The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1867-09-25
VOL. 3.

mature WlGnOut FeyulaClOu oJ Cu0 '''oi
mometer. Railroads and steam lines will
connect these Western consumers with
these productions. Why should not the
Gulf ports of the nation conduct this
agency? The direct trade between the
West and Europe will be always the
property of New York and her sister At
1-fantic cities, because they lie on the trade
line which connects these interests, but
the South Sea trade, never yet fully real
lied from the days of Raleigh and Haw-
kins to the present, is substantial COM
merce, and will separate itself from that
of Europe as has been indicated.
Southern manufactures must improve.
The same statesmen have taught that the
two feld-workcrs out of every FIVE upon
a given population should maintain three
nlon.producers. The experience of mod
ern civilization teaches that the other
three can aid in their own maintenance
without in any manner impairing the etti-
cheney Of the feld-worker The South is
not all capable Of staple product. Much
of its territory is mountainous and sub
Eiect TO early frosts, as Kentucky, Tennes-
see, Upper Virginia, Georgia and North
Carolina. 1t has always occurred to us
that because one man in the Delta lived
by the culture of sugar, there is no espe-
ciial reason why another living near u
mountain cataract in Georgia, or that
Switzerland of America Tennessee =
should not forge iron or spin cotton.
i Mr.. Calhoun thought otherwise, and so
turned over the cotton-spinning to Eng
land or New England. The Southern
peoule have the raw material and provis-
T ions for cotton manufacture. They have
thousands OF women and children who
we're subslsted last year on, Federal ra-
tions. They must have there panper
system or labor system-poor-house or
factories. To these impoverished people,
in great part Of our own color, may be
I added the colored women and children
who are to be educated They are not
! disposed, we are told, to go into the cot
/ ton-feld what is to prevent their be-
coming operators in a cotton mill? Moth
! ling except that hereditary hostility to
manufacture which made John Randolph
say he would ego half mile out of his
way to kick a Sheep" could restrain cot
| ton manufacture.
Emancipation has given the South q
| far greater home demand for manufac
lures than under the slave system. Then
the planter clad his slaves in coarse gar
mcnts. The average cost of outlay was
perhaps twenty five dollars per annum in
dry goods, groceries, medicines and uten-
siIs The freedman now provides for him
self He wears more clothes, and of bet
ter quality. He buys more groceries.
lie even adds watch and jcwclry to his
/ purchases. AS consequence, he eXpcnds
an average of perhaps 500 on his family.
This is five times as much expended in
merchandise as before. -Four times as
much of the cotton money goes TO the
merchant and manufacturer as before. 1t
is home lcmand and home market,
and very few peoples in the world would
scorn or delay to employ it. Indeed, the
necessity of combining the products Of
the plough and spindle with as little inter-
mediary agency as possible, will ultimately
transfer some of the mills of the Merr-
mac to the waterfalls-possbly to the
coal-yards-of the Southern States and
cities. If those who now inhabt the
country will not employ these extraordi-
nary advantages, others will come.
The future Of the South is then within
its own control. But it is proper to say
that if this rich region should be permit
ted to relapse into non-production by its
present population, they will be succeed
ed, as the Indians have been, by those
who will realize its vast capacities. Like
the inactive steward who hid the talents
confided 10 him, tho treasures of the South
must Inevitably fall into hands that will
appreciate and make them available.
A correspondent writes to the New
York journal of Commerce upon the com
mcrcial and political prospects of the
South;
+. 1 send you an extract from'a letter
written by an old Charleston merchant,
who has, during the past two months,
travelled extensively through South Caro-
lima, Georgia, and portion OF Alabama.
The writer of the letter is a careful OBJ
server, not given to looking too favoraby
on the bright side of things. -Four years
of desolating war brQlle all Of our banks
at the South the currency of the coun-
try, which amounted to almost rs much
as the whole debt of the United States,
collapsed with the Confederacy; many of
our towns and cities were destroyed /;
ruin was spread broadcast throughout the
land Our people, however have left to
them their land, which is the foundation
of all wealth.
Ihave made, during the summer months,
an extensive tour, first through the States
where the farms arc worked by freed
colored labor; and recently through the
West, where white labor prevails. To
my utter surprise the farms arc much bet
ter cultivated at the South than in the
West. Ii the politicians will only let the
South quietly reconstruct their soil, the