The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-11-08
A NATTER OF DOLLARS AND GEMS.

Before the war the South used to be the great
market OF the country. It produced cotton,
sugar, rice, tobacco; it sold these abroad, and,
with the gold thus obtained it bought manufac.
tured goods and lumber from New England i'm
ported goods from New York, and stock, wheat,
corn, hay, dairy products, bacon, flour, lumber
from the West. 1t was the most liberal buyer IN
| the world and it paid the handsomest profits to
those with whom 1t dealt. 1t produced nothing
Itself but the raw materials named it had every
thing to buy, and it had an annual income Of
$500, COO to buy with. This money. most of it
drawn from abroad, enriched the whole country,
and especially the Western grain-grower, the
New England manufacturer, and the New York
merchant.
The war found the South impoverished, but
full Of energy and vitality. 1t sought to get
labor system was dlsorganlZed, but could be re-
constructed. 1t wanted capital, beng very poor.
The bank capital OF eleven States IN 1860 was
SOL 3G1 562 In 1870 it was reduced to SIT 46s iS5
In coin AID bank notes the South in 1860 had
nearly $4,000, coo. In 1870 the circulation was
only sl5, 10000. The South's stock was stolen,
its fences burnt up, its Implements rotted. But
still it had the inexhauslible resources of its
soil and 5000, eco of people eager to develop
them. Both capital and labor, and enterprise
too, were wiling to come in from the North AMI
from abroad. 1t has been estimated by those
most competent to know that by this time the
influx Of men into the South would have exceeded
1,0OO00o, and the additions OF capital 81 O00,O
600. This would have completely restored the
| farming and planting interests, have carried out
the extensive systems CT internal improvements
| already under way. and have developed a thou
sand industries heretofore in allegiance. The
South would have been richer than before the
war; would have consumed more, and thus have
been still more profitable to its old puryeyors and
customers.
But just here Messrs. Morton and Logan and
their friends stepped in, with their thousand
agencies Of corruption and their million schemes
OF viIlainy. They saw political ruin to themselves
in the peace and prosperity Of the South, and
they determined that the South should not be
peaceful nor prosperous. They launched upon
that unhappy section the locust swarm OF carpet
baggers. They invited the negroes to outrage
and ncendiarism, in order to dsorganize labor.
They passed laws to disfranchise the governing
class and give over the State to the control of
thieves, adventurers. and ignorant negroes.
They encouraged the enormous increase OF debt
and taxation, in order 20 frightcn away immi sra
ton and lock out capital. They made property
valueless and its tenure insecure to prevent ill.,
vestment. They taught their followers to seize
the railroads and canals and impair their capa-
city. They drove the people to despair and then
coerced them with mlit Try force and martial law.
They corrupted the courts, they olsorganlzed so.
ciety, ard pushed the South back whole gene
ration in progress and civilization
They accomplished their ends. The South,
robbed, impoverished, disheartened, democrat
own contriving. hangs like milestone about the
neck Of the national prosperity. 1t is Radical
journal which SAYS:
"Niue and a half millions of people who are
the national customers of the West and the con-
sumers OF its products, have been rendered
wholly unable to buy what they really want and
are almost compelled to have: and the wheat,
corn, horses. mules. hogs, and other products OF
the West, which the planter of cotton, rice,
sugar, tobacco and other Southern staples needs
and would be willing to buy, il he could, cannot
be sold because all the means OF the purchaser
have been stolen or squandered BY set OF har~
pies at home who are ready to pick up their
carpet-bags and leave for more favored regions
as soon as the plumber is exhausted. This mar
kets Of the South are to-day almost as effectu-
ally closed gainst the products Of the West, by
reason Of the poverty and destruction OF the
resources of that people. as they would be if an
embargo was laid on all commerce between the
sections"
The West is not the only sufferer. All the ag-
ricultural portion of New York State has been
made to pay the penalty likewise. The Western
grain, cut Off from its Southern market, has
come Eastward, entered into competition with
the products of our own farmers, and gorged our
markets to repletion. There is not farm in
Western New York but is to-day deprived Of some
Of its proftableness by the iniquities and thefts
Of the carpet-baggers who have been foisted
upon the South.-N Y. World.