Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-08-12


the number had decreased i'm every State
| except Texas, and was but lbs, 459
Meanwhile the number in Delaware, Mary
land, and Missouri had increased from 470,,
600 to 100000. In 1860, the Is States had
| 2,974,053 mich cows; in 1870 the mum eel
had decreased in every one of these States
and was only 1,546,826, little more thar
one-half. In South Carolina the number
was only one-fourth as large as in 1850, ir
Tennessee less than olle-half, in Virginia
and Texas less than one-tenth. What ID
the meaning of loss of nine-tenths of al
the mich cows in State? Meanwhile the
number had largely increased in each Of
the border States. Space does not serve
for other comparisons; the aggregate value
of all live stock in the Is States In 1850 wa;
$433, 646 SS8 in gold, and in 1870 only
1856, 747,679 10 currency, loss in gold
value of nearly 30 per cent. With increas-
ing population, the supply of meat has de.
creased, for, scarcity having caused the
price of meats to be much higher in 1876
than in 1860, The entire value of slaughtered
animals vas still only 89,433, 139 in cur.
rency, sgainst value in 1860 of S93, BIC, 24s
in gold.
| DECREASE IN CROPS RAISED.
1t may be supposed that the decline ID
agriculture in these States is due only to
the diminished production of the few great
crops formerly raised mainly by slave labor
But Statistics show a general decrease il
| products. We find, comparing the crops
of 1860 and 1870, not only loss of 1000,
600 bales of cotton, but of 1900, 900 pounds
of wool; not only q less of 170,000,00(
pounds of tobacco, but oils 100000 pounds
of butter-one-fourth of the production in
lS60-and $4,000 pounds of cheese; not
only q loss of 167,000,000 pounds of sugar
and 100000 gallons of molasses, but of
100000 bushels of potatoes, nearly one.
| half of the crop of 1860 in those States; OF
only loss of lis, 100000 pounds of rice,
| but of $500 600 bushels of wheat, 50000C
bu shells of rye, 2l0,O0o,000 tons of hay, 3d.
900 tons of hemp, ard los, 100000 bushels
| of corn In view of q decrease in produc-
ton so general and SO startling, isit strange
that Southern farms depre ciate in value,
that half the wealth of these great agricul
tura. States has vanished, and that one-thir-
teentt of the entire population has already
| fed from region so blessed by nature and
so cursed By man?
CAUSES OF PROSTRATION.
It is plain that this prostrstion OF indus
try cannot be ascribed TO the waste and
destruction of war, for it has been greatest
in States where the injury inflicted ny war
was least. No r2vages of war explain the
loss of values, of live stock, aud of products
in South Carolina, Alabama, and other
States. Neither can it be ascribed to the
change in the system of labor alone, for in
the border States, and especially in Mis-
souri,, we find remarkable progress aDdp os-
perity instead Of decline and prostration.
In the border States, if cclored labor has
lost any of its efficiency, The loss has been
more than made up ny immigration, TWen-
ty.three per cent Of the popu' alton of Ma.
ryland, and q per cent of the population Of
Missouri is o; foreign birth. But some cause
has virtually excluded i'm aigra.ion from the
other Southern States. Louisiana, indeed,
has Is per cent, including some of French
and Spanish blood; but Texas has but Ii
per cent, Kentucky but IL, West Virginia
but 10, Florida but 5 per cent, and no other
State of the South has to this day per cent
or foreign-born population. The Southern
States are thus left largely dependent upon
cOlored labor, and while the number of col
ored persons has increased, so that, with
equal efficiency Of labor, much larger pro-
duction than that of 1860 might have been
expected, there has been Autonomous de-
cline in production and loss in values. The
cause must be sought, therefore, first in
those il fuenc5s which have diverted colored
people from productive industry, and second,
in sys;emsof local government and rates of
taxation by which not only capital and i'm
migration from without have been rep4lled,
bat the labor Cf the most industrious and
py,tprrlr isirtT no hoop Offair uard
These are the blessings which Republican
rule has conferred upon the Sou:b, and at
what fearful cost to the people of this sec
ton the extracts we have quoted will clear
ly show.
The writer then discusses the tendency
OF The negroes to drift into the cities and
towns, where they become simply consum-
ers and thus cripple the productive re-
sources of the pla3ters-in other words,
they become Idle aid thriftiess, while the
labor they have previously performed on
the plantations canno- be supplied, and
fields capable of repunerativa production
go untitled. The impossibility in most
cases Of separating the colored from the
white population in the returns for cities
and towns i'll 1860, prevent that thorough
comparison Of the population of towns
which alone could fully disclo;e change
motto d by every observer, and which
is telling fearfully not only upon the
Industry of the South, but upon the morals
Of The negro population. But the returns
nevertheless suffice for comparison as to ia
of the most important towns in the former
ly slave-holdiDg States, and in these towns
the colored population in 1860 was $780,
337, and in 1870 it was 471y305. 1t is not
enough to say that the increase in th;se
towns has been more than 100 per cent,
while the general increase of the c-lorei
has been barely 10 per cent.
For it appears thai during the last decade
nearly quarter of d million Of colored
persons, more than one-sixte enth of the en-
tire slave population OF 1850, had vanished
from the country when their labor was most
sor5ly needed, and drifted into these towns
entirely. If similar comparison were
possible for all towns in these States, how
large loss of agricultural labor would then
be disclosedf In the enumeration of the
above, fourteen towns from States not of the
thirteen under consideration, have been pur-
posely included Sn order to show thst this
tendency does not operate only in those |
States which the colored people may be |
10 hive sought the cities for pro-
lection. Ever since the war they have
been as safe in Missouri as in New York;
yet in the ten chief towns in Missouri the |
,olOred population hes increased from 5000
o 1884; in four towns in Maryland. from
81 ,46l to 44,1l1, and in Washington, Del,
rom 1882 to 3,2l1. Deducting these, we
nave for ninety nine towns in the thirteen
States Washington included) a colored
population of -19O,545 in 1860 and 3S4,609
n 1870. From some cause the increase is
much greater in Western than in Eastern
states. In Virginia, FIVE towns, The increase
-, l.oo., 60, on z a.. |