#robert hayne

Cut down in the midst of all his prospects, [John Laurens] left an infant child, an orphan daughter; and had that child been left destitute and friendless, what would the American nation have done? What ought they to have done? Sir, they would have imitated Rome, in the best, the most virtuous days of that republic. They would have adopted that orphan. She would have become the child of the republic, which would have cherished and protected her – reared her up to honor and usefulness, and finally have bestowed on her 'a suitable dowry in marriage.' But such was fortunately not her destitute condition. She was left to the paternal care of her venerable grandfather, a man of high character, of large fortune, and to whom his deceased son had been dearer than his own life.

South Carolina.