Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1866-01-10
The Report Of the Secretary of the.
Treasury of the United Statcs.

r .
search, and showing Mr.. McCrLLocn to be an
accomplished fuancier; though. We shall have oc-
casiOn to point out one fatal error, according to
our opinion; in hislate Report
The Report discloses some highly interesting
and important information, which may prove
mater Of muchusaful reflection to tho Southern
people. The most discouraging and alarming
result attending defeat in tho late war; is not
the devastation Of our cnuntry and the almost
universal bankruptcy Of our people; but the
moral effect it ha, produced upon the public mind.
Men arc always disposed to c1nggerstc erls; to
attribute undue importance to passing events;
and especially to award 10 the successful party in
great struggle imaginary nnd undue credit and
superiority. This truth is stfikiugly illustrated
in the effect which the result of the ate war has
produced upon the mind of the Southern people.
Nothing has given us so much pain aud filled US
with such serious apprehension as to our future,
as the common tendency, which VIC everywhere
witness, among our people, to regard tho result
Of the late war as an evidence Of the superior
sagacity and common sense Of Northern men
and the disposition to deprcciate the resources,
both physical and moral, Of the South. II this
feeling il not arrested 1t must inevitably end in
our national ruin and degradation. Self respcc!
nld ss.f reliance make the basis OF all national
as well as individual strength aud security. Let
tho conviction bs once firmly planted in an .indi.
viduars mind that bis enemy 10 his superior, and
from that moment hia enemy really becomes so !:
and all hopo Of vindioating his rights ut once
dies in hi. brenst and he yields to sullen despair
or uomsnly aputhy. What is true in this respect
u an individual, is alike true of Milton.
The conviction then that the Northern people,
because they have boen successful in the late war,
conducting government ard carrying on war.
will prove utterly fatal to al hope Of future lihor-
ty; and will assuredly degrade and dobnse our
uationul character.
There is no duty, therefore, which the South
orn press owes to its country 80 solemn and para
mount as that Of exposing the fallacy Of this
pernicious and constantly growing sentiment.
We owo Secretary MccrLLocn many thanks
Cor having placed in cur bands the means Of
striking heavy blow at this pOstilent and demon
alizins eoifpaj We dc not dignity it by calling
it an opinion. The main gr und upon which this
notion of Northern superiority is bafed, is the
supposed fact that the North exeells greatly in
wealth and material resources. Not that twenty
millions of people have moc wealth than five
millions, for that would prove nothing; but that
these Northern men understand better the man.
aycmcnt of busiu.ss-hnvo more business talent
-snd mike larger Ter cent on their capital
than the Southern man,-the Southern man, who
is beginning to look upon himself as q mere
frnyes consuWere ndfi, and is almost persuaded
that Yankee raw from the spinning jenny or
the machine shop, is able TO teach him tho noble
art Of agrculture-a pursuit that requires more
sound judgment, observation and experience than
hcsr it saiil !" The Yankee, ws admit, has not
personal courage, the dignity or the high tonpd
character of tho Southsrner; but he has moro
energy, more sagacity, more business talent
knows better how to make money! and money
constituting tho sintws Of war, he is the stronger
man." NV it is just this fatal fallacy that Mr..
McCuLLocH, Northern or Western man himself,
has furnished US the mean, Of rcfuting.
Our renders will not DC little astoniShed whom
they told, upon tho authority of Secretary
MccULLocH, that In the year 1850 the real and
pcrsonal property Of the United States was valued
(slaves cxcludod) at fourteen thousand, one hun
drcl and eighty-three millions of dollars. Of
this amount the States lately in insurrection held
three thousqnd four hundred and sixty-scven
millions, being an increase upon the like property
in 1850 Of 1897 per cent. Tho properly of the
loyal States was valued at ton thousand seven
hundred and sixteen millions, IN increase >of
1856 per cent vvcr 1850; together averaging
decennial increase of 1871 per cent" Now if
money making be the test Of superior "energy,
perseverance, and common sonsc," thon hero arc
the facts which will test the relative merit Of the
Southern and tho Northern man. With popu-
laton Of 5,RG0,0D9, the SoVth had in 1860, Si,-
$1,000, 600; and this rsciusire of slaves. Our
slaves constituted at oast two thirds of our prop
erty-actually and legally under the Constitution
of the United States. These slaves were bought
and paid for; and the sagacity and common sense
which enabled us to kccp them, to multiply them,
to govern them, to regulate their labor, and make
that labor profitable, il certainly superior sa-
gac:y and common sense to that required for the
management Of spinning jenny or the conduct.
ing of machine shop. The highest evidence of
talent, sagacity and common sense is Undoubtedly
the capacity to govern men. And negro is
man-a machine Infinitely harder to manage than
spinning jenny. Add tho value of our slaves,
therefore, and the Southern States In 1850, owned
really property to the enormous amount of ELEVEN
rHousASD POUR HUNDRED AND oSE MILLIONS.
While tho North owaed bu. ton thousand millions
The South with one fourth u the population of
the North posscssod not relatively but positively,
more property real and personal, than the North.
the coumon sense Of the country? Tho people
of the Confederate Suites were, at the beginning
Of the late war, unqucstonably the richest on the
ear.h-accordng to Secretary McCULLocH.
But this is no. all. Mr.. McCuLLocH gratifea
US in his fair and hunest Report with another
most aattcring fact. he tells US in the above cx.
tract that the capital of "the States lately in
in,urrsct;on" did increase in the decade from
1850 to 1850, 1891 per cent; while Northern
capital for tho same space incroaasd only 1855
per cont. Thus showing that while Southern
capital was making II por cent within small
friction, Nor1eru capital was yielding only
about I2i per cont! Who, again wo ask, have
been the business men Of Americn! On which
sido of tho line lie energy and common sense!
This article has already run beyond its intended
limits; re therefore close with tho single remark
that n the Southern man douhta an To thu ensrur