The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-16 00:00:00

Reconstruction of the South.

The reasons every day accumulate which call impe-
ratively for a re-organisation of the labor of the South,
with the purpose of securing another cotton crop. There
is no denying the fact that such has been the action of
Congress of late that the President has felt it incumbent
upon himself to stand somewhat upon his reserved rights—
upon his reserved action in doing anything decisive to
help the South. Whilst it must be acknowledged, too, that
a good many of his acts have been extraordinary ; that ho
has taken the responsibility of anticipating the action of
Congress in dealing with the South ; still, the necessity
and the call for it so for this has been so plainly apparent,

clearly an absolute necessity, that practical men have re-
joiced that we had one in the elevated position to which

he has been called competent to do this—competent to
deal with needs hardly contemplated in the past by those
who framed the Constitution. Had he been less resolute
and less capable, had he timidly stood back from doing
good from the fear of results purely personal to himself—
had he, in short, been so afraid of censure as to have
stood by in silence to let the South and the country suffer,
he might indeed have been lauded for his devotion to
official and constitutional routine, but he would hardly
have been standing where he does now in the estimation
of the great world of humanity. Whereas, by being the
man for the occasion, he is now recognised as a true states-
man, as one calculated for every contingency to which he
may be subjected. In other words, he has won the con-
fidence of the people, if he has not conciliated the politician;
and it is too late for the latter now to think of interfering
with a policy and with kindly endeavors so generally en-
dorsed by the people.
Let it be noted that whatever of vindictive feeling
existed during'the war, and immediately at its close, how-
ever loyal men may have felt about having the rights of
the law against treason rigidly executed, the fact developed
that the South is utterly crushed has brought about a feel-
ing of commiseration at the ultimate consequences of past
follies that cannot be ignored or disregarded. And if the
South has reluctantly appreciated her changed condition,
and has been found listening to her old counsellors instead
of at once throwing them overboard, it is no more than
might have been expected%f any community whatever,
because talent will maintain its prerogative, make itself
felt, despite any and every countervailing influence what-
ever.
But the one great fact that cannot be ignored, North
or South, is—that now with a restored Union our in-
terests must be identical, and the sooner all come to re-
alise this the better for the whole. We cannot cripple one
part of our common country without injuring the
advance of the whole. And if wo cannot now realise this
great fact, and speedily, we must as a nationality suffer,
we must continue to have 'our prosperity postponed, and
possibly, indeed —as matters are drifting—probably we
shall awaken to our want of wisdom when it is too late.
Now we have felt it incumbent on ourselves to do what
we could, of late, in insisting upon a speedy reorganisation
of the South, upon making its labor effective, and sup-
plying it with capital. We have shown that as matters are
progressing we are likely to have nothing that can be
considered a cotton crop. And as only lately we were
compelled to accept the amount of the cotton on hand, as
only "seven hundred thousand bales," and this on the
authority of Secretary M,Culloch, we have In addition a
statement which reduces even this amount, as we shall
proceed to show.
It is well known that the average weight of bales before
the war, and whilst the cotton presses throughout the
South were in good repair, was four to five hundred
pounds each ; so that when a crop was named as " four"
or "five" millions of bales, it represented a maximum
quantity. But it is now stated, on the authority of an
old New Orleans merchant, writing to a Liverpool paper,
'kat the bales being sent forward now amount, on an
average, to only three hundred or three hundred and fifty
pounds ! Of course this reduces again, and disastrously,
the estimates of what is available for the wants of
the country and for foreign exchange, and it is another
urgent reason why not a moment shoullt be lost in doing
all that is possible to secure another crop this year of the
great staple.
Now, in view of all these things, is it not possible for
the. controlling power in Congress to at once join with the
President in the adoption of measures to reconstruct the
shattered South ? Can it be that upon questions of pre-
cedence, of propriety, of anything merely political in its
tendency, that the great opportunity for doing good will
be thrown away, and the South be left not only to sink
into hopeless poverty herself, but be allowed to drag the
whole country itself along with her to distress and pos-
sible bankruptcy. We have instanced the action had
elsewhere by commercial men, by Boards of Trade, by
those who are competent to scent the danger afar off, which
points to needed action in the premises. Let Congress,
then, we insist, forget its political action in other direc-