Middletown transcript., 1870-02-19
THE SUNNY SOUTH.

10 more words of commisseration in allud-
ng to the condition Of the South. The
lime has come to use the language Of con-
graduation, Of felicitation, Of thankfulness
md of joy. The shadow Of the war-cloud |
has entirely disappeared, and the bright |
sun OF that sunniest Of lands again shines |
in all its meridian splendor. Once more,
thank God, we may bid all hail to the
Sunny South, for the day Of her mourn
ing 10 past the tine Of the singing of
birds is come, and the voice Of the turtle
is heard in her land. Peace, plenty and
prosperity again reign throughout the re-
gion Of cane and cotton. The slave is
free; and, better yet, the master is Free
Before the war, which incidentally result
ed In emancipating the blacks, the planter
lived in constant anxiety for the welfare
Of his bondmen. The man who owned a
thousand negroes had the heavy response
bility of feeding, clothing, and nursing
them. Every plantation was an asylum.
a nursery, and hospital. The master
was the slaves Providence, and thousands
of poor wretches are now lamcnting over
the fate that left them free to themselves
fres to work or starve. We write from
personal knowledge, and challenge anyone
who has enjoyed equal opportunities of
judging with ourselves to gainsay the fact,
that the great mass of negroes in the South
before the war which liberated them from
slavery, were infinitely happier than they
are now. Then there were no negro aims
houses; now there is one in every town.
Public charity has taken the place of in
dividual charity; and public laws will have
to enforce the labor that was formerly
procured by the personal authority of the
master. The change in Southern society,
great, radical and violent as it is, has al
ready proved immensely beneficial to the
whites, who, in fact, are more thoroughly
emancipated than the blacks. The plant
er is no longer compelled to pledge his
crops before they are sown, in order to
purchase supplies of bacon aud clothing
for his voracious army of dependent me-
groes. He now hires his hands by the
day, week. month or year. pays them of
at the end of the term, and is done with
them. The result is not only highly pro-
fitable to the planter in a pecuniary point
of view-it gives him feeling of inde-
pendence, of freedom from responsibility
which he never experienced under the old
regime of slavery. Therefore, while we
can never admit that objectionable sin
of slavery" We heartily rejoice over its
abolition for the sake of our white Ameri-
can brethren. The "peculiar institution
affords possibilities of great cruelty on the
part of the master, and so does the bond.
age of marriage. We have heard of heart
less masters beating their slaves to death,
although we have never seen a negro
whipped in all our sojourning in the South
while we almost daily read in the English
press of husbands maltreating and mur.
dering their wives. In either case these
acts of brutal inhumanity form the excep
tion, and not the rule And herein liel
the infamy Of " Uncle Toms Cabin" :
fiction of barbarism drawn from Mrs. Har
rict Beecher Stoves inner conscious
ness" In other words, tissue of lies
from beginning to end
The institution of slavery abolished, and
the hypocrites of the Exeter Hall schoo
can no longer tease and taunt the high
toned people of the South with the "un
pardonable SIM" A thousand millions o
dollars have been wrested from the whit
population of the South in freeing tn
slave property" imposed upon them b,
the slayetraders of Old England and New
England, to say nothing of as many mil
lions more spent in their late defensiv
war against the North. And yet the mos
jealous partisans of the South must fee
and confess all is for the best The whit
man is now free from all personal obliga
ton to support the black man. Free
employ in the cultivation of cotton, corn
sugar and rice, white, black or yellow Ia
borers. the South this current year wi
produce in cotton alone crop worth ESQ,
10000 And they will not only produc
it.but manufacture it-that is, enough fo
their own use--on the very spot where
grows. Instead of shipping the raw ma
terial to England, or to New York, in ez
change for manufactured goods, losin
one-half the value of their crops in freigt
and commissions, the Southern planter
have become manufacturers also. Cotto
and wollen mills are springing up every
where; and this wise policy, the fruit
bitter and bloody experience, will mal
the South within FIVE years the richest an
most independent country on earth. tt
new tide of prosperity has already set in
and New York wholesale merchants EXPIRE
sing astonishment at the magnanimity
southern traders who are now in. tb
city with their pockets full of rocks" pa
ing up old ante war debts, aud buyir
largely, for cash, supplies of goods for Il
coming season. When the Southel
States, under the conservative reacti'
now taking place, are restored to the
political rights in the Federal governmen
the great West will join them in the repe
of protective tariffs and, under the ne
era of free trade, the prosperity of bo
sections, West and South, will be unii
peded and unlimited. Specie payment al
direct taxation will be the popular watc
words of the Democratic party that W
bring them into power in 1872.