Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1868-12-08
The Southern COunfry.

In no country on God green earth, IN no
age since the decree that man should eat bread
in the sweat of his face, has labor performed
sueb miracles of change as have been wrought
in the South since the close of the war. Rarely,
saws Hunts Merchants Magazine for October,
has war left country in 4 condition more
utterly diSorganized and devastated than that
in which the South was found in the spring of
1868. The most vigorous of its white male
population had been slain or manned; its labor
system was diSorganized its plantations bar
rem waste, through the lack of cultivation, or
from the blightipg march of armies; Its cities
were desolate, and its ports destitute OF ship
ping; its canals and its railroads were in state
OF comparative ruin It's capitalists were bank
rupt, and there was neither confidence nor
credit TO command the use OF outside capital !;
stocks not only of merchandise but even OF the
commodities essential to subsistence had be-
come well-nigh exhausted; in short condition
OF more ahiect ruin has rarely been witnessed
in any country, and the case appeared all the
more hopeless from the fact ct One.thiTd OF the
whole population having but just passed from
a condition OF slavery to that Ofalmost helpless
selfdependence.
TO compare this condition of things with the
present position of the South affords striking
evidence of the inherent vitality OF that section.
The recuperation effected within three years,
in the face of political arrangement, and many
other formidable obstacles, must be surprising
to those who have noted In history the tardI-
ness with which nations usually recover from
the effect OF great wars. Poverty, deSolatlon,
and bereavement appear to have reused that
energy in the Anglo-SaxOn blood which gives
the race under all conditions superiority over
circumstances and an ability to rise above dis
c0uragementS.
The South, though putting forth almost SUI
perhuman efforts in the rebuilding Of her waste
places, and in the reconstruction OF her indus
tries, has barely indicated to the world the
gigantic strides she is destined 10 take in the
future. 1t is possible that the late war, SO
ruinOus and disastrous IN its consequences,
may, in comparatively briet period, be made
a blessing 1t has taught the South the lesson
of self-reliance 1t has instructed her people
how to utilize their great local wealth-produc-
ing advantages. Though losing what they
fought for-poitical Independence have
found out the methods of commercial and fin
anclal independence, and are giving abundant
and cheering evidences that these lessons,
taught by years of poverty and endurance, are
not to be neglected or forgotten.
The South has performed wonders in re-
building her lines of communication, by which
her great staple finds its way to the seaboard.
Her water power is being utilized. Her mines
of iron, gold and coal are being surveyed and
worked. Her forests of timber are yielding
their fair proportion of revenue. Her great
staples, cotton, rice and sugar, have taken their
proper place in the commerce of the country;
and in addition to these, the manufacture OF
cotton, which is now in its infancy, is destined,
as source OF wealth to the South, at an early
day to take high rank.