Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-08-27
IMMIGRATION.
Address of MIR. W. B. DOn0hO be-
fore the Chamber of Commerce.

fore that body, recounting his eXpe-
rience in the Northwestern States, dur
ing a tour made for the purpose of eX-
planning and setting forth the inn
mense advantages offered by the South
to those who come within her borders
as friends, and with the intention of
making part and parcel OF our people.
The meeting was presided over by
Mr.. w. S. Pickett, who, after stating
the object of the meeting, introduced
Mr.. DOnOhO, who spoke as follows:
/ deem it scarcely necessary to offer
any apology for my appearance before
you this evening, as l am amongst
those who know me, and in the midst
of a community with whom | have
been identified for nearly twenty
years in commercial and mercantile
pursuits, and which have so entirely
engrossed my time and what little
talent l may have possessed in the
prosecution, as to have left me neither
the opportunity or occasion to have
cultivated in any degree the habit and
the preparation necessary to enter
tain an audience in the popular sense
of a public speaker,
| promise you no entertainment; l
have no desire to please your fancy,
to gain nOtoriety, to simply constitute
the killing of time," and enable you
by anything l may say or relate here
to pass through the evening without
some purpose-some good accom-
plished-even if good resolutions to be
hereafter acted upon. The truth is,
friends, the condition of our
"Sunny South" my native
heath, "loved and idolized in her
prosperity, and but the more en-
deared in her tribulatiOns''-have so
engaged my thoughts since the war
that scarcely any other matter could
find Judgment or be entertained with
cOrdiality for u day o a moment even.
No other subject than that not only of
her am%eliOratiOn, or even her restora-
ton to her former prosperity, but of a
position far, far, far in advance of
what she could eve have attained I'M
der the condition and system of slave
ry of other days. Hard indeed has it
been 10 learn the lesson. Hard indeed
has it been to recover from that paral-
ysis-that despOndency-that deep,
terrible, "night-marep despair, that
weighed down every Southern"
heart, when from day TO day he was
forced to gage UPON the debris of the
complete shipWreck OF earthly all
scattered hitheF and thither-g chaotic
mass ofValueleSs fragments, with here
and there a fearful and h~eartrending
reminder of palmy days and happy
hOmes-not only those little
trifling mementoes Of ''heart-treas-
ureS," and those relics of
fathers fathers to sons sons,
but with the fiery ordeal of war, with
its humiliation and defeat, the consul
ming fire, the deadly flrelock and the
keen edged sword, welded by the Wig
orous and merciles5 hand of a power
fui and overwhelming foe, came the
mourning of Rachael for her children,
and the hearts drapery of nearly eVz
cry household, which needed not the
heraldFy Of 81 mOqrnsFs who go about
the Streets OF the more mndern SYM
bOls of Grape and marble" to attest
the loss of "hOme idols;'' but likewise
the devastation of our hearths and
homes, our affairs and graves; the
comforts and Injuries of accumulated
! YCar=-Our very substance in labor,
and stocks, and bonds, and money,
and jeWels-aye, even the last vestige
Of our subsistence. Hard, Indeed, has
ii been TO learn the lessons INTENDED
by a wise and mefeiful Providence,
yet when calmly considered what a
glorious future awaits these Southern
States if the advantages, the untold
Observation-Disclosures that l fear
we fail TO properly estimate, and
| which, if we of this very day aGd
( generation will WELD as we shOuld do,
and as eny other people would un-
q9estiQnabfy do, we shan at once en-
ter upon an era q agricultural re-
construction" more certain Of accom-
plishment, more desirable of attain
| ment, and'mOre substantial in value,
aud of greater intrinsic merit than
| all the legislative and Congressional
| enactments of fhe present century,
and the beginning ofa commercial in
| aenendenc not to enduntil the South
shall haze Gttsined a position that for
| true SplenGor ana substantial worth
! will stand upriyaled in the past ard
without a hopeful rival in the future.
If the South In 1867, almost without
means, without credit and without
friends, with demOraliZing influences
| Of the Bureau" upon the labor,
| with most l,l9nidated teams and i'm
plements, didin ths cultivation of a
! most miserable cultivation, With a
| population. all told, black and white,
orr, 6OO, 0UJ, cSpayt 1928, 800, 900, While
the North, East and West combined,
! with 25,0O0,0Q0 people, farms and
| homes intact, ABUNDANCE Of money,
under protection o. the Government,
and every advantage or improved
implement, capital and peuce, export
| ed only SAB, 000, 0d0i Ihe South in
| 1868 produced not only enough Of
| bread and meat for home consQmp-
! ton, and received besides es proceeds
| Of heF cotton, sugar, tobacco, hemp
and rice nearly S4O0, 0OO, 900. And
this done in less than SGe-f9urth Of
| the area OF her tiIlable lands, how
long would 1t take them to wipe out
by Ogsn, fair and square pay
ment the sEtiFR national debt, II
the Northwest will lead rs population
! anaimplements to bring into cult;ya-
! tion tkree-fourths of the land? Can IL
be done RHtil this development?
Hthe wealth of q country is in pro-
| portion to its productive capacity, SID
| the extent and perfection of its deyel-
| opment, then what part Of the great
world, what continent, what coaEtTY,
| or what part Of any country, possesses
/ such an accumulation and wealth Of
| productive and valuable resources as
! the Southern States? And what cOun-
] try more peedfql Df that abundance OF
intelligent, skillfHl and reliable labor
and the improved appliances that nat
uraliy fOllOW in the wake Ct the en-
terpFising and progressive producers
CT industry ia this RiGeteenth cen
tury: Who have so neglected and
failed to ~apPFefistG and foster such
advantages, and who in ali the wide
world 50 Indifferent to their true
interests, and to the immensely
Of power which, if New England
| could bat control, she would exercise
a monopoly in connection Nth that
| of her present "five-twenty and ten.
forty anaconda coil y that would soon
| reduce TO a i~ifeleSs corpse the last
limb and extremity of this mammoth
| country from the very threshold of
her sterile borders to the Southern
Gulf, the Northern Lakes and liG
golden gate of the Great West. Aye,
she would in her qqeenly power de-
| ma1d and levy tribute of the British
Isles and the Continent of Europe;
and with Asia, Africa and the Isles of
the Sea, be compelled to pay obei-
sanee to aSGpTemaey OfacknaWledged
ahd iDVBIperable stability and power
l and natakIaaa AUripuI-