The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-02-28

Thursday Morning, Feb. %, 1867.
what the South is Doing.


edly so, to some extent-the subject
Of the sneers and taunts of the cute
and pushing Yankee, who, either on
drumming or peddling tours, wrote
home letters from the South, or who,
settling among the old Shareholders,
piled his business or profession with
such untiring energy and industry as
to outstrip, in short time, his more
indolent Southern competitor. These
are well-known facts, and their ex-
istence was attributed to various
causes-some laying the universal
disinclination to actual labor exhibit
ed by the native Southerners to con
stitutional laziness, caused by eli
mate, &C.; while others attributed it
to the baleful influence of the So
called peculiar institution. What
ever may have been the true cause of
this state of things, it did exist to o
great extent; but it has passed away,
under the sweeping effects OF the
war-tornado, which uprooted the in
stitution itself.
There has change come over our
people, or, at least, is in its Incl
piency, which illustrates that there is
an energy and industry, active and
living, however long they may have
lain dormant, among even the South
ern people proper. Their existence
is the more remarkable in the present
depressing condition, both political
and financial, in which those people
now find Themselves. Reared in
comparative easy circumstances, with
laborers and servants, and frequently
mechanics and artizans, their own
property, they were suddenly trans
ferred to an impoverished condition,
their laborers, servants, &C., set free,
large portion of their property de-
strcyed, and their banking and tnan-
cial system completely prostrated.
Adversely is an excellent disciplina-
rian, and the people Of the South are
enjoying all the benefits it can confer.
Among these BLESSINGS in dis
guise, the most prominent, because
the most pressing, is the necessity for
exertion-for hard work. And the
sufferings and trials through which
they have passed have brought to
light the further necessity of new
fields Of industry The whites OF the
South cannot cultivate their former
large plantations of cotton, and,
therefore, if they wish to prosper
indeed, if they even wish to mnA,e u
licing-they must cast about for
other channels of industry. Old
things have passed away, and with
them, the Southern agriculturist must
doff all the paraphernalia and all the
habits of his former position under
the dead institution. He may not be
able to make wooden nutmegs, nor
need he so to peddling wooden clocks,
but he can turn in to business which
will not only remunerate we'll, but will
curtail the profits Of those who use
them to crush the people from whom
they We're eXtOrted
The past, its institutions and its
associations are gone; the present we
have with us, and the Developments
it is maxim g in this Southern country
give q blasting refutation of the Puri-
tan allegations of the inertness and
laziness of the former shareholders
of theSouth.
We are led to these reflections by
the following brief, hnt very plea
SAM, sketch of what the Southern
people are doing, in the midst of
their poverty, and bowed down under
grievous and onerous burdens of
taxation, and other measures which
peculiarly operate against them We
quote from the Sandersyille Geoy-
gioa:
Virginia is setting an example to
her sister Southern States. Her mag