Excerpt from South Carolina, With Special Reference to Aiken and Vicinity, as a Desirable Location for Actual Settlers

The great variety of climate and soils embraced within the area of the United States has frequently been the theme for the panegyrists of our country. Each section and each State has some special aptitudes for particular employments: some special advantages over others, which render it peculiarly adapted for certain productions or appropriate pursuits. In general terms, much has been said and written of the immense undeveloped resources of the South; still the ideas of the citizens of other sections are quite frequently vague and undefined, or ridiculous and absurd. Erroneous ideas prevail as to the actual condition of the physical characteristics of the country, as well as of the moral and intellectual characteristics of the people. Statements the most Opposite and contradictory, by newspaper correspond ents, bureau officials, or transient visitors; some representing everything as couleur de rose, whilst others can hardly find language to express their hatred and dislike of their recent foes.

In a country as vast, extensive and populous as the Southern States, there must necessarily be great diversity in regard to the characteristics of both the people and the country, and what may be true of one section may be inapplicable to another.

Believing that reliable information respecting a district in South Carolina, which offers peculiar attractions to Northern men who desire, now that slavery is abolished, to locate in the Sunny South, as well as to the thousands of consumptive invalids who are annually forced to migrate, will prove interest ing, we propose to give, in the following pages, some account of aiken and its vicinity, and the data upon which to found a rational opinion of its advantages.

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