Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1865-07-26
RAPID PROGRESS OF REUNION.

1t is related when De Witt Clinton pro-
jected his great canal, one Of the doubling
philosophers, who are always ready to hang
on the wheels of progress, commenced writ
ing series of essays to prove the impracti<
cability of the idea; but, before ne got more
than half way through, the feasibility of the
work was established and a good part OF the
canal actually completed. 1t looks now as
if President Johnson's plan of establishing
republican government in the heretofore
seceeded States would be consummated
long before Wendell Phillips had got through
with his harrangues, or his newspaper
champions had deployed their heavy col
is neither to be expected nor desired that
the government should be rebuilt from the
fragments of the rebellion as rapidly as old
institutions have boch torn down; but moth
ing is more surprising than to note how
quickly the thoughts enunciated and the
remadies suggested by President johnson
have been caught up and carried out by the
Southern people. That there was great and
immediate need for help and food in every
neighborhood, and a live and pressing ne
cessity for municipal, county, and State
governments, is clear, and these imperative
demands forced prompt action, and compel
led improvised arrangements; but that out of
all this chaos, in so short a period of time,
should grow what promises to be orderly and
systematic customs and laws, may well be
classed among the wonders of the age The
correspondent of the New York World,
writing to that paper from Savannah, Geor-
gia, thus glowingly describes a recent visit
to the famous Sea Islands, and at the same
time vindicates the employment of compen-
sated free negro labor under the system en-
couraged by the administration Of President
johnson
The condition of the island along this coast
is now of the greatest interest to the world
at large, and to the people Of the South in
particular. Upon careful inquiry, [ find
acres ofland under cultivation by free labor
The enterprises are mostly by Northern men,
although there are natives working their
negroes under the new system, and negroes
who are working land on their own account.
This is the third year of the trial, and every
year has been a success more and more COM
plete. The profits of some of the laborers
amount to FIVE hundred, and in some cases,
five thousand dollars year. The amount of
money deposited in bank by the negroes of
these islands, is a hundred and forty thou
sand dollars. One joint subscription to the
Seven thirty loan, amounted to eighty thou
sand dollars. Notwithstanding the fact
that; the troops which landed on the
island robbed Unfortunately the negroes
of their money, mules, and supplies, the
negroes went back to work again. General
Saxton, who has chief charge of this enter
prise, has his headquarters at Beaufort If
these facts. and the actual prosper
ity of these islands could be generally known
throughout the South, it would do more to
induce the whites to take hold of the free
labor system than all the general orders and
arbitrary commands that.General Hatch has
issued.
Bear in mind that it is only little more
than three months since the surrender of
Lee and the beginning of the catastrophe
which crushed the rebellious hosts. With
in that period the most balefull and gloomy
prophecies have been uttered and disprov-
ed Our mighty army has returnd home
and assumed the garb and customs of pri-
vate life. With singular rapidity our navy
has been dismantled. The vast mass of
material left by the war is being gradually
disposed Of The troops that are held are
sent forward to garrison far off frontiers or
distributed at different posts throughout the
conquered sections Although the COM
mencement Of reconstruction has not been
so smooth perhaps as the change of civil
administration after peaceful election, it
has nevertheless worked with admirable eff
cheney. Not Governor appointed by Pres
ident johnson has refused to carry out his
instructions not one has proved to be
treacherous incompetent. All of them men
of mark and ability, they have set to work
in good heart and hope and whether it is
in North Carolina, under Holden in Mis-
sissppi, under Sharkey; in Georgia, under
johnson we hear nothing but what is aus
picious. When the great empire of Texas
feels the strong and healthy influence of A
lexander Jackson Hamilton-who, unlike
the provisional Governors appointed for the
States referred to, finds fertile fields, count
less hocks, almost illimitable harvests, with
people mostly strangers to war, save In the
loss of those who went forth to fight in the
rebellion-we shall have still stronger ev-
dence of the irresistible power of the Nation
al Government, and a yet more triumphant
trophy of the practicability and humanity of
the policy of President johnson.
Col. w. Fl. Markle, of Westmoreland
IL H. TnI.