Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1872-04-12
From the New York Nation, (Republican.)
THE STATE or THE SOUTH,

The indolent excuse for our failure to
understand the condition of the South IS
that nobody can very accurately cOmpre-
bend it who has not been there to see for
himself. With regard to troubles Of
social character, this excuse is valid; but
there are some plain statistical facts re-
Gently brought to light and published
which it is our duty to recognize and con-
front. We must acknowledge that the
condition of the South, from almost every
point of view, is extremely wretched. The
property of the eleven States in 1860, ex-
clu6ive of slaves, was valued at S2,T2S,-
85SD06. At the end of the war their in
creased liabilities and loss, exclusive of
slaves, was valued at S1,272,9 900, 800,
nearly One-haf the assessed value of their
property at the beginning of the war.
| This, however, was only the State loss
Secretary Belknap fixes the rebel debt, on
the 1st of April, 1865, at $2,345, POI, 1923.
! This estimate would make the total loss
I of the rebelliouS States by the war 5,262,-
| 303, 554 This sum, it will be seen, is
| about twice the assessed value of all
| Southern property in 1860, exclusive of
slaves. Five-eighths of Southern property
| is gone, and the taxes upon the remainder
| are four times that upon the original
| property before the war. How much of
! country is expended upon public improve
ments, it is difficult to tell but it is likely
that most of it, and certain that much Of
it, goes to feed the vulgar and rapacious
| rOgues who rob and rule a people helpless
| and utterly exhausted.
I With the exception Of Virginia and Ten
neSsee, the de0ts OF all the States have been
! increased since the end of the war. The
! near neighbOrhOOd Of those communities
! to the Ohio may have had some influence
! in driving rOgueS further South. The real
/ reason, however, is the comparative few
ness of the negroes. The debt of Alabama
| in 1866 was So, 100000; under the rule of
| the enlightened and disintercSted ecOnO-
miStS who have undertaken to repair her
/ finances, that debt has been increased to
$24 100000. In North Carolina the new
| government was established in 1868. Iii
| 1860, the State debt was $14,O00,OO ; in
1865, $20,OOO,OO0; i'll 1868, S24,000000
and in 1871, $34,O00,00O. Thus the in
crease of debt since the war has been more
| than twice the increase during the war,
which looks as if war were cheaper and
more prosperous condition than peace. At
any rate, reconstruction seems to be NOR
! ally more disastrous process than rebel
! lion. Guile is the strength Of the weak,
and the carpet-baggerS have taught the
Southern people to meet rOgues with trick
cry. The Ku-Klux Committee, comment
ing upon their dreadful poverty at the close
OF the war, says that manifestly they must
have at once succumbed under their loss
of $5,O0O,O 100000 had it not been tor the
benefactions of the North. 1t states that
the Freedmen's Bureau has spent So, 0OO,-
600 upon Southern sufferers of both colors.
This does not seem a considerable sum
when We think that the increased debt
since the war in North Carolina has been
$14,O00,00O. Certainly, our charities have
done less good than our carpet-baggcrs
have done damage. The theory, of course,
is that something remains from the cnOr-
nous sums raised by taxation, that they
have been expended upon needed public
! improvements.
In North Carolina, it was alleged, the
large subsidies given to railroads would
encourage immigration. There has been
no immigration, however the bonds have
been sold at a disadvantage some Of the
money has been stolen, and a few of the
rogues have been indicted. 1t is impossi-
bic to say how much of the sums raised re-
main to the States. The carpct-baggers
have had it pretty much their own way
If they chose to rob, there was nothing to
/, prevent them. Give men a chance to be
tyrants or scamps, and there is no fear that
| some will not be found who will avail them
selves of it. Here in New York, where we
have all the rascals and all the plunderers
within radius of five miles, we know how
| long we have been in bringing the Ring to
bay. The carpet-baggerS have all immense
extent Of country to rifle they do not buy
the Legislatures, they constitute them
| they enact their own registration acts
and vote their own supplies. The persons
| they rob are not Of that apathetic and well
to do class too indifferent to 90 to the polls,
but people who could not go if they would
All accounts agree as to the widespread
misery and penury. In Mississippi, large
planter testified that it took all his cotton
for the year 1871 to pay his taxes. 1t is
South Carolina, however, that enjoys the
unenviable reputation Of having been the
worst-robbed State Of the whole eleven.
In the single county of Kershaw, possess
ing population of only II 600, there were
$500 taX-eXe cutiOns issued. The taxation
during 1870, $2,365,047, was more than
the whole taxation on double the property
for five years before the war. In order to
change the fiscal, they proposed to double
this, and, in 1871, to levy a tax Of $4,730,-
O94; whether this law was executed we do
not know, but the fact remains that it was
enacted. PeCulatiOn and corruption are as
universal as poverty and distress. In 1860,
South Carolina paid for offices and salaries,
$123, 800; in 1871, the State expended on
y
have been paid out for which no vouchers
can be found in the Treasury. According
to the minority report Of the ku-klux
Committee, the disbursements exceed the
appropriations by S17O,683.
This report, though spoiled by some
rather low illusions to ''ebony legislators -
''men and brothers, &C., brings to light
some amusing facts. Money voted, with
which to fit up committee rooms, has been
expended on private apartments of the col
ored members of the Legislatures. Their
rooms were furnished with Brussels car
pets, sofas, mirrors, &c. About seventy
five imported porcelain spittoons, bought
for the South Carolina State House, like
wise adorned their private apartments
This fact seemed to affect the Democratic
minority of the committee even more pro-
fOundly than the vast robberieS and eXces-
sive taXations. They remark with rugged
Spartan simplicity, that they themselves,
i'll "the splendid Capital of the Nation,
had never had anything but ''an article of
common, plain, brown earthenware, Of do
nIestic manufacture" This striking dis
parity between fortune and desert does not
excite in us any feeling of indignation
against the negroes. Emerging from a
long night of slavery and cruel bondage,
who can grudge them their fantastic lease
of liberty and luxury? Did not graver
considerations check us, our humor would
be to vote them State BARRIERS and the most
delightful of oriental baths. We suspect
the truth to be that i'll the distribution OF
spoils the poor African gets the gilt and
plush, the porcelain spittoons, the barbariC
upholstery, while the astuter Caucasian
ciings TO the solder and more durable adj