The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1868-02-22

such as might choose to work tor them
selves, or at. other than plantation labor;
and that, on the other hand, the planter
was only helped by it in furnishing bread
and meat for his hands, and could get
nc advances whereby either to support
himself this year, to pay back BALANCES;
or to provide Tor the future or to feea
his mules, or to provide mu'es or agrl-
cultural implements, or anything except
meat and bread for negroes.
We sal little, however, upon the sub
iect, because we dislike all Government
interference in matters of labor, whether
of State or General Government, and
whether directed against the laborer or
against the employer, and because the
"pay as you go system" is, in our cpl
nion, the only safe and profitable one IN
farming. so that the soone we reduce
our planting operations to this, the soon
! er will we have real and continuing pros
paity.
Some of our contemporaries have
dwelt much upon the feature of the for
m-r order. requiring all the cotton of the
relieved planter-rather ofthe planter
who pays wages to the relieved freed
mel-to be shipped to a commission
merchant to be selected by the Freed
mems Bureau, as being one most likely
to swamp the entire tortuneso of the plan
ter, vino not only has his cotton pledged
to pay such advances, charged as Co
vernnent officers or the commission mer-
chant shall have fixed their prices. but
all bis movable effects also.
No doubt this might-if Government
should choose irresponsible, dishonest,
OF incompetent agents or commission
merchauts-work great harm. and prove
the irretrievable ruin of those who should
confide their t9rtues to such mode of "re-
lief" But cur chief objection is to its
continuing in another form the same
fundamental error in past Southern agri-
culture. in conducting it in such way
that soma one else must control the plan
ter's crop. and that this must be all cot
ton. Or something else which the adj
v~ancing party can easily turn into money
in one operation whereas true farming
and proper planting will bring in a sue
c~ession Of crops, upon part of which the
planter will subsist himself, and sell the
residue, as he goes along, to meet the
necessity of buying this or that article
which the land cannot supply. There
is thus neither advance nor commission
merchant needed; least of all, a mart
gage of soul and body to the F~reedmen's
Bureau, which may be likened to that
of Faust to Mephistophilps.
A contracted area of agriculture, de-
voted chiefly to the raising of cereals
and root crops, and of grass and hay; to
fruit and garden culture ; to tho care of
stock, to be reduced in number and in
creased in quality by good keeping and
full feeding, it not by purchase, will not
be a misfortune, in our opinion, nor even
the failure to employ the greater num-
Der freedmen-at least, the most idle
and lazy among item. These will never
starve if watchfulness keep them from
stealing, they may be compelled to go
Northward, to the States where they
think their friends among white men
chiefly live, or southwark, where habits
similar to theirs chiefly prevail but in
this, both we and they will be greatly
benefit ed.
We shall therefore, Tot complain if
the great fields which We're once white
with cotton become meadows and pas.
lures, while all the remaining laborers,
chiefly white, bestow their toll u"pat.
ches" and gardens, instead of fields. We
shall feel that having thrown off the
bonds of the commission merchant and
the chains of the bureau, these remaining
planters and farmers have become the
real freedmen of the country, and are
hencetorth to be the true lords of the
soil.
In the like spirit, we do not feel much
interest in the other order, which provid-
ed for the conveying ~ofunemployed freed
men from n parish to another, except
to congratulate" those communities which
have thus got rid of them, and to pity
the follybf those who for a temporary
advantage, have brought additional pla-
CUES Upon themselves.
l1Rhis is a white mans country, as
wsare often told, it must be IT, abode
white men chiefly, be Worked by
Pwhite men chiefly, its fruits lie enjoyed
Fly white men,. White men he compe;
tent to perform all its t'uti@! and reaA
Aall its rewards, as Well iFthe field
~gricgdk1re as in anyer- "
B6ne, 18th m.
beled
( & ' ! ! !; !; i;
ne Uense
I der, the gallant vsa U6t
the gale, thanks to taM~Bdhess Of her
timbers, tho wo, kmanlike manner in
which they put together, and the mas
terly skill with which she has been con-
Quoted. :.
e The events annd@aced in our tele-
graphic columns of yesterday and to-day,
-. ~ J ~ IT,rh;,roa9