Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-01-24

] bCur Of the negro, or eDdeaVOureQ 10 get
/ him to work, by every inducement in
/ their power. lie will neither do 1t for
! wages, nor for a share OF the crop.
In 1866 and 1887, as much as ten snd
/ even fifteen dollars per acre was paid for
the rent Of open lands, on the Missis-
sippi, in Crittenden ard Phillips eoun-
! ties. and en- the Arkansas, ia Arkansas
and Jefferson counties. When men pay
prices so exorbitant, for the mere use Of
l the land, they are not such fools as
net to give the negroes fair trial
and endeavor to persuade them to work.
The Tribune says that Mr.. WILLIAMS,
though a Conservative, does not seem to
desire to make political capital out of the
matter. We cannot say thGt tie imPU-
tation OF others, thus implied, is alto
getber unjust The condition OF things
in our unfortunate country is no doubt
exaggerated by many, with an eye to
political results. Everything, in these
wretched days, becomes political capital.
It Is not many months since the Tribune,
helping with all its might to produce the
lamentable state of things now existing,
was occupied In publishing the most
uucouscionabis and atrociOus lies about
/ outrsges upon the freedmen Ia Texas /;
and it siil habitually exaggerates every
thing of that kind, and suppresses the
vast number Of instances OF outrages by
/ negroes that come u it well vouched for
/ by It's exchanges from every part Of the
! South. Its exaggerations, also, have had
for their object to justify the oppression
Of the South by q military despotism,
and to afIiict the country with the enor-
nous mischieis Of negro suffrage. 1t is
deemed by the law a crime to libel sir
gle individual. The Tribune has habitu-
ally libelled q whole people, and that
with an incredibly cool and cruel mslig-
nifty, to effect the very worst purposes.
The public mind of the North was preju-
diced enough; and the Tribune has
lAbored continuously to prejuaiceit more.
Nothing more uDjustlfiably criminal can
be conceived of. 1t is ike accusing the
innocent, to arouse against them the
jealous suspicious and the dislike Of q
remorseless and bloody tyrant.
The state Of things in the South is en-
tirely too gravely dangerous, too mena-
clng, too utterly sad and heart-sickening,
for as to lie about 1t. We see the evil
dencss Of wide spread distress on all
hands, IN the country and in the city.
GoD alone knows what our poor people
are II do. They have lost even hope.
The planters have toiled in honest good
faith, for two years, to improve their
condition and they are, with hardly an
exception, worse off than when they be-
gan. They have treated the negroes
well and kindly-by far too well. They
/ have paid them high wages, shared
! the crops with them, striven to induce
them to work, and at last abandoned the
attempt in utter despair. Here and there,
! where a mans former slaves hsd re-
maiped with hinA, and the old Eela tions
Of kindness have continued, they have
worked pretty weli-in few cases, as
as we'll as when they were slaves. The
planters have nowhere felt any ill.will
/ towards the negroes. They were ear
nestly desirous to make the best Of what
/ they could not help, and to AecOmmo-
/ date themselves to the altered condition
! of things. On the large plantations the
/ negroes were much less changed than in
the towns. They were indolent, but not
| vicious or orinsub0rdinate; and they trusted
aud confded In their old masters much
more than in the tNorthern men who
rented plantations. 1t would be folly to
say that no Southern planter has de-
frauded or dealt unfairly with bis hands
/ but such cases have been extremely rare,
Where the negroes have been 30 dealt
with, it has generally been done by
Northern men; and they have been
chiefly plundered by thestores established
by these, upon or in the vicinity of plan
tatiOns.
The residue Of the Tri6uRe's article is
In fairer spirit, and characterized by
good sense; and it suggests at the close
the only thing that can give the South
permanent relief. Our people must sell
half of their lands, II they can; and they
are anxious TO do it. Immigrants, bring
ing with them capital and lebour, will
be welcomed everywhere. Our planter
have always had too mueh land. By
foreclosures and otherwise, hundreds o
hne plantations are shortly to be sold
and the creditors must buy them In, o.
they will sell for nothing. Lands ready
for cultivation are to be had in sbun
dance at low prices; and wild lands 70
almost nothing. Plantations are renting
now at from one to two dollars per acre
and as property are worthless to tn
owners.
The Tribune thinks that Reconstruc
ton is the paDaces for all our ills; an
that the moment that is effected, pros
psrity with peace will return to tn
South. The Tribune is sadly mistaken
The state Of things will be worse sfte
reconstruction with negro suffrage, tha
It is now. Give the negro only the civ
rights of freeman, without the powe
70 do mischief by voting, let the whit
. men Of the South govern themselvt
> again, cease to disfranchiee and disqua
ify men for endeavouring to win lnd'
pendence by arms, let bygones /
I bygones, and peace and order will return
: # will be safe to invest capital in OF
: country, and safe 10 live in it. There
no hope Of that, under Radical rule. Tt
only salvation Cor the South Is In tt
success Of the Democratic party. Fit
defeated, our future win be inAnitel
more eaIamitous than our present is.
We give the residue Of the Tribune
article
Now we have no doubt that there a
many Freedmen in the South who I
? not properly seek woTk--do not mean
work II they can help H-Yhils. On u