Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-01-03

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will not say that they do not care to know.
Let us. upon the authority of the Southern
papers, give some idea of the condition OF
affairs in the South We can learn, by the
New York papers, that there is distress
amongst the laboring classes in that city.
Surely we can at least permit journals IN
other parts of our common country to ap-
prise us of the troubles which aff1ict the
communities which they represent. In The
State of Louisiana, we are informed, that
in large rural districts the people are driven
almost to desperation by poverty and want,
and that the failure of crops has put the
negroes almost upon the verge of starva-
ton AS might be expected, they are com
PEELED, by their extremity, to commit dep
relations. We learn from New Orleans
newspaper that the planters find it impos-
sible to guard, or save even, their mich
COWS and brood animals. Without money
or employment the negroes find it impossi-
BILE to obtain meat or bread and they take
to the woods and highways, and seize and
appropriate every live animal they can
find. They even set traps for cattle and
hogs. Leagued together in clubs and as
sociations, they are encouraged in their
Expectations by a confidence in their ahil-
ity to resist any attempt to arrest or punish
them. These acts are not instigated by
political passions or influences, nor have
they any political aim or purpose. The
general failure of the cultivation this season
is, by the New Orleans papers, attributed
to the Incidence, Indifference and careless
ness into which the negroes were seduced
in the Spring by the promises that farms,
agricultural implements, and stock would
be given them by the Government But
they have got we'll over this infatuation,
and it is now actual want and starvation
which is driving them to desperate and
lawless acts, and is producing deep and
widespread feeling of alarm and anxiety
in the country.
''In Mississippi matters are not more en-
couraging There, too, the crops have
failed. A NatcLez correspondent of Gin
cinnati paper writes that mot a single
crop has been made where expenses will
be met In consequence, the advances
for supplies and wages of negroes can
not be paid. Starvation stares hundreds
of blacks and whites in the face
pondent. Thefts and worse crimes are
frequent. The future is not looked for
ward to hopefully. 1t is maintained In
reference to the black laborers that there
will not be engaged during the coming
year more than half of those who worked
last year, nor more than tenth of those
who worked before the war. 1t must be
remembered that the women no longer
work, nor the children, who used to pick
cotton, drive stock and do other little
Chores while large numbers of the men
have become idlers.
owe do not vouch for the story, but
Southern paper illustrates the condition of
the country by stating that in Lauderdale
county, Mississippi, organizations have
been formed to leoy contributions on The
merchants Of Meridian. 1t is also stated
that the blacks have political organizations,
with secret passwords, &c. We make
single extract FROM louisiana paper, not
endorsing its correctness, but giving it as
part of the current newspaper news. The
New Orleans Picayuae, of December Sth,
says The papers which come to us from
all parts of the country are filled with &C
counts of the killing of beeves and hogs in
the woods, their flesh partly taken, and the
rest left to rot on the ground Of lndi-
yidual robberies and murders for money !;
of cotton fields picked in the night time,
when near towns where there are receivers
and disposers of ing nned cotton of corn
fields swept of their ears before ready for
gathering, sc. and of a general disposition
upon the part of most Of the negroes to
confscate all the movable property of the
country, as preparatory to locating their
expected land warrants
eve will add here that our Virginia
exchanges convey the same kind of inte.li-
gence, and that if reports be at all reliable,
an even worse state of affairs prevails in
Tennessee. In almost every part Of the
State of Tennessee lawlessness to some ex-
tent fourishes. The responsibility is divi-
ded between the blacks and whites, but the
unwelcome fact is established by evidence
not yet impeached.
Assuming all these things to be SO, it is
no easy matter to suggest g remedy. Our
purpose now is to give our people some idea
of the actual condition of the Southern
States It is not creditable to us to treat
so large portion of the country with as
much indifference as we now show to Abys-
sinia. We will be obliged to live with
tn csc Southern people and to cultivate
political, business and social relations with
them. Their prosperity is our prosperity.
They are essential to our strength as a ma
ton Then industry is one of the resour-
ces ultimately looked to in aid of the ex-
tinction of the great debt which we have
contracted. We ought neither TO be igno-
rant of their condition nor Indifferent to
it. The persons who proclaim that they
brought il upon themselves, and it is not
our business to rectify the Disorders which