Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-02-22
Planting Prospects.


One CT the most palpaple evidences of
decentralization which the times afford, is
to be found in the Indifference which men
exhibit in regard to meeting their obhga-
lions of every kind. The want of conf
dence which universally prevails in the
commercial community, is attributable ten
times more to this cause than to the mere
fact of the general poverty. Since the war
merchants have so steadily and generally
been disappointed in their dealings with
agriculturists and others. that they who,
by advances heretofore, kept the agr1cul-
tural interests afoat, have, in great meas
ure, ceased to make advances of any kind,
and the consequence is, that we are IN dam
ger of being without crop this year If
things continue as they are, the class who
are now landed proprietors, will ere long
cease to be such. They will be compelled
to give way to those who have some ready
money, and who can develop the lands now
going to waste, and thus add to the pro-
ductive resources of the country. Ii there
is any obligation which ought to be most
carefully observed in these days, it is that
which exists between the farmer, or plant
er, and his factor OF commission merchant.
In getting advances, he oughs not to over
estimate his ability to repay, and when
his crop is harvested, every grain of 1t
ought to go to the factor. The bad faith
of farmers in this respect has been Il very
common cause of complaint ever since the
war closed, and honest men, who have
tried hard to make a living, have had to
share the odium and suffer the conse-
auences together with their less conscien-
tious neighbors.
We cite the instance of certain farmers,
not to make an odious discrimination
against them, but because, being produ-
GERS, failure to keep their engagements
necessarily deranges all other business
The merchants calculations are based upon
this expectation from the farmers and
other producers, and disappointment IN
the latter extends itself throughout the en-
tire commercial circle. Uncertainty is
paralyzing to trade, and where, as with us,
everything is uncertain, the paralysis en-
braces the whole system. The great scar
city Of money, and the universal want OF
confidence, has reduced us to most lamen-
table condition, and the inevitable result,
in spite of all the stay-laws and bills for
the relief of the people which can be passed,
must be universal bankruptcy, unless some
change is soon effected. We know of in
stances where planters have their labor or
panized, their lands in good condition and
everything working smoothly, and yet are
in great distress at the prospect OF having
to abandon their Work for the want OF
means or credit to procure the supplies
necessary to keep them going during the
year. Being without cash and having to
rely entirely upon commission merchants
for supplies and money, they find them
selves, when these supplies fail them, en-
tirely helpless. Applications for assistance
from Northern. merchants are fruitless.-
No money can be had there for invest
ment here, except in very rare instances,
where tempting speculations are offered
The commission merchants are not to
blame for the condition of things. Their
money is almost all out i'll advances, and
they cannot afford to borrow money them
selves for the purpose of keeping up what
has proved to them an Improbable bust
ness. What is to be the result of the
present unparalleled prostration, we can
not tell, but it looks very much like gen
eral bankruptcy at present. And it is by
Al E
ures which have been adopted to prevent
this seemingly inevitable consequence, will
effect their object. As general thing, stay
laws, and all similar legislation, eventuate
In evil to the debtor class rather than good,
and it remains to be seen whether the pre-
sent stay law in North Carolina will have
that effect or not. One Senator, in pro-
testing against its passage and explaining
his reasons for voting against it, said he
believed the result of it would be that
three-fourths of the honest debtors of the
State would be sold out of house and
home in eighteen months.
The Ultimate Result of Reconstruction.
Under this heading the Baltimore Sooe of
the case as it now stands, and we think it
faithful review of tho whole matter. AS
such we give it prominent place in our
editorial column. The Sun says:
eThe Office which radicalsm assigned to the
Thirty-Ninth Congress, in connection with the
great and all-absorbing question of reconstruction
was to educate the public mind up to certain pur-
poses which could not at once be unfolded. From
the beginning it was obvious they were bent upon
excluding the Southern States from representation
in this or in the next Congress- and to secure pow
er to themselves by electing the next President
without regard to the electoral vote of those States
That, however, appears now to have been an incl
dent to the ultimate object, a mere means rather
by which the ultimate object was to be secured
One who watches the whirlpool in the Niagara
river, below the falls, fixing his eye only upon the
boiling cauldron of waters, sees wave after wave
and obstacle after obstacle disappear, without any