The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-10-11

| For the Pioneer and Democrat:
What news 1t is fair question to
ask Of traveller and shall be answered.
Let the anAwer pass for what it is worth.
+ Cloud md sunshine, quickly aftermath /
hope and Respondent apprehension !; as Il 4 4
the prevailing phase Of the public mind SO
it will be necessarily reflected in an image
of the public mind. $
/. Of business The depressing effect
of the war on the business prosperity of the
\ North has been exaggerated by the mood
OF alarm and apprehension into which the
war at once threw the general mind.
The utter wreck IN fortune of heavy
traders with the South, gave shock to
those who looked upon the ruin, disqualify.
ing them fora calm estimate. fsT 1frs
l, myself, looked over ledgers in New
York City for August, September and Oc-
tober, 1860, whose entries of one, two,
three, four, five and seven thousand dollars,
to old customers in the Gulf States, footed
up $500 900 Or $4OO,OO0-all clean gone.
The stores which they occupy in settling
up, now without rent, and real estate
which yielded SIS 900 year, is a tax upon
its owners-the men who occupied them
leaning on loans from noble hearted brother
merchants, as source of SUBSISTENCE for
theif families. zs4
This is sad picture. No wonder if if
cast a shade on all. "They will come up
again" said a merchant. ayes, if they
have youth to bear them up--not other.
wise. Two, whom know, are wrecked,
in mind as well as fortune" another replied
Of eleven hat and paper mills which 1
saw from one house top in New Jersey, all
had stood still for nine long months (since
November), carrying want to the homes of
operatives, and ruin to the proprietors. One
had started week before on a Government
contract for two hundred thousand hats.
Many of the workmen had gone into the
army others were dependent upon aims.
On the other hand, Government money
spent at home, was reviviDg many branches
of trade, and scattering itself among the
masses. Men, were cheered by rejecting
that it was not to be sent out of the coun.
try, but to 60 into the hauds of our own
people. -..
Families of soldiers were beginning to
receive part of the pay of husbands and
sons. Army supplies put something into
almost everybody's hands. The abundant
harvests of the great West were crowding
all the avenues of transportation, and, in
their mere transit, giving bread to tens of
thousands, as we'll as lifting up the values
of Railroad and Bank stocks, on which it
was feared no dividend this year would be
realized; giving profits on the immense cap
ital embarked in Lake and Canal transport
alton. h.,..,... 5..f ....... ......
The very apprehension of worse times,
too, has bred frugality in expense, and in-
ventive industry iu gaining ard in saving
large fountains of supply and powerful
stays to confidence and self-reiance. No
one seems ashamed. now, to say "I can't
afford it." If the war does not end too
soon, Americans may yet attain the noble.
ness of living according to ones means.
The rise in the value of cotton fabrics,
has made it as gainful to the mills stocked
at low fgur,s with the raw materially torun
on half time as before on full time.
Express business never was half so pro-
fitable on the main roads, as it is now.
The city of New York was never so full
either of produce or of money. Hence bus.
mess is not dead, by any means and if
there is deartn Of work in the large cities,
provisions never were so cheap and plenty,
or rents so low.
have found men of great wealth possess
sed by mania of respondent dread Of the
poor house-but more them active, STIR
ring and hopeful, awake 10 the solemn peril
of the time, yet trustful 10 the recuperative
forces OF youthful nation, of resources al
most boundless.
2. Moral aspects. Bright spots cheer
the eye in the moral 6rmament-c ontrasted
with the gloom! and they are not few.
TO name some of them at random:
l. The love Of country is spreading and
working like yeast in the masses of high
and low. Every son, or husband, or broth.
er, given to the war,-every dollar loaned
to the government--every subscription to
equipments or comforts to our soldiers
every anxiety about the fate or condition of
our armies-plants seed of patriotism
and by Gods blessing, this daylight of a
generous passion must put to fight the
darkness of our national sin of love and
greed of money for moneys sake.
2. The value and the necessity of law
and government, as a higher law above
Il L. + -