The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-04-25

ern dred dollars. But this is the value of six o
cb. ton bales Hence il a laborer is worth t
te. thousand dollars, a soil on which his lal
ide will make SIX bales is that alone which "
en- be cultivated because that alone which v
nd paw sufficient profit. So soon, therefore,
ass exhaustion begins and the yield is less tn
RI six bales; either the two thousand dollar
tv borer must migrate to new lands, or the
,se land must be repaired one movement or I
'cfl other il unavoidable. Il there is not repaI
m ton. there must be migration and if there
NJ not migration, there must be reparation,
,is cause Iermanence and exhaustion are ecor
H. mically impossible. Ii however the labor
IL should BY the African Labor Supply, be wor
a. not two thousand but only five hundred d,
lars then two bales at fifty dollars each wou
rv more than pay On the investment fifteen .
r. cent. Morris this all. If the price of lab
Mt should be decreased to one fourth, the pri
et Of cotton wouldnot be decreas d to one fourt
- because a small decrease in the price of cote
n would make large increase in the consum
~ ton /: but this Increases the demand, and ii
: new demand says prices.
> THE LABOR SUPPLY MAKES LAND REPAIR
n In production on exhausted lands the thre
: elements ofc2St are the price of land the pric
o of labor, and tie price of fertilizing. Hence
y one element costs less another NAV cost more
C what is saved on each may be spent on tn
4 others, and the profit will be the same.
then less is expended for land, more NAV b
: expended for fertiizing, and if more be expende,
for fertilizng less must be expended for labor
But in point of fact it will be found that tn,
expense of fertlizing one acre iof old land il
5 South Carolina is more than the expense o
purchasing one acre of new land in Texas
Thus the DEAFNESS o. fertilizing as well as the
cheapness of new land, checks reparation and
causes migration. Such are the effects But on
the other hand the African Labor Supply will
enable us to expend less for labor and therefore
more for fertilizing. Hence the argument for
the labor supply is the argum mt for land repair
| NEW LAWs-HoAE-B OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
BUILDERS.
Where labor is capital and exhaustion is
mean, migration is directly, and reparation is
inEersely pToportioned to the price Of labor
Such is the iron law of cultivation and popu-
lation cardinal canon of our civilization
For economy is sovereign; politics and ethics
are its subOrdinates, because subsistence is
aLfA 4AuSb 9C SUI iCIdCy AdCI SOCIeLJ HfSL
end. SO long as migration and land prepare.
ton are cheaper than permanence aid land
reparation, the only possible method to repair
the soil is to cheaper the labor. If the labor
IS cheap, land desertion must be proportioned
to land exhaustion; but if the labor is dear,
raparation will be proportioned TO population
The laws against the African Labor Supply
are, therefore the laws against our Land Re-
inf JTp,faI
been the scarcity of labor, such its necessity
to find lands Of at least prime fertility, that
our cultivation has had no permanence. Our
population IS mobihzed. Even in our own
Safe, thousands Of hands move from the old
counties into the new, and from the worn and
weary hills to the strong and fresh swamps.
While underbrush is burning in new fields
to the West, underbrush is sprontine in old
fields to the East Our crops have desert
behind, and a deatlening before; the deserters
deaden, and the deadeners desert; the axe fol- |
lows the j seDb staff, the pillow follows the axe.
the wagon follows the plow, and in early times |
The Sheriftss hammer followed the wagon, In |
many districts, it has sadly happened that from |
the jacobs staff in the wilderness to the |
sherifts hammer on the hearth was hardly 80 |
years. In fact some fields failed before the |
pine stumps could - or the cray fish starye.
