The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1867-01-25
From the Baltimore SUu.

Livery uIy DllilSS IlSoh
S,that the people of the Southern
States have set themselves to work
to rebuild the waste places, and to
deyelope the arts of peace with the
same energy which they threw into
the struggle Of arms, and the same
fortitude with which they bore the
crushing disasters of war: Their
stand has been taken with regard to
the constitutional amendment. They
have rejected it with rnanimity, and
having done'so, they wait with no hes
itating attitude to drive any bargain
of political compromise, but leave the
governing majoritics with whom pres
ent power resides, to their ewn coul-
sells, while they turn their hands with
diligence to the work which. lies at
their own doors. The overaowing
prosperity which invited luxury and
/. rcpose before the war induced the
mistaLc. belief that the people of the
South were deficient in the sterncr
virtues which combat adversely and
5. wrest plenty and prosperity from re-
Iuctant nature.
S There never was a greater mlscon-
ception. Instead Of the istlessness
:; of despair having ovcrtaken them, the
truth is dawning upon the public mind
thatq fortitude characterizes their
,.present political exclusion, and their
alliance with the anxieties and cares
:. Of misfortune is but g bridal which
will give birth to hopes and efforts
which crown the land with plenty, and
its towns and cities with the triumphs
! of industry and the arts. Heretofore
. emigration has set with a steady cur
rent from the older States of the South
Z to the West and Northwest, nor was
there any compensating emigration
from Europe. One principal cause
of this disastrous course Of migration
: was the system of large landed pro-
prietorship. The small farmer felt
. himself out of place amongst the large
!. land owners, and those who wanted
land to cultivate with their own hands
Z could not find in the market parcels
small enough for the compass of their
, means. The alternative was to emil
CRATE to those States where the land
ed distribution was more general and
equal.
But circumstances have changed
all this. The impossibility of concen-
trating large bodies of laborcrs neces.
states the subdivision Of the lands Of
the Southern States. Land is and
: will be in the market, abundant and
cheap; in parcels Of any size, from the
market garden to the farm of forty
and eighty acres, and larger or small
Ter, as the wants of the community
may determine. Capital being un-
able to monopolize land which, with
out labor, is Of comparatively little
value. The greater fertility Of the
lands of the South, the larger profit
which the production Of its staples
yields than, those of the West and
Northwest, will necessarily attract
the agricultural industry of European
emigrants, and will, in time, create a
rehuent current of migration from the
Middle and Western States, where
land is already becoming compare
lively high and difficult Of acquisi-
ton.
The policy of granting the lands
for public enterprise, Or selling them
at a minimum in small tracts, or be-
FE..ewing homesteads upon actual set
tiers at nominal prices, which was
carried out in the Northwestern States
SO happily, from the circumstance Of
the General Government being the
universal proprietor of the territory,
has been the great secret Of the rapid
development of those States. The
necessary subdivision which will take
place of the large plantations Of Vir-
ginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Ala
bama and Mississippi, it is fair to
suppose, will exert, to more OF less
extent, corresponding influence
upon the course of population.
There is another circumstance
which has not been. generally estima-
ted in. connection with this subject
that the nature of the soil and
the character of the staples of
the South will give employment to
children and females in many rural
occupations for which their strength
is inadequate in higher lattitudes.
For example, in the culture of cotton
there isnecd of many more hands to
gather the product than to cultivate
the plant. This is labor of the light