Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-11-09
,,LEIGH: WEDNESDAY, NOV. ., 1864.

Che Confederate, of this City, in an article de-
,,ed to show that this State can safely part with
,,me thirty thousand more of her fighting men, as
mos that there will then be left behind as a5orers
an the FARMS two hundred thousand slaves, twenty
Zee thousand free negroes forty thousand "a'hate
,n.n capa5Le of labor" and fifteen thousand tex
,m,ts as asrculturists." The Confederate further
ns.umcs, on the above basis, "that there is no just
,,,,sc Of alarm yet for want Of labor" Let US see
how this is.
\ First How much of the surplus made by these
.u., hundred thousand slaves, can be spared by
their owners after they shall have supported these
s,,res and paid their t;thes to the. govcrnment?-
Work. little if any. Why2 Even in ordinary times
.,e slaves themselves consume large portion OF
,ia rroduce realiz d from their labors; but at
,,oc like this, when the lands decreasing in fer
,;,,, for the want of manures when they are not
60 thoroughly cultivated as they should be, for the
vant Of suitable agricultural implements, ard, above
~ VIXEN the owners and overseers are swept away,
and the slaves are left to the management OF the boys
# sixteen, the women and the old men, it cannot be
reasonably expected that they will produce sur
,os which will materially add to our supplies.
Heeoudly T.o twenty five thousand free negroes
c,nnot be relied upon IS laborers. in ordinary
fines. not more than one in five Of this class pro
duces enough fer his own support Instead Of
icing help in the way Of production, the free
negroes are really burden.
Thirdly. The forty thousand "schus uome1s
c,pable of labor" would barely be able, if they all
latored with the axe, the pillow, and the hoe, to
support themselves and their little children. No
surplus can be expected from this source.
Fourth1y We know of no "exempts' at this
time as agriculturists" The "exempts' or de-
tailed men have all been ordered to camp.
In addition to this, there are not less than twenty
five thousand refugees in this State, who will not
produce as much ss they will consume; and our
State is now feeding some twelve thousand Yankee
prisoners, with the prospect that the number will
increase. Again, those portions of the State which
usually produce the NEST Germ and bacoa, have
been, and are now so overrun or threatened by the
enemy, and SO much of their labor has been lost
TO them, that they barely able to support them
selves. We think the statistics would show that
tue Aloemarle region alone produced, before the
var more corn than was produced in the Whole
State besides Again, the Confederate assumes that
! labor. inis cannot BE- Before the war the whole
number was about three hundred and thirty thou
sand enc hundred thousand of these have been
taken by or gone to- the enemy, at least onehaf Of
whom were able bodied male slaves. This would
leave not more than enc hundred thousand efficient
6eld hands, especially if we deduct the thousands Of
male slaves employed Notifications, &C., by the
4 government and the thousands in the towns and
villages and on the railroads, that perform no labor
on the farms.
We think We have shown that there is "just
cause Of alarm for the want of labor.''
But the Confederate makes the extraordinary
statement that the very poor classes, the classes
mostly composing the soldiers families, are less de-
pendent their own labor and are more bount,ful-
" supplied, than they were before the war" This
statement is certainly unfeunaed. Poor people, in
this State, never worked So hard and lived so hard
as theY dc ROW. There are thousands Of families
vino have rot tasted meat ct their own tables for
months; and there are h.ndrcds, to-day, who do
not know where their bread for tomorrow is to
come from. There are thousands who are without
meat, with but scahty and uncertain supply of
bread, without shoes, with thin and much. worn
clothing, and who can have no satisfactory assur-
ance that they will have eng means of subsistence
three months hence The drain now going on up
on our industrial pursuits has turned out thousands
OF farms to the weeds and briars-has closed hun
oFeds OF mls and tanne-ies- has left thousands of
the poor, as well as many who once had means, to
the bitter fear of closely approaching want, if not
actual starvation These are facts, "known and
read of all men" The negro slaves on many OF
our farms are "faring sumptuously every day.
compared With thousands Of the livery poor" white
class Of our people; Tor 6 old master" still has
bacon, and corr, and beef, and long as he has it
sor himself AID family in the great house. the ne
groes will get their share in the kitchen God
p''y the very poor classes of our people during
lae ensuing winterl There seems to be no pity in
'Han' No alarming scarcity of labor--no suffering
sLcAs the poor, when man Of means who attends
Tue market cannot purchase what will furnish a
respectable dinner for his family for less than one
hundred dollars! Is this doubted? Then look at
Tue Items for plain respe table dinner. One ham,
WE'VE pounds at seven dollars per, pound, Ss4
''uf pounds steak, two and half per pound $40 :;
couple ofiowls, $40; couple Of cabbages So to say
'0'nns Of bread and soup, and potatoes, and a
0olea small constituents which cannot be dispensed
S''a But reduce the dinner to bread, and meat,
s"a milk or syrup, and see the cost of that for q
'ai"y OF six Or seven One thing is certain, either
"e currency is utterly worthless as medium of
sA'iahse Or there is an alarming scarcity, of the
supplies necessary to sustain life.
~. nor has the policy of the government-we say it
VIA feSret-been such as to encourage production.
'ae contrary, it has discouraged it. 1t makes a
Na In the rear, and sends the men to the front to
s'eAa the ruin. The last ablebodied man is called
:. ~ anu some who are rot able-bodied, and placed