The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-02-11
RATES OF ADVERTISING.
rhe Condition of the South.


see things as they really exist in the South. Add
to this, the testimony of John W. Forney which is
published elsewhere, and we have a very pleasing
picture to be viewed through Radical glasses: Z
The casual reader may imbibe very er-
roneous impressions OF the state Of the
South from what he sees in the nowspa-
pers If Ku KluX outrage is perpelra-
ted in Tennessee or Texas. it is at once
flashed over tho whole country and SO
of negro riot or resistance to legal pro-
cess, growing out of quarrel with a
planter or planters as to tho division of
crops grown on shares or the payment of
wages. Few stop to consider that the
South covers million Of square miles,
inhabited by twelve millions of people,
and that since every collision among
these twelve millions has quasi partisan
character, the widely repeated; and trum-
peted crimes of violence bear an unprece-
dentcd proportion to those which attract
only local attention. For instance {:
there are ten or twelve counties in Middle
and West Tennessee where the rebel
spirit is still rampant; and in some Of
which Ku Klux outrages are fitfully COM
mitted; these we are certain to- hear
from; but the forty OF fifty counties
which are as quiet rs any part of New
England incite no telegrams1 and rarely
attract public attention. From Virginia
and the two Carolinas, we have heard of
but one collision for weeks, and that was
an evidently magnifed report of rcsis-
tance to civil process by a few negroes
near Norfolk. From Georgia, we have
only the Ogccchee troubles, which were
swollen out OF all proportion by mutual
misconceptions and palpable effort to
drive the blacks into rebellion and subject
them to determination. From Alabama,
we hear of but one recent outrage-the
murder of Union officer by Ku klux
near Huntsville. Mississippi is very qui-
ct; Louisiana almost uniformly SO since
she heard of Grants election. In Flori
da, only the Kilkenny teud among the
State officers veXcs the general calm.
Arkansas bas been seriously convulsed
and agitated ; and there have been wild
doines by implacable rebels on tho one
side and by Gov. Clayton's black militia
on the other; but, in spite of the despe-
rate efforts of the rebel journals of Mem
phis and Little Rock, it is plain that Or
der has generally been restored on the
basis of submission to law. Texas is SO
vast and remote from the seat of Govern
mcnt that great many of the turbulent
and implacabe have taken refuge in her
vast sol;tudes and there do with impunl-
ty deeds that would provoke repression
elsewhere but, even there, matters have
greatly improved since Grants election,
and arc still improving.
The fair crops and good prices just re-
allied have had very soothing influence:
Twenty-Five hundred thousand bales of
cotton, selling for an average of Sl0O per
bale. yields two hundred and fifty millions
of dollars to the planters; and, though
several former crops were much larger in
amount, we doubt that any one Of them
ever sold at the gin-houses for more mon
cy. Then the sugar and rice crops Of
1865 arc much larger than those of 1867,
and are bringing good prices. Add to
this that the South grew moro Indian
corn, and we presume more wheat also,
in 1868 than in any former year, and we
may fairly congratulate her on the turn
in the tide of her fortunes. 80, -
The experiment of Free Labor at the
South was commenced under the least
promising auspices ever known. The
planters were conquered, sulcn, despond-
ent, and intensely. prejudiced against
"free nggcrs" Having all their lives
had labor without wages, the requirement
of pay for the work OF the blacks seemed
to them glaring cxtortion, enforced by
the bayonets of their Yankee masters.
But, had they been ever SO willing to
pay, the means were utterly wanting.
Tue war had stripped them to their bare
acres; and even tnese wore in no condl-
ton to produce when, month too late,
they began to plant in 1865. Short Of
implements, animals and food, their crops
would have been poor even had they not
been shortened by drouth; but this cut
them down nearly half They did little
better in 1866, but on a constantly, rapid.
ly falling market; and when their next
crop was ready for sale, cotton had fallen
so low that half of them could hardly
pay their labor The year just closed was
first since 1860 in which a fair yield has
commanded q good price and, though
many are still struggling under noun
tain of debt tens of thousands have been
set on their feet by the crop just market
cd.
The Blacks emerged from Slavery and
the War under circumstances most unfa-
vorablc to sobricty and diligence on their
part They were sharers in the National
triumph; they were it's most palpabe
bcncfcaries; their old masters wero the
vanquished party; and mistaken if not
bad men had led the Freedmen to expect
q distribution of their masters forfeited
lands among them as "spoils of victory"
And, had they been ever so docile and
reasonable, their late masters werc at
once disinclined and unable to pay them.