The Life and Times of
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The Life and Times of
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Chapter Three The domestic life which Mr. Lowndes had probably expected to enjoy on his retirement from public affairs was not to be his for some years longer. Mrs. Lowndes's health had been much impaired by grief for the loss of her first two children, and she now became seriously ill. The doctors advised a residence of two years in England, and it was decided that her little son should accompany her. Business made it impossible for Mr. Lowndes to leave Carolina at the moment, but he hoped to join her the next year, and her old friends, the Coopers and Gardens, were still in London, and from them she was sure of kindness and attention. Letters from Dr. Cooper show that Mr. Lowndes had requested him to prepare for her coming.
It must have been very pleasant to the poor ill lady to have kind old acquaintances about her in her solitary journey; and Dr. Garden seems to have been a physician ahead of his time, judging by the prescription given above. The project of a visit from her husband and daughters never was carried out, nor did she improve as rapidly as had been hoped. A letter from Messrs. Bird, Savage & Bird, who seem to have been the factotums of half the people in Charleston, mentions to Mr. Lowndes their regret at her continued ill health " which will oblige her to spend another winter in this country, . . . and that they will have great pleasure- in furnishing her with money." This was in November, 1790, and she remained abroad three years in all, her health by that time being entirely reestablished. Unfortunately, however, the English visit had not as happy an effect upon her son. He was upon bis arrival in England an extremely pretty and healthy child. A miniature taken there shows a lovely complexion, beautiful blue eyes, and a quantity of softly curling fair hair. He was just seven, — too young, we should say, for a boarding school, but it was the fashion of the time, and to school he went. He is said to have made great progress and to have been a general favorite, but on one unlucky day, being tired after a game of ball, with schoolfellows all older than himself, he sat down on a bank to rest, and fell asleep. The game being finished the boys went home, not remembering their little playmate. Some time passed before he was missed, and then search being made he was found in a. heavy sleep and half buried in snow. It seems hard to believe that such a little fellow was scolded and threatened with flogging instead of being put into a warm bed! No care was taken and by morning rheumatic fever had begun. For some time his life was despaired of. He recovered, but never had any health again. Upon their return home, in 1792, he was placed at the school of Mr. Henry Osborne, an Englishman, he being then ten years old. The school bills show that he continued here until 1795. One of his schoolfellows, Mr. James Deas, afterwards of Mobile, wrote of him in 1859: "Mr. Osborne was an Englishman, strict and severe in his discipline, as was the order of the teachers of that day. Young Lowndes, then in the Latin Classics, was called up for recitation and translation, without his having paid the least attention or knowing a word of his lesson. His preceptor told him that he deserved and would receive the rod, unless he gave him a translation, without the book, and at his little table, and to attend to the only chance he should have of saving himself. He read to him fifty lines of the Satires' of Horace and closed the book. Such was his intellect at that early age that he furnished a correct translation, to the astonishment of all his schoolfellows. He was always regarded by them as possessing a wonderful intellect." He could not at this time have been over thirteen and perhaps this feat was rather one of memory than of intellect, properly speaking, although of course it implied a good knowledge of Latin. At thirteen William Lowndes was removed to what was then the
best school in the city (in the bills it is called "the The head was the Rev. Dr. Gallagher, a Roman Catholic priest, and his associates were the Rev. Dr. Buist, of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Dr. Purcell, Rector of St. Michael's. Here the boy soon distinguished himself. " His mind," Dr. Gallagher said, " drank up knowledge as the earth drinks up water." His health put him at times to all sorts of inconvenience; occasionally he had to recite lying on the school bench, and sometimes had to submit to being taken to school in a chair. His inordinate growth had probably much to do with this weakness, for by the time that he was nineteen he was six feet six, and terribly thin and narrow-chested; however, in his intervals of comparative health he was gay and bright, and a great favorite with his schoolfellows, who thought his memory simply marvelous. One of them, Mr. Charles Fraser, the distinguished artist, who long outlived him, said that by once reading a passage in any book he could repeat it correctly. He translated the " Odes " of Horace into verse, and wrote some original verses on the death of a schoolfellow. Very often, however, he could not go to school for weeks at a time, and then " he was dependent on his parents for his various sources of amusement, reading with his mother, or discussing with his father (with whom he lived on terms of singular familiarity) questions, as they would arise, or making them for the exercise of his reasoning faculty." This sentence is taken from an unsigned manuscript sketch written in 1835, evidently