The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-23

Recon nstructiOn-The Material Interests
of the South.
From the Herald
3 Affairs down South seem almost to have come
to deadlock. Those who have no cotton are
very badly off, and those who have cotton are
not in much better position The Freedmen's
Bureau and the tax collectors between them
have taken pos session of the crops, and not
bale can be moved until the Government three
cent tax is PAID and until the authorities of the
nigger bureau certify that each one of their
prOteges has received his dues. This delay is,
of course, productive of great inconvenience to
the planters, who are paying as much as three
and half per cent. month for loans of money!
What with interest on brokers' advances and
loans, and the depletion which somehow inva-
riablY accomp anies the handling of cotton by
Bureau and Treasury agents. there will be very
little of the staple left when it returns to its
rightful owners. To add to the general per-
plexity, the entire crop turns out lighter than
was expected in every State except Texas where
the amount raised is greater than the most san
guine estimate; for Texas suffered nothing by
the wal, and had the use of labor and of capital
from other parts of The South. In Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana the heavy
treshets which occurred in July and August
materially reduced the cotton production.
ThuS the Southern States stand, without
IL,
desolated country. They need capital TO re-
deyelope their resources and labor 10 cultivate
their wasted lands. The only way to obtain
these is by restoration to the Union, and by
the flow OF confidence and capital which will
follow on that event. The only way to obtain
this restoration is by an undelayed ratification
of the Constitutional amendment. There is no
valid reason why they should not take this
course, and that right speedily. 1t is in entire
accordance with the submissive views which
their leaders express on all occasions, public
and private. 1t is in general principle what
their generals, Lee and Johnston, Longs treet
and Hood, would advise them to do 1t is the
will OF the North, and to that will all their best
friends would urge them to bow. Governor
Sharkey, though he argues against the amend.
ment now, was not half so sure in June LAST
whether the South had not better make terms
with Congress. Howell Cobb unhesitatinglv
expressed his readiness to do every thine fhe
North required.
No one, In short, but the most rabid news.
paper editors-men like Rives Pollard, who
were writers in time OF war and now wonid ho
fighters in time OF peace-have ever nroed
serious objection to the principles of the amend.
ment. The Southern people-the better class of
them-do not want to restore slavery; they do
OF The Rebel scrip; they do not want to do any.
thing which the Constitutional amendment pro-
nlplts: The prescription of the leaders of the
heDelnon Is the only clause about which there
need be any difficulty. That is condition
which the victors may with perfect eiemancv
lmpose upon the vanquished Whv. then
should not the south adopt the amerdIoant yH'a ~
onceY south Carolina, the first in sacession
1 Sad to Ds SsoS GeSdS to lead the back The
On the one hand they have The eroass mem:
ratified representation in Congress- aulen. and rn.
stored prosperity and independence, an anu re re-
other hand they have exclusion from Con- oudnS
for an indefinite time, the perpetuatiou az %o
Freedmen's Bureau, and the army of occupatiSo1ne
and continued desolation and poverty. II !,
for them to decide on which side their natura
interests lie.