The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-08-17

AONEUTISE6kNKS
Inserted IN either the Daily or Tri-Weekly ut
81 per square for the first insertion, and IS
cents tor each subsequent ipsertion. In the
Weekly, 81 q square.
ATSpecial notices Is cents line.
TAo n.e.,.ity e1 Resaaaine si1s Oh
'Cotton CFeps.
Cotton is not king. That is settled.
But for all fhAt, 1t is magnate of the
Very first rank. And it will be q most
serious mistake not to be prompt to
recognize it as such, in fMs new era.
1t must hereafter, as before, he the
great regulater of foreign exchanges,
and thereby the great conservator of
our financial soundness. Herein it has
certain divine right which we could
not alter if we would. Providence has
ordained that the belt Of North Ame-
rica embraced between the Atlantic
and the Rio Grande, covered by the
Southern States of this Union, shall
be the region adapted above all others,
upon the face of the globe, for the
growth OF the best qualities of the cot
ton plant. This can be said, of no
other American production. Wheat
and oil the grains, sugar, rice, tobac-
CO, every agricultural staple produced
by eas, can be raised elsewhere, nearly
if nof quite as wen. Other lands arc
dependent upon rs for them only to
very limited measure, They can
meet but comparatively little of the
heavy balance that yearly accrues
against us. Without cotton, gold,
the ife-blood of Our currency, must
be continually drained away to satisfy
these demands.
How soonest to. get our cotton pro-
duction back to its amount before the
rcbc.lion-five millions of bales-is
one OF the most important problems
Of the day. Two'things only are in
the way; civil insecurity, rcpelling
capital, and the disorganized condi-
tion of labor,
The first of these we trust will soon
disappear. We cannot reconcile it
with any current idea of the practical
sense OF Americans to suppose that
the Southern people will prefer to be
in discord rather than harmony with
the National Government. The sober
second thought will prompt them to
bury au past resentments, and to CO.
operate with the Government for an
establishment of every civil safeguard
necessary to universal protection. We
cannot help believing that after a little
time every Southern State will exhibit
the same respect for all the great
personal rights, as prevails here in
the North; that ai forms of political
and social persecution will disappear.
and that capital will be able to plant
itself anywhere in the South without
the slightest misgiving of any sort.
The more serious difficulty is the
disorganized co addition of labor. We
have no feeling but contempt for the
men who are eternally finding fault
with the freedmen. Doubtless they
are faulty enough; but what Gov.
johnson, OF Georgia, said of them the
other day, in the City Hall of Macon,
Is true to the letter: "Under the
peculiar circumstances with which they
are surrounded, no people ever be-
haved better than the blacks have
done" Of course, they do not easily
adapt themselves to their new situa-
t1on; probably not more easily than do
the masters themselves. n II
1t IS doubtful whether they ever
contract Industrious habits as freed
men which will make good the amount
of labor forced out of them under the
old system. It is certain that, ut the
very best, this cannot be realized for
many years YETI If we rely upon
emancipation to restore soon the old
cotton crop realized by slavery, We
shall certainly be disappointed. The
training of the freedmen to be capable
of this will require far longer tim.
than we vau afford to wait. There nus'