Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-07-29
Northera Gr.ft. upon Southern

ment OF mmista'ton 6o'"6 vi IN tWo VI
the border ates-Tennessee and Missouri.
A bin, introduced a few days ago, is now
pending in the Tennessee legislature,
which provides a State appropriation for
the paw of agents and the transportation
of immigrants from Europe, and estab
fishes a Board Of Commissioners of Immi-
grafton, with the privileges and powers
REQUISITE 10 accomplish the intended pur-
pose. We notice. also, that the German
citizens of Nashville have recently held a
public meeting, Mr.. s. C. Mercer and
Others urged the importance of offering
inducements to immigrants from Germany
to settle in Tennessee. The German pop
ulation of Nashville cow numbers about
four thousand persons, and this element
is Justly regarded as one of the best that
can be introduced.
The Missouri State Board Of Immigra-
ton. now diligently laboring to effect the
objects contemplated in its creation. has
just issued o circular setting forth some
cogent reasons for encouraging the influx
Of a working population. Immigration,
it is argued, will enable the citizens OF the
State to fill up their vacant lands with a
good, law-abiding, loyal and energetic
class, "who will purchase the farms and
take the places of the disloyal, the danger
Gus or the useless portion OF the popula-
ton, help to improve the country, con-
tribute to the payment of taxes, and aug
ment the general prosperity"
These are sound arguments. They need
no approval, for they are irrefragible.
Vacant lands must be occupied and culti-
waited, taxes must be paid for the support
| of the government and the payment of the
debt, and a loyal, honest and hard-work-
ing population must be found to produce
these results. To encourage foreign i'm
migration is undoubtedly an effective and
feasible method of repopulating and re-
facilitating regions which are desolated
by war and the class of Germans who
are more especially invited to settle in
Tennessee and Missouri are a profitable
acquisition to any community, for they
are q sober, industrious, saving people.
who prosper at home or abroad, and are
always good citizens.
Yet we question whether new American
blood is not more needed in our Southern
and border States than a large infusion Of
the foreign element. The close of the war
has thrown open an inviting field for the
employment of capital, the development
of industry, and the introduction Of labor
saving machinery. Under the close-cor-
poration system Of the slavocracy, progress
was forbidden, labor was d~ishonorable,
and enterprise was virtually unknown.
The slave toiled to produce rich crops.
with ungainly implements which our
Yankee farmers grandfather would have
discarded for better specimens Of his wi
invention ; the Southern master rolled in
wealth wrung from bleeding hands and
breaking hearts; factories, mills, work.
shops were either non-existent or exceed
ingly shabby; impoverished lands were
never restored, but went'to waste ; soci-
ETY., bereft Of the vital force that comes
! from active labor, became corrupt, and a
rotten system finally died through the
violence Of its own nature. The census
tables show US that during the long period
when this state OF things prevailed, the
ratio of the increase in Southern popula-
| ton, as well as material resources, fell far
behind that Of the States which employed
free labor, Tennessee having increased but
ten per cent. in population in the decade
from 1850 to 1860, aud Missouri but
s~eventy-;hree per cent.-while Illinois.
during the same period, increased one
hundred and n per cent; Iowa, two
hundred and 6fty.one per cent; Caliior-
MIA. three hundred and ten per cent /;
Ohio, eighteen per cent. and the new dis.
tricts OF Minnesota twenty-seven' hundred
per cent. The blight Of slavery killed all
i, touched; and now the depopulation Of
| the South shows us that the war has end
ed the days Of many thousands Of the men
who stopped the growth Of the States
until their own career was ended. Desc
late acres, vacant homes, and a disorgan-
lied population are the results Of a mad
rebellion. The work of reconstruction
must be q work Of time, and discreet
craftsmanship should guide it.
The encouragement Of immigration from
the free States would do more for the
renovation and reviviication Of the South
ern and border States than the importa-
ton of a foreign population, and we sug-
gest this point for the consideration OF the
communities Immediately interested. The
foreign immigrant whom it is proposed to
introduce as a worker and o voter. will
come with empty hands, if with a ready
heart and an industrious purpose. He
will be q stranger, knowing little or Moth
ing about our institutions, ignorant OF our
tongue, actuated chiefly by a desire OF
gain, and possessing no vital interest IN
the prosperity of the nation. While he
may be a valuable acquisition in o certain
limited sense, he would not be an Ameri-
can. The Northern farmer, mechanic,
merchant, trader, or professional man, on
the other hand, or emigrating TO the bal
mier climate and richer soil Of the South,
would carry with him the energy, thrift,
enterprise and patriotic devotion which
hewed for him a comfortable subsistence
from the stubborn granite of New Eng
land, made him the lord of ample acres on
the fertile prairies, and stimulated him to
fight the battle Of his country until the
last foe fed.
Moreover, Yankee ingenuity and skill
are needed in the South under the new
order of society. Cotton factories, wool.
len mills and foundries must be built and
kept in operation under the stimulus Of
free labor patent mowers and reapers,
adapted to Southern crops, are to be IN
demand /; architects and builders will be
wanted; Southern women will so far con-
quer their ~prejudices as to ply Yankee
sewing-machines, play upon Yankee
pianos, sing Yankee music, buy Yankee
books and marry Yankee men. Political
industrial, social, moral and aesthetic con.
.iderations alike point to the infusion Of
the Northern element into Southern soci'
e,y as the corrective and stimulant Of the
region and the people now weak, desolass
and ~desponding.
The question of labor we leave for sepa'
rate consideration. It involves the prob
lem of the elevation of the black race from
a state of degraded servitude TO one o.
freedom and hope-a process which must
he gradual. and is necessarily attended by