Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-12-11
General Remarks.

| NO kucn tltuch hh tueSe were ever
known in the South before. The loss Of
81, 900, ,000 900 by emancipation, and Of
an equal amount in destruction and
depreciation Of other property by the war
is now beginning to tell The truth is,
our people have literally nothing lett,
and all their attempts, since the war, to
make something, have been frustrated by
unfavorable seasons and by the bad legis-
lation Of Congress. At one time, about
a year ago, il seemed as il the freedmen
had come TO the conclusion that frolc,
big meetings, and changing places, would
not make living, and were beginning
to give themselves to something like halt
work. just then came along negro suf-
frage, Radical emissares, the hope Of
confscation and the belief that voting
was substitute for labor. Since then
almost nothing has been done; but, as
we expected, the black cry for bread :"
has come. Complaints of the destruc.
ton of stock, and Of stealing something
to eat, by the blacks, are now universal
at the South. Gangs of freedmen are
banding together in military order, and,
| hourishing the arms with which political
demagogues have furnished them, are
marching on towns and settlements and
demanding food. These and many other
signs show that if Congress presses for
ward its reconstruction scheme, on the
basis Of black suffrage, the South must
be absolutely ruined. The reaction can
not come a moment too quick, nor be
too thorough for the exigencies Of the
case.
Something must be done TO prevent
| next year from being worse than this;
bat unless the freedmen are convinced
that they must not look TO politics for
support and this can be done, certainly,
only by evidences that Congress does not
intend to make the Presidential vote of
the South for the Radical ticket superior
to every other consideration-the plan
ters cannot hire freedmen any more,
with any hope at all of satisfactory re-
suits. Across the river, where money
wages have been tried, the planters are
all broke, and unite in saying that the
money system must be given up,
In Texas, where the sharing system
has been tried, the response is that it has
proven complete failure. The negroes
have got in debt to their employers for
supplies, and by one crook and another
large share Of such debts will be left
unpaid. Besides this, the share system
allows the freedman to be careless about
repairs; pillage is fostered by it and
many other evils, so that the planters
believe it would keep them broke if cot
ton were to 60 up to fifty cents per
pound and continue at that price. All
this we asserted long ago, on the expe-
rience of others among whom emancipa
ton had been tried, and who asserted
that the only remedy for it was white
immigration that with the Government
in favor of the employer, and the best
labor laws that could be devised, free
negro labor, in any shape, was costly
enough to ruin the planter. Their warn
ing to us was not to think of relying
upon it-that we never could tell what
we we're paying for it, but that we might
be assured it was far too costly for farm
ipg operations
The simple and plain truth Of the mat
ter is, that the freedmen will have to
90 to work, and at much lower wages
than they have been demanding and
receiving since emancipation. Any law
of Congress and any movement of the
Radical party which tends to keep off
the day of this necessity, by fostering
false hopes and idleness among the
negroes, must help to bring an evil time,
worse than any we have yet seen, upon
the country.
Meantime, all that has been said in
favor of white immigration, of a change
of crops, of giving more land to bread
stuffs, grass and stock, of getting as far
as possible, especially on the uplands,
away from gang negro labor, and of
introducing in its place intelligence and
machinery, must be laid to heart and
put in practice as rapidly as circum-
stances will allow.
0ut of the depths we call upon the
North to help us all they can in the way
of driving back negro supremacy. We
ask this that the South may be able to
live at all-the opposite course being
certain DEATH We ask it for the benefit
of the freedman himself, as well as for
the sake Of the whole country. The
sooner the breach is healed, and the
sooner it is understood that the whites
must rule in all parts of the country, the
sooner the day of financial and indus
trial prosperity will dawn GaluestOR