The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1867-03-23
HOrace Greeley ON the Condition
OF the south.

January 10Th, for the relief Of the suffering
poor of the South, Horace Greeley made the
following remarks. They are characteristic.
In the fret place thore are arc to day, I
think, quarter of million of orphen white
; children in the South, and widows whom this
great war has mado--women and children
twho were not accustomed to earn their livli.
hood. They are not unwilling aud anxious
to earn living but the means Of doing so
do not rightly present themselves. Again,
there are a uuartef Of million and more In
the South Of manned and crippled mon, most
of them heads Of families-lamilios whom
they were once able to support, but who, be.
cause of their afilictiors, because Of the mnim.
ing the mutilation which they received du
ring the war, aro no Longer ! help 70 their
families, but rather burdens upon them.-
Tho soldiers o. the Union the 49, them
manned ana crippled by the war--baye very
properly been given pensions, and somethingl
has been done TO mitigate the suaerings 0fI
their families.
Again, the sufferings Of our people were
nothing compared with those Of the South
nothing at all. The seat Of the war was
substantially in the South, very little Of it in
the North. The war passed over Southern
| fields and Southern homes. Now unless you
have carefully scanned this, you eaanot real
| ice the difference il makes whether the war
is upon your trcsido, whether It tranples
down your fields, or whether it Ii thousand
miles away You cannot realize the differ.
ence. An army marches, aud the country
is stripped OF all susteuance. Animals way
ing fields, are necessarily consumed, destroy
ed--trampled down, eaten up-and the coan
try behind the army left fyith scarcely am
thing to sustain life. Tne army rests for the
night IN camp, aud the fences, miles in ex.
tent every way, are burnt up by the soldiers
making their meagre fires. Necessarily,
they cannot lie and ahiver there from he
lcold. They must take such dry wood as
comes haudiest to them. They have no time
10 procure coal, or 10 seek wood in the forest.
No matter how orderly tho men, considering
the condition in which they find themselves,
where an army marches there must be desc.
ia.iOn. BRIT IN this case there was no unu.
sual desolaticn; because, Wherever there
was a factory whore corn waa ground or wool.
en- goods manufactured, wherever there was
an iron foundry, those factories and foundries
were necessarily contributors 10 the support
lof the rebellion, aud they we're burned or de-
stroyed By car armies "a n means Of putting
down the rebellion. And thus, at every
place, women ard children were turned out
of those establishments wherein they were
earning, of course, humble pay, but earning
! their living; and the means upon which they
{ lived have not beeu replaced. The cotton,
: tie principal wealth Of the country, was
| burned by one army and burned by Fhe 9TH
er: and where il was not burned, it was gon-
eg.lly stolen By some means or other. Laugh
ter. No matter by what sneans IL was disposed
iof. lie people get nothing from It. The
S5uth out unreasoaably long, | think loug
3 after Rny aope of success remained stood
) Ious until the last possible resistance was
Ioy.rcomc. when nearly every fODs Of the
!. south. excepting the State % Texas, had been
I,rtycrsed b. our armies, trampling, deyour-
t ling. devastating. destroying, untsl there was
/ scarcely anything lett but the naked country
3 with a people nearly all Of whom, the whites
; especially, had been dragged into the armies
I AID o very large portion ot them killed or
I MANNED, So that the physical possibility Of
J largely producing mad departed when the -.
! beiiio:. vas over. The people speak ot
. the whites only nowl laughter, nearly hall
4 their ABILITY 10 work had been destroyed BY
E the war. An their. fences, 10 a large extent,
/ had gone; and even in the one poor last ne.
{ cessity Of man-seed to plAnt-ihere were
2 miiliona aud millions Of dollars lost to the
!. South last year, because the aeed they put
into the ground, tie only seed they had TO
? plant, being several years old, was 30 miser-
G able that nothing could lie produced from it.
I Ii there had been simply seed % pcs into the
= ground where seed was wanted, all over the
. South, the necessity Of the South to-day would
5 not be one. half what il is.
If the South had had the men at home, in
strength and yigJr, a. they were when the
war began, simply for want Of implements
aud Iraft animals it would not have been
G possible 10 have produced more than half q
crop at the South; but now you are told, and
/, very correctly told, that there were terrible
foods in the spring over large portion oil
i. the country, and after this there was an un.
precedented drouth, that swept over probab-
t iy half the entire South. Al this is very
true, but the want of the means to plow the
earth to any proper depth, and cultivate the
s crop properly, aggravated the effect Of this
: drouth to four times what it would have been
under ordinary circumstances. Now here
, is the fact. They are people of oil kinds
l not of one kind but of different races, differ
ent politics and different views-and they
are all alike suffering throughout ell the
States which were formerly in rebellion, ex-
cept. perhaps, Texas From Mississippi up
TO the Potomac there is one universal cry OF
{ distress. There is not to-day in the hands
of the poor the seed which they need very soon
to begin to plant the little ground they have.
They have not the food to give to them the
I strength wherewith to make crop, and they
have none 3f the materials the means where
t by labor, especially in our day is rendered
eficient Now, then, if the Northern people
could look at this, if it were possible to look
at it in the light Of narrow self-interest, say
ten millions Of dollars diffused through the
Q South Immediately in the form of food, and
seed, and implements, would return hum
dred millions in the amount OF the present
year-applause and thereby largely con-
tribu tothe wealth of industry and Northern
comerce, as we'll as of the South. 1t has pleas
= ed God to make US one people for all these
purposes, not only politically, but CONNER
( cially and socially; and it is not possible that
!: there should be osperity-while there is
: prostration, and want, and suffering and in.
+ capacity at the South. We are bound for
our own sake, if for nothing else to take hold
to-day and so aid the South that she may be
encouraged to produce at least as large q
: crop as possible in the year 1867. twill be
: small enough at best. You cannot replace
= the animals they need there, and cannot sea-
sonably replace even the implements the
poor need-and some who were rich few
years ago are as poor as the poorest. You
s cannot any more than just help them to make
I little more than half crop this year.
y They did not make half crop of food last
year. They made nearly half a crop of cot
ton by turning their energies to that one
s thing; but there needs to be a complete recon
T struction of the society, manufacturing, me-
chanical, as well as agricultural, to my mind
xrorx, -, ,,nh rnnra fhon opx ,on1;tiool Frnoo,,