by one who had known the persons of whom he wrote. There is no clue to the authorship. In after years Mr. Lowndes told his wife that these discussions with his father and brothers had been of great service to him, teaching him to look at every side of a subject and sift it thoroughly. He added that at first his father had been angrily impatient of opposition, but that when he had ventured to suggest u that it spoiled the game," he controlled his temper, and the arguments were continued. " To my brothers," he said, " he was imperious, but my youth and my miserable health made him very tender of me, except when he thought that I needed rousing, and then he would give me a rub with the rough of his tongue, which did me good." These two elder brothers, Thomas and James, were Mr. William Lowndes's best friends through life, helping and advising him in every possible way. His sisters also were devoted to him and to his mother, and one of them, who lived to a great age, used to speak of her stepmother as " a very sweet girl." By this time society in Charleston was wider and gayer than it had ever been before. The newspapers of the day, the " Charleston Courier " and the " Gazette," are full of advertisements of amusements of all sorts. Of these, the races were perhaps the most important. From early colonial days the planters had bred and run their own horses among themselves for country sport, and the " York Course," near the old town of Dorchester, had long been a place of general meeting. From 1786 the chief course was the " Newmarket," just outside of Charleston, and here the "race week" was held once a year, in February. Horses from all parts of the State came, and their owners, with their families, came also, to what was to them the most important event of the year. Dr. Irving, in the " History of the Turf in Carolina," and Mr. Fraser, in his " Reminiscences," give glowing accounts of the excellent sport; of the fine horses, the careful management, and the good tone of the whole affair. They are also animated in describing the assemblage; the handsome equipages (many four in hand), the fine carriage horses, the liveried outriders, and the gallant cavaliers in attendance. The ladies were all in their best array, the gentlemen well mounted and equipped in boots and buckskins; all classes went; the schools gave holiday and the law courts adjourned, for no schoolboy could be kept to his books, and the lawyers were as eager as the boys. The judge and the master went too, and forgot for the day wig and rod. It was bad to be ill in race week, for the doctor abandoned his patient, and invalid and nurse chafed at their own detention. The shops in Broad and King streets closed for the racing hours, and the clerks hurried to the course, while the negroes, who crowded the surrounding fences and walks, were the gayest of the throng, proud sometimes to recognize a son or brother in the funny little jockey who wore the winning colors. It was a great open-air festival, enjoyed in hearty fashion by the whole people. The Jockey Club ball (always on Friday) was the handsomest and gayest of the whole year; for it the ladies kept their best gowns, and the gentlemen their best wines. Many who never went to any other festivity made a point of coming out to meet " the Jockeys," and greeted friends from far and near. This condition of things (with inevitable changes of
fashion) lasted to 1860, and many still living can remember those merry
days. The point was carried, however, and " from conscientious scruples Mr. Ravenel left the turf in consequence." It may be feared that the dread was well founded — it could hardly be otherwise; and it was a pity to give up the pretty old bowls and cups — still to be seen on many sideboards — " won on the York (or the Newmarket) course " by Mr. A's mare " Lucy," or Mr. B's horse " Conquest," for money soon spent and lost to sight. Eager among the schoolboys on these occasions was the young William Lowndes. Years afterwards he writes that he " always enjoyed the races and had a passion for horse-flesh," and one of his first independent purchases was " a chestnut mare, thoroughbred, from Colonel Wade Hampton." Besides the races there were the St. Cecilia concerts, the dancing assemblies, and many private entertainments. The St. Cecilia was still a musical association, the performers all amateurs, gentlemen of the city. In 1792, it sends to Major Thomas Pinckney, then Minister to England, a request that he will have purchased for it " a grand piano-forte with twenty pounds' worth of the best modern music for a concert." The Dancing Assembly Association gave three balls every winter; the subscription to each of these societies was five pounds per annum, as we see by Mr. Lowndes's carefully kept receipts. The theatre had no permanent existence in Charleston, Mr. Fraser tells us, until 1793, but before that there were many transient attempts at one. Then it became at once the favorite amusement, and " all classes of the community were enchanted by the representations." The theatre, which was in Broad Street, was large for that day, and was built, according to the custom of the time, with a pit, sunk below the level of the stage and boxes, and occupied entirely by men; next came the boxes and dress circle, more boxes and the " family circle were above," and the " gallery of the gods " above all. The scene was said to have been very brilliant on a
full-dress night, as ladies and gentlemen were in evening clothes, and,
judging by the jewelers' advertisements of necklaces, "carcanets," and
aigrettes, there can have been no lack of gems to enlighten the picture.
