The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-05-07


ton, and a notlvery bountiful harvest.
of wheat and corn. Yet the past two
years since the war have not been SO
unpropitious but that in almost any
part of the South the people by ener-
gy, thrift, and careful usband-
ing of their resources, could
have produced more than
enough to have prevented starvation.
The truth is that there is lethargy
and improvidence, or what Hoosiers
would call downright laziness, pre-
vailing to too great degree in that
section of the country. And desti-
tuition and famine are its natural and
inevitable consequence. The great
want of the South, as we hear from
all quarters, is labor. Labor is scarce.
and the rich fields lie untitled. And
yet there are multitudes of people un-
employed. Thousands and tens of
thousands of the strong young
! men = of the South, who are
/ needed in the cotton and corn
fields, flock to the cities, or
idle away their time in hunting,
fishing, and carousing. The negroes,
who have just been released from a
lifetime of bondage, and who would
naturally wish for jubilee of rest
from toll. are not the only, nor the
chief idlers, in that land Of luxuriant
vegetation. The Government statis-s
tics show that for the past year more
white than colored people have receiv-
ed the bread and meat charity of the
Nation, through the agency of the much
abused Freedman's Bureau There
is manifest and pressing need on the
part of the Southern people, to go to
work in earnest and with determ in
alton to take care of themselves.
There are mines of yellow gold in the
rich soil, and they must dig it out by.
hard work This constant call upon
the1people of the North for charity
will soon exhaust itself The results
of the war have made every man a
laborer, and the master, as we'll as
the slave, under the old system, must
work.nsf nsss aaeH ~
ii While the appeals which have come
up to the North. for assistance have,
been frequent and very pressing, and
In most instances have been literally
and promptly answered, we hear of no
action on the part of the people of the
South to relieve the suffering at their
own doors. 1t is true that there is
not such rich granaries and full cof-
fers as at the North; yet. in New Or
leans, Memphis. Mobile, Richmond,
and in almost every community in the
South, there is surplus wealth, and
provisions, and ability to do some
thing. But while farcical tourna-
ments, State appropriations for rebel
monuments, large purses for distin-
guished traitors, and the like are by
no means uncommon occurrences, we
hear little of movements to buy corn
and pork for the poor whites, who are
said to be dying for want of the COM
mon necessaries of life. If the i'm
poverished. South can do but little,
it would be well that the little it can
do be devoted to the sustenance of
the starving. 6s
At the meeting which was held in
this city to inaugurate the movement
which has resulted in the large dona-
ton of food for the Southern des-
titute, one of the speakers, who
enjoys the reputation of being the
most radical and bitter of partisans,
arraigned Congress for not making an
appropriation of one million dollars
for this object. 1t is well known
fact that the measure was introduced,
and eloquently and vigorously advo-
Gated, by Radical Republicans; and
that the appropriation would have
been made if it had received the
favor of those who, in that body, set
themselves up as the special cham
pions of the South. These
gentlemen publicly declared that
the South was not before Congress as
a mendicant, and that it's people were
too proud to accept the profered chart
ty of their despised and malignant op-
pressors. In this city, as elsewhere
throughout the North, the men who
have responded most literally to this