The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-03-27
CHI AR ES T ON.
SATURDAY MORNING, MARCH 27, 1869.
Wait!

any rash enterprises. We need net seek
for our own with the strong hand. Nor
need VIC, on the other hand, to stoop and
truckle to any. Our worth to the country
has already been demonstrated. We gave
it honor and power by our statesmanship
in the past; and our products are needed to
restore the balance of trade in the present.
What we are worth to the country we may
estimate from the thousands of millions it
has freely paid to keep us in the Union.
The South is its richest investment-worth
all the government has expended, and vastly
more.
In their dealings with us, the Republi-
cans have endeavored to mystify their own
record. They wish to abase our self-con-
sciousness. They would fain impress us
with the idea that they have no occasion for
US, and that we may sink or swim as we
please. They have endeavored to create
the impression that we are incapable OF
managing our own local affairs, and have,
therefore, assigned to US strangers as rulers,
and negroes as equals at the polls. The
Republicans are simply playing with the
South the game of bluff.
The simple African may not understand
the trick, nor The Southern renegade, who,
for the sake of official position and emolu-
ment, has perjured himself; but the true
citizens of the South need not fall into the
snare "set in their light" nor sell their
birthright for mess of pottage.
The North needs our cotton. And we,
for our part, need African subordination to
the law of labor and the obligations Of con-
tract for its production, and also financial
facilities for its transportation. These ne
oessities will be supplied, whether VIC me-
morializo Congress or not. We are merely
anticipating the course of events when we
pour oil upon Summers broken head, or
stuff paper into brakes capacious pockets.
That money and civil order are necessary
to restore our industries, is enough to ex-
tinguish these baleful meteors. And, as to
our local celebrities-Scott and Corbin,
Pillsbury and Brisbane-they are doomed,
just because they are fighting against lati-
tude and climate, against the laws Of Ma
ture and the principles of political economy.
-rucy are the modern Siseras, contending
with ssthe siara in their oouraes." They
may alter laws and boundaries, they may
villify the State and its peaceful communi-
ties, they may intoxicate the ignorant and
league together the corrupt; but they can
not blast the air with mildew or the soil
with barrenness. They cannot prevent the
South from producing or the North from
making its productions thrive.
Major Delaney, in that curious life of his,
which has 80 much the air of an autobiog-
raphy, admits that, under the new system,
the cotton culture cannot hold its own. So
much the worse for the new system. The
disciples of the Tribune contend that the
people are happier when there is no e1por-
tation, inasmuch as they themselves con-
sumo all they produce, as in st. Domingo.
But country which wants exports will
prove intolerant to all such humanitarian
ideas. 1t cannot and will not relegate the
laboring class to political or industrial sine
cures. Whatever else may occur in the fu-
ture, we may be quite sure that the West
India arrangement of Cuffee and his pump
kin vines will not be permitted to stand
anywhere in the United States.
Another circumstance deserves to be men
toned as favorable augury for the future
of the South. The government is absolute
ly committed to the policy of establishing
a direct communication between the Allan
tic and Pacific States. For this purpose
bonds to the amount of over twenty mil
lions of dollars have been given to the Union
Pacific Railroad. 1t now appears that du-
ring certain periods of the year, the road
cannot be "operated." Notwithstanding
the mild winter and the immense snow
sheds that have been erected along the
route, the road had been, on the 9th inst,
closed by the snow for twenty-five days,
and for o distance of two hundred miles
west of Cheyenne. The depth of the snow
is from thirty to fifty feet, and in the deep
cuttings and in many of the canyons it had
drifted to the top and is packed hard. In
these places it does not melt until June.
Accordingly the Senate Committee on the Pa
cific Railroad have reported that "lhe route
sis one not to be relied upon by interna-
.tional commerce They accordingly re-
commend railroad on the SSH parallel of
latitude as practicable route to San Fran
cisco 365 days in the year. This would
strike Memphis and bring the trans-conti-
mental commerce Of the Pacific, as we'll as
its tide of travel, through the heart Of the
Southern States Better still is the Ell
Passo route of which we spoke yes
terday. The necessity for Southern
route is manifest and urgent, if, in
deed, any route at all is to be maintained.
Men may build railroads along the snow
lines of the vast Western wilderness, but
the road that pays must follow balmier
latitude.