The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1866-10-22

Reconstruction Material Interests Of tho
south.
Affairs down South seem almost to have come
to deadlock. Those who have no cotton are
very badly of, and those who have cotton are
not in much better position. The Freedmen's
Bureau and the tax collectors between them
have taken possession Of the crops, and not a
bale can be moved until the government
three cent tax is paid, and until the authori-
ties of the niger bureau certify that each one
of their proteges has received his dues. This
delay is of course productive of great incon-
venience 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 invariably accompanies the handling
of cotton by Bureau and Treasury agents, there
will be very little of the staple left whom it
returns to its rightful owners. To add to the
general perplexity the entire crop turns out
lighter than was expected in every State ex-
cept Texas, where the amount raised is greater
than the most sanguine estimate; for Texas
suffered nothing by the war, and had the use
Of labor and of capital from other parts Of
the South. In Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi
and Louisiana the heavy freshets which
occurred in July and August materially re-
duced the cotton production.
Thus the Southern States stand, without
money, without credit, with short crop and
desolated country. They need capital to re-
develop their resources and labor to 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 undclayed rasii-
There is no valid reason why they
should not take this course, and that right
speedily. II 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, Longstreet and Hood. would
advise them to do. It is the will Of the North,
and to that will all their best friends would
urge them to bow. Governor Sharkcy, though
he argues against the amendment now, was not
half 80 sure In June last whether the South had
not better make terms with Congress. Howell
Cobb unhesitatingly expressed his readiness
to do everything the 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 would
be fighters in time Of peace-have ever urged
serious objection to the principles of the
amendment The Southern people-the better
class Of them-do not want to restore slavery !;
they do not want to repudiate the national
debt in favor Of the rebel scrip; they do not
want to do anything which the constitutional
amendment prohibits. The prescription Of
the leaders of the rebellion is the only
cleuse about which there need be any diff
fculty. That Is condition which the victors
may with perfect clemency impose upon the
vanquished. Why, then, should not the South
adopt the amendment at once? South Caro-
lima, the first In secession, is said TO be ready
to lead the way back. The Southern people
have two choices before them. On the one
hand they have, the amendment ratified, repre-
sentation in Congress and restored prosperity
and independence; on the other hand they have
exclusion from Congress for an indefinite time,
the perpetustion Of the Freedmen's Bureau and
the army of occupation, and continued desola-
ton and poverty. 1t is for them to decide on
which side their natural interests lie.