The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-08-13
For the Standard.

paramount to all other considerations, we are
pleased to invite your attention to few I'M
portant facts intimately connected with the
interests and welfare Of all North Carroll
mans.
We can not doubt but that this must for
some time to come continue to be an agrl-
cultural country. The vast natural resources
of the State for the production OF all kinds
of grain and the great extent OF the farm
inc interest in the South, renders 1t eXpedl-
ent for us to consider how far the old system
of conducting large plantations on the
grand scale of great expenditure and small
profit is likely to benefit the owners of the
soil. and contribute thereby to the general
wealth and prosperity of the country. There
are many earnest, intelligent and patriotic
men both at the North and in the South,
who from time to time have felt pride and
experienced pleasure in contemplating the
great sources of wealth in the Southern
States and only recently has North Carolina
beech very highly complimented by the Hon.
Mr.. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. With some
wisdom learned from the past, we now be-
gin to recognize slavery as the blight and
the curse, which has so greatly retarded the
development of our resources, and since " the
bone of contention is taken away. it becomes
us not to picture forever the darkness OF
slavery's horrid days without making bold
and manly effort to unfold to the world the
more inviting scene OF a fair country where
flourish the vine and the fig. This is the
pleasant duty we would now perform; we
would throw the veil of obscurity over the
past and lift the curtain of prosperity and
happiness, in order that the light of future
progress and advancement in science and
art may shine upon every home within North
Cardinals cheerful borders. The great bat
ties of the rebellion have been gloriously
won to the everlasting honor Of the United
States, and to-day, the whole Southern coun-
try lies at the foot of the Capitol, and the
wisest statesmen of this or any other era are
calling upon {" our crrng sisters" to return to
the enjoyment of the protection of the
American Republic. They aoW do so and
the rapid tide of events will soon force them
into an enduring Union, which no traitor
hand shall ever again sever. Meantime, we
must study the interests of North Carolina;
we must call upon her citizens to turn from
the beggarly elements of our darkest days Of
oppression, and holding up to them the du
ties of the patriot and philanthropist, we
must plead with them to give to the State
honest dealing and true Republican gov
crnment. Let men look at the wealth OF the
State; let them study some improvement in
her agricultural interests; let them persuade
the landed gentry" to consider the ruin to
which they are fastening. 1t is not uncom-
mon to hear gentlemen remark of some Ian
ded proprietor, "Why he ought to have
money, he works great, large plantation"
Very true, he may work a large plantation;
but does he work it to advantage? Is all
the land in cultivation? Is everything kept
in complete repair, and is the soil of that
large plantation nursed well and made to
yield abundantly under the administration of
the landed proprietor? We very much fear
that these questions could not all meet with
affirmative or satisfactory answers, and, in
deed, if the landed gentleman himself could
be questioned as to his profits after deduct
ing all necessary expenses, he would say,
doubtless, that he had not enough spare cash,
with all debts paid to buy cheap penny
whistle. Truly, this is down-hill business
and must eventually terminate in ruin. Long
years gone by with slavery as blight, it
was the same, if not apparently worse; then
men toiled their lives out to gain expensive
livings, to educate their sons and support
them in Incidence and spend thrift habits,
to visit fashionable places of resort. and to
buy an occasional slaue to keep up the old
stock as time and hard service wore some
out. What picture of life's aim and mans
high calling There was the name of wealth,
to be sure, and perhaps its substance, but
was there among that class of planters at
any time good, fair system Of money-mak-
ing exclusively in their business? Are our
lands as well improved to day as they would
have been if during all these years small
farms had been we'll titled and cared for 3
How do our country places contrast in APP
pearance with those of the Northern and
Western States? Answer these questions
landed aristocrisy" and men who year in
and year out have toiled and worked for the
high sounding name of the owners of hun
dreds of slaves and thousands of broad
acres. The reply, if honest, will be that it
was all vain, empty show; all rotten
mass of supposed wealth, which only served
to debase the refined natural, and kind SEN
slbilities OF the heart, and soon as I" the race
was rum" so soon as the grave closed over
the proprietor all was scattered to the four
winds of heaven under the hammer of the |
auctioneer. These old ways are now to be
done away with, and new system entirely |
must be introduced all over the State. Small |
farms, with neat cottages and out buildings, !
with well fed COWS and thorough bred horses,
must spring up everywhere. The poor white
and the colored freeman must now have a
chance to show the world that they have
been indebted to these landed proprietors"
for the very low position hitherto occupied )
by them. Political equality will reach the
bottom of these old cancers, and they will
be cut out by the sharp knife of popular
opinion and honest Judgment. These land
eel gentlemen must not scorn the only avail
able labor they can command they must
not call the stout, able bodied freeman an in
cubus to society because he does not see fit
to labor without remuneration; but the
arlstocrisy" must educate themselves to the
demands of the days in which we live and
give up their old, boastful overbearing and
tyrannlcal manners. Justice must be fully |
melted out on all sides; the contractor as
well as the person employed under the con-
tract must observe strict integrity and fair
ness in carrying out their bargains
otherwise there can never be good under
standing on either side. The land owner
instead of hiring his land for a year. should
lease it for term of years. or sell it under a |
term of years that would enable good, IN
dustrious man to pay for it. Every acre a
man owns above his own wants is an expense
and waste, so long as it is uncultivated.-
This fact is too well known to be disputed
by any man of sense.
Ii it is admittd on all sides that the late |
Rebellion was begun with the great design
OF perpetuating slavery; then all must be |
that it has failed most signally in
that object and has most bann;1,, 4 ::