Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-02-19
yearfy dying Simply for want of proper al

yeafIy dying simply for want of proper at
tentiou, while sick and during convalescence
even on plantations where they are hired
and as unreliable as most of them are. it i
of no advantage to the planter to have hi
laborers constantly sick, and bis plantation
converted into e Golgotha.
You say "no valid reason exists to pre7en
this State from being entirely self-supporting.'
I here join issue with yeu again. There il
the valid of all reasons existing in the
present condition of affairs in this State and
throughout the South why. it should not be
so. 1t is that labor is arrayed and main
tanned in hostility to capital. No State can
be selfsupporting where the laws are ad-
ministered'in the maintenance of an ignorant,
idle, thriftless, and vicious class of laborers
in positive antagenism to the capitalist.
You further say, g that itmust be apparent
to all practical men that the planters in this
State must. in future look mainly to the col
ored race for the greater part Of their labo-
rers." IF this be the case, the doom of the
State is sealed, unless we be relieved quickly
from the interference of that wholesale and
expensive mandatory of vagrants called the
Freedman's Bureau, for State: or country
where three.fourths of its laboring class are
vagrants, as stated by Gen. GILLEM of the
Bureau department in Mississippi, land it is
no better in South Carolina, must surely and
speedily become involved in irretrievable
ruin.
There is one clause in your Circular which
gives key to the programme of our Radical
rulers. After stating the general testimony
from the central and upper Districts of the
State Is that very fair crops have been made
and harvested, and that the freed people have
worked faithfully and well and some say
"never better" you say, this may be par
TALLY accounted for by the fact that the small
planters or farmers of the interior are accus-
toned to labor themselves, and by giving
their entire personal attention to their plant
ing interests they have thereby encouraged
the freed people to emulate the example thus
set tnem.'
That it is true such men have done
better than others who have not worked in
the field with the negroes. is unquestiouable !;
but in what position does this place the
present generation at least of the white popu.
lation of the South ? 1t amounts simply to
this, that every white man who is not ply
sicaly able, or who is otherwise indisposed to
take the plow along side of his former slaves,
will be compelled to witness his broad acres,
and all else he possesses, pass into the hands
of an inferior race, or into the possession Of
foreign spectators. Well indeed may our
Rulers refrain from carrying out their schemes
Of couGscation in name, for more thorough
system Of robbing and impoverishment could
not be concocted.
But have nearly done, and perhaps should
not have been tempted to say all that have,
but no man with spark of humanity, JUS
tce, or manliness in his bosom, could refrain
from entering his protest, however useless it
may be, against such a monstrous system OF
tyranny, oppression, and defamation.
Was it not enough that our conquerors
should slay our fathers, sons, and brothers,
free our slaves, and US subject to unheard
of msrule and anarchy? Must they still de-
scend from "the lowest deep to deeper
stiln and traduce our fair names for honesty
before the world.
All that have said can be substantiated
By hundreds, if not thousands of men, whose
honesty, truthfulness, and honor. none can
deny, and who if asked What is honor
would define. it to be the highest sense Of
justice which the human mind can frame"
Trusting that have done injustice to DO
one, and apologizing to my brother planters
for thus putting my self forward in defense
of right and justice,
am, Respectfully,
H.R. COOK.