Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-11-29
THE WILMINGTON JOURNAL
WILMINGTON. n. c.,
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 80, 1866.
The Warnings of Experience.

The Warnings of Experience.
It must be admitted that the condition OF
the Southern people is, IN many respects
deplorable. Just emerging, it may be said,
from an exhausting civil war, wherein they
lost their brightest and their best; burden
ed with taxes which, in their palmiest days,
would have been considered oppressive,
and in their present state little less than
ruinous suffering in many sections from
short bread crops threatened with innu-
merable evils by an INSCRIPTIONS political
party, with an army of lazzaroni in the
shape of vagrant freedmen, women and
children, devouring their very substance,
there is much in the situation to darken our
hopes of the future, and to sink the heart
of the patriot.
But Notwithstanding the gloomy aspect
of the present state of affairs, there is yet
no cause of despair. A people so fertile in
resources as the Southern people have prov
ed themselves to be; having such capacity
of endurance; SO courageous In the field; SO
hopeful in defeat; SO magnanimous IN VIC
tory with territory combining every adj
vantage of soil and climate, are possessed
of all the elements of national greatness and
prosperity, and, if true to themselves must
achieve both.
If our people would but take to heart the
lessons of the past, and wisely apply them
to our present and future action, there
could be no doubt of our rapid progress to
wealth and greatness. But we confess that
we seem to be pursuing with a blind pur-
pose, the path which we have heretofore
followed to our own destruction. We are
not now speaking politically, but referring
solely to our material interests.
Before the late struggle, the South had
become the mere tributary of the North
The whole marketable productions of her
fields and her forests, the fruits of the best
organized system of labor the world ever
saw, found their way into Northern hands.
The merchants OF the North became our
factors;-we produced, they sold, and we
took their manufactures IN return; thus
all our capital was at their disposal. Forty
or fifty millions of dollars in the shape of
customs, from a commerce based principal
" on cotton and naval stores, were annual
ly disbursed among them. Boston, in the
year 1859, furnished us with four hundred
thousand cases of shoes. We fostered their
shipping and their manufactures; we sup
ported their agents, their brokers and their
commission merchants they constantly
accumulated whilst we were undergoing
q continual drain, and as q necessary result,
we commenced the late terrible struggle,
wanting in all the materials necessary to
success, with actually nothing save strong
arms and brave hearts, and were overthrown
at last, by the very sinews of war which we
had so greatly continued to supply.
It would be folly thus to refer to the dead
past, were it not to draw lesson therefrom
for the living present. Are we profting by
the warnings of experience? On the con-
trary we are pursuing with increased zeal
the very course which made us the tributa-
ries of our Northern brethren" ''Stores y
are being erected at every cross roads-the
pillow is being forsaken for the yard stick,
and we who, for four years, ''lived within
ourselves" are importing Northern manu-
features in thrice increased ratio. With
what bright anticipations we looked forward
to the present crop as a sure means of par
tial relief from our embarrassments, and
yet it is no exaggeration to say that every
bale of Gotten, every blade Of tobacco, every
barrel of turpentine, every pound of rosin,
every cask of rice and every bushel o
wheat produced among us this year and not
required for home consumption, are this
day mortgaged to the Northern manufac-
turer and merchant, and will as surely find
their way into the hands of these, our very
kind friends, as that they will be prepared
for market. Thus we are moving in the
same ante 6egum cycle-we continue to add
to their accumulations and to impoverish
still more ourselves.
Assuredly this state of things deserves
the serious consideration of our people, and
devolves upon the press the duty of enlight-
ening the public mind therein. In courtesy
to the patience of our readers, however, we
will continue the discussion of this subject
in to-morrow's issue.-Ddily Journal, 27M,
niracf Trade and Ho.ne Manufactures.