The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1868-01-14

death of ftheir owners. The South was
SO prostrated that it could not recuperate
without large loans of money; and threats
of confscation rendered. loans impossible
by destroying the reliability of the secu-
rity the planters had to offer. A people
so depressed are at the mercy Of every
accident. Under The most favorable COM
.bination of circumstances they can bare
ly struggle on and live. IF the seasons
are propitious, and the crops good, and.
health prevails, and the marketsfree from
depressing fluctuations, the mass Of the
people by diligence and pinching econo-
my can just succeed in making both ends
meet. The short crops, which are the
immediate cause of the present Southern
distress, would have been easily borne if
that section, had been in other respects
prosperous.
In the present state Of civilization, a
famine is scarcely possible, except as the
consequence of gross and persistent po-
|litica. nismauagement. But the South
has been permitted to have neither money
nor credit, SO that if the whole world
were granary it does not possess the
keys to unlock it. When money and
credit fail, charity extends q helping
hand; but the chasm in the South is too
vast for charity to fill. Domestic char
lity must wholly fail where the supply of
food falls short of the number of mouths.
The little that domestic charity can do in
the South will not suffice to relieve the
white sufferers. 1t must be recollected
that there is no pension list in that sec
tion. In the North the Government dis
tributes s22,O0O,0OO year to soldiers
who were MANNED, and the widows and
Iorphans of soldiers who were killed in
the late war. Such cases are far more
numerous in the South, in proportion to
the population, and they are met by no
public provision. If the South had had
crops anG good prices, the support of the
class corresponding TO our pensioners
would exhaust the means of the most
liberal charity 1t is evident from this
single consideration that in period of
dearth, such as now prevails at the
South, no domestic relief, even if every
inhabitant were disposed to share his last
loaf with the starving, could meet all the
cases of white suffering; and since, where
there is not food for all, and choice
must be made in its distribution, who can
complain that men prefer their own flesh
and blood?
But the negroes will not starve if they
can help it. If they can procure food
neither by credit nor by charity, they
will procure it by thieving, and, whcr
the pangs Of hunger render them despe'
rate. byrobbery.s It is not in human ma
ture thatit should be otherwise; and hor.
ror 1.-the necessity rather tha1 biamn o
the action should fu the minds of dist.
ant spectators. But, on the other hand
the robbed can as little afford to spare al
the marauders to starye. Where there
is only food for one and two to contepc
to eat it, the owners rightof self-preser
vation is reinforced by his right of prop
erty, aud be has double claim. Moth
ing can be conceived more horrible ant
desperate than such conflicts for the foot
necessary to preserve life. 1t is lament
able, nay, it is diabolical, that in circum
stances where men should be mutual,
helpful, and where what little kindness
there is in human nature is put to tn
toughest stretch, party Of reckless de
monhcai urrtvs--saFe -sst- tlis -sms. race,
| by the ears in jealous hostility. The ne
gro race in this country are the dupe
and victims Of their pretended friends
who have ruined them in wreaking un
manly vengeance on their section. !.
e. ~