Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1863-03-24
COTTON PLANTING IN THE SOUTH.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
dilledgeVille, March IL, 1868. !

ASNO'
Dear Sir: On my return from Atlanta, your let
ter has been handed me by my Secretary. L reply
to both your enquiries that he who plants more
than three acres in cotton for each regular tetd
hand in my opinion, violates the law, and is SUBJ
ject to its penalties.
deeply regret to see disposition manifested by
many of our planters to cultivate every OF their
land in cotton, which they can plant without incur
ring the penalties Of the statute. The patriotic
conduct of the planters, last spring, IN the reduc.
ton of their cotton crops, and the increase OF their
grain crops saved many of our people from starVa-
ton, our army from disbanding, and the Contedera-
CIV from ruin. If the necessity existed then for this
change of production, how much more imperative is
1t now? The enemy have overrun and now hold
large portion Of the most productive part OF our ter
ritory. How much more of 1t may be thrown in
their lay the vcsSitudes otwar so as to destroy
the crop of the present year, no one can with GER
tainty predict. As our limits are contracted, n
large part of the loyal people leave the section in
the possession Of the enemy and come into the nte-
terror Thus the population to be supported by
the lands in our possession, and the labor at our
command, IS increased while the area Of production
is diminished, and our productive labor constantly
weakened by new leves of troops for the army
When three fourth Of the white laborerS Of the Con-
federacy are under arms, the women and children,
and the army must look to the products Of slave
l,b.r for bread. If this lab ~ any considerable
proportion of it is employed in the culture of cotton
or anything else that will not sustain life, the con-
sequences must be of the most fatal character.
In a large portion of the COnfederacy, and a very
important section of our State where most
grain was heretofore produced, bread cannot be
bought for money, at any reasonable price, and the
poor, and especially many poor soldiers families,
sfe anon very short allowance and could not avoid
thGt0sU intense suffering if not starvation, were
there surplus in the cotton regions This
suits from two causes
1St ha LAM in thaSa M 10
have heretofore been cultivated almost entirely by
white labor which is now in the military service.
The population is heavy, and the number of women
and children left without assistance very large,
while much of the land lies idle.
3D. The drought last summer was unusually
1t has often been said, that this is war for
the negro. Mr.. Lincoln with his abolition Congress
is beginning to make it As the indiScriminate
destruction of other kind of property has yet
been decreed by his edicts, other class of our
population has much at stake as the Shareholders.
And the negro is nott for military service and is
left at home, usually with some to oversee him,
while the white laborerS are compelled to leave all
their home interests and go to the field Of battle the
Shareholders have great advantage, and they alone
have the labor which can make bread to sustain the
army and their needy families. Our shareholders
would do well to remember when poor white
have left their families and volunteered, how often
the pledge has been made to them by their wealthy
ncighbors, your family shall not suffer while you
gone" Many of these families must suffer Sc
verey, unless ali the slave labor of the Confederacy
is Employed in-the production ofprovisionS. When
there is not bread for the families Of soldiers
home neither the love of country, the rgors Of
military law prevent the decentralization Of the
army. If the army is demoralized, every savehold.
er loses, not only his negroes, but the liberty Of
himself and his poSteri.y.
1t is true the Legislature of our State has author
lied every planter to cultivate three Of cotton
to the hand and other States have passed similar
acts. 1t is Said the planters will generally put
their best lands in cotton, and all their up
on it, and that they will bestow upon this their
chief attention. If this is done, my honest cOnvic
tons are that they will neither have lands to plant
nor negroes to cultivate them, another year. Ii
three Of the best lands Of the cotton States
planted in cotton for every hand this year. it is I'M
possible for US TO raise provisions enough for the
people at home, and keep the army in the field next
year. If we subdued, it will be by starva-
ton, and not by LincOln's armies If we are ever
starved into submission it will be by abuse of the
blessings of Providence, growing out of an avari-
ciOus greed for gain The white labor Of the South
is under arms to sustain slavery, as we'll as our
other interests and the labor of the slaves must be
employed to sustain our white men in the field and
their families at home.
= Whatever may be our desire for gain, or our wish
to employ labor for its accumulation we cannot shut
our eyes to the stern reality. 1t is q question of
property property, Liberty or suljugation,
life or death The issue is trembling in the balance,
and the action of the planters for the next six weeks
must turn the scale one way or the other. l am
no alarmish-I but speak the truth in seberness. I
appeal to you tben planter, and to every other
planter in the Confederacy. Do not plant enc acre
in cotton more than is absolutely necessary to keep
seed IN the country One quarter of acre to the
hand, is lGge crop this year. There is plenty in
the Confaeracy to clothe our own people for years
to come. If we cultivate it this year. it is only to
make money. Let him who does it fear, lest it be
said, thy money perish with thee, and the curses
of his enslaved posterity rest upon his memory.
am respectfully, your ebedent serv't
JOSEPH E. BROWN.