lookers
on, with the tide of obloquy beating against his breast, and the fingers
of the mighty, combined many, pointing him to scorn; nay, with the fury
of the drunken rabble threatening him with instant death; and, worse
than all, having no present friend to whisper a word of defence or
palliative, in his behalf, to his revilers, but bravely giving his naked
head to the storm, because he knows himself to be virtuous in his
purpose; that man shall come forth from this fierce ordeal like tried
gold; philosophy shall embalm his name in her richest unction, history
shall give him a place on her brightest page, and old, yea, hoary,
far-off posterity shall remember him as of yesterday.

There were heroes of this mould in South Carolina, who entered with the
best spirit of chivalry into the national quarrel, and brought to it
hearts as bold, minds as vigorous, and arms as strong as ever, in any
clime, worked out a nation's redemption. These men refused submission to
their conquerors, and endured exile, chains, and prisons, rather than
the yoke. Some few, still undiscouraged by the portents of the times,
retreated into secret places, gathered their few patriot neighbors
together, and contrived to keep in awe the soldier-government that now
professed to sway the land. They lived on the scant aliment furnished in
the woods, slept in the tangled brakes and secret places of the fen,
exacted contributions from the adherents of the crown, and by rapid
movements of their woodland cavalry and brave blows, accomplished more
than thrice their numbers would have achieved in ordinary warfare.

The disaffected abounded in the upper country, and here Cornwallis
maintained some strong garrisons. The difficulties that surrounded the
republican leaders may well be supposed to have been appalling in this
region, where regular posts had been established to furnish the Tories
secure points of union, and the certainty of prompt assistance whenever
required. Yet notwithstanding the numerical inferiority of the friends
of independence, their guarded and proscribed condition, their want of
support, and their almost absolute destitution of all the necessaries of
military life, the nation was often rejoiced t