Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-11-17
CITY CIRCULATION.
THE DOMESTIC POLICY OF THE SOUTH.

Now that the North has assigned the
South position of inferiority in the
Government because it hates our people,
and because it has the power to Cypress
them, the question arises, What shall
they do? Disowned as people, and
oppressed as a section, they must have a
policy, and unity of sentiment and
action. The best minds should grapple
the subject, and teach the people what
their duty is, in what direction their in
terests lie, and how to achieve them.
Isolated from the aid and sympathy OF
the North and West, the South, from
stand point of adversely, recommences
the march of existence. It's progress
may be slow, but it is not impossible, by
the aid of a judiciously directed energy,
to make il swift. Heretofore the profits
of the planters of the South have been in
vested in negroes and lands. Every dol
lar took that direction, to the neglect of
other enterprises that create the glory
and the wealth of States and sections.
There was fascination about cetton
plantation stocked with negroes. The
toiling mechanic, when he had scraped
together few thousands, hurried off to
the country and bought land, few ne
groes, and began the life of planter.
The merchant invested the profits of his
business in planting, and left others to
follow in his footsteps through all the
labyrinths of trade, and ultimately to
arrive, like himself, at cotton planta-
ton.
A. change has been wrought, and mems
minds are no longer on negroes, and
New necessities invite to new pursuits,
and mutual fate dictates that policy,
enlightened and comprehensive, should
be announced at the earliest moment.
The profits of planting, if any should
accumulate, must seek new fields of in
vestment What shall these be t? Some
system of labor must be devised. What
shall it be Money must be invested ?
In what? The experience of the pres
ent year teaches US that the system of
hiring negroes, and relying on the per-
sisteney of their labor, is failure, and
will not be resorted to, to any great ex-
tent hereafter, unless some means shall
be devised to insure tenacity. The
means provided for carrying on the opera
tons of planting, have generally been
dissipated, and the yield will scarcely
reimburse the outlay. With such an
experience, few planters will be disposed
to renew the hazard.
But what shall they 90 at 2 What
shall be the general policy? 1t occurs
to us that neither one man, nor Fifty
men, can determine so important a mat
ter. Conventions of the counties should
send delegates to State conventions that
should discuss the subject, survey the
whole ground, and direct the future in
dustrial policy of the South. A Con-
vention of all the Southern States might |
even be held We suppose the Govern
ment would not suppress such gather
ing, as it would not be political. These
Conventions could discuss the subject of
manufactures, the diversity of pursuit
and the question of labor They might
advise an abandonment of the rush Tor
the production of cotton, and recommend
small crops, one part to be exported and
the other manufactured at home. They
might recommend an aggregation Of cap
ital and the erection of mammoth cotton
factories iron works, etc. Unity of pur.
pose, concentration of energy, aggrega-
ton of capital, would speedily lift the
South from the depths of poverty, and
give her commanding position and in
huence at home and abroad.