The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-05-02
COLUMBIA. !, ;
Wednesday Morning, May 2, 1886
The Losses and Resources OF the
south. =. =

New York contemporary the
Worll) thinks t'the South would be
getting rich fast, if the money received
fvr cotton found It's way among their
people" We have already noticed
the estimated amount of cotton the
Southern States have furnished to the
world since the close OF the war. In
round numbers, at low estimate, it
was valued at $500, ,000,0 900. For to-
bacco and naval stores marketed, we
may fairly estimate $50,000,O 900 were
received. Well, as our cotemporary
thinks, ''this all together would be a
very nice little capital for the South
to begin the new cotton year with. ,"
were it. not for certain drawbacks,
which we will briefly notice.
First, rs to the total losses, absolute
and positive, that the South has
actually suffered in her attempt to
secure independence. That we'll
known officer and correct statesman,
Commander M. F. Maury, who, at
the commencement of the war, was
in charge of the National Observatory
at Washington, but now in Europe,
has written long letter to the Lon
don Morning Herald, in one Of the
paragraphs of which he estimates the
total loss Of the South at 1000, 600, :
900! His figures are as follows. and
it is easy to be seen by any one fami-
liar with the statistics and former
resources and wealth of the South,
that they are generally correct. He
says she lost: BY emancipation,
$4,000, 900, 900; expenses of the war,
1900, ,000,0 900; destruction of private
property, 1000, ZOO, 900; additional
taxation imposed by the victor for
payment of Federal war debt, say
100000 per annum, equal to six
per cent. interest on / ZOO, 600, 900.
Total, $1,000, 100000.
This loss fell upon eight millions
of whites, and was the accumulated
wealth of centuries, and composed
the whole industrial capital of the
Southern States. The simple annual
interest on this immense sum alb
stracted from the capital and re-
sources of the South, is $3.50, 900, 600.
8 But when, in addition to this posi-
tive loss, we take into consideration
the large amount it now takes to get
to work in any department stock,
labor and agricultural impleme nts for
the planter or farmer, new machine
ry for manufactures, foundries, &C.,
capital for trade and commerce, for
building railroads, and establishing
banks, and all to be done by an i'm
poverished people-the $500, 600, 900,
even if the South receives every dol
lar for her products, would not 80 far
in procuring the actual necessary
means and appliances to begin work
anew.
But the South does not receive nil
the money for her cotton and other
products. Army officers and Govern
.aent Treasury Agents, defrauding
not only the people, but the Govern
ment, took from them large amount
of cotton, and every old horse and
mule that Sherman and his army
thought too poor to take with them.
These the people had to pay for again,
at these agents sales at auction; and
thus was the Southern people robbed
and impoverished by every possible
device, in addition to the losses by
the misfortunes of war.
And what has the North, with her
superabundant wealth of gold and
greenbacks, done throughout the
year which has passed since the sur
render of the Confederate armies. to
aid the South in her efforts to retrieve
her losses, or in her work of recupe-
ration? Little or nothing. Her mer-
chants may have occasionally extend
ed short credits to their former
punctual customers, but her capital