Secondly: The economic conditions existing at the South were totally unlike those in other parts of the country. The Old South was, emphatically, a community of agriculturists; and of all modes of making a livelihood agriculture is the one least liable to violent fluctuations and sudden collapse. It is true that in the South wealth never rolled up into the millions, and, judged by present standards, bank accounts were by no means imposing in round numbers; but all the real advantages and immunities that wealth can give were enjoyed by the Southern people who, as a class, were in possession of an assured income sufficient not only for the supply of their necessities, but for the gratification of their tastes as well. And in those days there was a solidity and a stability about men’s financial affairs which effectually removed from them the pressure of anxiety for the future, and protected them from that feverish, harassing mental strain only too well-known elsewhere. And here again, we come face to face with that basal fact—“the institution”—on which rested the whole industrial system of the South. Again: The intimate relation necessarily existing between economic and social conditions would lead us to infer that conservatism was the great law of Southern society. And in truth, permanence and continuity were its most marked characteristics. The fluctuations and vicissitudes which formed so striking a feature of Northern social life were practically unknown at the South. From generation to generation, men occupied the same habitations, pursued the same callings and held the same place in the community; and, as a rule, the father’s social status determined that of the son, and the son’s son after him. Thus was created and preserved a social atmosphere only attainable under these peculiar conditions; and the effect of such a social environment upon the whole tone of the people may readily be conceived. In the South, for example, the spirit of commercialism was noticeably absent. Wealth was not there regarded as the “be all” and the “end all” of existence—the standard by which to measure the sum of human achievement. Nor was a money value affixed to the thousand and one little services passing current in the community. These were regarded simply as small social courtesies due from neighbor to neighbor, and were freely rendered and as freely accepted, without a thought of pecuniary obligation on either side.