New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-02-17
THE CONFEDERATE MASSES.

|
The divided opinion actually existing in the
Rebel States is continually finding expression
of the freest description, even In Richmond,
where the oligarchy would seem to be dying
hardest. In North Carolina, The Raleigh Pro-
gress tells us, "the people" do not breathe " the
communicating air" which prevails in tho Com
federate capital, and care tired with being
trihed with--are thoroughly Disguised with the
Importance which small men are attempting to
give themselves" "Shall the popular voice, "
| it asks. "be heard, or will these demagogucs
and petty tyrants continue to impose upon pa
tience already thrcadbare, until the wrongcd
and inSulted masses rise in their might and
strike them down." This is language which,
considering the latitude in which it is uttered
strikes us as singularly democratic We know,
indeed, that the masses in the Slave States, or
at least in many of them, have always been
wronged and insulted" by the systematic deg
radiation of labor. But the minor wrongs which
were patiently endured in peaceful times
have swelled into gross injuries against when
the bodies if not the souls of their victims must
involuntarily protest. Imagine the case OF a
man in North Carolina who owns not one lone
some negro, or what is the same thing, merely
few, Here he is, with his wife and children,
exposed to the intolcrabe privations and h0r-
rors of war-to starvation and burnings, TO rob
berries committed by his neighbors to taxes
assessed by legislators not OF his selection, To
thousand great and little annoyances-and for
what! IL he is not STAKEHOLDER he has no
stake whatever III this crazy game. II he own
two or three slaves it would have been cheaper
for him TO have emancipated them ut once,
giving them a good outfit and paying their
travelling expenses to get them out OF his sight
OF 347 600 shareholders, (under the old system)
there were $500 who owned only one slave,
and there were 1868 who owned only
from t,ro to nine. II must be perfectly
clear to any unparalleled observer, that this
Rebellion was instituted not for the benefit OF
this great majority of shareholders, but for the
advantage Of the tuo Shareholders who owned
900 and upward, or OF the nins who owned
from 500 to 500, or of the .Gffy-,iI less favored
but still highly favored patriarchs who owned
| from 300 TO 400, or of the one hundred aud
eghtp.sertn who owned from 200 to 29J! No
wonder the masses" are beginning to growl
Theirs is the pain, the suffering, the ruin; and
all the profit which the widest enthusiast OF
Secession viii pretend TO anticipate must inure
70 the benefit chiefly Of u coach-load OF capital
lists who use their poor white neighbors in de-
Tense Of their incongruous property, rs the mon
key used the cat 10 roast his chestnuts'
For most purposes, slaves are computed to be
worth $500 per head. There are, therefore. be
tween $1,000 and 10000 whites whose in
tercst in the Confederacy amounts to just that
sum-less taxes, cost of feeding and clothing
one slave, and the chance that he may run
away. or be enrolled in the army, or freed by
the Union arms. So there are 100000 whore
stock in the Rebellion amounts TO only $1,000
apece-less the same contingencies. These I'M
fortunate men are naturally inquiring why they
should be reduced to beggary for the benefit OF
few men who happen to own from 800 to
| ] 900 negroes
These seem to us to be cheering statistics.
There are few men in Richmond who still talk
wildly of doing and dying, of the last dollar
and the last ditch. Let them talk! Only let
our armies continue 10 advance, and We shall
carry Emancipation not merely to the Blacks
but to thousands of Whites now ruled by a
handful Of .sclf-constituted oligarchs calling
themselves Senators and Representatives, with
no more right to the title than the horses who
drag their carts OF the Blacks who clean their
| boots,