The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-06-13

the labors of travelling agents and
lecturers in Germany, however ably
and zealously directed md performed,
will produce any beneficial change in
the. feelings which there prevail
against us, or that we may look for
any immigration, worth talking
about, of those who have property
enough to transport themselves and
families across the ocean. We must,
therefore, direct our attention to n
class who have not the means of pay-
ing their passage, who are in hope
less state of poverty and dependence,
from which they long to be released;
and we must make up our minds to
bring them across mt our expense, cx-
pecting to reimburse ourselves gra-
dunlly by deductions from the wages
which we agreo to pay to those whom
we thus employ.
Two or three years ago, while I
was living in Germany, friend in
Charleston, who owns n plantation in
a healthy portion Of Christ Church
Parish, requested mo to sec whether
I could not induce some German
peasant families to cmigrnte to South
Carolina, aud to settle ON his lands,
under very liberal conditions. Anx-
ious to serve my friend, and feeling
the Importance of directing, if possi-
bic, immigration to this State, con-
suited II gentleman, whose official po-
sition had made him intimately nc
quainted with the condition of TINT
portion of the German peasantry who
are day laborcrs on the large do
mains without owning any land
themselves, and whose wages nre SO
low that they are unable ever to lay
mp the amount necessary to trans
port them across the Atlantic. The
advice of this gentleman amounted
to this: That tho planters Of our
State should unite in setting forth
the conditions of the contracts which
they were willing to enter into; that
they should get some of the foreign
consnls, for instance, the Prussian
consul residing in Charleston, to Ger
tify to his belief in the good faith
with which these contracts would be
kept. (becnuse n pledge on the part
of tho State authorities would be i'll
cffcctual, inasmuch MS the German
people generally know nothing of our
State sovereignty, and believe our
Governor, for instance, to bo an ap-
pointec of the central Government
at Washington,) and that they should
then send al agent across, with
powers, 0nd the necessary passage
money, to engage field laborers, un-
der the proposed contracts, and put
.,1, -
Hamburg. My friend added that if
tho contracts proposed gave to the
emigrnnt ccrtnin prospect of attain
ing after some, say ten, years,
modest independence, in the shape
OF small farm, hundreds could he
obtained i'll the Duchy of Brunswick,
(whcrc my friend resides and two or
three Thousand in the Grand Duchy
of Mecklenburg, where the lower
pcnsantry are still greatly oppressed.
[ believe the above views to be
substantially correct, and to point
out the only practical way in which
larger numbers of German field la-
borcrs can be obtained. at al cx-
pcnse of sixty dollars, they can be
brought from their homes to Charles
ton; further expense Of twenty
dollars for The necessary furniture
will settle them III their new homes;
half wages paid during the first two
years will repay the outlay incurred
by the employer; and, if the planters
will only SEQ that liberal treatment is
their own interest rs well as it is that
OF the foreigner whom they employ,
thousands of others will, no doubt,
follow, and will, in tho course of
time, build up I'LL over our State set
Elements like onr own Walhalla,
which reflects SO much honor on it's
founders, and which, by it's prospcri-
ty, proves what thrifty German
population can accomplish in Il few
years. Respectfully,
a. SACHTLEBEN.
Pursuant to the call, the Richland