Our land desertiQn indeed has been general |
and continuous. Within our borders there |
Is not a creek bank on which the emigrant has
not halted his teams, unyoked his oxen, light |
ed his log fire, broifed on the Goals his bacon.
and gnlped from the gourl his whiskey. If |
united and Kicked, the very hound which
our wild hunter boys fitch from wagons rolling
slow in Mississippi liiire, stands sideways in
the road, and shutting now to the right and
now to the LEFT, tucks his tail and whimpers
a doubt whether to trail the wheel track to-
wards the buffalo grounds or the back track to
North Carolina. In the United States. South.
there are no homesteads our roof trees are
not green Old oaks but weeping willows, and
our hearth-stones are but clay It is true
that We have homestead law, but the other
section of the Union will soon have one. and
therefore ought not to grumbIe. The home
stead law Of the United States, South, is the
Piracy statute against the African Labor Sup
ply. The homestead law of the United States,
North will be an agrarian statute swindIing
one section to tat the starvelings and stay the
strikers of the other. One law makes home
steads AMI the other breaks homesteads.-
Thus the people of one section are the home
breakers, and the people Of the other are the
home builders But ours ara the lucky peo-
Die; we have the breaking law; we are the
happy hOme-breakers. Our uncompromising.
lnYielaing. unsubInissiye, uRdaunted, unin-
suited and unswindled sons are born near the
morning, bred under the noon, and buried to-
ward the shutdown. The older States are our
peoples birthplace, the younger States their
dwelling place, and the youngest States their
burial place. The church clock may toll by
he grandsire's grave and the house clock may
ring BY the grandson's crib, but the hours will
be far apart, and the late to one will be early
to the other. And what is the help? How
shah our waste places be glad? How can we
nope; what can we do? Our magnanimous,
enlightened and illustrious people have not
even the thin pluck to damn the law which
iriyes them from their fathers tunes
MIGRATION STAGE OF LAND EXHAUSTION.
To prevent the mean degree or migration
fage Of land exhaustion is truly the chief aim
if every State Agreultural Bureau, State
University, Agricultural Society, and Geol-
,gic Survey. For the means of reparation
ire as well scientific as economic. The econ
,mic means are labor and manure, for such all
ertilizing. material may with propriety be
allied. The scientific means are in general
he analysis and synthesis of soils, the mode
If propagation, the mode of cultivation and
he mode of preservation. But in our pecu-
lar economy where labor is capital, and where
he labOrer's health, religion, morality and en-
oyment are productive, that is matters from
which profit may be derived; our agriculture
IS more or less dependent on every science
rom hydraulics to estheties. II then our
agricultural societies or even our rich hill
planters would hire not a quack but true
savan, a knowing one, the grand master Of the
mysteries of Ceres, plant engineer, cotton
doctor without cant, cl3p-trap or barney. to
ransack our old fields and tell what for repair
they need, where it may be found, what it
will cost, and how it ought to be applied; the
good would without doabt be great, and when
the African Labor Supply should be opened
the scientific and the economic means of land
repair would be equal 70 each other.
STATE DEcAY-THE EMIGRATION EvIL-THE
IMMIGRATsoN GOOD.
Land desertion is States decay. In such
a stage the common veal becomes the common
i'll. The fields are barren, the people are wan
derers, and the wealth is wasted. The labor
too scarce and dear to repair old land, is by
migration made still more scarce and dear, and
aggravates its i'll. Thus the exhaustion is
general the States power is exhausted, the
capital is exhausted, and the labor is exhaust
ed. Such has been the calamity Of the Uni
ted States South. Nor is this all. None can
deny that if productive population is needed,
immigration will be good, and emigration |
will be an evil. But our section has brooked |
double wrong. We have suffered the emf |
grafton evil and have not enjoyed the immi- |
grafton good; the evil has been produced and |
the good has been prevented The date of all
our ills is the enactment of Federal laws
against the African Labor Supply. These en-
acted iniquities were mad-house legislation;
they were our recorded infamy, our instituted
stultifcation, our promulgated devastation,
stark statutory lunacy, the blight of States,
the hazard of the great Republic, the curse of
two continents the back of civilization,
the vile quintessence Of unqualified, stupen-
douS, Congressional nofsense And yet our
own State Codes have laws against the Afri-
can Labor Supply, and we ourselves do not
repeal an ordained and standing insult to our
own honor, stigma on our character, lie to
our brags, cross to our friends, and comfort
to our enemies