The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-07 00:00:00

SOUTHWARD HO

Professor J. D. B. De Bow, editor of De Bow's Review,
and one of the most eminent political economists of the
Southern States, has lately addressed a very important
letter to Governor Perry, of South Carolina, on the Future
of the South and on the necessity of Emigration. The
letter is too long for re-production in our columns, but we
quote some of the more important passages :
It has been evident to thoughtful men at the South
for a number of years that her career in prosperity and
wealth, in comparison with other sections, was greatly re-
tarded by a deficiency of labor ; and many among us went
so far, even, as to theorize upon the reopening of communi-
cations with the coast of Africa and with Asia for the pur-
pose of securing laborers, either as coolies, apprentices, or
under some other name. It occurred to scarcely any one
that it was practicable, or even desirable, to open the doors
to free -white immigrants, a prejudice being understood to
exist in the minds of such everywhere against coming into
competition with slave labor; and even if such prejudice
did not exist, influences adverse to existing institutions
upon which the prosperity of the South was believed mainly
to rest, was likely to be exerted by that competition.
It followed that whilst the Northern and Western
States, from the constant stream of hardy and industrious
immigrants who were pouring in, exhibited miracles of
progress and development, the South, with vast natural
resources for mining, manufactures and agriculture, ad-
vanced in but the slow ratio of its natural increase, and
immense dominions capable of contributing untold trea-
sures to the commerce of the world remained hermetically
sealed.
The slavery question having been settled, by the
military power of the United States, and the South having
accepted in good faith the solution (slavery being recog-
nized as an issue of the war in which she has lost), and so
framed her legislation as to recognize the negro, in the
future, as a freedman, under no other obligation to labor
than those which bind every other freeman, of whatever
color, it becomes a matter of very anxious inquiry, outside
of the social and political questions involved, what effect
may be expected upon the great questions of labor and
production already disturbed by previously existing causes.
Before going further, it is well to remark, what your
own judgment and information will bear me out fully in,
that the people of the South, universally, are willing to
give a fair and honest trial to the experiment of negro
emancipation, which has been forced upon them, and that
if let alone, to manage affairs in their own way, and with
their intimate knowledge of negro character, and that
sympathy with him and his fortunes which is but the
natural result of long and close association, everything
possible will be done, in good time, for the social, physical,
and political advancement of the race; clashing as little as
practicable at the same time with the great material in-
terests of the country. Those of us who are familiar with
the South are well advised that the restoration of slavery
within its limits, even were it desired, would now be an
impossibility, for reasons induced by the war, and by
the subsequent action of the authorities, both State and
Federal.
While it must be admitted that experiments in negro
emancipation have resulted unfavorably in other countries
similarly situated, I cannot but derive hope from the con-
sideration, that there were causes at work in most of those
countries which do not exist in our own, which may modify
and control the result. I refer to the inferior civilization
of the blacks in the case referred to, their small contact
with the whites, the great disproportion between the
colors, the nature of the climate, requiring little clothing
and producing food spontaneously, etc. Taking these
facts into account I am not despondent of the result,
when time and judicious measures have been allowed to
mature a system.
Bat what is to be done in the meanwhile is a point of
grave interest, and one which will occupy a prominent
place at the meeting of the State Legislatures during the
present winter. Is there anything to be accomplished,
and what, beyond the adoption of such local measures as
relate to the status of the negro and his character as a
producing agent ?
There is but one answer, and that may be condensed into
a few words :
The South must throw her immense uncultivated
domain into the market at a low price ; reduce the quan-
tity of land held by individual proprietors, and resort to
intelligent and vigorous measures at the earliest moment,
to induce an influx of population and capital from abroad.
This is entirely practicable.
That the landed properties of the South have been, in
general, too large, and that great benefit would result to
the proprietors by disposing at low rates of the surplus,
can scarcely be considered open to argumentation.
The staples of the South are of such inestimable value
to the commerce of the world, that they have, in the past,
and promise beyond all contingency in the future to come
into triumphant competition with those of every country
upon the face of the earth. Sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco,
hemp and naval stores are all articles of universal and
almost unlimited demand, at prices which, considering the
cost of production upon cheap land, will yield results to
agricultural labor for which there is no parallel. But
beyond these staple growths, the climates and soils of the
vast region which stretches from the Potomac to the Rio
Grande, are favorable to every product upon which in-
thistly and capital are expended in any country. The vast
mineral resources which geological surveys have divulged,
which no hand of industry has yet attempted to develop,
and the infinite number of manufacturing sites, all present
the most tempting baits to enterprise, and will open results
for it which nothing in the history of the times has
equalled, dazzling and magnificent as have been its past
achievements.
In the single article cotton is found the most striking
illustration of what has just been said. "King" he may
not be in the sense in which many of us formerly recog-
nized him, but the sway. which the potentate exercises
over the finances of the nations is by no means to be
sneered at, and the hold which he has upon the neces-
sities of the world seems to be fixed as irremovable. Four
years of non-exportation, whilst it has given the most in-
tense stimulus and energy to the growth of cotton in
other countries and increased the production in them
several hundred per cent., have not left the South without
the virtual control of the markets of the world. We may
gather this trom the fact that the million and a half o

