The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-02-05
CH HARLESTO ON.
MONDAY MORNING. FEBRUARY s. 1866.

TIVE LUMINOUS and e5le letter from, bis
Excellency Governor ORR to the President
of the United States, upon the relations be-
tween the freedmen and the landowners of
this State, published in our issue of Saturday,
will have received the attention and, doubt
less, the hearty appreciation of our readers.
1t presents a strong appeal for consideration
and justice to proprietors upon the seaboard,
and it presents it upon proper grounds. Apart
from the claims of right to their property
which the proprietors of this District have, in
common with citizens of other sections of the
South, under the restoration policy of the
President, it presents q claim to the restora-
ton of this property upon the broader ground
of interest and humanity. 1t is of interest
to the State and to the country that the
islands and the main, producing hitherto the
finest cotton in the world, should be culti-
waited. 1t is important that the looms Of this
country shall have this cotton for their finer
fabrics; it is important that the Government
shall have the revenue which this cotton, for
domestic fabrics, or for commerce, will pro-
duce; but it is especially important that
the tens of thousands Of freedmen herd
ing there shall have the subsistence which
the restoration of these lands alone can give
them.
Restored TO their proprietors, with prop
er measures to impress on freedmen sense
of dependence upon their own labor for
support, it is to be presumed that they will
bloom and brighten as before that settle
ments will bo restored; roads and commune
cations opened; peace, order and society re-
turned; and the fields rejoice, as Of old, in
their Aeecy harvests. But without that, the
lands, now o waste, become wilderness,
and, literally, a bowling wilderness Already
they are tho abodes of barbarism. The pro-
prietor who, under military escort, revisits
his once charming grounds, is met by an ex-
hibition of debasement and brutality which
are only equaled in the gloomy regions of
Africa. Within single year stride of al-
most generation backward has been made,
and the miserable occupants of these lands
some native and many refugees from inland
districts crowded together, without plans,
discipline, direction, implements, stock or
provisions to support them to another har-
vest, are awaiting, in the Inconsistencies of
delirium, fate as fearful as has ever fallen
on people. Some few may survive it.
When disease, destitution and disorder shall
have done their work, some scattered MEM
bers of the present tribe may find subsistence
upon the oysters, fish and other natural pro-
ducts of the sea and land but the general
calamity can be averted in no other way than
that so eloquently urged upon the Govern
ment by Governor ORR. The views Of this
Communication are further pressed upon the
authorities at Washington by MIR. TREscoT,
who is fully possessed of the subject; and our
planters may have the assurance, therefore,
that their claims will be fairly presented,
and if not accorded, it will be for the reason
only of the triumph of that party which finds,
in no consideration of humanity, even to the
miserable victims of their philanthropy, the
reason to forge their plans for the preServa-
tion of political power.