The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-01-08
Emigration to the south.

H
Some of our Northern exchanges, in their
discussions of the subject OF emigration to
the South, lay stress upon the unsettled con-
dition of the unreconstructed States and the
uncertainty as to the nature of the govern
ments to be established. This is reasonable
and natural. Capital is sensitive, and will
guarantee that it will be protected and be
profitable. Emigration is more or less de-
pendent on capital, for money is indispensa-
ble to travel, transportation and settlement.
We think we can confidently assure the
Northern people that North Carolina will ac
cept the reconstruction acts in their entirety,
and thus restore herself to the Union. Con-
gress will no doubt pass the bill to allow
majority of the votes cast to ratify the Con-
stitution. This is what is needed. We
feel sure that with this aid extended by Con-
gress the Constitution can be ratified, and
loyal members of Congress and loyal State
officers elected. Our members of Congress
ought to be in their seats, and the new State
government inaugurated by the first day of
May, 1868. @
We can also assure the Northern people
that we expect to have a government in this
State very much like the State governments
in the North and Northwest. The amplest
protection will be given to person and pro-
perty-every man, whether rich or poor,
white or black, will have the same political
and civil rights-internal improvements of
all kinds will be fostered and promoted
public schools will be established, and regar-
ded as the first interest of the State. and the
taxes will be as light as practicable. Leg
islation will be liberal in its character, and
Justice will he done to all in the Courts.
No State on the continent presents greater
inducements to immigrants than North Car
olina. Let them come. We shall be glad
to see them. We feel sure they will be wei
coined and protected, and that they will
prosper. Good land and fine water power
can be bought for mere song. Now is the
time for Northern capitalists to invest in
North Carolina lands. Now is the time to
settle here. and take start in the race of
life with the new State government, which
| will be as loyal in its character and as good
IN all respects as that of any Northern free
| State.
! We can not better conclude than with the
following timely and truthful article from
the N. Y Tribune: f
"The South is to-day rich in land and
poor in almost everything else. Part of her
soil is badly cultivated, the larger portion
unproductive, while her mines are unopen-
Ell, and her water power runs to waste, be-
cause she has no capital wherewith to devel-
Ope and improve them.
| The very best thing that men of means
| can now do for the South and for themselves
is to invest literally in the purchase of her
lands. They are amazingly cheap -Often
offered for less than One-auartcr of their in
trinsic value, yet offered in vain. Money
! whcrewiti to buy them is not found in the
South: the few who possess it have too
much land already. Families which hold a
thousand acres of mainly good soil, but gen.
orally in bad condition, are absolutely har-
assed by debts of a few hundred dollars, and
know not how to meet them. They try to
borrow but no one wishes to lend them
the security is good, but repayment is slow
those who made advances to Southern
planters in 1866, expecting payment from
that years crop, are often awaiting it yet,
with a cloudier prospect than that of two
years ago. tits not possible to obtain loans
in such amount as will afford sensible relief
to the South but real estate is now so low
there that money can be invested to great
advantage, even though the land were to
lie idle and taxes be paid on it 1or the next
two or three years.
There is no question of willingness to
sell; the owners must sell, or the sheriff will
save them the trouble At least quarter of
the soil of the former slave States is in the
market at low prices to-day. Some of it is
| as rich land as the sun ever warmed far
more has never yet been plowed to a depth
o. six inches, and though worn out and ex
hausted on the surface, is deep and strong
! below. There are thousands of acres oil
choice timber in market tor sums which a
quarter of their trees, properly dealt with,
would pay, leaving the residue and the soil
clear profit. There are water-powers of great
prospective value which are not counted at
all in the prices asked for the estates which
include them Beds OF ore and mines OF
coal that will soon be worth tens of thous-
ands of dollars are included in tracts OF
manly timbered land that are offered for
$40 per acre or less; while plantations OF
one to two thousand acres seek purchasers
for less than the cost of their buildings. La.
| I,ororc in aI,und DANCE cIipO3 fo or cI1rround
those plantations, anxious to be hired fol
| $40 per month and rations that would cost
less than S. more. As good labor as theirs
cannot be hired this way for less than $50
per month Gncluding board.) and the blacks
expect to work long and hard in the crop
making season. The Peach, the Grape, the
Strawberry, may be grown luxuriantly al
most everywhere;s ) so may early vegetables
along the coast: tea and silk will yet be
Southern staples. Lands that were worth
$50 per acre for cotton,growing, but would
rarely command that sum, will be eagerly
bought for ten times that price when cover
ed, as they will be, with orchards and vine
yards and accustomed to a more varied and
thorough culture .han the rude husbandry
Of the planter, who will learn how to make
better living from hundred acres than
he ever did from a thousand. ~
Every dollar invested by strangers or i'm
migrants in Southern lands does good to
every interest and section. There are then
sands of extensive landholdtrs now dodging
the Sheriff, unable to hire and pay labor,
unified by embarrassment for any Earnest,
persistent effort. who, if they could sell halt
their land even at a sacrifice, would be once
more on their feet. They could pay their