Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-06-28

ficiency of light to guide them. He could not De
ieve that any living thing as class were deprived
of the Joy of sunlight; and while the microscope
had thus far found no organs that we could recog
nize as of sight in many classes of living things
shell-fish, worms, and so forth-he beheved ina
they must in some manner be 1mpresslD!e VIII
the alterations of light and darkness. 1t hao sc
long appeared question with him whether Ill
own .eyesight could be saved, that he had give1
this subject much attention-or rather ret1ecton
and he quoted from Milton with great pathos sew
eral passages on the subject
Oh dark. dark, dark, amid the blaze OF noon; A.,
Ireyocably dark total eclipse without the nope OF da
And again
Nor to these idle orbs doth sight appear
OF sun, or moon, stars throughout the year,
Of man or woman Yet argue not
Against Heavens hand or will, nor bate Jot
OF heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward.
Mentioned that I had been at the siege of Pu.
lasli, and gave him some particulars explanatory
of the actual situation at the time of the
der of Col Olmstead of the Second Georgia Vol
unteers whom he appeared at first inclined to
blame as guilty of a premature capltulation. AT
ter all, however, he thought the Colonel ex-
cusable as further holding-out promised no I'D.
vantages to compensate its loss, the up-river bat
teries of our forces making it certain that Tat
nails fleet could render assistance. The sur
render of Port Royal he did not think premature,
under the circumstances because if his people had
not retreated when they did, our gunboats, run
ming round the creeks in rear of Hilton Head,
Port Royal and ST. Helena Islands, would have
made retreat impossible while the troops of ouI
Sherman expedition, when landed, were more
than sufficient to overpower the garrisons The
mistake was, that powerful works had not been
erected in the of the islands, to the fer
rles, and thus secure uninterrupted commlnica-
ton with the mainland. Had this been attended
to in the first instance, there would have been no
excuse for the abandonment of the powerful works
designed to protect Port Royal-at least none un-
less preceded by more protracted resistance.
To change the subject, he returned to fishing of
which we had been speaking. Was follower and
admirer of the sport, but more in theory than
practice. His life has been too busy for the past
thirty years to allow his indulging even his most
cherished incllnations except at rare intervals.
Izaak Walton had been one of his favorite eu-
thOrs and one of the counts he had against Ben
jamin Franklin, was the latter's fierce attack on
the gentle fisherman. Indeed, Franklin had said
many things not of benefit to mankind.
Speaking of the negroes, Mr.. Davis remarked
rs regards their future, he no reason why they
must die out, unless remaining idle. If herded
together in idleness and filth, as in the villages
established by our military power, the small -pox,
RIGHTEOUSNESS and drunkenness would make short
work of them Wherever so herded they had
died off like sheep with the murrain But re-
manning the plantations, heretofore and
employed for wages they were docile and pro-
creative people, altogether differing from the In
dams, and not likely to die out like the latter
Their labor was needed and though they could
not multiply SO fast in freedom under their
former wholesome restraints, he saw no good ar
gument for their dying out.
In ten years, or perhaps less, the South will
have recovered the pecuniary losses of the war;
1t has had little capital in manufactures. Its cap
ital was in land and negroes. The land remains
productive ever. The negroes remain, but
their labor has to be paid for. Before the war
there had been 1000, 900 negroes, average value
tive hundred dollars each, or total value two thou
sand millions of dollars This was all gone and
the interest upon it, which had been the profits of
the negros labor in excess of his cost for food,
clothing and medicines Still their labor remains 4
and with this, and such European labor as will be
imported and such Northern labor as must flow
South the profits of the Southern staples will not
be long III restoring material prosperity. H.. 49,
In his freedom, if capable of being made to Ia
Dor at ALL the negro will not average more than
SIX bales year but the price of cotton has
more than doubled, and is not likely to recede,
even this will yield enormous profit. Six bales
of four hundred pounds each, will be worth six
hundred dollars at twenty-five cents per pound,
while the cost of this species of labor will be about
one hundred and fifty dollars year per hand and
found-a profit of certainly not less than three
hundred dollars year on each black laborer en-
ployed.
The land will not pass to any great extent from !
its former proprietors. They will lease it for |
few years to men with capital, and then resume |
working it themselves; sell portions of it with
the same object not materially decreasing their
own passions. When the country is quiet and the
profits of the crop come to be known there will
be rush southwark from the sterile New England
regions and from Europe, only equalled by that
to California on the discovery of gold. Men will
not stay in the mountains of Vermont and New
Hampshire cultivating little farms of from fifty to
a hundred acres, only yielding them some few
hundreds year profit for incessant toll when the
rich lands of the South, under skies warm and
blue as those of Italy and with an atmosphere as |
exhilarating that of France are thrown open at
from q dollar and half to three dollars per acre
The water power of the South will be brought in
to use by the new immigration, and manufactures |
will spring up in all directions, giving abundant
employment to all classes. The happy agricultural
state of the South will become tradition and
with New England wealth, New England's grasp J
ing avarice and evil passions will be brought !
along.
The estimate that million negroes have died |
off during the war, he considered excessive. They
had fled or been dragged away from their old |
homes In great numbers but much less than q |
million, he thought, would cover their casualties |
AS to any general minglng of the races, nature
had erected ample barriers against the crime
Depraved white men occasionally had children by |
black women but it was comparatively rare for |
mulattoes to have large or healthy families and
quadroons, though extremely amorous, rarely had
children at all. There could be no danger that
Southern white women of the poorer class, though /
left greatly in of the white male population
oy the war, would either cohabit with marry ne
5roes Public sentiment on the point is SO strong
hey dare not do it; nor had they any inclination
It would be regarded South as crimes against ma
lure are regarded In all civilized communities
The blacks were docile affectionate, and re-
igious people, like cats in theirfondness for home.
The name of freedom had charms for them; but |
ntl educated to be sef-supporting, it would be
curse. IF herded together in military villages,
nd fed on rations gratuitously distributed, rum