bales (an outside calculation) available for exportation
during tho Summer and Fall, from her ports, have a gold
value greater than that of the four or five millions which
were the product of tho South in the days of her palmiest
prosperity.

Admitting it to be true, as has been already maintained by
Southern writers, that climatic conditions existing in many
sections aro unfavourable to European and North
American constitutions, there can be no doubt of the fact,
that a large portion, and in most cases by far the larger
portion, of each of the Southern States is well adapted to
white labor, and that actual mortuary returns indicate a
much higher degree of physical health in these localities
than in the New England and North Western States.
Here there is a territory, vast in extent, and susceptible
of development by white labor, from whatever quarter in-

troduced:capable of maintaining a population as dense and
wealthy as can be found in any other part of the Union,
and yet in 1850 its density to the square mile as compared
with other sections, was :

Persons. Persons,
Slaveholding States... 11.35 Texas
New-England States.. 41.94 Ohio 49.55
Middle States 57.79 Massachusetts 127.50
In what manner, then, shall we proceed to invite capital
and population to the South? I answer: Consult and
abide by the experience of those States and communities
which have grown populous and rich by the success which
attended their efforts to secure immigration.
At first I would suggest the appointment of one or two
commissioners from each of the States, who shall meet at
some contral point, say at Atlanta, Ga., or at Montgomery,

Ala., and, in order that no time may be lost, I would
suggest that the commissioners be nominated by the Pro-

visional Governors.

The object of the commission would be to advertise the
world that our people are in earnest in the matter and in

accord, and it would tend to secure such harmony of action

between the States as would be most conducive to

success.

The commission should be a permanent body, and should
at once open correspondence with every section and dis-

trict of the several States, inviting information upon the
character and value of soils, and the quantity available for
settlement, and the lowest cash and credit prices for the
same. This information ought to be given to the public
in the form of circulars and addresses, translated into
German and French, and distributed abroad through our
Consular agents.

It is needless, however, to suggest what would be the
duties of such a commission. The intelligent and ex-

perienced minds thus brought together would soon develops
the wisest system, and upon their recommendation, aid,
and legislation, as might be necessary, would readily be
afforded by the State Government.

In a matter of such delicacy, it is evident that any con-
flict or rivalry between the States would be productive of
lasting injury, especially in presence of the great induce-

manta to emigrants which are held out in other quarters,

and the organized and well-established systems which

exist for their introduction.

Everything will depend upon the earlier results, and if
mistakesare made from the circulation of false information,

and disappointments ensue, it will be difficult, almost
im-
possible, to correct them. Knowledge of these disappoint-
ments it will be the purpose of interested parties to circu-
late, so that in a little while it will reach every village and
town or hamlet in Europe. Active and independent com-
petition for emigrants between the States will, it is to be

feared, lead to these results.
There are two points, New York and New Orleans,
which will probably continue to be the most prominent
ones, at which immigrants will be landed, and at these it
will be indispensable to locate agencies to look after their
interests and to afford such information as will direct them,
with as little inconvenience, loss of time and expense, as
possible to their several Southern destinations. This can
be effected without much expense. In a single year, taken
at random, which gave an aggregate immigration of
398,470, it appeared that there arrived at
New York 304,876 I 8a1tim0re,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 14,148
New Orleans 32,316 I Galveston ........... 2,600
Philadelphia 17,956 Charleston .1,517
The United States, alive to the importance of securing

