NamSouth

[btownsend]

"The fashionable ladies of the South had received the education of political thought and discussion to a degree unknown among their sisters of the North. "She can read bad French novels, and play a few tunes on the piano," said a cynical friend of mine concerning a young lady who had completed a costly education at a fashionable school in New York; "but upon my word, she does not know whether she is living in a monarchy or a republic." The sneer would never have applied to the corresponding class in the South. These ladies were conversant with political theories and held definite opinions."

Washington Irving in 1826, Josiah Quincy, Figure of the Past.