Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1868-01-02
HARD TIMES.

lhe present winter Dl(lS 1alr 10 pe season Vi
suffering to the poor, and Of prvation to those in
moderate circumstances The whole country is
beginning to feel the effects of tanatca misrue and
reckless extravagance. The cry of hard times
comes up, not from the South alone, but also from
the North and West. The statement comes to US
from several sources, that, in the city Of New
York alone, there are fifty thousand men out of
employment, and two hundred thousand human
beings who have not the means of supporting
themselves during the winter. In prosperous
times, this is the season of activity and energy,
when merchants, clerks and mechanics find it diff
cult to get leisure moment. But such is the de-
preston in business, such the paralyzed condition
of the country, that thousands Of cntcrprisng and
industrious men are suffering for want Of employ
ment Nor are strong men the only sufferers -
There are seventy thousand females in New York
city, many of them mere children, who support
themselves by their own hands, as needlewomen,
factory girls, &C., and who will be among the first
to feel the pressure 1t is estimated that at least
ten thousand of this class had lost their situations
before the first ofDecember
The same depression of business exists at the
West. The crops have been gathered; but still
money is scarce and trade dull. A correspondent
of the Herald, writing from Iowa, says that -four
is worth sl4 per barrel, in that wheat producing
State Ohio, Illinois and Indiana suffered from a
severe drought in the latter part of the summer,
and though those States report sufficient crop for
the support of their population, they will have no
surplus to be spent in luxuries.
As for the South, it is, and has been since the
war, in bankrupt condition. For three years
the productions Of the soil have been inadequate
to the support of the people, and the property less
than the Indebtedness. Our people arc, if there
be any change at all in their condition, better of
than they were year ago for the crops were bet.
ter, and they probably have suficiency of food
for their support until the next crop. But their
prosperity is not improved, as but few debts have
been paid, and few additions have been made to
the value of their property. The great decline in
the price of cotton has thwarted the efforts OF
many farmer who has struggled manfully to set
himself upon his feet once more. The deccitfu
staple has brought loss to nearly every person en-
gagged in its culture; for the expense of raising
cotton has so increased since the slaves became
freedmen, that it is losing business to sell it al
ten cents. When the late crop was planted, cot
ton was worth nearly twenty cents, and most plan
ters made their contracts and calculations of eX
penscs, upon the supposition that they woulG
receive that price for their crop These cacula
tions were founded upon hope rather than expert
ence, and they have helped TO bring hard time.
upon us.
But other causes have been working togethe
Ito produce this affction upon the land, prominen
among which has been the mis-government of th'
country The protracted exclusion Of the South
ern States from the Union is enough, of itself, tt
cripple their energies. This exclusion, in man
uer, leaves the wounds of war still open, by prac
tically unsettng the issues supposed to be settled
by the surrender ofthc Southern armies. Strange
as it may seem, secession was never accomplished
until its advocates had given up the struggle
After four years of war, during which the South
ern States were never acknowledged to be out O.
the Union, they made peace and all at once founc
themselves out
This uncertain status, with its concomitant e
yils-conAicting laws and authorities, by which ;
kind of triple government has been formed, con
ssting of civil, military and freedmen's bureau ju
diciaries, has fettered our enterprise and crushed
out our resources With conventions meeting
every two or three years to overhaul our State
constitutions it is no wonder that our people lose