The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-06-10
Condition of the South.

Correspondence of the Missouri Republican. !
PORT GIBSON, Miss, May l9.-It may
not be uninteresting to your readers to
hear somewhat of the present state and
probable future of the South, especially
| the cotton States The war has caused
great sorrows and great losses, such per-
haps as are unavoidable, and always in
cdent to a state of war. Several hun
dred millions of Confederate money has
suddenly become demonetized, and is a
total loss; millions of acres are untitled !;
fences have decayed or have been de-
stroyed; outbuildings on thousands OF
plantations are in the same state OF ruin;
the roads are deplorably bad, and the
bridges broken down and burned, both
on highway and railroad. Many hum
dreds of thousands of negroes. especially
the old, infrm, and children, have died
in the camps, of diseases incident to such
a mode of life How many of the able
bodied negro men have fallen in battle.
OF are now in arms, know not, but the
number must be large Such is the dark
| side-but there are, however, more
pleasant aspects.
There is an abundant supply of meat,
except in those localities recently desc
lated, and these tracts are not considera-
BILE as compared with the whole terri
tory There are more stock hogs than
ever before, because the people have
| turned their attention to the raising Of
them as never before. There is for the
present population an immense corn
| crop now growing with encouraging
hopes of large yield, so that we shall
| be able to produce an ample supply OF
| meat and lard for the next year. The
| blockade having cut us off from supplies
| of Western -four, we have sown far
| greater breadth Of wheat than ever
! known in this country. The indications
of an abundant harvest are most hope
| full, so that we shall not be dependent on
the West as in times past
The necessity of domestic manufacture
| has produced millions of yards of neat
and substantial cloth, in which hundreds
of thousands of men and women, old and
young, are clothed, and will be for year
or two to come, perhaps permanently 81,
La .ge plantations will be divided and
suh-divided, so that the people Of the
South will not need to buy Government
lands for long time to come. The al
| tered size of farms and the new relations
of labor will prevent large production
of cotton the immense pasturage of the
open and untitled lands will encourage
the raising of innumerable cattle and
sheep and beef and butter. Wool and
mutton will become staples of the South
The people of the South have for a
long period, wisely or foolishly, complain
cd Of the oppression of the tariff, but we
shall hear bnt little more complaint OH
this subject. We shall for a long time
import little brandy or wine, silk, fine
cloth, or foreign fancy goods, so that we
shall not feel the public burdens to any
oppressive extent If the revenue sys
tenn is changed to direct taxation, oul
town and land property will be so depre
ciated by the changed system of labor
that the tax cannot be oppressive.
Many of our towns, in consequence OF
the changed srate of the planting interest
will, for the present at least, be half de.
populated, the inhabitants removing 10
the country; so that, instead of being
consumers as heretofore, they will be,
come producers, and thus reduce con.
sumption, increase production and cheap
en- all articles of subsistence Far more
of our young men will turn to the me-
chancal arts, and to the business OF
teaching, so that in these respects we
shall be a much more independent and
self-sustaining people than in years past
The natural and, perhaps, unavoidable
exasperations of an invading and desc
lating war will indispose the people to
trade, to the extent of dollar beyond
actual necessity, with those who have SO
recently invaded and desolated their
country and dis6rganized its system OF
labor. Perhaps people ought to forget
and bury in oblivion the horrors of the
past but it is rather more than human
nature can do to forget buried kindred
and ruined fortunes Before this indis-
position to commercial intercourse can
be overcome by the healing influence of
time habits aud facilities of home pro-
duction and supply in the South. Such
seems to be some of the economical re-
suits of the changed systems OF labor
which, il seems, must grow out of this
war, and whose unhappy antipathies
which the war and its conduct have so
much intensified.
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