The system of " stars " was not then established, and the theatres
depended upon their stock companies, although, of course, distinguished
actors appeared from time to time. The orchestra owed much of its
reputation to the French refugees from St. Domingo, as many of them
performed in it.
The Charleston Library, almost destroyed by fire during the Revolution, had arisen from its ashes, was conveniently housed, and was gathering in books. By 1808 it had 4500 volumes. The churches were flourishing and well attended. The Eev. Mr. Smith, who had proved his patriotism during the Revolution, still held St. Philip's, and was soon to be the first bishop of the diocese. The same carefully kept accounts, quoted before, show that five pounds a year was the pew rent both for city and country churches; for little St. Bartholomew's as well as for St. Philip's. " Pon-Pon Chappel," which is constantly needing repairs, gets the same annual amount, and the "Protestant Episcopal Society" is five pounds also. With a larger population came also the need for larger organized charities, and the Orphan House, still the pride of Charleston, was begun about this time. Like most institutions of the sort, it owed its origin to public and private charity, the city appropriation being augmented by a long and liberal subscription list; the stimulus being the frequent epidemics of yellow fever, leaving many orphans behind them, to which, in those quarantine-less days, the city was subject. Every one helped, from Mr. Thomas Coram, a childless merchant, who left it his whole estate, to the amateur performers who gave a concert (of which Mrs. Pinckney says, in a letter to her daughter, " the concert was very successful, the little choir-boy sang a solo like an angel"), and "the young ladies of Mrs. Mason's English School, who ' request the ladies who superintend the female economy of the Orphan House' to accept their trifle towards the support of the orphans under their direction." " The Ladies Superintendents of the Female Economy " were by no means figure-heads in this business. It is not a thing of today that "women of good," as the Scotch have it, should take their share of management, and the dignified and determined manner of their interposition is worthy of note ? They write with a sanitary sense ahead of their time. To the Gentlemen Commissioners of the Orphan House, — The ladies superintending the female economy of the Orphan House, having understood that your honorable body was about to pass a resolution to appropriate a part of the in-closure of the Orphan House as a place of interment for the deceased of the Institution ; and thinking (for the reasons hereinafter stated) that it is not going beyond the line of their duty to express their disapprobation of such a measure; they beg leave, with due reference to your superior judgment, TO state :
So the poor children were spared the constant contemplation of their playfellows' graves. Again the ladies, " understanding that some complaints have been brought forward against the Matron, take the liberty of mentioning to the Gentlemen Commissioners that as far as they are able to judge, they are unanimously of opinion that she has been extremely assiduous in the performance of her duties," etc., etc., etc., "very much to their satisfaction." The matron stayed! Mr. Lowndes had always taken a great interest in the Orphan House, and the year before his death wrote the following letter:
A few months later he writes again, resigning the honor of being commissioner; a step, absolutely necessary, he says, on account of failing health; and the commissioners accept the resignation solely on account of the reason given, and assure him that they have always "considered him a Father and Benefactor." In the mean while Carolina, like the rest of the western world, had felt the stirring influence of the French Eevolution. The fair promises and beautiful theories with which that terrible time began had fascinated the mind and fired the imagination of American youth. And not Americans only, for does not Wordsworth himself say, — " Good was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very Heaven." Even the elder men, who had given their own youth to labor and pain in the service of Liberty, when they heard her once more invoked by their former allies, believed for a moment that their history was to be reenacted, and that the countrymen