The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-12-28
CHI lar I. ESTON.
SATURDAY MORNING, DECEMBER %. 1857
The North Alarmed at Last.

At last the North is beginning to be alarmed
at the menacing condition OF AFFAIRS IN Tue
South. The eyes have been long sealed ndtne
ears have been steadily closed; but there Is no
lon ger room for blindness or deafness when
deliberate federal policy is known to be running
the "wards of the nation" as well as crushing
o,t If visible existence the trade and agrl-
cn,ture of the Southern States. Those very
things which the North now seems to partly
understand, have been understood IN the
South from the moment that the emancipation
If the slaves became an accomplished fact.
The substitution Of political meetings for work
in the fields, the reversing Of the relation Oh
master and servant. the studied exhortationS
Of itinerant lecturers and candidates for civil
Office, could have only produced one result
a thorough disorganization of the system Oh
| Southern labor, which disorganization in the
times of telling crops could not have any other
result than starvation, INSTRUMENTATION ana
distress.
But this was not believed when it was ex-
~nla;ned in the columns Of Southern Journals;
it was not believed until official report after
official report, private letter after private let
ter, had made the fact so patent that it could
not be denied.
General G1LLEM's report upon the condition
of affairs in Mississippi has already been pub
lished, and it is commented upon with vigor
by the leading Northern papers. There it was
shown that the negroes had consumed their
share of the crop, and were adritt in shoals
with no means of living honestly; that the
planters had nothing but a little corn, and a
few head of cattle to support them through the
winter; that the only alternative for the blacks
was spoliation or starvation; and General ORD
says in a private letter that the condition OF
affairs in the cotton States calls for the imme-
date attention of Congress, that q famine is
upon the negroes,-that the planters are aban-
doning the rich cotton sections and taking
refuge in the villages and towns,-that it is a
Question not of votes but of bread,-that if Con-
gress will employ the idle and destitute negroes
and feed them for their work, a war of races
may be prevented.
Nor is this state of things limited to Missis-
sippi. More or less, it prevails throughout
the cotton States. Nor is there any present
sign of coming improvement. The planters
cannot repeat the experiments of last year.
1t is their determination to make cotton sub
s;diary to surer aud cheaper crops; and this
alone will throw out of work four-ffths of the
laborers who were employed last year. Wages
may be reduced, it is true, but even then the
planters will have a hard task to pull through
till next harvest. They are in debt already
their factors cannot make further advances,
outside capitalists will give them no help.
In all probability Congress will attempt to do
something for the relief of the freedmen; butthe
question is asked, what will be done for the
whites? For them the Bureau makes no pro-
vision, and Congress alone can pretend to give
them any Tangible assistance. This help is
now, on all si&es, admitted to be necessary,
and the foy@ in which it might come is e1-
plaineSiS&the following paragraph taken from
aaS6ftorial of the New York Chimes"
II.Coneress alone has the power to render eff
1~fectual help, primarily, by refunding to the
cotton grower the tax on this years crop, and
permanently, by terminating the chaos which
nov exists. The sacrifice which the repay
ment of a single year's cotton tax involves
will be wise liberality if it prevent the almost
total abandonment of cotton culture which Is
talked of as probable; and large measures OF
internal improvement should follow and con-
solidate reconstruction, even though unre-
~pentant rebels share the benefit. To allow the
matters which General GILLEM describes to
run their course, or to attend to them only so
far as they relate to the blacks, will be TO
deepen the depression of the South and In
crease the embarrassment from which every
business interest suffers"
Present help and q permanent termination
| of the chaos which now exists, is what the
| South asks,-not only for the sake of the
whites but for the sake of the blacks,-not
only for the South but for the North, which
cannot continue to prosper if the South Is
driven to even deeper ruin. The justice OF the
| call is recognized; and it is already forcing
itself upon the attention of the Northern peo-
pie in a way that will soon cause its echoes to
be heard in the halls of Congress, at the polit-
| ical meeting, and on the election day.