The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-20
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1858.
The Condition of the South.

who were disposed 10 symphtnlze Win Lne olo
ruling class of the South, by the numerous in
dications of desire to galvanize the Rebel
lion. Perhaps, however, all parties have been
too apt to forget how much of the mellowing
influence of time is necessary to perfect great
reforms, or to secure the advancement of an
entire people. The debasing and perncious
influence of slavery could not, unfortunately,
all be destroyed by the enactments which
legally abolished it, and though it is now, in
itself, thing of the past, it leaves long
train of evils behind. interviewer with the
entire framework of southern society, it
poisoned and cursed everything it touched;
polluting alike industry, morals, and politics.
1t is difficult to realize how far the South
is behind the times in this age of progress,
and that her citizens are now only taking their
first lessons in the free labor system which
has prevailed for centuries in enlightened
countries. In a Virginia railroad report,
which has recently appeared, the enterprise
and industry Of the farmers of one of the
northern counties of the State is highly COM
mended, and it is alleged that, "They gene
rally do their own work to a considerable ex-
tent, and can therefore employ and proftabLy use
as much coIOred labor as they need" This sig
ni6eant sentence furnishes a key to the indus
trial condition of the entire South. A large
portion Of the white population having been
trained to despise and shirk all forms Of useful
labor before the war, have never yet changed
their old habits, and in the midst of one of the
most fertile and productive regions of the
South, they rarely seek useful employment,
and attribute the melancholy results of their
own lack of industry and energy to the alleged
idleness of the negroes. 1t would be singular if
the latter had totally escaped the contaminat-
ing influences by which they have been sur
rounded. In some cases they have too readily
accepted the doctrines of their old masters.
But as a rule the freedmen have undoubtedly
been infinitely more industrious than the
Rebels since the war. In the South industry
is almost exclusively confined to agriculture,
and in the labors of the field it is especially
necessary that che who by the plough would
thrive, must take hold himself and drive"
Those who have already perceived and acted
on this fact find themselves greatly benefited
in an industrial point of view by abolition,
and the chief sufferers are men who vainly
deplore the days of vast plantations, and of
an obsolete system which drew its motive
power from the legalized traffic in
human flesh, and the free use Of the
plantation lash. The debasing effect of
slavery on morals has repeatedly been de-
picted by the ablest writers. The worst pas
sions of the human heart are nourished as in
hotbed, by system which places one race
under the absolute control of another, and
gives unchecked license to every infamous
emotion. Underlying everything else in the
Soath, the immense number of murders con-
stantly perpetrated there, on the slightest
provocation, is Of itself powerful cause of
her continued poverty; and the prevailing
want of regard for the sanctity of human life
is largely due to the brutalities and barbarities
engendered by slavery; for the boundaries
are but narrow between the guilt Of dealing a
single fatal blow, and of robbing men piece
meal of all that makes existence valuable.
Murders are of such common occur
renee in the Southern States, that
they scarcely attract any marked at
tention, and the number of murderers in many
counties is so great that they exercise con-
siderable influence in the jury box, and con-
victions are rare in any case in which the fatal
deed was preceded by quarrel. Much has
been said of attracting Northern capital to the
South, and not few experiments have beer
made in that direction. A Senator from North
Carolina recently stated that $40, 900, 900 o
Northern capital had been invested in that State
alone since the war. Hundreds Of thousand;
of enterprising emigrants would have gladly
chosen new homes in the South after the war
and hundreds of millions of dollars would have
followed them, if they had not been confronted
everywhere with prejudice and insult, which
broke out wherever the slightest pretext was
furnished, in open violence, and resulted, il
many instances, in the robbery or murder o
these pioneers of Northern civilization.
The politics of the South, also, naturally
takes its hue to large degree from the ole
proslavery leaders who fomented the Rebel
lion. Enraged beyond measure by the loss o
their former asoendancy in the national coua
oils and the overthrow of their infamous Con
federacy, they now regard with intensified
hatred the efforts being made to meet and van
quish them on their favorite stamping-ground
within the confines of their respective States
Reconstruction has for the first time given Il
the entire people of the South voice in thei
local Governments, and upon the success o
the experiment it has inaugurated depends il
large degree the future prosperity o