Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-11-25

| Their very connlct QUO VIZ" ""''"e'
almost Of itself establishes that they are
received more as the result Of influencing
circumstances and education, growing
out of such situation, and prejudiceI
and passions engsndered as a conse'
quence of It, than as any result OF
process Of severe demonstration, tt
which, if they were subjected, they would
vanish as bubbles in thin air. gti
We are led TO this course Of rather
prosaic remark by a real case of this
| sort which is just practically presented
to us, In the Round Table, literary
publication Of New York. we find SEN
sible letter from Mr. Clitherall, of Mont
gomery, Alabama, one object of which
| is to disabuse the mind Of Northern peo'
ple of their received idea that the poor
class of white men are held in contempt
at the South, and the other also to disa'
buse their minds of our, as well as their,
received opinion, that white men cannot
stand the labor Of the field in this eli
mate. The letter is fairly published by
the Round Table. But the editor APP
ponds a note affirming its former ex-
preston Of opinions, which it was the
object of the letter to contradict.
Now our object is to realhrm the con-
illusions of that writer. AS to the first
charge that poor white men have been,
heretofore, held in contempt in the South,
as compared with other sections, it is the
exact reverse of the truth. Doubtless
the silly respect for wealth, and the strut
of the aristocrat, who had nothing to
boast of but that he was richer, while he
NAV have been meaner than his neigh
Dor, may have been seen here as every
where else in the whole world. But if
there was ever country where poor
white men were singularly respected it
has always been in the cotton States.
There never was planters table or
house in those States where the poorest
white man was not admitted as well
come and honored guest His color was
his badge and Endorsement. The aris'
tocracy of the South has been that of
race, of blood, as contradistinguished
from that of shoddy. And no honest
white man, whose citizenship is of thirty
years standing, and who has been inteli.
gent enough 10 make the commonest
observations, will deny or has failed to
note the fact of the practically recog-
Missed social equality of white men in
this section, as particularly distinguishing
it from all non.slaveholding countries,
wherein, ordinarily, wealth lords it even
over learning and genius itself.
The other opinion that white men
cannot endure agricultural labor in this
climate has been so often consented to
and even affirmed by Southern whites as
to excuse such belief by Northern men.
It was never really believed here by
observant and practical men, whose sons
we're daily working in the cotton fields,
and who saw thousands Of poor white
men working there year after year in
better health than the non-laboring class
enjoyed. But there was no motive to
correct the impression, but rather the
reverse. It furnished an excuse for pro-
curing and compelling African labor,
which was calculated to be influential
with the commercial nations of Europe,
which were looking to us for cotton, and
whose good opinion we desired to obtain.
White immigration was not then sought
as now; there was feeling antagonist
to employing whites with blacks in the
fields; every white man was lord in
the country, not to be put in competition
with the negro, and the mechanics
universally refused it. Under such cir
cumstances, with such motives,
interests and prejudices, the OPT
MON naturally grew up here without
opposition that white men coald
not SO well stand the climate as the
negro, and that opinion has found ex-
preston among us. But the truth is,
and always was, that hardy white men,
accustomed to labor in the States, are as
robust and able to endure labor here as
anywhere. else on the earth. A delicacy
of constitution aud ineapacity for field
labor was common among us as the re
suit of physical inaction and insdoor
life of the white population, just as is
the case in cities and elsewhere. And
from that, in part, the opinion may have
been as honestly expressed here as else
where. But for all that, we affirm that
there is not healthier or longer.lived
part of this continent for the outdoor
and day laborer than that Of this and the
ATTITUDES between here and the Gulf of
Mexico. If laborers, who can now get
fine wages, or buy land almost for moth
ing, are kept away from here from any
fears of bad health, which makes them
less safe here than elsewhere, they are
kept away by notion entirely false and
unreasonable. And we will add that this
opinion is universally entertained by the
oldest and best informed of our citizens.