of Lafayette would form for themselves a republic of the same fashion as that built by the countrymen of Washington. From sympathy and enthusiasm they established Jacobin clubs; then when came the excesses of the Reign of Terror, they shrank from the very name of Jacobin. The delusion did not last long, but enough had been said and done to leave much bitterness behind; Washington had been insulted and the country taunted by insolent foreigners and by her own deluded sons. Happily, perhaps, the outrecuidance of the French and their followers became so absolutely unendurable that when the envoy, Citizen Genet, undertook to defy the President and raise levies in Charleston to attack the Spaniards in Florida, Governor Moultrie, who could tolerate no such nonsense, stopped the whole proceeding abruptly, appealed to the law-abiding citizens, and sent the mischief-maker to Washington himself. The French insolence roused the war spirit, and the people prepared for defense. They subscribed for the John Adams frigate, and built, by the freely offered labor of the mechanics of the town, Fort Mechanic on the last point of solid land on East Battery. Happily the war scare blew over, and the events of the day do not affect this narrative, except that the leaven of democracy thenceforth leavened the intense conservatism which had been the characteristic of the State. It was the parting of the ways between the old Federalism and the new spirit of unrest, thenceforward called Republican-Democracy. In this time the young William Lowndes grew up, — precociously clever but fearfully delicate. At fifteen he left school, his master, Dr. Gallagher, who was esteemed a learned man, telling his father that he " had learned all he could teach him, and was beyond him." His health prevented his being sent to a Northern or European college, and after reading (especially history and the classics) for some time at home, he entered the office of De Saussure & Ford, and began the study of law. While still a student he had to endure his first great sorrow — the death of the stern old father, who had, as he said, "been always kind to him." Between the man of eighty and the boy of eighteen there seems to have been a genuine affection. Mr. Rawlins Lowndes, although he had been for years a sufferer from the gout, was fortunate in preserving to his last days unimpaired vigor of mind and faculties, — the letters already given show this, — and he is said to have kept every part of his large estates under his own direction to the end. Perhaps it is even more remarkable in a man of his rugged character that he should also have kept a touch of his early romance, the love of his first wife. A short time before his death he gave to his young, favorite son, a small Queen Anne salver, and told him " if he should ever marry and have a pretty daughter, to give it to her, for it had belonged to Amarinthia." It is marked in the old fashion, — 'A on top of E=L,' for Rawlins and Amarinthia Lowndes. The men of the Revolution were passing away. Mr. Lowndes died May, 1800, and Mr. John Rutledge a few months later. So these two dominant figures left the stage almost at the same time. Constantly in opposition, they yet aimed in different ways at one object only, the good of their country, — Mr. Lowndes, nearly twenty years older than his eloquent opponent, thoroughly English and thoroughly conservative, always willing to give the present order an opportunity to show itself worthy, and dreading nothing so much as the " experiments in politics " which Mr. Rutledge's keener imagination easily adopted, but upholding them loyally when once they became law. He has been called narrow and stubborn, but he was a great
instance of the man of his kind, — the man of his State. He had come as a
child to Carolina from his West Indian birthplace; had remained here, a
boy, when his family returned to the Islands, had won for himself friends,
consideration, influence, and wealth. It was no wonder that he loved the
country which gave him all these, and held her liberties his dearest good.
To him, his country was his State. His horizon, perhaps,
was narrow. The son whom he had reared and taught was to take a wider,
calmer, more benign, but hardly a clearer view, and to his own chosen
epitaph might be added one line, — "That with all his strength he loved Carolina." |
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