The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1872-09-12

shall give you figures and statistics in our
next. Cotton is still king.
FRANCIS B. FORSTER.
Carpet-Baggers - Results of
Their Rule.
Of course there is great deal of
loose talk about the reconstruction
and regeneration of the late Slave
and now Free States. Of course,
they are not to be restored to the
full flush of a new prosperity by Mr..
Henry Wilson's speeches to the
freedmen, or by any spangled TRADES
about the value of Liberty. The
prosperity of a State is determined
by statistics, and these frequently
are not dull reading. If you look
into the census report of 1870, and
find that since 1860 there has been
decline of one-fifth in the area
of improved lands in States under
the political control of carpet bag
gers and Freedmen mainly influenced
BY carpet>baggers; if you find in
the same States a decline of from
one third to two-thirds in the
valuation of farms-that is one fact.
Then if you find in States which
have been comparatively free from
the carpet baggers, say Kentucky,
Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas, Ten
nessee-States which were most
wasted by the war-if you find in
these hardly any decline-that is
another fact. Kentucky is an illus
tration. Her valuation of land has
advanced from 1921, 1905 to
S311,218, 916. South Carolina has
had government in which carpet
baggery has been the positive and
the old white element the negative
quantity; and lands there have fallen
IN value one-third since 1860. In
Kentucky, since that year, the i'm
proved land has run up in acres from
7,044,208 to 8,103,850; in South
Carolina there has been decline of
one third. South Carolina has
been governed mainly by the politi.
cal agents of the Grant Administra>
ton; Kentucky has governed her.
self in the old-fashioned way. Ken
t0cky blooms like q garden-South
Carolina promises, unless there is
great change there, to lapse into a
desert. This proves, if it proves
anything, that meddlesome inter
ference with the social affairs of a
State may be utterly ruinous; that
guardianship like that which the
General Government has extended
to its wards is as bad as are leading
strings for a boy of ten years; and
that if you run States in the interests
Of a party, you will soon run them
to discouraging decay.
The facts all point one way.
Consider Tennessee for instance
That State, in 1868, through coali-
ton Ct Liberal Republicans and
Democrats, thoroughly freed itself
from carpet>bag domination. What
is the result ? At once there is an
increase in the area of improved
lands-an increase which has been
making progress ever since. Com
pare this with Georgia, where, during
the same period, the area of inn
proved land has steadily diminished.
1t was 100000 acres in 186O-it
was 100000 in 1870. Such is
the result of Bullockism, which, we
take it, is the full flower of Baggery.
So in Missouri, where they have had
universal amnesty and Gratz
Brown, the improved acres ran up in
ten years from Sc, 246,871 to
$3.50, 615. Put this against Ala,
bama, where the area of cultivation
has been reduced by one-fifth
, Land goes up in value in Missouri
! in the ten years from $3.50, 632, 126
to 1892, 908, 047- it goes down in
, Alabama from $175,O0O,O0O to
, SCI, 100000 in the same time
Consider two other States in the
matter of taxation In Arkansas,
utterly given up to the carpet-bag'
, gers, taxes are AS greater than in
} 1860, against a decline in land val,
! ues Of one-half. So in Louisiana,
! the State and local debts in 1860
amounted to only $11, 100000, and
= in 1870 they bad It ached the fright
E aggregate of S67, 900, 900, with take:
r doubled and the area of cultivated
: land diminished by one-fifth; while
. land values had run down from
' $204, 900, 900 in 1860 to sos, O00,,
, 600 in 1870!
Here are the results of Gran
J pacifcation and Grant manage
ment! They can prove nothing ex
cept that the interests of labor have
5 been grossly mismanaged in those
States in which the old White popu'
lation has been crushed out of al
!. energy and usefulness by horde
) of harpies which has used the Blacl
/ race for its own purposes-whict
r doesn't want it industrious, intelli
gent, and educated, because it car
: 3 make more money out of it while
o it remains, INDECENT, stupid, anC
: lazy. This is the state of things
|. which it is proposed indefinitely t.
}, perpetuate by giving the presen
e Administration another four years
T lease of power. We fully agree
' with the Chicago Tribune when i
d says that the freedmen need thu
best and not the blackeet Govern.
: ment. At any rate, carpet-bas
+ ging is not for their moral any
more than for their material good
e A man is not like chicken. Th,