Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1865-11-09
Losses and Gains of the South.

The South had invested in negroes, at $500
each, moneyed capital of two thousand mil
lions The ownership of the negro's labor
subsists, and no longer that of the negro. Is
the South loser by this avoidance Of title to
the one incident Of African slavery? Hereto
fore, all profits of Southern industry were in
vested in the double character Of the negro.
To own his labor, it was necessary to own his
person. The former was all that was profit
able; the latter, worse than valueless. The
profits arising from cotton and sugar fields
were absorbed by a mode of investment which
Welded no income To buy labor, the plan
tiers bought consumer of the products of
labor. Under the present system, he will have
no such capital, worse than dead, IN that 1t
lived.
The life of planter. was dead circuit
He toiled to make money to buy negroes and
bought negroes to make more money. The
proceeds Of each crop was anticipated and IN
vested in negroes, who made cotton to dis
charge "aeceptances," again renewed to buy
more negroes, to make more cotton. The
industrial life of our farming population moved
ceaselessly in this tedious circle. Very sud
denly the planters mode of thought and exist
ence have been changed. The ship Ill which
anchored. and all on board are staggered by
the shock 1t has occurred to us that the
damage done is imaginary. 1t consists chiefly
in the fact that the people are left on an un..
known shore. If they calmly look around
them they may discover that nothing has been
actually lost. 1t may even prove that they are
| in better condition than when following the
Gulf Stream of established national habits.
| This flowed steadily onward, enriching most
remote islands, and continents, like the great
river of the Atlantic, which adapts the climates
| of England and France, to the seat of magnih
| cent civilizations.
The products of land, the real capital OF
| Southern farmers, will be more abundant
because the black gulf of absorption is filed
| The two thousand millions of money invested
in the bodies of negroes, is not lost. 1t still
hoes corn and digs potatoes; while these pro
ducts will be used, not in buying negroes, bu
in giving value TO land and comforts to life
| The old system of industry was destructive tc
real property; the new, will parcel out and en-
rich it. The negro no longer the object o
purchase, the proceeds of industry will b,
expended in manufactures and schools. Th
negro himself will squander his gains in towns
villages and or railways. The four hundred
thousand former shareholders feel the bio,
which loosed the negro's bonds. They vii
soon recover from the shock, while toilin
millions of whites will hardly recognize tn
| change. We write OF the future ana not c
the present. 10 make it what we have antici
pated, every citizen must al once adapt HIM
self, his modes of thought and action, to hi
new relations in life.-Memphis Bulletin,
MURDER IN SPoTsYLvANIA, VA.-On Thurs
day last, John -Leitch, living on the old turn
pike, shot his step daughter, Joanna Simpson
She was about to marry another, and henc
the shooting on the part of Leitch. The We
man, Simpson, has, we learn, since died.
] fredericksburg Ledger. ii.