Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-12-20
AnOsble aalsskp GbrOnit a0leOnssOap December 81, 1871
The Reason Why.

Mr.. EDITOR: In your issue of yester-
terday you publish letter, postmarked
"Mount Holly, n. j., the writer of which
is somewhat perplexed by a remark which
you made in an editorial, To the effect that
"a cry heavy and alarming per cent of
our own people are leaving annually"
The subject which you were celebrating
was that of immigration. The writer, in
question, in view of this statement of
yours very earnestly inquiries, "are we of
other States wise in emigrating, to locate
in section whose people are abandoning
il in no inconsiderable numberY'
Now, am somewhat astonished at the
position taken by your intelligent cores
pondent. He unwisely concludes that be-
cause "a very heavy and alarming per
cent of our own people are leaving annu-
ally,n that, therefore, there must be some-
thing radically wrong with the country.
Let me assure him that that is not the
case. If so, the principle would apply
even to the great West itself. Three years
of my life were spent in Missouri, since
the war, the best agricultural State, per-
haps, in the Union, and there found
much heavier per cent. pulling up
stakes" and emigrating further West than
in Tennessee. The exodus was prodigious.
Did they leave because the country was
wrong in some particular? We tell your
correspondent no. They left in obedience
20 u law that has existed for centuries-a
law as old as Adam himself, "Go forth,
occupy and subdue the EARTH" The pro-
visions of Providence. in this respect, are
exceedingly wise. 1t opens up, the
way to progress, digs down the hills.
fills up the valleys and drives on
ward the car of improvement and develop
ment. If Missourians left their State it
was because they thought they could bet.
ter their condition in some way, but at the
same time, they were the willing subjects
of that great law already indicated. Take
the State of New Jersey, in which your
correspondent lives. Why does he and
others want to leave section confessedly
inferior to none? Numbers of his own
people are emigrating and coming West.
We have no inconsiderable sprinkle of
them in East Tennessee. and what is graft
flying, they are doing well and are content
ed. Why are they leaving New Jersey ?
l might right here put the same ques-
ton to him that he propounds to you,
fare we of other States wise in emigrat-
ing to locate in New Jersey whose people
are thus abandoning it in no inconsider-
able number ?n What does your cores
pondent say to this? / can very readily
perceive why they leave New Jersey, and
other States in the East. 1t is not because
those States are not desirable, for they are
the best and most prosperous of any on
this continent, but because they think
they can do better somewhere else. That
is the whole of If our own people are
leaving in great numbers, it is no more
than what is being done in Ohio, Illinois,
Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and the New Eng
land States. The American people are
restless, and so long as there is a region in
the West to occupy, about which
they have so many glowing accounts they
will go there, and it is right they should.
That vast country must be occupied, its
plains covered with farm houses and its
wealth unfolded. Happily there is always
a class in all the States of the Union ready
to migrate in that direction. Let them go.
Their places viii be filled with others more
sagaciOus, enterprising and provident. In
SO far as Tennessee is concerned, she is
losing nothing in the loss of the "heavy
per cent" of her people who are leaving
She will gain by it. OCCASIONAL.