The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-01-22
The south--Its Present and Us
Future
No. /.


bright and happy picture OF oar future
than a sad and gloomy one. But truth
deals with facts and | think 1t wise, 70
look at coming danger and trouble, and
if possible, provide against them, than
to fold our arms in fancied security and
patiently and listlessly await the day OF
doom.
In my opinion, history gives no ac-
count of any civilized people, as poor as
those of the South now are, with so little
prospect of improvement in the future.
In this utilitarian and commercial age OF
the world, national power and prosperity
and happiness, consists in national
wealth. Money, lby money, | refer to
the means of attaining that happiness
which ETHEREAL writers lay down as the
incentive 10 all human action and exer-
tom, is now the great end and object OF
human desire Money is acquired by
the development OF the national resources
of which people and n country are ca
pable-either for their own use and con-
sumption-or for exchanging them for
those products of other lands and peo-
| pie. with which nature was not gifted
with the power of producing.
Of all the people of the world, ii will
hardly be denied that the people Of Great
| Britain possess the most ample means of
obtaining whatever they regard as essen
tial to their happiness, and that, not by
sending off the precious metals which, for
the conveniences of commerce, are re-
cognized as the standards of value, but
| by simply exchanging the products of her
own resources and industry for those
! things, which nature denies to all her en-
ergies and efforts. The British Isles
can't grow tea and coffee, but still their
people enjoy them TO the full extent of
the pleasure they afford, by exchanging
something for them. Although their
humid atmosphere denies to them the
production OF the luxurious and costly
wines of the Continent, still they drink
them in their perfection and, so with
every commercial article known to the
world that is necessary for mans physi-
cal happiness and well-being. Tried by
/ this standard, how meagre are the means
and resources, ayailed Of by the southern
people, for the enhancement of their
prosperity and happiness.
There are but few portions Of the
| globe to whiclrnature has been so bounti-
/ full, in bestowing all the resources and ell
ements of greatness and prosperity, com
| pared with the Southern States. Their
soil is- of the greatest fertility. Their
! large and navigable rivers are adapted to
all the conveniences of commerce, in en-
| abliug them to reach the markets Of the
world. Their forests abound with the
! finest timber, necessary for all the pur-
poses Of human pursuits. Their mineral
resources ere unequalled on the CONT
nent-with iron equal to that of Scandi-
navia, lying in juxtaposition with coal.
Between their Northern and Southern ex-
| uemes they possess a climate adapted to
the growth of almost every vegetable pro-
| duct necessary to human want, with the ex-
ception of those Of the tropics. And
yet, where is there a people so thankless
to nature for her gifts-so stationary in
progress-so inert in movements little
disposed to profit by that, which is the Sc
cret Of industrial progress and power in
other lands, viz: the Investigation of
labor? In industrial enterprise, CONNER
cial progress and permanent wealth, there
are the Southern States, just where they
were fifty years ago.
For a long time it has been a sort of
shameless boast Of the Southern people,
that they were an agricultural people
that 50 nature designed them to be-and
that they aspirel 10 nothing more. If the
boast had b,,n lie it would not have
been to thei- CT it but it is not, and
never was. u No people, with half
their mature &c ntages and resources,
| ever knew less ii agricultural science and
| improvement, or made it contribute so
/ little to their permanent wealth and pow
er as a people. They have worshipped
no other mammon, they have served 10
other king, but cotton. And never was
/ king so intolerant and exactiue. The
| worship of no other deity has been tole-
rated in the Southern Pantheon. with the
exception Of few localities, where to-
/ bacco, rice, hemp and sugar are allowed
| by special favor, and to a limited extent,
| the everlasting keynote Of Southern Ia
| Dor and Of Southern hope, is COTToN
| COTTON Who would believe it, if he
| did not see it, that the Southern people
| Will persist IN paying millions, every year,
/ for corn, when they have one of the finest
regions on earth for the production OF
| corn 1t would astlund the Southern
farmers, If they could have a tabular
| statement Of the immense sums paid for
hay, whilst every farmer in the South
could raise his own hay, if he would but
| try. Look at the immense amount paid
in tribute to the Northwest for meat and
flour, whilst the South is as favorably
adapted to hog raising as Ohio, Illinois,
Missouri, or Indiana, and when it is well
known that Southern grown wheat is
heavier and possesses more of nutriment
than that of the Northwest.
What Southern man raises mule, ex-
eept as matter of amusement, although
experience has proved the practicability
| OF raising our own mules, if we would
forget that anything else would command
money but cotton? Why, the money
paid by the South for potatoes and onions
would surprise one, who has been in the
habit of regarding these as Insignificant
items. Easy as it is, and pleasant occu-
patton as it is, in rural life, the North
est actually supplies us with poultry and
eggs. Look at the millions paid for ag-
ricultural implements, which the South
ern people should make at home. But
all this Is not half the drain, constantly
kept up, upon the South, for almost every
article Of manufacture. Look, again, at
the millions of money annually taken
from the South, to pay for life insurance,
fire insurance, &c. The South not only
will not grow anything but cotton, but it
will persist, by this course, in keeping
cotton down to price barely sufficient
to defray the expense of growing it.
The laws of suDDlv and demand ,,Ioipl,,
prove, that if the Southern people would