The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-11
The PRESENTATION Of the South.

fortitude and manly reliance upon thcn
own energies, betook themselves to iapoa
to dig out of the earth the means o. 's
sistence for the present, and, in eou'.
reasonable time, prosperity.
d;snos;t;ons been seconded by wise mea-
s,ro.-hod the SHERMAN and JOHNSTON !
bss,s Of settlement been carried out-had
Tho labor of the country, free as it was,
becu left unexcited by agitations of mer-
cenary orators and agents Of secret socie-
ties, to pursue course Of quiet, order, and
industry--had the negro, in short, been
left to himself to make his own support,
andhad his mind not been filed with va
mites and aspirations for participation IN
the business Of government, for which ne
has not the first qualifcation-the South
would have soon recovered from prostra-
ton, and would by this time have been
contributing largely to the national re-
sources, instead ofcalling upon the Govern
ment for bread, to prevent starvation.
Such was not the will Of the majority in
Congress. That majority had studied the
CENSUS TABLES. They found that the class
of beings lately in slavery were, in many
sections of the South, majority OF the
population . and that by disfranchishg
portion Of the other, and the previously
governing class, the servile race would
have the majority Of votes IN the other
sections. With the view to accomplish
that result, and to got the benefit OF Inc
negro ascendancy in the ten States, the
teachings of the census tables were made
available by the reconstruction acts; and
we have all the disturbances Of the labor
and the enterprise Of the South, which,
could we have avoided, as we stated above,
the country would row have been COM
Portable and easy, if not prosperous.
1t is from the reconstruction measures
that our chief embarrassments and all Of
the want of common necessaries Of life in
the South now proceed. The negro, who
chiefly supplied southern labor, was set
all agog for political rights and political
tonors. Fields were left uncultivated {;
crops seeded were not titled and crops
titled were not gathered. Public meetings
and nightly conclaves of secret societies
have been attended by crowds Of negroes,
who have left their labors often in the most
critical stage Of the crops to debate Radl-
cal principles and concoct schemes to de-
prive the white man Of all participation in
the government Of the country. In these
assemblages, consisting of negroes, with a
few mean whites, the negroes were IN
famed with hatred Of their late masters;
taught that the wealth and the land were
all theirs, as they worked for them and
that they were entitled to support at
least, and had the right to take it wherever
they found it. The schemes Of negro as
cendancy succeeded, as also did the Dao
lessons poured into the ears of the blacks.
The negroes control the conventions in the
ten southern States; they are alienated
from the whites; jealousy, discomfort, a
sense of wrong, fill the minds of the
blacks and they put their hands to the
plough and the axe with reluctance
which, in tho larger number of cases, can
only be overcome by absolute necessity.
What wonder is it that the South has
not recovered? What that her produc-
ton is steadily decreasing, while pauper-
ism and starvation are increasingly
The census tables, as studied by the
Radicals, have done this mischief. Had
those tables exhibited in the South large
majority of whites in every county, there
qoouM haze been no effort TO clothe the negro
acith the right of suffrage. No Radical
politician save fanatic would have sought
to confer upon negroes privilege for
which they are plainly untitled; nor can
one of them answer that in his heart he
would have desired any such thing. But
it was seen how these poor people could
be made available at the polls by intlaming
them with hatred for southern whites
and attaching them to the northern Re-
publican party and this knowledge shaped
that selfish, cruel, and reckless policy
which has been steadily reducing the
South lower and lower, and as steadily
clogging and embarrassing the prosperity
of the whole nation.
AS We have already said, Virginia can
fight through the oppressive and ruinous
Radical measures. She is q border State.
By climate and adaptabilty to white labor,
and her vast mineral resources and water
power-and more important still, by the
white majority of her population--she will
resist these dreadful causes, to which,
unless they are speedily checked and frus-
trated, some of the gulf States must inevi-
tably, permanently, and fatally, yield.
This much we can say for Virginia. 1t
is true, and is quite enough to inspire our
people to continue their eXertlons Win
energy and hope, looking forward to the
bright success that will crown their devo-
ton and constancy-to the day when Vir-
einia,s population will be so large as to
give her self-protecting power, and when
tina whole Virginia land will wear the face
of prosperity and independence.
Rnt will the nation permit even the gull
States to fall into barbarism, that such a
party as the Radical party, with all its
selfish and sordid motiyes,-its inhumanity
and recklessness-ma rule this country
If there is spark Of wisdom, if there is a
moderate degree of humanity left in the
hearts of the northern people, that ruth
less party, Of atrocious principles and mo-