Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-02-28
THE SOUTH Is no BE RUINED.

The Congress Of the North seems 10 be
resolved on three propositions. One Is
that the white people Of the South shall
be subject to the negro; another Is that
emigration shall not dow to the ten pro.
scribed States; and third, embracing
tho gist Of all, is that their resources
shall remain undeveloped, 10 the end
that they shall neve- become rich, popu-
Ions or powerful The first, II is useless
TO discuss. Right in the face Of the en-.
lighte.ed sentiment of the world, right in
the face OF history, tradition, experience,
and right in the teeth of all decency,
miserable race of former slaves, still
stepped in ignorance and still performing
ell the mental services appropriate to
the very lowest class of humanity, are
suddenly tossed into power, and changed
into the uppermost and governing class.
And whom do they superseded The re-
hnement, cultivation and chivalry Of the
South-the men who, for four years,
maintained an independent government,
divided mighty Union, Won victories
with inferior numbers, and although at
last defeated, contributed to history
names and deeds grand as those Of Ma
poleon, or Wellington, or Caesar, or Fred
erick the Great. Where was the negro du-
ring those bloody yearsf In the field, with
pillow and hoe, voluntarily supporting
the armies, the women and children and
the old men of the South. They were at
liberty, perfect liberty, and many cases
ore reported of faithful negroes, BY their
watchfulness and care over the helpless
ones at home, reseuing them from plum
deriDg raids, and from that which was
a great deal worse The whole South is
grateful TO the negroes for the service
they rendered the Confederacy. The
great mistake the Confederate States
made, as a party to war, was in failing
to arm the faithful negroes and put them
in the field Results have proven that,
with all his faithfulness, the black man
10 not only unified to govern the white
man, but is untitled to govern himself
He has not asked, and does not ask to
be permitted to do either. The task Is
thrust upon him By race of malignants
whose boast may well be, that they have
not their parallel in al human history.
If this we're the most, il might be
overcome by time; but the policy Of
Congress goes still farther. The period
might come, they correctly reason, when
the superior race would reascend to
power. To provide against such con-
tingency. the South is to be kept in such
condition that the people of other coun'
tries will avoid il as they would land
Of pestilence. No man in the North,
West, East, or Europe, would ever settle
in nearo colony, or consent to be gov
erned by negroes. All the immigration
from the other side of the Atlantic would,
will, stop in the North and West The
white race of the South, outraged, dis
gusted and ruined, would escape with
precipitation to the North and West, or
exile themselves to Central and South |
America. Meanwhile, the negroes, in
flated with their Importance, would,
under the manipulation Of the South
ern loyalists, lapse into politicians,
sink into pauperism, land, at last, enter
upon an awful career of mortality that
would sweep their race from the face Of
the earth. We might trace the disastrous
consequences still further We might
ask the reader to look at the South as it
was in 1860, and compare it with what
it will be, under negro rule, in 1880. We
shrink back from the contrast, and leave
the reader to draw it for himself