Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-02-19
Prospects at the South.

Extract from Forneys Letter Washington to the
Chronicle.
The evidences OF Improvement are many
and startling. Let me enumerate a few
from which we may cast the horoscope of
this interesting section:
/. The almost unanimous acuuiesence in
universal suffrage, which is made earnest
by the fact that the negro with the ballot
works more faithfully than under the lash /;
and so does more by his industry to enrich
the planter than in the days of slavery.
2. That instead of buying produce from
the North and West, the South is begin.
ming to plant and grow all its own corn,
potatoes, wheat, &c, and will therefore
soon be self-supporting region.
.. That instead of sending off cotton
and iron, to be returned in wearing ap-
parel, rails, tools, farming implements,
&c., large manufactures are being con.
structed in every Southern State. Gov.
Sprague, of Rhode Island, has Just invest
ed heavily in sites for two great works
one at Columbia, S. c., and the other at
Augusta, Ga. He also purchased large
estate at Fernandiua, Fla.
4. That companies of Northern men are
being rapidly incorporated by the Legis
latures of the different Southern States,
with full powers to buy and sell lands, to
organize emigration societies, to establish
banking houses, factories, &c.
., That all the great improvements par
alyzed by slavery and postponed by the
war, are being vitalized by the infusion
of Northern energy and capital, and
by the well.founded hope of Congress
sional assistance at period not very re-
mote.
6. That the colored people are eagerly
laboring to elevate themselves by educat.
ing themselves and their children, and
that such Governors as Holden, in North
Carolina Scott in South Carolina; Smith,
in Alabama Yarmouth, in Louisiana |;
Bullock, in Georgia; Eggleston, in Missis-
sippi; and last, though not least, Brown
low, of Tennessee, are establishing COM
mon school systems to perpetuate univer-
sal intelligence.
Z. That many of the former secession
or rebel papers have dropped mere poll.
tics, and are now devoted to the mis-.
sion of business and financial reconstruc-
tion.
8. That, whereas, there was not one Re-
publican paper in the cotton States in
1860, there are now at least one hundred ;
some of them dailies of increasing circu-
lation, and several of them former Whig
and Democratic organs of large influence,
like the Standard, at Raleigh, N. c., and
the Wing, at Knoxville, Tenn.
AS we study these indications, and con-
trast them with the past-the past of yes
terday-it is very easy to anticipate the
marvellous future of the South.
To poor men the inducements presented
by this future are, to say the least, unex-
ampled. The wide field, crowded as it is
with variety of productions equaled no.
where on Gods globe, is thrown open to
them almost without money.
The chief needs are labor and popula-
tion. In some districts emigrants can get
land for nothing, if they will come to set.
tie permanently; in others they can get
homesteads for fifty cents, and in still
others at dollar, an acre. The very best
are in the market at five dollars. aud when
they go as high as ten dollars the differ.
ence consists in superior buildings and
outhouses.
What is chiefly required is not specula
tive aid, but money and men. They
should go together; and when vitalzed
by industry and intelligence, the reward
will be ten-fold to what it is in the West
ks am writing of to day of the necessity
for immediate action. The low prices for
land cannot last long in view of the rapid
enrichment of the whole South. Capital
lists and land companies are already in
vesting and organizing, and the farmer
and mechanic of small means, eager fol
an independent homestead, should not de-
lay an hour. Let them go out and see fol
themselves, and, my word for it, they will
not be disappointed
Norfolk is the city fitted above all Others
for the enterprising poor men of the Nortf
and for the foreigner. And the same i.
true of hundred towns further South
South Carolina, Florida and Alabama, al
safely reconstructed, and sure to be secure
biding places under Gen. Grants vigor
GUS rule, abound in sites as tempting al
North Carolina. Texas is vast empire
of undeveloped opulence, which mus
come into market quickly under the samt
resolute guardianship.