Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-03-01
The south.rn Planter Of To-Day.

The Southern Planter of To-Day.
'Has the population Of the South changed
No. Have the Yankees driven out the peo-
pie from their lands, and put into their places
the Dutch and Irish, with whom they have
threatened to colonize the conquered States
No. These are the people Of the South who
people to fight for them. And, singular to
say, they think great deal more Of their
negroes than of their sons and brothers. A
gentleman of his acquaintance had last sum-
mer met negro on the cars coming TO Rich
mond Il, work on the batteries. The negro
looked sad, and the gentleman inquired the
reason. Sambo said he was sorrowful be-
cause his old master looked SO downcast when
he r,arted with him; that his master had five
sons in the army, but never grieved half so
much at parting with all of them as with him.
The patriotic planters would willingly part
with their own flesh and blood into the army,
but when you asked them for negro the
matter approached the point Of drawing an
eve tooth. A great change had come over
the planters within the last two years. Two
years ago when that pink OF gallantry ana
soldierly qualities was at Manassas, TO keep
his army from starving he wrote letter 70
farmer in Orange county, asking himt to SEND
him sixty wagon loads of corn and pro-
visions to pay for the grain and the expen-
seq of hauling the same as soon as he was in
funds. On the next Sunday this letter was
read at every church in Orange, and on Mon
day morning the sixty wagons, loaded with
corn, were sent to General Beauregard, free
of charge, and telling him to keep, also, the
wagons and teams. Such was the patriotism
OF Orange county then. Now, those very
farmers will actually burn their wheat rather
than sell it to the government at tye dollars
a bushel, for the use Of their own sons and
brothers. They stood haggling about the
price Of pork per pound when their sons and
brothers were living on quarter pound a
day, and sometimes had none at all.
The above sketch Of the Southern aristoc-
racy is not copied from the Boston Lsderdtor,
edited for SO many years by VIM Lloyd Gar
rison, neither is it an extract from the
speeches of Charles Sumner, nor one Of old
John Browns fugitive pieces. 1t is part Of
an oration delivered about six weeks ago in
the rebel Senate by an old acquaintance
Lewis T. Wigfall, OF Texas. Never did such
hard words escape from the lips OF the most
irrepressible of Abolitionists, in relation to
the Southern aristocracy. The planters
part with their sons with much less
regret than with their negroes 10 ask
them for the use Of slave to work on
the fortifcations, Wigfall says, approaches
the point Of drawing an eye tooth. But
worse and worse, the planters having sent
their sons to the wars now haggle about the
price Of pork wanted by these same sons IN
the army, and actually burn their wheat rath-
er than sell it to JEFF. Davis for five dollars
per bushel in rebel shinplasters-that Is for
about % cents in coin.
1t was for these very men and for this class
exclusively that the war was undertaken.
Theirs were the rights said to be in jeopardy.
Theirs was the lofty station which could no
longer brook intercourse with Northern mud
sills. Theirs was the yearning for q social
position which was one Of the primary causes
of the war. Yet it is hard work to get ne
gro from them TO labor in the trenches, and
they chatter about the price OF the food re-
quired to keep the bodies and souls Of their
own sons in the army together Wigial, 1t
will be seen, makes no exceptions, either as
to classes or conditions. His denunciations
are levelled at the planters everywhere-in
Virginia as well as South Carolina. II the
picture which he has drawn be a true one, 1t
is the most repulsive that has ever been pre-
sented for human contemplation.
The force of this blow cannot be broken by
assertions of any want Of devotion on the part
of Wiafall to the Utopia which JEFF. Davis is
irving to establish. When he hurled the
coarsest epithets at his fellow-Senators, in
Washington, the disafected everywhere ap-
plauded. When, in the rebel camps, he
pronounced the Northern people everything
that was vile and mean, rebels, everywhere,
threw up their hats. Such being the case
they must now accept his statements with
what grace they may, OF the condition OF
Dixie, as the truth. In addition to TINS,
Wigfall has been, for long time, one OF the
most earnest advocates OF the caVaner
theory. He has always contended that the
people of the North and the South belonged
to the different branches Of the human fami-
ly. With him the people Of the South were
all descendants Of noble and high-toned eaye.
liers, while the North was the spawn OF all
that was vile in humanity. He never, for an
instant, let an opportunity slip of asserting
his own claims to high descent. Whether
wallowing in the mire in Washington or
in Richmond, or hurting anathemas against
his opponents, he never lost sight Of his i'm
aginary ancestors in trunk hoes and hangers.
When an individual occupying such po-
sition, and furnishing such record, pro-
claims the infamy Of the Southern Planters,
Union men cannot see very clearly upon
what grounds his testimony can be success
fully impeached. 1t may be said that moth
ing very satisfactory can be expected from
Wigfall while whisky commands $40 or $50
per gallon in the rebel capital; but what
force may be in such an argument, cannot be
estimated at this distance from the scenes OF
that gentleman's sprees and patriotic labors.
Whatever theories may be presented in this
regard, it is certain Wigfall has said some
thing which will travel far and wide through
out the civilized world. He has lifted the
veil, and displayed to the eyes Of Mortified
Christendom the rottenness Of the Confed-