The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1874-01-07
TIE OPPRESSED SOUTH.

We cut the following paragraph
from the commercial article in one
of our leading exchanges:
"During the past eight years the !
South has raised and sent to market
100000 bales of cotton. Aver
aging the bales at 400 pounds, ard
putting the price as low as tic. a
pound for middlings, the value in
currency, of this stupendous guam,
tity of goods, amounts to 1885,.
100000, which is more than twice,
as much as the entire legal tender
and National Bank note circulation
of the Union and three-fourths sas
much as the whole National debit
What piquant statement is con-
tained in the paragraph We have
above copied. Within the spacesof
eight years, comprehending the
time which has elapsed since The
close of the late unfortunate war Of
sections, the South has sent TO
market 23,500,000 bales Of cotton,
for which the country has received
81, ,598,0G0 900. IF this immense
product Of the South had not been
raised and sent abroad and its ayails
returned into the. country, what
would have been the financial con-
dition of the North to-day /? Utterly
and hopelessly bankrupt The
South and her inestimable staple,J
have saved our country from what,
without such effective, aid, would
have been our inevitable ruin.
Without the 81, ,598,O00, 900 which
her cotton crop has brought into
the country the nation would have
been bankrupt, long ago. And yet,
from the time the South laid down;
her arms underthe promise that she
should be Immediately restored to
her equal rights in the Union, she.
has been the victim Of the most
cruel and relentless persecution, By
the dominant Republican party Of
the North, with its incompetent
head at Washington. She has been
overrun and impoverished by a.
horde of carpet baggers, who,
through the instrumentality Of the.
ignorant negro vote, haye seized
upon the governments of the States
Of the South, controlled their leg
islation, run them into debt beyond
their ability to pay, overwhelmed
them with taxation, and stolen and
put the proceeds of their iniquitous
acts into their own pockets. And
the administration has, by force of
arms, sustained these governments,
which have been established by
fraud against the will Of the people.
If we except the Poles, there is no
conquered people'in' modern times
who have been sooppressed by their
conquerors as the people Of the
South have been by the Republican
party. Parallels of such oppression
and outrage may be Furnished by
the civilization of two thousand
years ago. Then conquest was in
deed a terrible reality. Vac e1cts,
the cry Of the conqueror, was then
anote of awful warning in the ears
of the conquered party. 1t meant
oppression, robbery and outrage Of
all sorts. But. it would puzzle the
historian to point to an instance in
the annals of Greece or Rome
where q whole conquered people
were subjected to a more remorse.
less despotism than has been visited
upon the South by the Republican
party. It is no less than an attempt
to subjugate the wholesuperior and
more Intellectual race to the domi-
nation of ignorant negroes, guided
and controlled by ,unprincipleds
fortune-seekers and plupderers.
And yet, oppressed and perse-
cuted as she has been, the. South
by her abundant and valuable pro-
ducts has saved the North-her un-
grateful prosecutor and oppressor-
from complete and overwhelming
bankruptcy and ruin. And how
much more could the South have
done if she had not been subjected,
to the control of a horde Of un-.
principled white plunderers, and
Ignorant and misguided negroes,
acting as the dupes and allies OF
their white leaders. Her products
would have been much greater in
quantity and value. She would
have given more relief to the North,
and would have been prosperous at
home. The debts Of the States OF
the South would have been much
less in amount, and their. bonds
would have had high value instead
Of being as they now are nearly
worthless.
Is it not time for the North to
cease this oppression and persecu-
ton of the South? Is it not time
for the President to withdraw his
troops from the South, and no
longer use them to control elections,
sustain fraudulent governments,
and protect the plunderers who ROB
and Cypress that unfortunate region
as he is now doing? We should
think so. The late elections may
carry warning to the stolld mind /