The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-01-11

NGAbJ VI IN AEp4U liG4h lGtlCCls l4G
goes to Texas with a fair purse and
credit, taking all the nervous American
character with him, and either breaks
OF becomes a scOurging sort of business
hero.
Third is the poor white class of the
South-the bone-weary and trouble
tried-WhO have worked for wages or
cultivated a barren patch of ground,
making half a dozen bales Of cotton a
year; and these by desperate effort sell
out, saying, with Prince Arthur
It is as good to die and 60 as die and stay.
Texas is very liberal to the immigrant,
for 1t is the sovereign proprietor Of all
Il year, raises garden vegetables all the
year round, has farmers who own 40
900 head Of stock, is building twelve
railroads, sells cattle for 81 a head
which sell at six cents a pound, and it
is cmphatically a poor mans land, Civ
ing the cheapest s%ustenance in the
world. To these classes ma he added
a restless movement of the boys, refu-
gees and people Worn out at the edges
of character who go to swell the we'll
known laWlesSneSs of the State. The
Governor, Davis, is Il kind of DR.. Fran
cia conner, who has governed with a
high hand, rcpressed lawlessness with
d terrible mounted police, and lost the
State for his party.
TIE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH.
The condition of the negro since his
emancipation has disappointed almost
every prophet who undertook to pre-
diet against him. He is a good deal OF
Il nuisance in the desire to talk politics
and intrude upon the company of tho
white politicians to whom he is u con.
%stituent, but he has made three million,
and a half bales of cotton. Who grew
that cotton? Who picked it? VIVA,
besides has the South produced for it.
selfin the past seven years? In the Sill
gar field also the negro is the sole re.
lance, and the present year will show
great increase over the last as the las
Overthe year which preceded it. In thu
slave period the annual yield of suga,
was between 100000 and 100000 hogs
heads. This fell directly after the wa,
to little above 10000 hOgsheads; buttht
staple is creeping up gradually, and thi
year it will have passed 100, 1000, accord
ing to some accounts. The rice field
also, which had been abandoned or near
ly so in the CarOlinaS, are again main
tanned in Louisiana and the South, ant
if there be a prevailing necessity 70
domestic rice, We may expect that til,
black mans labor may be again effect
i've upon this staple.
COTTON, SUGAR, RICE, TOBACCO.
Taking cotton, sugar and rice as ex
pOncnts of what the negro is willing t.
do in his free condition, we have NOR
reason to be aStOnishcd by his applica
ton than discouraged. The year is no
far off when 100000 bales Of cottol
and 100000 hOgsheads of sugar will b
the annual production of the SOuther1
States; but in money the cotton vii
represent $4OO, 0OO, 1000 and the suga
$4,000, 000-a royal income, indeed, flo
a section that has passed through sue
a revolution. When I passed throug
North Carolina, and the great tObacc
district around Danville, I inquire
whether they raised as much Tobacco
as in old times.
"More, I reckon. They don't work
in as big patches as they use to, bu
more people have undertaken it, an
although they / growing tobacco i
Connecticut and all over the North an,
West, we seem to be as busy here as
the old days"
When we come to a comparison {
gross productive power between the pe
Rod of slavery and that Of emancipf
ton, it may be said that North Carol
ma, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky an
Texas are inconceiyably better OF
Virginia depended for its create!
profits upon the
BREEDING OF SLAVES,
to be sold to the Gulf States, and {
course that sort of BUSINESSES complete
" obliterated. All along the Roanok
river, the StauntOn and the AppOmat
tOx, one looks upon n beautiful cOuntr,
which was nothing more than Il pastul
field for human live stock. If we II
fleet that the fell decree of emancipt
ton destroyed nearly five hundre
thousand articles of commerce, wort
upon the average $400 or $500 a heat
it also increased UNNECESSARILY the han
piness, security and family stability {
inst that many breathing and thinkin
things. No estimate of the South ca
be complete which does not include Il
enormously bettered and appreciate
condition of the negro. II a certai
number of mel point to the vast asse
a%nnihilated in slaves, an equal numb'
of men made citizens can thank &C
for the injury. The method, Obedien'
and industry which the slave syste
y demanded of the negro has been of III
t to him in his free condition, while II
b master, who has served no such a.
t premiership, finds himself, in the m;
jOrity of cases, the most helpless pc
son in his section, and the great end
his ambition is to get an office az
keep it.
, RECONSTRUCTION AND POLITICS.
Reconstruction has been q bungle
the South, but the great curse of sOcie
there has been politics. For this pa
/ sion many proud and vigorous men
[ the Confederate army have made shi
+ wreck of consistency and high-minde,
ness, and Joined the carpet baggers
, get some portion of the lOaves al
; fishes. There is a deep and gener
. feeling Of %sullenness that the negro h
I been given political rights, office, libe
t~yOfmeeting, nominating and meeting
leagues; butthe GovernorO GeOrgiasa
to me that there was no rational COZ
e although he was often put UP by viii
| politicians to give annoyance.
q "Some time ago. said Govern
q Smith, "when my house was full
company, my servants came in a bot
f before I had gotten out of bed and sd
: they were going to leave me right o
3 They a no reason and made no COZ
plant, but go they would. Now TIL
meant simply this-that some lO7
Y lived white people, opposed to me p
litically, had alarmed the credulity
5 those negroes, or demanded in t
!. name of their party loyalty that TIL
$ should give me that bottle
. Governor Smith intinlated that t
) secret political leagues Of the Sou
. had been the bane of both eolOrs sin
e the war. This is plain to any travel,
The loyal leagues melted the formati
n of the Kuklux, and now, when nobO