the largest number of immigrants, have established a
Bureau of Immigration attached to the State Department
at Washington, and also an Emigrant Office in the City of
New York, under charge of a Superintendent. This legis-
lation, in connection with the Homestead Law, which
passed Congress on the 20th of May, 1862, and makes
donation of 160 acres to each settler, is having a very
marked effect, and should advise the South of the difficul-
ties which encompass her experiment, and of the course of
action likely to remove them.
How much of the progress and development of the
United States has been due to immigration may be deduced
from the fact that the total number of foreigners who
landed on its shores to the year 1860 reached the enor-
mous aggregate of 5,062,414, a number nearly equal to the
entire white population of the South, if we exclrde the
Border States from the calculation. In this number were
included :
Merchants 231,852 Engineers ............... 52186
Farmers 764,837 Teachers ...............
3120
Laborers 527,639 Manufacturers .........
Miners 37,523 I Artists ..........2,490
........
Weavers 11,557 Servants ..................49,494
The countries from which these vast numbers were
thrown upon our soil to become prosperous and flourishing
citizens, and to exercise important influences over its
destinies were :
.... 37,733
Great Britain 2,750,874 Switzerland ........
Germany 1,615,586 Spain .....................
1116,22u4^28
France 208,063 Italy .....................
British America 117.142
The localities which they sought as represented id the
report of the census of 1860, prepared by Mr. Kennedy,
which is our authority for this and other statistical data,
were :
Alabama
Arkansas
North Carolina
South Carolina
1332
273
4,5
921
PlNewelinnnosiys York.la.
n.
a..
............................. L3O
49!
~156
1041,1
8
9,986 Ohio ..................... 3 7
Virginia 35,058 Wisconsin ............276,92
Texas 43,442 he
The figures, it will be remembered, refer only to
Or_
original stock, and do not take into account the descend'
ants of foreigners born in the country. In 1860 the Per-
centage of foreign-born residents in some of the leading
cities was as follows :
Baltimore
Charleston
Cincinnati 412
554...757151
SRC
thi
.ci
Richmond
anlooins.
d. 1;31
If there ever was then a period in the history of a Pe°l3
e
when it became necessary for them to be aroused as on
man into action, and to put their shoulders to the whe„el:,
and with energy and spirit and the determination to Ma:
a giant and master struggle, that period has corn° forth a
South. With a country wasted by long and devastating
war, with habits of labor broken up, with the machinery
at
of industry destroyed, and a gre social and industrial
problem to be solved, under an extraneous pressure, whi
at times is most unreasoning and unreasonable, the 00-
dition of the South has scarcely a parallel in modern o°s'
But dark as is the picture, there is a redeeming feaillre.o
All is not lost where the unconquerable will is left. 'rill,
giant convulsion, which has just shaken the land ,t°,11,0
centre, has not been without its beneficial effects. ",,ch
which
hd ulpvearanebwroaungdhht igihnetor sppliariyt.
byThaernaezergieStZi. „
tellectual resources which were called forth and ex
and boited
i.
themselves in the thousand appliances and resorts to Wu—d
a people, without machinery, without preparation/ '4l
•without access to the external world, were driven to
port a conflict with the most powerful nation upon ca for
each and all are the harbingers and augury of a future ',4.
the South from which she need not shrink. Ilsanii:-9
her place in the mighty empire of States no son 01
will have reason to be ashamed of her place in the
The successive waves of population which have bed
sweeping westward from the Atlantic, leaving as it °IO,
behind them a deposit of vast States and populous
ed
~,,,
the pride and hope of a great nation, have now reae"
the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and here the tide, ;
the opinion of the thoughtful men at the North, rano.
turn ; and there are substantial reasons for the °pill!
Such a turn in tho tide can only be in one direction, 'A
that is to the southward; and in this respect it may airt°llo
be regarded providential, that at the very instant °I
contingency the boundless domains of the South reei°—
their dikes and barriers and invite the inundation. „4
The whole subject, Sir, is one of so much interest t°
all that it would afford me great pleasure upon this °ent:Ad..
sion to elaborate it more at length, but lam admosia';„
that the time and space are not at my control. At .th
early day I will resume the subject, and illustrate it
a variety of statistical data, which I have collected Wl',
some care.

With great regard, your obedient servant,
J. D. B. DE BO°.
No. 40, Broadway, New York,'
Thursday, Oct. 12, 1865. f
NOTE.— Sinca the above was written, I have been riof
in possession of the latest report of the Superintendent
Immigration at New York.
By this it appears that the number of immigrants
reached New York in 1864 was 185,208, in 577 vessel
tr,
and from 18 different ports. Of these, 92,109 intended
reside in New York, 23,518 in Pennsylvania and Ne"
Jersey, 21,014 in New England, 34,662 in Ohio, IndiatT
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, lowa, Minnesota, and 031;
forma, 4,979 in Kansas, Nebraska, Canada, &c., and 8,11";
in the Southern States. In the years 1863-4, despite f
the war, the number of German immigrants was large*
than in the preceding years.

IMMIGRANTS AT NEW YORK.
Total. Germans.
1861 67,258 27,248 1863 ll?3,l2l.3Gerritai
1862 76,700 24,172 1864 185,208 s°l"-