New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-12-26

>lnd in general While we have no crei
respect for the motive which dictates tn
wholesale prescription Of the colored Poop
n the cotton States, we are very glad that
southern journal so fercely orthodox in i
hatred OF Northern laborers should have I'll
courage to tell the white people Of the Sout
that they had better go to work in the FIELD
| themselves. This advice is fortified wit
| numerous illustrations drawn from the expt
| renee of industrious white men who hav
been engaged in plcughing, hoeing, and picf
ing cotton, which go to show that they ca
endure the fatiguing labor in the hot SUI
rather better than the NEGROES can, and tha
IN the course Of year they can do abou
| twice as much work. Now, all of this ma
| be true, but it is very singular that such doc
| trne should be found in the columns of tn
| Memphis appeal. 1t is not to refutc them
| but to call attention to the Slaring inconsis
| tency Of those who make such assertions tia
we make these comments.
For more than twenty years the Memphis
appeal labored with zeal, and sometime!
with ability, TO convince mankind that cottor
could moi be produced by white labor.
was conspicuous champion Of the theory
that the systems of labor which obtained il
the North and the South were determined
by isothermal lines, on the one side Of which
negro labor was Improbable, and on the
other white labor impossible. The Creator
was held responsible by theologians and
politicians for the institution of slavery be-
cause He established these climatic bounda-
ries and adapted the several races of men to
them. The cultivation Of cotton was sup
posed to be one Of the grand essential pur-
suits Of the age, without which the civilized
world would relapse into q state of semi
barbarism. 1t was assumed that the African
was the only laborer that could endure the
Southern sun, and that it was only as slave
that he could be made profitable field-hand.
These three propositions taken together were
considered by the champions Of the "pecu-
liar institution" as conclusive First, that
the world must have cotton; second, that it
could only be cultivated by African laborers;
and third, those laborers must be slaves.
When the Colonizationists said, "Let white
men till the fields" they were told that white
men would die if they should expose them
selves to the vertical rays Of the Southern
sun: when the Abolitionists said, LET the
Africans hoe and pick the cotton as freemen,"
they were assured that it was only as slaves
that they could be made to work This con-
viction was ingrained into the very frame
work of Southern society. The assumed in
capacity Of the white man to work in Southern
ATTITUDES was supposed to excuse every out
rage and to Justify every invasion of the nat
ural rights of man incident to the condition
of servitude. So firm and conscientious were
the Southern people in this belief that they
withdrew from the Union when they mag.
ined that there was something in the drift of
Northern sentiment that threatened to de-
stroy the relation of master and slave and to
subject white men to the necessity of toll
ing in the fields. They precipitatod a war
in which they knew that hundreds Of thous
ands of their young men would be slain, and
invoked the Judgment of God and man upon
the justice of their cause, to wit: the preser-
walton Of that institution which secured the
cultivation of the cotton-felds Of the South
by negro slaves, and secured white men from
the perilous labor (as they declarcd.) And
now, after the war is over and the costly
sacrifice has been made, the Memphis Ap-
peal makes this declaration:
"Cotton can be raised as readily by white
as black labor. The champions Of the ne
gro, those who appeal to his passions and
prejudices for the purpose of securing his
vote, are continually asserting that the eli
mate of the South is unsuted to white labor,
and only negroes can raise cotton This is
a mistake, for if there was not negro in the
South, in three years. time there would be
double the amount of cotton raised, because
the stream of immigration, now damned up
by the presence of the negro, would flow
over the South, until the whole country would
be filled up by thrifty, educated white people.
1t Is great absurdity to suppose that none
but negroes can grow cotton. The large plan
ed in the rich lands # The rivers, but the
great mass Of the white population is settled
on the rich lands i'll the interior AS the
South has but few manufactures, Or other
employment, nearly all are engaged in agri-
culture, and in the more Southern States In
cotton cultivation.
''The quantity of cotton raised by eXclu-
sive white labor has been immensely greater
than has heretofore been estimated In
every part of the South, as soon as you leave
the limits of the great plantations during the
season of cultivation we find not only white
men, but women and children, boys and girls,
laboring at all hours in the fields, without
regard to the pretended climatic and mis-
matte, influences which are so enormously
imagined to be detrimental to white labor.
These people are uniformly the most robust,
vigorous and healthy of the population. In
the vicinity of New Orleans. all the market
CARDS arc worked through the hottest days
women. All the canal digging, levying,
Itching, railroad building, is done by Irish
and German laborers. The great lumber
trade, carried on with the greatest activity
in the summer, and requiring great physical
vigor and endurance, is also conducted by
white laborers.
''For many years the cotton shipped in
such large quantities from the Attakapas
region, which is half q degree nearer the
tropics than New Orleans, was the product
of as hearty, vigorous and prolific white
race as the world can show. During the late
war, when, owing to the Reorganization of
the laborers, the owners were unable to raise
cotton sufficient to pay their expenses, the
proprietors of ten and twenty acres would
produce by the labor of themselves, their
wives and children, three, six, eight and ten
bales, as we'll as the necessary articles for
their subsistence, and thus clear very hand
some profits. 1t is believed that cotton can
be more successfully and profitably cultivated
in small farms than under the old plantation
system. The cotton which is thus cult
waited, picked, and ginned, in smaller quanti-
ties and by intelligent and vigilant whites,
always commands better prices in market on
account of its cleaner condition and superior
quality. "-BoH. american.
Aga AnccdOtc OF Vice President
CoN;lx.