Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1871-07-01
WISDOM FOR THE SOUTH.
COMMODORE MAURY'S GREAT LIT
TER,
what He Thinks OTthc Condition and
Future Of the South.
How 10 Promote ImmigratiOn-DI
rect TrRde-The Value Of Each
Immigrant 20 the COuRtry.
OFFICE PIYs'L SURVEY, V.M.I.l
LEXINGTON, Va, Junol, 1871. (


To the Farmers Of Tennessee:
Since the war your husbandry has
not been as good as it was before.
Many of your farms are deteriorat-
ing; labor in your State Is not al
ways reliable, and there is no sale
for your lands. In the aggregate,
YOU own more acres than you can
cultivate. Out of the 100000 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? But unless you bestir your
selves more than you have done un-
less you will act in concert and learn
to pull together, you will be no bet
ter off than you are now.
TO my view, there is no rcCupera-
ton for the South in our day and
generation, unless il comes by means
of an immigration, that shall bring
abundantly into the country both la
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 will, in the end, be well
worth the cost.
am pleased to hear that the peo-
pie in your State are feeling anxious
upon this subject that they arc discus
ing among themselves plans for i'm
migration and direct trade, and are
thinking of calling upon the State to
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 us, and see
what he, with his means and his hus-
bandry, docs to benefit his neighbor-
hood and to 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
pean man. woman and child that
comes from his own home and settles
in the West adds, by the mere force
of his industrial energies, ono 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 to settle in our nCighbOrhood
and upon your own land, if you
please. We will suppose him to
have a wife and three children, to be
sober, saving and industrious, and
well up to his business. lie comes
impressed with the notion common
in his country that 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 fIu-
gal man, he has brought with him
some money and little credit, per-
haps. lie buys Of you farm of for
ty acres, one third cash, the balance
in one, two and three years. After
making 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 docs
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 market for
many things which, but for the new
conner would be unsaleablc. In this
commerce you have no commission
to pay, no charge TO meet on account
of freight, storage, drayage, or any
of the multitudinous ct CeteraS that
cat 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 so prosperous in spite of the
depressed state of navigation and for.
cign commerce of the country.
/ estimate this foreign commerce
this commerce which the immigrant,
bring with them from abroad and
carry into the Northwest, the section
above you-to be worth annually
something like $l50,0O0, and to be fal
more remunerativc than the heaviest
cotton crop of the South with iti
1926, 100000 in the gross, because il
leaves as profits in tho hands of far
mers all those high charges which
cotton has to pay for production
freights, brokerage, insurance an(
commission.
For the last five years all the South
ern States have felt and confessed
the need of immigration, and all o
them to the east of the Mississippi
have legislated with the view Of en-
couraging it, but so far withou
success. Ispeak of European immi
grafton. So far as your State is con
cerned, she has yet to receive, cxcep
by driblets, the first ship load. Wha
have they got? Let us sec. w
know that of European omigrant
few or none come to us direct. The,
land chiefly in New York, and thcs
are the numbers that disembarket
there for the South for the two year
of 1868 and 1869:
1868. 1869.
Tennessee. ."",,,,.,", .,'..'0U 9O
Nirglniau.,,,,..,.,, ,,,..".,(3l Iu
North Carolina. III
South Carolina..........""lS lag
Georgia ",.",..."",",",'r".lZl III
EIOr1dn. n..".,....'".,,.".,,,',,' ~ ~
Alabama, ..,.,,,., ,',,,",."b","llt lUt