The condition of the South, during the past twelve years, is vividly illustrated in a series of letters written by Mr. Justin Knight, a gentleman of undoubted integrity, a resident of the South during the period referred to, and which are here given in a narrative form for the better convenience of the reader. Speaking of himself and the peculiar circumstances that brought him to the Southern States, Mr. Knight says:
"Born in close proximity to the metropolis of New England, where I received the advantages of a collegiate education, and the religious instruction of parents who, without bigotry, were opposed to every species of wrong, I early conceived a desire to enter upon the ministry, which I did in 1857, almost immediately after the close of my collegiate life.
My constitution, at no time robust, was entirely inadequate to the labors imposed upon me by the duties of this new position. My health continued gradually to give way until the winter of 1859, when my physician decided that a change of climate was essentially necessary to my well-being, and under his advice I proceeded to Charleston, S. C., and took up my residence with a married sister, then living there in affluent circumstances.
At this peculiar epoch in the history of the country the political atmosphere of the South was literally pestilential. Under the manipulation of skillful, but unscrupulous leaders, whole communities had become imbued with a spirit hostile to the governing powers. They were led to believe that the time for argument had past, and that nothing was now left them, but to make a demand for what they were pleased to consider their inherent rights;--that of keeping their fellow men in bondage--and if this were refused, to declare themselves for war. The portentious clouds of the impending crisis continued gathering thick and fast, and it required no prophet's eye to discern, or voice to foretell that they must soon burst upon the country in a deluge that could only be stayed by an enormous waste of blood and treasure.
A sojourn of nearly eighteen months among the southern people, and the facilities afforded me from the position occupied by my sister's family, gave me an unusual opportunity to observe the passing pageant of events. The masses had been gradually worked over to the interests of the more intelligent leaders, until reason and argument ceased further to influence them. They seemed wholly given up to the one idea of slavery, or war, and they had been led to believe that the first demonstration of organized resistance to the regularly constituted powers, would bring the North at their feet in abject supplication for peace. I was anxious to know how the defiant and belligerent attitude that was being assumed would be received in the land of my birth, and as my health had sufficiently improved to warrant my again returning there, I did so at the earliest opportunity, only to realize that the people of the North were buckling on their armor, with the deep seated purpose of going forth to battle for the right.