IRRIGATION, POLITICS, AND SECTIONALISM 99 



A certain amount of bigotry is indispens- 

 able to the life of great undertakings. The 

 typical New Englander, as he was represented 

 in the ranks of the Abolitionists, and as he 

 is to this day, was, and is, a person of one 

 idea. True it is that his enthusiasm is usually 

 exerted in a good cause ; but as he fights his 

 way, blind and deaf, towards his goal, the 

 course behind him lies strewn thick with 

 blunders and mishaps. It is not too much 

 to say that the bitter sectional feeling, dying 

 so hard a death in the South, owes much of 

 its persistency to the stubborn unwillingness 

 of New Englanders, and more particularly of 

 New England women, to be learners in what 

 was to them the unknown land of the South, 

 before starting forth to be therein preachers 

 and teachers. 



The peculiar conditions of Southern life, 

 its unique mental atmosphere, the cause and 

 effect of its existence, so to speak, have never 

 been thoroughly understood by those who 

 may almost be said to belong to another race, 

 so antipathetic are the inhabitants of these 

 widely-sundered sections. The South it was 

 that had to pay for the mistakes of an earnest 



72 



