Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1866-09-14
WILL WE PROFIT BY THE
- -. LESSONl

"'O hOu"bS vi
Southern operations has been 10
make cotton to buy negroes, and to
buy negroes to make cotton. The
blind adherents to this suicidal policy
did not see that it was pursued to the
exclusion of the multiplied vacations
and employments which constitute,
everywhere, the groundwork of in
dividualand national prosperity. Nor
did they see that, with all the seem
ing prosperity of the South, it was
daily g.owing weaker, and daily ad-
ding to the strength of the North.
The war, and its blockade, we bad
hoped, would have so fully exposed
the folly of long cherished errors,
that their abandonment would have
signalised the return of peace. But,
SO far from it, the return to the long
beaten track was almost universal
The cry was-let US make all the cot
ton we can, and the smallest amount
of breadstuffs that will suffice. Los
ing sight of all the hazards attend
ing the experiment of free negro
labor, crops were pitched in accord
ance with the mistaken policy, and
the result is just what might have
been expected--little cotton and less
bread, and the excess of the former
not sufficient to supply the deficit in
the latter.
But there arc indications that
wiser counsels will, hereafter, prevail.
Leading minds in the South are ac-
lively engaged in pointing out the
remedies for past errors, and in dem
onstrating that these remedies con.
sist in manufacturing our own raw
working our mines, raising
our breadstuffs, and carrying on our
own foreign trade. New England has
been our man ufaoturer, to her great
profit and our incalculable loss; the
Northwest has raised our meat and
bread, New York has been our OK.
porter, importer, and general COM
mercial agent, and all have grown
rich upon our labor, and all have
proven their gratitude by uniting
against US in the work of oppression
and desolation. Such a lesson as
they have taught us, ought to enlight-
en- the most stupid, impart energy to
the sluggard, awaken the suspicious
of the most confding; and fastcn
upon all the unalterable determine.
ton TO live for ourselves and within
ourselves.
With soil that yields abundantly
the fruits and grains of temperate and
semi-tropical climes, we have looked |
to our ncighbors for supplies with
forests Astounding in varieties of val
liable timber, We are indebted to the
North for everything from a cradle
to a steamboat with mines of the
richest ores, We are dependant upon
The North for every useful implement
from hoe to reaper, and all our
machinery, from coffee mill to
steam engine, is the product of Yam
kee capital and Yankee skill. Is it
my wonder, then, that the war found
US weak, in resources, and left us
poor, in the means of rccuperation +?
In times past, the man who taught a
different policy for the South, was
told that the genius of its people and
The popularity of its institutions
made agriculture our only appro-
pirate aud profitable pursuit, and that
the political economy developed by
this mistaken policy, served as lig-
nment to the Union-that the inter.
change Of commodities blended all
interests into a common tie of mutual
profit and sympathy. This fallacy
has been exposed, and it is now appa-
rent that, if the South had developed |
its resources, as common sense sug.
gested, by manufacturing its raw ma.
terial, working its mines, carrying on
its foreign trade and producing its
own breadstuffs, the Union would not
have been endangered by Northern
fanaticism -; nor could secession have
been prevented by the superior mum
bers and resources of the free States.
Let us hope that the lesson we have
learned will not be lost-that the
future will find us actively repairing
the errors of the past, by pursuing
that policy which is best calculated
to promote the growth of wealth and
art and science, virtue
and intelligence. Our resources are
ample, and with energy 10 develope.