I remember a case in which a neighbor ofmy own, a very wealthy gentleman, whosehouse was always open and always full ofguests, dying, left each of his children aplantation. To the eldest son, however,he gave the home estate, worth three orfour times as much as any of the otherplantations, and with it he gave the youngman also a large sum of money. But he[xxiv]charged him with the duty of keepingopen house there, at all times, and directedthat the household affairs should be conductedalways precisely as they had beenduring his own lifetime. The chargewell-nigh outweighed the inheritance.The new master of the place lived in Richmond,where he was engaged in manufacturing,and after the death of the fatherthe old house stood tenantless, but openas before. Its troops of softly shod servantsswept and dusted and polished asof old. Breakfast, dinner, and supperwere laid out every day at the accustomedhours, under the old butler's supervision,and as the viands grew cold his silentsubordinates waited, trays in hand, at theback of the empty chairs during the fulltime appointed for each meal. I havestopped there for dinner, tea, or to spendthe night many a time, in company withone of the younger sons who lived elsewhere,or with some relative of the family,[xxv]or alone, as the case might be, and I havesometimes met others there. But ourcoming or not was a matter of indifference.Guests knew themselves alwayswelcome, but whether guests came or notthe household affairs suffered no change.The destruction of the house by firefinally lifted this burden from its master'sshoulders, as the will did not require himto rebuild. But while it stood, its master'slarge inheritance was of very small worthto him. And in many other cases thepreference given to the eldest son in thedistribution of property was in realityonly a selection of his shoulders to bearthe family's burdens.
All this was an evil, if we choose tothink it so. It was undemocratic certainly,but it worked wonderfully well, and thesystem was good in this at least, that itlaid the foundations of politics among thewisest and best men the State had; for asa rule the planters were the educated menof the community, the reading men, thescholars, the thinkers, and well-nigh everyone of them was familiar with the wholehistory of parties and of statesmanship.Politics was deemed a necessary part of[xxx]every gentleman's education, and theyouth of eighteen who could not recapitulatethe doctrines set forth in the resolutionsof 1798, or tell you the history ofthe Missouri Compromise or the WilmotProviso, was thought lamentably deficientin the very rudiments of culture. Theyhad little to do, and they thought it thebounden duty of every free Americancitizen to prepare himself for the intelligentperformance of his functions in thebody politic. As a result, if Virginia didnot always send wise men to the councilsof the State and nation, she sent no politicallyignorant ones at any rate.
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Not in every house were the servantsso well trained as Henry, but what theylacked in skill they fully made up in numbers,and in hardly anything else was theextravagance of the Virginians so manifestas in their wastefulness of labor. Onnearly every plantation there were ten ortwelve able-bodied men and women employedabout the house, doing the workwhich two or three ought to have done,and might have done; and in addition tothis there were usually a dozen or a scoreof others with merely nominal duties orno duties at all. But it was useless tourge their master to send any of them tothe field, and idle to show him that theaddition which might thus be made to theforce of productive laborers would so increasehis revenue as to acquit him of debtwithin a few years. He did not muchcare to be free of debt for one thing, and[lxvii]he liked to have plenty of servants alwayswithin call. As his dinner table boreevery day food enough for a battalion,so his nature demanded the presence ofhalf a dozen servitors whenever one waswanted. Indeed, these people usuallysummoned servants in squads, callingthree or four to take one guest's horse tothe stable or to bring one pitcher of ice-water.
But if the cheerfulness of the women duringthe war was remarkable, what shall wesay of the way in which they met its finalfailure and the poverty that came with it?The end of the war completed the ruinwhich its progress had wrought. Womenwho had always lived in luxury, and whoselabors and sufferings during the war were[74]lightened by the consciousness that in sufferingand laboring they were doing theirpart toward the accomplishment of the endupon which all hearts were set, were nowcompelled to face not temporary but permanentpoverty, and to endure, without amotive or a sustaining purpose, still sorerprivations than any they had known in thepast. The country was exhausted, and nobodycould foresee any future but one ofabject wretchedness. It was seed-time, butthe suddenly freed negroes had not yetlearned that freedom meant aught else thanidleness, and the spring was gone beforeanything like a reorganization of the laborsystem could be effected. The men mightemigrate when they should get home, butthe case of the women was a very sorryone indeed. They kept their spirits upthrough it all, however, and improvised anew social system in which absolute poverty,cheerfully borne, was the badge of re[75]spectability.Everybody was poor exceptthe speculators who had fattened upon thenecessities of the women and children, andso poverty was essential to anything likegood repute. The return of the soldiersmade some sort of social festivity necessary,and "starvation parties" were given,at which it was understood that the giverswere wholly unable to set out refreshmentsof any kind. In the matter of dress, too,the general poverty was recognized, andevery one went clad in whatever he or shehappened to have. The want of meansbecame a jest, and nobody mourned overit; while all were laboring to repair theirwasted fortunes as they best could. Andall this was due solely to the unconquerablecheerfulness of the Southern women.The men came home moody, worn out,discouraged, and but for the influence ofwoman's cheerfulness, the Southern Statesmight have fallen into a lethargy from[76]which they could not have recovered forgenerations.
Not until we were well out into the lake did either of us lads make anycomment upon this mission with which we had been intrusted, and perhapswe held silent the longer because it had come to us so suddenly[Pg 91] thatwe were embarked in the enterprise before fully realizing it had beenbegun. 2ff7e9595c
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