The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1868-02-14

J y
come very common crime in the
neighbOrhood of towns and villages.
Theft and burglary are of constant oc-
currence. In the country it is enost
impossible to raise hogs, sheep and
cattle. A gentleman told me the other
day that he had lost the last one of
his sheep, forty in number, all stolen
by the negroes. Another gentleman,
who had been governor of the State,
informed me that he had eighty-tive
hogs to kill last fall, and that they were
all stolen by the negroes except seven.
The support of so many prisoners
and convicts in our jails and peniten-
tiary is becoming alarming. We shall
not long be able to feed them; nor
will the prisons contain them. The
country is so much impoverished that
it is difficult for the negroes to get en-
ployment, if they really wished to do
so. The failure of the cotton crop
throughout the United States, with
/ the government tax and low price of
the staple, has rendered it impossible
for the planters to continue their busi-
ness the present year. The difficulty,
too, in getting the negroes to work du-
ring the past year has discouraged and
disgusted great many. A large cot
ton crop was planted last spring, and
great effort was made by the planters
to retrieve their fortunes and give en-
ployment to the negroes, but univer-
sal failure and bankruptcy have ensu-
cd. am not able to state the falling
off of the cotton crop this year, but
the rice crop has fallen from one hun
dred and thirty or forty thousand
tierces to twelve thousand tierces.
The present year every one will have
to devote his attention to the raising of
a provision crop. He will not require
so many labOrers, and would not bea-
BILE to feed them ifhe did. The negroes
have nothing to live on the present
year, and are unable to make crops by
themselves. They will have to steal or
starve. This greatly discourages farm
ing in the Southern States at this time.
If you make good crop of provisions,
you have no security that it will not be
stolen or burnt by the negroes.
In regard to the political condition of
the Southern States | am in deep des-
pair, and have no hope except in a re-
turning sense of justice on the part of
the Northern people. The idea Of pla-
cling the government uf these States in
the hands Of negroes is prepOsterously
absurd. None of them have property,
and not one in five hundred can read Or
write. In the recent election for men,
bers of a convention many of the ne
groes had forgotten their names, and
scarcely one in hundred could tell
after the election for whom he voted.
They were controlled blindly by the
loyal leaugues. The tickets were prin-
ted i'm Charleston, with a likeness of
President Lincoln on them. There
never has been before such a wide
field opened for demagogues and un-
principled aspirants to office. The ne.
gro is the most credulous being in the
world, and most easily imposed on by
vile wretches who are disposed to pan
der to his ignorance and passion. EN-.
issaries from the North, white and
back, have come here and prejudiced
him against the white race. He has
been told that unless he voted the Rad
ical ticket he would be placed back in
slavery, and that if he voted that ticket
he would have lands and mules given
him. In some instances the negroes
actually brought with them brides to
take their mules home with.
By military order in South Carolina
negroes are to sit on juries. In some OF
the districts of this State the negro pop.
uIatiOn is so much larger than the white
that they will compose almost the en-
tire juries. How it will be possible to
administer justice, with such juries, in
complicated cases, is more than ! can
tell. / am equally at loss how the
offices of the State are to be filled. The
"irOn clad oath" excludes from office
all who are competent and worthy
This difficulty was foreseen by Gen
Sickles, and he requested of Congress
the removal of the oath. Gen
Meade has recently suggested the
same thing in Georgia. 1t will be i'm
possible for the negroes and the worth
less whites to fill some of these offices,
or give the security required by law.
Property of all kinds, and especially
real alestate, has deprecated in value one
half or two-thirds during the past year
Noone is disposed to purchase anything
and foreign capital has been driven out
or deferred from coming here for in.
vestment. Property sold by the sher-
iff brings nothing. The marshall OF
this State told me the other day that
he sold plantation we'll improved,
containing two thousand acres, in Hor-
ry district, at public auction, to the
highest bidder for five dollars. Mules
brought only FIVE dollars apiece.
A great many persons are moving
from the lower country, where there
are so many negroes, and that section
of the State is destined to become g
wilderness. The same thing must oc.
cur in many portions of Mississippi