The Shasta courier., 1865-08-12
Northern Crafts upon Southern Stocks.

An active movement for the encourage.
ment of immigration is going on in two of
the border States-Tennessee and Missouri.
A bill. introduced d few days ago. is now
pending in the Tennessee legislature. which
provides State appropriation for the pay of
agents and the transportation of immigrants
from Europe, and establishes Board of
| Commissioners of immigration, with the
privileges and power requisite to accomplish
| the intended purpose. We notice, also, that
the German citizens of Nashville have recent
lv held public meeting, Mr.. S. c. Mercer
and others urged the importance of offering
inducements to immigrants from Germany to
settle in Tennessee. The German popula-
ton of Nashville now numbers about four
thousand persons, and this element is Justly
regarded as one of the best that can be in
troduced.
The Missouri State Board of Immigration,
now diligently laboring to effect the objects
contemplated in its creation, has just issued
circular setting forth some cogent reasons
for encouraging the influx of working pop
ulaton. 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 pur-
chase the farms and take the places of the
dsloyal, the dangerous or the useless portion
of the population, help to improve the coun-
try, contribute to the payment of taxes, and
augment the general prosperity
These are sound arguments. They need
no approval, for they are irrefragibe. Va
cant lands must be occupied and cultivated,
taxes must be paid for the support of the
government and the payment of the debt,
and a loyal, honest and bard working popu.
lation must be found to produce these results.
To encourage foreign immigration is un.
doudtedly an effective and feasible method of
repopulating and rehabilitating 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 sober, industrious, saving people,
who prosper at home or abroad, and are al
ways good citizens.
Yet we question whether new American
blood is not more needed in our Southern
and border States than 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, aud the introduction of labor
saving machinery. Under the close-corpora-
ton system Of the slavocracy, progress was
forbidden, labor was dishonorahle. aud en-
terprise was virtually unknown. The slave
toiled to produce rich crops, with ungainly
implements1 which any Yankee fathers
grandfather would have discarded for better
specimens of his own invention the South.
ern master rolled in wealth wrung from
bleeding hands and breaking hearts, fac
tories, mills, workshops were either non-ex-
istent or exceedingly shabby; impoverished
lands were never restored, but went to waste :;
society, bereft of the vital force that comes
from active labor, became corrupt and
rotten system finally died through the vio-
lence of its own nature. The census tables
show us that during tie long period when
this state OF things prevailed, the ratio of
the increase in Southern population, as well
as material resources, fell far behind that of
the States which employed free labor, Ten
nessee having increased ten per cent in pop
ulation in the deca1e from 1850 to 1860, and
Missouri but seventy-three per cent.-while
Illinois, during the same period, increased
one hundred and one per cent. Iowa, two
hundred and fifty one per cent; Ohio, eigh-
teen per cent /; and the new districts of Min
nesota twenty seven hundred per cent The
blight of slavesy killed all it touched !; and
the depOpulation of the South shows US that
the war has ended the days of many thous-
ands of the men who stopped the growth of
the States until their own career was ended.
Desolate acres, vacant homes, and a disor-
ganized population are the results of mad
rebellion. The work of reconstruction must
be work of time, and discreet statesman
ship should guide it.
The encouragement of immigration from
the free States would do more for the renova.
ton and revivifcatiou of the Southern and
border States than the importation of a for
eign population, and we suggest this point
for the consideration of the communities i'm
mediately interested. The foreign immi-
grant whom it is proposed to introduce as
worker and voter, will come with empty
hands, if with a ready heart and an indus.
trious purpose, He will be stranger,
knowing little or nothing about our nstitu-
tlons, Ignorant of our tongue, actuated chiefly
By desire of gain, and possessing no vital
interest In the prosperity of the nation
"hlie he may be valuable acquisition in a
certain limited sense. he would not be an
American. The Northern farmer, mechanic,
merchant, trader, or professional man, on
the other hand, on emigrating to the balmier
climate and richer soil of the South, would
carry with him the energy. thrift, enterprise
and patriotic devotion which hewed for him
comfortable subsistence from the stubborn
granite OF New England, which made him
the iord OF ample acres on the fertile prairies.
ana stimulated him to fight the battle of his
country until the last foe fed
Moreover Yankee irgenuity and skill are
needed IN the south under the new order of
society. Cotton factories, woollen mills and
toundries must be built and kent in oner.t;on
under the stimulus of free labor. natent
mowers and reapers, adapted to Southern
crops, are to be in demand architects and
builders will be wanted; Southern won,on
Will so tar conquer their prejudices as to nlv
Yankee sewing machines, play upon YanFes
pianos, sing Yankee music, buy YANKEE
books and marry Yankee men. Political
industrial, social, moral and aesthetic cons;d'
erations alike point to the infusion of the
Northern element into Southern society os
the corrective and stinulant of the res;on
aud the people now weak, desolate and de.
spending.
The question of labo, we leave for senarate