The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-06-23
WISDOM FOR THE SOUTH.
COMMODORE MAURY'S GREAT LET
TER.
what He Thinks offhe Condition md
Future of the South.
How 60 Promote Immigratfon-Di-
rect Trade-The value Of Each
Immigrant TO the Country. 2

rect Trade-The Value of Each
Immigrant 10 the Country.
OFFICE PHYs'L SURVEY, V. NJ. L.
LEXINGTON, VA, June l, 1871. {
To the Farmers of Tennessee:
Since the war your husbandry hai
not been as good as it was before
Many of your farms are deteriorat
ing labor in your State is not nj.
ways reliable, and there is no sale
for your lands. In the aggregate
' ou own more acres than you can
cultivate. Out of the 29,000,000 in
The plat, you cultivate less than T.
100000. Your income has diminish
cd and your taxes and excise duties
have been hugely increased.
The war ended six years ago, and
you have waited till now, hoping
against hope, for better time. How
long will you wait? Six years
more! DutapIoGs ySu hestir your-
selves more than you have done +; UNI
less you will act in concert and learn
to pull together, you will be no bet
Ier on lllln you art uOW' -.-..
To my view, there is no recupera-
ton for the South in our day and
generation, unless it comes by means
of an immigration, that shall bring
abundantly into the country both Ia
Dor and capital 1t will cost to do
that; but cost what it may, even if
YOU have TO divide lands with the
immigrant, it viii, in the end, be well
worth the cost.
| am pleased to hear that the peo-
pie III your State are feeling anxious
upon this subject that they are discus
ing among themselves plans for i'm
migration and direct trade, and are
thinking of fcalling upon the State 10
assist and encourage with ncedful
means and legislation.
That you may properly appreciate
the advantages of immigration, fol-
low up the stranger that comes from
abroad and settles among lis, and see
what he, with his means and his huS-
bandry, does to benefit his neighbor-
hood-and 10 increase the wealth and
population both of county and State.
In the first place, the best political
economists of the North have, after
careful observation and study, come
TO the conclusion that every Euro
pcan man. woman and child that
comes from his own home and settles
in the West adds, by the mere force
OF his industrial energies, one thou
sand dollars on the average TO the
wealth of the country. This is indc-
pendent OF the money and means
that he brings with him.
Let us see what he does with these.
For this purpose we will suppose
him 10 settle in our neighborhood
and upon your own land, if you
please. We win suppose him to
have wife and three children, to be
sober, saving and industrious, and
well up to his business. He comes
impressed with the notion common
in his country that a farm of forty
acres is as much as a family of five
can manage, and you must let him
have it on terms TO suit. Being a fru-
gal man, he has brought with him
some money and little credit per-
haps. lie buys of you a farm of for
ty acres, oit, tbiF1 S2---, filc lz,s..---a
in one, two and three years. After
the first payment he wants
to buy with the balance something OF
pretty nearly everything that YOU
and your neighbors have in your
barns, stables and poultry yards to
sell. lie wants live stock, and farm
ing implements, provender for his
cattle and food for his family. He
wants household furniture and kitch-
cn utensils, fruit trees and seeds ofall
sorts, and when he comes to foot up
his bill, and to show you what he
has spent in your neighborhood and
paid in mOney-or in work, the equiv
alent Of money-during his first year
among you, you will find that it does
not amount to one cent less, on the
average, than $500 for each member
of his family.
Now this, you observe, is the most
profitable commerce that farmers can
have. 1t affords them a market for
many things which, but for the new
conner would be unsaleable. In this
commerce you have no commission
to pay, no charge 10 meet on account
of freight, storage, drayage. or any
of the multitudinOus Ct ceterdS that
eat up your substance. There are no
middle men concerned in this buSi-
ness; it is the most direct and profit
able trade that is possible to have.
The consumer brings with him his
money and his market from abroad
and sets them down at your door, and
its all your own.
This Is the commerce that makes
the West soprosperous in spite of the
depressed state ofnavigation and for
eign commerce Of the country.
] estimate this foreign commerce
this commerce which the immigrants
bring with them from abroad and
carry into the Northwest, the section
above you-tO be worth annually
something like $4,000, and to be far
more remunerative than the heaviest
cotton crop of the South with its
S325,000,0O0 in the gross, because it
leaves as profits in the hands of far
mers all those high charges which
cotton has to pay for production,
freights, brokerage, insurance and
commission.
For the last five years all the South
crn States have felt and confessed
the need of immigration, and all Of
them to the east of the Mississippi
have lcgislated with the view of en-
couraging ii, but so far without
success. speak of European immi-
grafton. So far as your State is con-
cerncd, she has yet TO receive, except
by driblcts, the first ship load. What
have they got? Let us see, We
know that of European emigrants
few or none come to us direct. They
land chiefly in New York, and these
are the numbers that disembarked
there for the South for the two years
of 1868 agd 1869:
1858. 1862.
TenueSSee....'.. '...'.''' ''.'.'''''pI3 I'D
Nirginia..........-... ....fJl ~
North Carolina. III
South Carolina...............~ rs
Georgia .....,.................,.....l2I III
FIOrlda...... ....-.,............... p. u 40
Alabama. .........-........."lIi lOi
81 gS
The table is instructive, because it
shows how futile have been all the at
tempts made by the South since the
war to encourage immigration, and
how useless it is for us TO 60 on so.
There is in the mind of the emigra-
ting classes abroad prejudice
against Tennessee, and in fact against
the whole South, which nothing but
the most maleyolent falsehood could
beges; and though the well-tO-dO