The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-01-23
VOLUME VIII.---NO. 20.

agement of European immigration" That act
provided for a Commissioner of immigration,
at salary of 81 800 per annum, and appropri-
ated the sum of 10000 to carry out its objects.
The same Legislature had previously, on the
21st of December, 1865, granted charter to
the "South Carolina Land and Emigration
Company, formed for the purpose of encour-
aging the immigration of free achite labor to
this State"
The plans proposed in both those acts were
essentially the same and fatally unwise, both in
their inception and execution.
They were designed practically to incite and
foster the importation of European laborers for
hire on the plantations in the State, with the
view ungenerously to supplant the colored ag
abundantly supplied, and who were able, and
willing, and eager to perform fair days work
for q fair days wages.
However desirable European immigration
may be to our State, those plans failed, as they
ought to have failed, and every humanitarian
in our State should have been delighted at
their failure.
Under the operation of the act first cited,
limited number of immigrants arrived at
Charleston, in the year 1867. Pursuant to the
7th section of that act, they were, on arrival,
duly registered at the office of the Commission
er of Immigration, and were classified as arti-
zans, mechanics farm laborers, house SER
wants, &c.
They were nearly all, if not entirely, from
Germany, land that furnishes our country
with large fraction of its most intelligent and
enterprising adopted citizens.
Many of them were speedily employed by
planters in the interior at what should be re-
garded as moderate rate of wages, or about
Sl2 month and found" in provisions.
On arriving at their new homes they found
themselves utterly unfamiliar with the customs
and the language of our people.
Their wonder was much heightened when the
usual plantation ration was issued to them,
consisting of bacon, corn meal, salt and mo-
lasses.
Their astonishment at being expected to be
satisfied with such food equaled that of the
planters who wondered at their repugnance to
such staple articles of plantation diet.
The natural result was mutual dissatisfac-
ton, and the return of the European farm
laborers to Charleston, where they were hu-
namely provided for by their countrymen.
The vast tide of immigration which annual
ly pours into the United States leaves scarcely
ripple of its mighty stream upon our shores.
During the year ending June 80, 1871, there
tries, three hundred and twenty-one thousand
three hundred and fifty immigrants, of whom
but twenty-nine entered this State, viz: one
from Ireland, three from England, and twenty
five from Germany. The immense living wave
in great part rolled on westward.
Yet there is no State in the Union that offers
greater natural attractions to the agricultural
immigrant than ours.
Situated between the 35th and 32nd parallels
of north latitude, and between the 18th and
S2nd merdians of longitude west from Green
wich, it lies along the isortherma belt or line
of equal temperature deemed tie most favora-
BILE for the lengthenng of human life. 1t is
adjacent to the same parallel of latitude with
Southern France, Italy and Spain, and has all
the advantages of climate which they possess.
The fruits of the tropic and temperate zones,
and all the cereals known to commerce, find
here congenial cline, while the yellow pine,
cedar, the red and white oak the hickory and
the walnut are among our forest trees.
Our soil will compare favoraby with that of
as regular, and they are so tempered that me-
chanical and agricultural labors may be prose-
cuted throughout the entire year.
Our climate, too, exceeds in healthfulness
that of many of the northern tier of States.-
In proof of this, [ refer to the fact shown in
the mortality tables of the eighth census of the
United States for the decade ending June 1St
1S60-that the number of deaths in Massachu-
sets was one in fifty-seyen, while in South
Carolina the rate was one in seventy-one, the
per centage in the former State having been
l.76, and in this 1.41.
We have, in round numbers, fourteen mill
lions of acres of arabic land and less than one
third of this in cultivation; the total quantity
of lands in this State in improved farms being
about four millions of acres, two-thirds of the
arabic land lying fallow.
Our taxes have never been nor are they now,
exorbitant.
Taxation in the State for the past four years
has not averaged even nine mills on the dollar
for State and county purposes, and the taxes
tor the present year, amounting, for all pur
poses in the State and county, to fifteen mills
on the dollar, are actually far below that figure,
in view of the great differentiation of proper
ty of all classes, not in the assessment in all
cases, but in the estimate OH which the rate of
taxation is based
For instance, the average price of farming
lands is about six dollars per acre, while the
same lands are valued for taxation at only one
dollar and fifty cents per acre.
We have also adopted the admirable New
England system of free schools, literally en-
dowed with ample appropriations which hence
forth will not fail of application to their vital
and sacred object In addition to all these
manifest advantages of soil and climate, there
are several railroads trayersing large section
of the State, connecting with lines running
North, making markets of easy access, anu we
have a liberal homestead law, which exempts
fifteen hundred dollars worth of real and per-
sonal property from execution and sale for debt,
and imprisonment for debt has been abolished.
In view, therefore, of the pressing impor-
tance of inviting immigration to our State, and
to the end that it may be fostered and encour-
aged, recommend the enactpent of law
providing that all persons who immigrate to
this State prior to the first day of March 1875,
and engage in the cultivation of the soil, shall
receive from the State Treasury bonus in
nni,al in To tho 81 oft and county,