The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-07
The Relation OF Reconstruction to Busi-
mess and DeYelOn.nent in the South.

The Relation OF kecOnsuucuOn 10 Busl-
ness and Development in the South.
PROBABLY no expeCCdtion was more widely
cherished at the close CT the war by all loyal
men, than that the South would be freely AMI
permanently opened TO the influx of Northern
labor and capital. This general expectation was
a popular inst net aS to what ought to be done,
as well as to what would be done. 1t was known
that the South possessed inexhaustble resources
for the creation of public aud private wealth.
The soil was fe;tile, producing abundantly those
great staples of the worlds commerce which
could nowhere else be so cbeaply raised. The
openings for commercial enterprises of all kinds
were numerous and most promising. The
streams furnished an abundance of water.power,
while the mines beneath the eArth's surface
needed but the developing hand of capital to
become the sources of great and constantly in-
creasing wealth. From all these advantages of
our common country the North had for years
been practically shut out. The slave system, by
a despotic, though necessary, instinct of sell
preservation, excluded from its midst all who
were not its friends. AS a consequence, the
agricultural, manut &c 'uring, mining and COM
mercial resource of the South NAMED almost
wholly undeveloped, an1 society there grew
daily more sectional AID exclusive, until the
spirit of nationality had so lar died out that re-
bellion against the Union became not a con.
templated osslbility, but an existing realty.
it was expected that the result of the war
would change all this, and that American citi-
zens, in the enjoyment OF their constitutional
rights, could settle anywhere upon American
soils and receive the protection OF the American
flag. 1t was believed that free labor would
regenerate the worn-out ag iculture of tAe
South, and make it more productive than ever
before; that Northern capital would set the
mill.wheels to revolving upon every stream,
and not only speedily repair all the wastes of
war, but also develop those slumbering re-
sources which the slave system had never
awakened, and thus make the South vastly
more o herself and to the world than she ever
yet had been.
THIS wa3 the expectation OF the American
people; ard in accordance with 1t, the war had
scarcely closed before there was a general move
ment all over the country of labor and capital
so Inward. Large numbers of our soldiers and
officers, who mad become familiar with the
country from personal observation, Immediately
took steps to settle there. Commercial men
established trade in all the Southern cities,
capital removed labor, and plantations, mills,
and factories promised soon TO be in successful
operation. state of things was inaugarated
which, had it gone on unchecked, would
speedily have made the South more prosperous
than she had ever beore been, would have
given our Northern cities profitable and in.
creasng trade with that section OF the country,
and, more to be desired than all else, would
have broken down the old seCt!onalism aud ex-
elusiveness born OF the slave system, and re-
placed it with national ideas and devotion to
the Union. But TINS entire fabric of restoration,
of development, and of union depended wholly
upon one vital thlng-Secu17ty.
little more than year has passed. and what
do we see? Who now is goiDe South to settle?
What capitalist is sending his money there to
invest? What Northern man Is building mills
and factories there? On the contrary, we hardly
take up paper nova days, without reading
the account OF some Northern man who had
settled at the South and who has been assassi-
mated or driV n ont. Even the Public LeiJer OF
this morning publishes the fact that the Union
men and settlers from the North are preparing
to leave New Orleans. Why is all this? The
answer is very sim ule. The United States G w.
ernment has ceased to protect its citizens at the
South. Security is goue. The power there has
been RENTED to a violent and lawless class of
men, who haze the Union and all Union men
men who break up Union Conventions and
murder their members. The South is as much
in the hands OF ire, aters and Rebels as it was
during the memorable days of 1860 and 1861.
1t is not the class of moderate men-the
HOLDENs, the WELLsEs, the SHARKEYs, the
BoTTsEs, and the like who are ruling things
there now, butlJ Is the creatures like this Mayor
MUNRoE, the old fre-eaters and outand out
Rebels This it is which has completely pros.
trated the work OF settlement and reconstrdc.
GOn at the South. And as long as these violent,
fanatical Rebel lead ors are permitted to hold
power at the South, so long will it be PRACTICAL
closed against Northern labor and capital; 81
long will ite resources remain uGdeVeloped and
the waste of war unrepaired; so long will Its
trade languish and decline; ami so long will dis
loyalty to the Union and to all the great ano
benelcent ideas of free government poison the
Southern mind.
The work OF reconstruction at the South is
vast work. II implies a revolution in social anC
pol tical ideas. 1t means the rebuilding o
society from the very bottom. 1t cannot bC
done in day by anybody; and it can neoer bt
done by putting power into the hands of thos
reckles7, violent, 6re-eating fanatics who hay
already seized so greas a share of local govern
ment in the South.
How II is to be Managed,
The Richmond correspondent OF the New Yorl
Herald thus discusses one OF the dificultie
which the August Convention will meet with