The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-10-21
A Germ that should be Fostered.

A North Carolina newspaper, of late date,
says: "Thirty-three Swiss emigrants arrived
at Newbern few days ago. They are most
ly mechanics and expect to locate at Colds
boro'."
North Carolina contained more persons
who sympathized with the Union cause, du
ring the rebellion, than any other section OF
the Southern Confederacy. Since the war
closed, the same State has accepted the pO-
litcal situation in better faith than any of
her sisters. The consequence has been that
the local disturbances have been fewer, and
the march of just principles has been more
rapid. These considerations afford grounds
to hope that the vanguard of the column Of
foreign immigration above announced will
receive a proper welcome to their new homes.
and may soon be followed by additional and
larger detachments
The South never has seemed to understand
what it lost by its exclusive policy regard
ing alien additions to her population, and
what the North gained by pursuing an OPP
posite course. When the war opened. the
! loyal section contained rs many inhabitants
| derived from immigration since the forma-
ton of the Union as the aggregate of whites
and blacks in the eleven States that consti
tuted the rebellious coalition. There was
little over 100000 of each, and that made
the contest about q, 100000 against 9,OOO,-
600. Even had Kentucky, Missouri, and
Maryland joined the South, the opposition
would have been as nineteen to twelve. 1t
was the foreign element that gave the North
its crushing preponderance, and enabled that
section to bring hundreds of thousands of
men into the field, without exhaustion, when
its adversary was robbing the cradle and the
grave to recruit its armies, being in the last
stages of depletion.
The same productive forces gave the North
greater density of population to the
square mile, and originated the necessity
for comparatively more thousands of miles
of railroad and canal communication. To
immigration We are indebted, in an eminent
degree, for the vast augmentation in our
material resources. Each sturdy, :...i.etrt-
ons, fresslom- owing foreigner who sought a
home in the North, daily contributed by his
labor to swell the grand total of wealth and
| prosperity in the section. 1t is estimated
that the millions of aliens who have settled
in the United States brought with them an
average of $6S in money, summing up over
$400,000,000. Of this vast amount, very
small portion accrued to the revolving States.
When the civil conflict was inaugurated, the
eleven integral Commonwealth of the Con-
federacy contained less than 100000 per-
sons of alien birth, showing how little the
South had profted by immigration. They
were kept away by the system of chattel
slavery prevailing there
The avails of populations, resulting from
the influx of. foreigners, with their descen-
dants, since 1880, equaled, up to 1860, the
entire free and male inhabitants of Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee in fact,
exceeded the aggregate in those States by
more than one hundred thousand. By oblit-
Grating those States from the map of the Uni
ted States, leaving them bowling wilder
ness, we can form an adequate idea of how
diminished our national growth would have
been, had our forefathers, acting on their
fear of the monarcliial ideas and influences
of Europe, as the Southern people acted on
their fear of Puritancal ideas and influences,
had adopted the policy of discouraging for
eign immigration.
If North Carolina will exhibit the good
scense of treating in proper spirit the
thirty-three Swiss mechanics who have Just
made their homes at Goldsboro'. the State
will have opened road to wealth and pros
perity worth all the Ku-Klux Klans and
persecution of men for opinions sake that
can be organized from now until doomsday
But if she is determined to kill the goose
that lays the golden egg, let her inaugurate
Seymour and Blair row to disperse the
"carpet-bag" governments. In that way
she can succeed in remaining almost station.
airy in population, and can keep her lands
at minimum price, at sluggish demand
besides delaying for decades that glorious
transformation scene that would change hcl
vast pine forests into harvest fields, fruit
orchards, vineyards, factories, and thrifty
towns.