G34 TRANSPORTATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



latiiig liberality of South Carolina in this respect, and although Charles- 

 ton was necessarily the chief sufferer, and exercised at that time an al- 

 most paramount influence in the State, she never sought to monopolize 

 the trade of the interior by obstructing the charters of railroads leading 

 to rival cities. 



" It is due to a high-minded and generous community to record this 

 ^fact, and to point out that it was the consequence of consistent adherence 

 to principle, and not attributable to either weakness or indifference. 



The effects produced by railroads, above referred to, are these : 



1st. The railroads were built, for the most part, on the ridges between 

 the rivers, and thus tended to produce a new distribution of population 

 in those parts of the State which they traversed. 



The earliest settlements in the low country, as we have seen, followed 

 the rivers, and in 1817, Col. A. Blanding stated in a published address, 

 that " two-thirds of all the market products of the State are raised with- 

 in five miles, and most of the other third within ten miles of a navigable 

 stream ;" one of the consequences, no doubt, of the work done in im- 

 proving internal navigation, and of the insufficient means provided for 

 making and keeping up the roads. It will be seen from this why the 

 earlier railroads were so coldly received by the persons then most promi- 

 nent as representatives of the agriculturalists of the interior, and why 

 they were taken up and carried to completion only by men Avho, like 

 Mr. Aiken, Mr. Horry, Mr. Tupper and Judge O'Neale, looked beyond 

 the interests and prejudices of a class, and sought to promote the prosperity 

 of the masses. 



The richer lands bordering the rivers were held in large tracts by 

 wealthy proprietors, who had water carriage for their crops and horses 

 and carriages for them.selves, but the small farmers, scattered over the 

 less fruitful lands upon the ridges, were without facilities for travel and 

 for marketing their produce. To them the railroads were a great boon, 

 but to the land owners on the rivers they were an annoyance. The 

 Charleston and Hamburg railroad was prevented from passing through 

 St. George's, Dorchester, and up the valley of the Edisto, by the opposi- 

 tion of the planters, but w^as welcomed and aided with gifts of land by 

 the scattered settlers in the pine barrens, between the Ashley and Cooper. 



2d. The railroads created towns, and the countr}^ town became at once 

 a new and important element in the development of the interior of the 

 State. These towns were the centres of trade ; churches and schools 

 arose there, some ac([uired colleges, and each town attracted to itself the 

 enterprise, talent, and me(ihanical skill of the vicinit}', and lawyers, cler- 

 gymen, doctors, and merchants united, gave the towns that leadership 

 in local affairs, social and political, which had been before enjoyed by 



