The New England Society celebrated its 190th anniversary this past week. The celebration was held less than 200 yards from the corner of Tradd and Bedon's Alley where the first banquet was held.

Charleston's New Englanders were Massachusetts and Rhode Island folks cast in the mold of the Separatists' Tradition -- champions of dissent -- foes of tyranny -- immigrants all from Plymouth, Poole, and Scrooby.

These transplanted Up-Easters were descendants of Bradford, Brewster, Standish, Alden, Parker, More, Tilly, Winslow and others of the good ships Mayflower and Speedwell.

Thanks to 18th century economic slumps, craftsmen and merchants from Boston, Providence, and Newport looked elsewhere for work. They found work and sunnier weather here.

With the War of 1812 there was more economic downturn. Out-of-work mariners walked the streets and there were orphans of New Englanders here. British blockades of the sea lanes caused many Charleston ships to remain docked.

Joining together

Because the early members were kindred souls to those in need, they established this fraternal and charitable society. They became known for their social functions.  

A sampling of their banquet speakers over the years includes Daniel Webster, James Louis Petigru, Professor John E Holbrook, William Dana, Josiah Quincy, Charles Francis Adams, Samuel Gilman, Governor William Hodges Mann of Virginia, John Bennett, R. Goodwyn Rhett, Huger Sinkler, Henry Buist, and T.R. Waring.

However, arranging Charleston's most prestigious banquet is not the

reason for the New England Society's existence. Over the years they have encouraged each others' ventures, and they made charitable causes their watchword.

Without shrewd New Englanders in the counting houses on Broad Street, without former New Englanders managing import - export houses, the free trade ideals of Adam Smith would likely have remained a feature of just the Mid-Atlantic states.

Our South was uniquely, some would say, hopelessly agrarian. The South's gentleman class was continually mired in debt to lenders foreign and domestic. New England men did for Charleston what the Scots did for the English gentry -- they made it acceptable to accumulate wealth through trade and investments.

Before New England-style commerce became the norm, Charleston was building a Hellenistic slavocracy that would have given pause to ancient Troy -- but we would never have survived the second wave of industrialism.

A business matter

When did Charleston commence its fruitful association with the gentlemen of New England?

An Account of the Province of Carolina, 1682, by Samuel Wilson mentions:

'In May, 1680, the lords proprietors sent their orders to the government there appointing the port town for these two rivers to be built on the Point of land that divides them, and to be called Charles Town, since which time about a hundred houses are built, and more are building daily by the persons of all sorts who come there to inhabit, from the more northern English colonies, and the Sugar Islands, England, and Ireland ....'

Over time Charleston men with surnames of Russell, Winthrop, Crocker, among others, developed relationships with New Englanders such as Hancock, Adams, and Revere to set us on the course of revolution ?—and ultimately — independence. A byproduct of this association was the unleashing of the most potent political force ever seen on this planet — modern capitalism.

 A New England-born Charlestonian named Josiah Quincy was a man whom the Colonial Society of Massachusetts has recently elevated as second only to John Adams for advocating American independence.

A difference in culture

Quincy was no stranger to the Boston and New York maritime scene, yet, he was amazed at the international trade in Charleston. This keen observer also thought that Charleston's ladies at the St. Cecilia Ball were the most elegant he'd seen.

'They were quiet and reflective during the concert, but very flirtatious afterward, but not so vivacious as New England ladies.'

 He noted, 'Unlike Bostonians, Charleston gentlemen wore swords, even to balls.'

It's no surprise that prior to the Revolution committees of secret correspondence were set up between their Masonic Lodges in Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Savannah.

The bond between Charleston and New England became more cordial when the British blockaded the port of Boston in 1775. When Boston was blockaded and its citizens were deprived of even basic necessities, Charlestonians were among the first to respond. Two shiploads of rice, totaling 200 barrels, were run in to Plymouth and carted overland into Boston.

A cold front

What happened to make the special relationship between Charleston and New England wither and grow cold?

The mood change actually occurred on the floor of the U.S. Senate during the Hayne-Webster debates of January, 1830. Charleston's Robert Y. Hayne and Daniel Webster of New Hampshire crossed words in matters dealing with the sale of government lands in the West. However, the debate escalated into a series of brilliant, if heated, speeches that are in themselves cameos of the finest oratory ever witnessed in that chamber.

However, that clever debater Webster set the cocky Hayne up to overstate the South's preference for a decentralized style of government.

In what is known as Webster's greatest speech, and what is the greatest oratory ever delivered in the Senate, Daniel Webster made his second rebuttal to Hayne on January 26, 1830. Webster shined as he trumpeted nationalism over the notion of states' rights.

New England men in Charleston, led by Federal Judge James Louis Petigru, counseled restraint amidst intensifying cries for disunion.

Had we listened more to men such as Goddridge Crocker, William P. Finally, James L. Petigru, William Rice, and other like-minded men of the New England Society, the greatest calamity ever to befall this city, and indeed, this country, might well have been averted.

Closing the gap

The cordial relationship shattered by the War of Disunion began to mend as early as 1876 when Charleston's New England Society hosted the Boston Light Infantry and the Old Guard of New York as its guests for a centennial banquet.

Over time the old wounds of sectionalism closed over.

Words from The Rev. Gary L. Marks, current pastor of The Church of The Pilgrimage on Town Square, Plymouth, Massachusetts, capture the enduring ideals of Old New England:

 '. . . To proclaim the gospel to all mankind, laboring for the progress of knowledge, the promotion of justice, the reign of peace, and the realization of human brotherhood. '

 These words summarize why all of America celebrate the virtues of Old New England.

(Dr. Thomas B. Horton is a history teacher at Porter-Gaud School. He lives in the Old Village of Mount Pleasant).

See more columns online at www.moultrienews.com. Visit his Web site at www.historyslostmoments.com.