Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-11-13
From the Baltimore Commercial

HrOSpSCC5 OF the SOuih.
The material interests of the Southern
States have since the war been as de-
pressed as their civil position has been hui
initiating but their exclusion from Con
stitutional rights has not prevented them
from developing the great resources Of
their section /; and this year, with patience
perseverance and wisdom, their condition
must be greatly improved.
These States must receive from the sale
of their crops this year at least three hun
dred millions of dollars, from which there
will be large surplus over and above their
expenses, which will enable them to dis,
charge much of their Indebtedness to !h6
| North. The attention paid at the South
| to the cultivation of breadstuffs will render
these States independent of the North,
from which nearly all used were imported
previous to the war.
Northern capitalists and manufactug-
ers, +" says the Philadelphia Inquirer, 'must
not delude themselves with the belief that
the South of 1868 is the South of 1860, or
that section will consent to longer be de-
pendent upon the North for supplies OF
certain goods. Affairs have been reversed.
The popular errors concerning the ability
of the South to become her own mauufac.
turer are daily being exploded by actual re-
suits. And we must not forget that large
amount of northern skill and enterprise
has been transplanted to the Southern field
in the natural course of events. The tiElo
is not far distant when the hum of g new
industry will be heard below Mason and
Dixon's line-when that section will make
its own boots, shoes, cotton fabrics, ma
chinery and other articles long purchased
in Northern factories. Sixty millions OF
surplus income will go long way in bring
ing this about, and if the crops of that sun
ny region are blessed to their garnering,
the commencement Of the revolution IN
trade affairs may be set down for this year
The Southern prospects are eminently
fattering beyond all questions, but their
realization demands o peaceful condition
of the country. A constant disturbance OF
the general equilibrium will tend to retard
the healthy progress of those agencies to
which all the benefits of the new era must
owe their vitality and increase. If the
people of the South are sagacious they Will
quietly acquiesce in the results OF the
Presidential election and turn their atteI-
ton to the general development of their
enviable resources. Let them do this VIII
energy and in good faith, and the wealth
of the people ten years hence will far out
strip the boosted affluence Of the past.
1uo .WuOle SeCIlOu, duuJ III lhCt,
whole country, up to the advent OF inc
rebellion, persistently Rugged the DE.
fusion that cotton was the Souths truesV
and greatest means of wealth, and the
probability is, that but for the war the
section would have gone on for half or
a quarter of century longer, uncon1--
sciously and ruinously restricting its
great powers to the mere production OF
the staple, expanding forces thereon that
were capable of producing treble the pro
ceeds in varied channels of industry, even
if used to no greater degree than on COT
ton, and claiming down other forces t9aI'
under regime Of general activity are des-
tined to work out to successful comple-
ton the new system of things that IS no"
commencing"