Des Arc citizen., 1866-04-21

oNoIsy III Sfciy SuhpS HUH oudiecHCu circumstance" to absolute want, pervades this once prosperous country. There is no money and none IS coming Trade languishes. Enterprises half commenced are arrested. Lands are untitled. Appre- hension fills the popular mind and paraly- zcs the popular arm. The people have exhausted all the remedies within their reach to restore the national health but they have found them ineficacious. They ask for bread and they are offered stone. Seed time is now come. Many man who had made arrangements for planting on a large scale has changed his plans, and hun dreds, nay thousands of acres prepared for the seed will not receive it, but be allowed to lie waste. Many causes conduce to produce this sad result, but chief among them is the uncertainty of the future- While the punishment of traitors is still the means of reconstruction enforced by the majority of the legislative branch of the Government; while popular majorities approve these means of restoring. the Union; while confscation of property is still possible, and war of races not re- mote contingency, prosperity is unattaina- ble. v.The desire to work and work hard is general. But there is no money, no means of borrowing, and no disposition to borrow, where the investment is so uncer- tain to be profitable either to borrower or lender. Let the Constitution, the whole Constitution, and nothing but the Consti- tuition be the law and government; let the bugbear of confscation and punishment and disfranchisement and compulsory ne- gro equality be removed; let amnesty, without conditions or bargains, be extend ed, and the effect upon the national well being will be like that attributed to the fabled Elixir of Life. Prosperity, yigor, strength, peace, will be the fruits, which not the South alone, but the entire North, will enjoy. "The war power" can bring forth no such fruits.
 see every day evidence of the sinking spirit and failing energies of this people, and I can trace the causes of the decline I live and move among the people. l see their acts. 1 hear them talk. l know their sentiments, and think see the calamitous results which must ensue unlest prudence and justice and mercy are allowed to resume the places which are now occupied by motives of diametrically opposite influence, and unless the policy of President Johnson is allowed to prevail over that for which the radical party so loudly clamor.
 Tie prospects of the crop are not as en- couraging as they were by any means Planters are turning out" large percent age of the land which they had laid out for cotton from inability to procure mules, tools, etc, to cultivate property, and also from the increased uncertainty of labor.
 The number of manufactures of differ ent kinds in operation is certainly aston ishing to the stranger. We have been led to believe that the whole South is be- hindhand in this particular, but so far as Richmond is concerned, it is not true, for iron works, cotton mills, sash, blind and door factories, and ill short, buildings where goods and wares of almost every description are made, can be found. The lack of skilled labor is, however, the great drawback, and the majority of the iron fronts of buildings now in course of erec- ton, are brought from New York cheaper than they can be bought here, notwith- standing the fact that some of the largest iron works in the country arc located in this vicinity. The famous Tredegar works are now in full blast, with the redforked flames belching forth from the tall chim- neys night and day, and nearly thousand workmen engaged in them. The Man. chester Cotton Mills are also in full opera tion, employing large amount of labor, and several new factories will soon be built, among which is one said to be the property of Ex-Gen. Butler.
 Hone were to listen to the tales told by the people of this section, or to read in their newspapers about the scarcity of money, the natural impression would be that business is stagnant, and that there is no capital actively employed here. To disprove such an inference it is only nec- essary to walk through the "burnt dis trict" of Richmond, and sec the immense improvements now progressing. Some body has money, and that money will soon find its way into the pockets of the mass eS, TOT HuuuicuS oA puiidilSo "i0 pSAAAS erected in this city, furnishing employ ment for thousands of laborers. As yet the poorer classes are not as general thing, as we'll of as they were before the war, and consequently they complain bit terly, while many of the wealthier people made money out of the rebellion, and are better of now than in ante bellum times. Northern capital finds ready market here, although on account of the failure of the Legislature to remedy the usury laws, there is some difficulty in arranging the matter of interest. There are plenty of opportunities for lucrative investments, and the people are anxious to have it come.
 In the North Carolina towns l have visited, as throughout the whole South, indeed there has been, since the begin-