The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-02-24
(From the XIX Century,
Possible Future of the south.

| well as the n.iner who exumes the ore. III
| who transports an article from one place
another and thus renders it available 70
| the satisfaction OF wants which otherwis
would have been inadequatelv supplied, a
certainly attaches a new use and consequen
value to that article, as he did who produces
D it. Now, production of material is agricul
ture that of utility is manufacture of com
merce Upon on, or some, or all of thes
, three branches of industry, rests the finan
cial prosperity of every nation. Heretofor
agriculture exclusively has absorbed tn
funds and energy of the South; and yet
is the least remunerative of them. Tn
| fields ofPoland are covered with golden ce
reals, aud fesound to the Kissing of ythes
The whole lano is an immense granary; We
she is squalid and mise-ablewhile manuac
turing and commercial Holland, is comfOr
table and wealthy. Spain is sunken in pow
erty and ignorance. BArbary is poor anC
lliterate, yet they furnish bread TO Eng
land. Brazil sends her cotton, coffee, lum
Der, hides, ect-, throughout Europe, We
| Brazil is impotent.
Bring the matter home.
In 1860, Mississippi raised 100000 bale!
of cotton, (400 lbs. each.) worth in rounC
numbers, 39.0000O0 dollars. In the same
year, Massachusetts imported and manufac.
tured 3l6,665 bales, realizing 36.000000 dol
lars. Now the number of bales imported
| and manufactured by Massachusetts,, is Il
| the number produced by Mississippi as i;
| to i, about. Therefore, had the former
she would have realized l44,900000 dollars
Deducting the cost of the raw material, VIZ
have left, a gross proftof los, 900 600 dollars
But this cotton was manufactured some
where, if not in Massachusetts and paid tC
those who did so nearly three times what il
did the producers. The net results will bt
considered hereafter.
Again. Texas with 35O0OOO cattle, pro-
duced leather, butter and cheese estimating
the two latter articles at p cents per Id. &c
-, e Il
! York, with 1,973,000 cattle produced from
| the same articles 5S,669,0O0 dollars. Is ii
not incredible "a ratio Of sixty-threc to
one!
These are only samples of the manner in
| which the South squandered her resources.
| Let us penetrate deeper. Mississippi, which
was the eleventh State in number of swine,
| imported her pork; blessed with the sun
| NEST skies, the balmiest breeZes, a most fer
/ tile soil, she bought her breadstuff: queen
| of the cotton world, she imported
| the cotton goods. Although only five States
| surpassed Virginia in sheep-rrising ten
| eclipsed her in woollen manufacture and
| Virginia imported wOOllen goods. Tennes-
| see produced pig-irOn, seventh in the scale,
yet She was the thirteenth founder. and inn
| ported machinery. What was the result of
| this ruinous policy? Grant South Carolina
! her twenty-six millions for cotton and rice |!
| Her population of 200, 900 souls must be fed
on purchased meats, must be clad in pur-
chased garments; her plantations must be
worked with implements every one of which
| were made abroad, she did not make 5000
! dollars worth. Verify, the twenty-siX mil
| lions. rapidly become-ZerO! Let Georgia,
! Alabama, North Carolina, ETC. submit to
| the same process, and their nominal incomes
| will be found deplOrably deficient Are not
| these deductions, based as they are on the
! official returns of the census of 1850. legiti-
mate? Witness the moTtgaged plantations
! of the Yazoo and Mississippi valleys. The
commercial cities of New Orleans and New
Y DIRK virtually owned the States of MisSis-
| sippl and Louisiana.
Such are the results of an exclusively ag-
| ricultural system.
Turn we now to Massachusetts,, a State
| wherein the three great branches of pro-
duction are happily blended. In agricul-
| ture itself, notwithstanding the unpropi-
| tious climate. and an area less than one
! sixth that of Alabama, she produced nearly
| half the value of Alabama's crop. Her man
ufactures were twenty-eight times as valu-
| able as those of the latter State; and who
can estimate the returns of that commerce
which circumnavigated every continent and
treaded every river on the globe? Mark
| how beautifully the industrial divisions
| Dlayfnto each others hands. The farmer
| feeds the manufac turer and merchant. and
! by them is clad and enriched. The manu-
| facturer supplies necessaries to the farmer,
! and stocks to the merchant; and by them,
! in turn, is furnished necessarieS and raw
/ material. So, too, with the merchant
/ Thus the nation prospers. The popular
purse grows plethOric. There Is no etfluX OF
| value without countervailing return. The
| State is like the great bed of the ocean. Its
| products are sent in huge waves, through
| out the world but there Is swift and con-
slant ssunder tow" returning ever, and the
| ocean is always full, always mighty.
| Is not this the reason why Georgia, with
| seven times the area of Massachusetts,, eli
| mate infinitely more salubrious and an an
/ tiquity as great, had yet one-third less rep
,l.ff and ipSG
/ in Congress? Is not this the reason why,
while the two CarOlinas, which were the
original third and seventh States of the I'm
/ ion, have fallen to the twelfth and eIgh-
| teenth positions. Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and
/ Missouri all of comparatively recent crea-
| ton have forged ahead with giant strikes,
| until they stand at the front Of the States
association? No deeply alden argosieS bear
| from them the raw products or their soils,
| for other peoples to enrich themselves upon.
They have not been content to play the part
| of the heart, in the body national, stagnat-
/ ing itself whilst driving health and grace
| symmetry aud power into the other mem-
/ bers. We have fertile soils and happy skies
/ rs well as they and they gather no richer
/ treasures from the full bosom of the earth
| than burst forth from US; but with them the
| sounds of busy manufacturing industry are
heard faShioning their virgin products TO
| the utmost development, whilst with US all
4 is silent; and as the birds of the air pass
/ over the swards to settle on the rough.
! brown seed-tields, so the migratory nations
/ pass us bv. All, if the sward also but COW
cred a tempting grain! And 1t can be made
to do so.
The emancipation of the slaves in the
South has introduced new phenomenon
into the worlds history. In vain do we
look backward for its precedent. We find
nations slowly and laboriously emerging
from the miSts OF a silent inception, and ma
tions springing at once lusty and vigorous
into aflluence and power; we behold some
falling, yet rising again into all their prls-
tine prosperity, and some that fall to rise no
more; we start with alright at the almost
instantaneous humiliation OF this. and fol-
low that though the long-drawn centuries
of decadence almost imperceptible: parties
and schisms have arisen and passed away
revolutions have shattered the fortunes and
powers of the higher classes ana oVerWhelm-
ed the aristocracies; counter-revolutions
have FeinStated tlse one and renewed the
other ;vet in all these various fortunes, amid
all this diversity and complication OF
national records, no con- blnatiOn affairs
such as now obtains in the South, presents
itself. For the first time the labor system
of a people has been completely aoollsheo,
while the intellect and wealth maintain their
original supremacy. For the first time the
genius, the morality, the sentiment the
chivalry, TIE daring, the energy and the
perseverance of highly cultivated and
mighty people. essay in vain TO grasp an
organized blind force by which 10 accom-
plish their ends, and throughout tue eACen1
ola nation. employment goes begging. For
the first time people is neither awake, nor
sleeping nor dead, but in trance. Oar So
cial Organization now resembles childs
block-palace, from under which the founda-
ton has been so suddenly stricken that the
entire superstructure has fallen, shaken and
Wrenched. but proud and shapely still. A
new problem in political philosophy is to
be solved, and upon us devolves the vast
task of making what is to be certainly the
most curious, perhaps the grandest chapter
| in the history of any single nation. II Is