rited, and the hearts and
courage of his countrymen warmed into corresponding exertions with his
own. To him we owe that the fires of patriotism were never extinguished,
even in the most disastrous hours, in the low country of South Carolina.
He made our swamps and forests sacred, as well because of the refuge
which they gave to the fugitive patriot, as for the frequent sacrifices
which they enabled him to make, on the altars of liberty and a becoming
vengeance. We are in possession of but few of the numerous enterprises
in which he was engaged; imperfect memories of the aged give us glimpses
of deeds for the particulars of which we turn in vain to the dusty pages
of the chronicler. But we need not generalize farther upon the traits
of his military character. We have endeavored to make these speak for
themselves, page by page, in the narration of the events, so far as we
know them, by which his reputation was acquired. It is enough that his
fame has entered largely into that of his country, forming a valuable
portion of its sectional stock of character. His memory is in the
very hearts of our people. Of the estimation in which he was held by
contemporaries more might be said, but these pages bear ample testimony
of the consideration which he commanded from friend and foe. The
testimonials of Moultrie, Greene, Lee and others, are conclusive of
that rare worth and excellence--that combination of military and civil
virtues--which biography cannot easily be found to excel.

Chapter 21.

Marion retires to his Farm, which he finds in Ruins--Is
returned to the Senate from St. John--His Course on the
Confiscation Act--Anecdotes--Is made Commandant at Fort
Johnson--His Marriage--A Member of the State Convention
in 1794--Withdraws from Public Life--His Death.

It was with no reluctance but with the cheerful preference which Marion
had always given, since manhood, to the life of the farmer, that he
returned to its simple but attractive avocations. But the world with him
was, as it were, to be begun anew; no easy matter to one whose habits
had been necessarily rendered irregular by the capricious and desultory
influences of a military career; still more difficult in the case of
one who has entered upon the last period of life. The close of the
Revolution found him destitute of means, almost in poverty, and more
than fifty years old. His health was good, however; his frame elastic;
his capacity fo