The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1864-04-28
restitution in western North Carolina.


DestltutlOn In Western North Carolina.
There is a prevalent disposition to
discredit accounts of restitution and
suffering in the South but the follow
ing picture, drawn by a writer for a
North Carolina newspaper, the Hen,
Jacksonville Times, of March 81 can.
not be attributed to the motives which
may be supposed to actuate intelligent
contrabands," or reliable "Union refu-
gees" The writer is evidently in full
sympathy with the rebellion, and
while depicting the gloom and despair
which oYerhang the State, he mani
ests no sympathy with the peace par
ty of that region. After celebrating the
heroic achievements of the mountain
GERS in every battlefield of the war,
from the first Manassas to Missionary
Ridge, he proceeds:s
"But they are not omnipresent While
they have been in the field battling for
their country, their interests at home
have necessarily been neglected. Yves.
tern North Carolina has but few slaves.
Her agricultural products are produced
by white labor mainly and theftremen-
dous drain upon her agricultural
strength, together with an extremely
bad crop last year, caused by excessive
rains portion Of last SIMMER, has re-
duced the population of this part of the
State to want Not lean hunger alone,
but famine, gaunt famine, is staring us
IN the face, and, unless something is
done, and that soon, our most destitute
citizens must starvel will give you a
specimen of the restitution even now
in our midst A family that lives not
far from your correspondent, am Gre
dibly informed, lived o whole week
upon boiled cabbage, without tasting
meat or bread. Yet the father and hus-
band of those children and that wife
sleeps where many of our Western
boys repOse-in the soil of the sold
Dominion"
"But we are told by the war party that
there is plenty of provisions in this
part of the State; that farmers are
holding on to their corn and bacon be
cause they do not like Confederate
money. This is a misrepresentation.
Your correspondent assures you that
such assertions are wholly gratuitous. /
have travelled in some Of the western
counties, and the best farmers amongst
US assure me that the yield of their
lands was not much, if any, more than
half the usual amount Then consider
the loss of the labor of the farms, caused
by the war, and partial failure of the
fruit crops, and any man who is not
blinded by prejudice or fanaticism can
see that our situation is bad indeed.
But there is a darker shade vet to
notice. The last conscript law passed
by Congress will fill our cup of misery
to OVERLOOKING The men who Will be tax
en- from here by that law are nearly all
farmers, and ifthe drains already made
upon our agricultural strength have
reduced US to such a situation as we are
now in, what may we expect when the
few men now at home are taken away
Before 1864 shall have been numbered
with time past, the railing of famishing
widows and orphans will salute the
the ears of those who live to hear
1t is one of the peculiar hardships of the
non-slaveholding districts Of the South
that the conscript laws have left no
body athOme but old men, women, and
boys, to cultivate the fields. The slave
districts lose very little of productive
energy by going to war, provided the
enemy cannot reach or will not inter
fere with their domestic institutions"
while the wise legislators Of the South
have expressly exempted the owners of
slaves from the CONSUMPTION law, on
the plea that their presence at home is
necessary to preserve the peace and or
der of society This Is a shareholders
rebellion, and yet the District of George
town, South Carolina, with its Is, 100
slaves and 3,0l3 whites, even if no ex-
emptions were allowed in behalf
of shareholders, would be call
ed upon TO furnish less than
one-third as many men 10 the war as
Cherokee county, North Carolina, with
its $40 slaves and 9,lG6 whites. In the
fight for slavery, the South Carolina
District should be required to furnish
thirty-fye men for one furnished by
the North Carolina county-instead of
which it would furnish less than one
third as many, if shareholders were not
especially exempted. This is but a spe-
cimen of the inequalities Of slavery
Our Copperheads and Conservatives
would have the Government respect
the rights of the traitorous Shareholders,
who are thus forcing the poor whites to
fight their battles, while they stay at
home and superintend their plantations
or fill all the valuable Offices Future
ages will contemplate with wonder the
superstitious reverence which the peo-
Pile Of this country have paid to the de-
mon of slavery.
The facts revealed in this extract
will serve to explain the restitution
which exists in East Tennessee, the
populationof which is similarly situa-
ted TO that of Western North Carolina.
Nearly the whole able-bodied class be-
ing white, have been forced into the
army Of the traitors, or compelled to
seek refuge within the Union lines, or
in caves and hiding places. No won
der the fields are left uncultivated, or
that the barns and graharies are emp
ty The slave districts may abound in
all the necessaries of life, and the lords
of the lash may even grow rich off of
the sale Of slave-grown products TO the
Confederate Government; but the fam
lilies of the poor whites are left to stsrve,
while husbands, fathers, and brothers
are forced away from them TO fight for
a cause in which they have not the re-
hottest interest, and which every intel
ligent man among them must loathe.
Should the North abandon these op-
pressed people to the merciless cruelty
of the most infamous tyrants that ever
dieqraced the earth ? Nav l. II not "a