Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-04-26

Reriep, in an article on Manufactures in
South Carolina" we have an exhibition of the
fears entertained of bringing together masses
of non-slaveholding Southern white population
even for manufacturing purposes -
So long as these poor but Industrious peo-
pie could see no mode of living except by a
degrading operation of work with the negro
upon the plantation, they were content to en-
dure life in its most discouraging FORMS satis-
fed that they were abore the slave, though far
ing often worse than he. But the progress of
the world is onward and though in some sec
tionS it is slow, still it is onao0rd," and the
great mass of our poor white population begin
to understand that they have rights, and that
they, too, are entitled to some of the sympa-
thy which falls upon the suffering They are
fast learning that there is almost an Infinite
world of industry opening before them, by which
they can elevate themselves and their families
from wretchedRess and ignorance, to compe-
tenee and intelligence. II IS this great upleav-
'ug Of our masses that haze to fear, so far as
our institutions are c0aceracd0
VIM. Gregg, ESQ.,, in an address before the
South Carolina Institute in 1851, upon manu-
factures, remarks -
From the best estimates that have been
able to make, put down the white people who
ought to work, and who do not, or who are so
employed as to be wholly unproductive to the
State. at one hundred and twenty-five thou
sand. x By this it appears that but
one-ffth of the present poor whites of our
State would be necessary to operate one mil
lion spindles. The appropriation
annually made by our Legislature for our
School Fund, every one must be aware, so far
as the country is concerned, has been little bet
ter than waste of money. While
we are aware that the Northern and Eastern
states find no difficulty in educating the poor,
we are ready to despair of success in the mat
ter, for even penal laws against the neglect of
education would fail to bring many of our
country people to send their children to
school. *
q have long been under the impression,
and every days experience has strengthened
my convictions, that the evils exist in the
wholly neglected condition of this class of per-
sons. Any man who is an observer of things
could hardly pass through our country with
on being struck with the fact that all the capi-
tai, enterprise and intelligence is employed in
directing slave labor and the consequence is,
that large portion of our poor white people
are wholly neglected, and are suffered to while
away an existence in state but one step in
advance eff the Indian of the forest 1t is an
evil of vast magnitude, and nothing but a
change in public sentiment will effect its cure.
These people must be brought into daily con-
tact with the rich and intelgent-they must
be stimulated to mental action, and taught to
appreciate education and the comforts of civil
lzed life and this, we believe, may be effect
ed only by the introduction of manufactures.
* My experience at Graniteville has
satisfied me that, unless our poor people can
be brought together in villages, and some
means of employment afforded them, it will be
an utterly hopeless effort to undertake to edu-
cate them"
Here is the testimony Of Governor Ham
mond of South Carolina, the great leader of
the multiplying party now assuming the title of
Democracy. We extract it from an address
before the South Carolina Institute in 1850.
He is speaking of that class of people, esti-
ma, in his address before the South Carolina
white population of the State:
"They obtain a precarious subsistence by
occasional jobs, by hunting, by fishing, by
pundering fields or folds, and too often by
what is in its effects far worse-tradng with
slaves, and seducing them to plumber for their
benefit"
Hon. J. III. Lumpkn Of Georgia, speaking
in 1852 upon the Industrial Regeneration of
the South, says:
at is objected that these manufacturing
establishments will become the hotbeds of
crime But | am by no means
ready to concede that our poor, degraded,
haf-fed, half-clothed and ignorant population
without Sabbath Schools or any other kind
of Instruction. mental or moral, or without
any just appreciation of character-wil be in
jurcd by giving them employment, which will
bring them under the oversight of employers
who will inspire them with selfrespect by TAX
ing an interest in their welfare"
We close our quotations by an extract from
an address delivered a few weeks since by the
Hon. G. c. Clay, jr., of Alabama.
IL can show you, with sorrow, i'm the older
portions of Alabama, and in my native County
of Madison, the sad memorials of the artless
and exhausting culture of cotton. Our small
planters, after taking the cream off their lands,
unable to restore them by fest manures, or
otherwise, are going further west and south
i'm search of other virgin lands, which they
may and will despoil and impoverish in like
manner. Our wealthier planters, with great
er means and no more skill, are buying out
their poorer neighbors, extending their plan
tations, and adding to their slave force. The
wealthy few, who are able to live on smaller
profits, and to give their blasted fields some
rest, are thus pushing of the many who are
merely independent. OF the $2O, 100000 an
nually realized from the sales of the cotton
crop Of Alabama, nearly all not expended in
supporting the producers is reinvested in land
snd negroes.
Thus the white population has decreased
and the slave increased almost pars pass" in
several counties of our State. In 1925, Mad
isen County cast about 1000 votes now she