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Sketches of South
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COLUMBIA, S. C. South Carolina, unlike Massachusetts, with whom she stood shoulder to shoulder in the Revolution, did not so value her chief seaport as to retain it as her Capital City. Only seven years after the Peace, the Legislature met at the new seat of Government on the Congaree. near the confluence of the Broad and Saluda, just one hundred and twenty years after the first settlement at "Old Town" on the Ashley River. In the diary of his Southern tour and on his way home from Augusta, the advantages' of the site did not escape the keen practical eye of Washington, as he notices the choice with high commendation. Ascending from the meadow lands bordering the Congaree, one is struck with the commanding aspect of the State House facing the main street running north, which, though slightly-lower than the Capitol itself, shares with the rest of the city, which is of rectangular form, an elevation of not less than two hundred feet above the stream.Geographically considered as the approximate centre of the State, there could hardly have been made a more accurate selection, and great care was taken to provide more liberal space and to avoid the mistake of narrow streets and small lots by specifying the dimensions of both. Among the first results that followed the removal of the seat of Government to Columbia and the most beneficial in its consequences, was the establishment of the State College, which has not only numbered among its graduates some of the most distinguished citizens in the higher walks of life, but has shed lustre on itself by the life and labors of some very able instructors in the various branches of its course, such as Cooper, whose contributions on the subject of Political Economy were a noted feature of his time; Lieber, whose works on Civil Government have become a classic; his son, who was State Geologist, and Dr. Thornwell. The Presbyterian Theological Seminary is noted for the high character and ability of its faculty and student body. The Hospital for the Insane has kept pace with the popular demand for humane and enlightened methods practiced in educational centres elsewhere. The State Penitentiary is also located here. In the matter of providing themselves with a building befitting the dignity of the Commonwealth the Legislature cannot be said to have acted hastily, for down to the middle of the nineteenth century an ordinary frame building was the scene of their deliberations. The War of Secession interrupted the work on a structure quarried from native granite, designed with great care and proceeding with fidelity to the specifications as far as it went, but the damage inflicted by Sherman's army and the long delayed and insufficient provision for its completion, has resulted in a very serious' departure from the original conception; especially noticeable in its outward features is the diminished number of columns in front and the altered plan of the dome. A replica of Houdon's statue of Washington mid a recent equestrian monument to Hampton adorn the grounds: also a Confederate memorial representing a private soldier. The site of the city, originally a cotton plantation, is now the location of cotton manufactures on a colossal scale; its population having more than doubled itself in the last twenty years, an encouraging fact considering that it was almost entirely destroyed by Sherman's army in 1865. Besides being a railroad centre, the revival of steamboat navigation to the coast reopens a long closed addition to trade. |
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