The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-09-05

EDlgpR PHus,x: WHIST aeSs M .-.hs
e4sorSs' lhe Union Heralie III:
Friday watning's issue:i' eatto,nS Sd
crop of the South in 1860 vaa about
three million $1,000. 000) bates .It was
Tor the year ending August 81, 1874,
four millfoo' 1900. .000) bales, an in.
fofease-aof-- f--one--miliion- bales, 70 not
this simple statement worth volume
OF argumente in proof OF the superi..
ority OF freedom over slavery?" Now
sir, we should greatly like to. know
whether the editor. III the .U.,H. is
really ignoruut or the subject whereof
he affirms. or whether. ON The con.
trary, he IL informed himself and is
seeking willfully to mislead others.
In either event. he is not just The man
to write for The informatIun Of tn.
public Every tyrn even ought 10
know that the cotton crop Of 1850 was
by far the largest crop ever produced
iu the Uuited States. Tho census rr-
ports give the production Of thut year
at .fcc million three h1ndred uud
eighty seven thousand aud 6fty.two
bales. 10 view Of the fncts Of the case.
We zee that his simple statement il
worth just nothing at all, (unless it be
as proof of either lis own ignorance
or OF his determination 10 suppress
the truth, for the simple reason that
said statement is utterly devoid of the
one all-important elcment-truth.
We have frequently seen it stnted
1871 by no less importnut per-
sonage than our late illustrlous
Representative in Congress. Hon.
4. B. Elliott, in speech deli
vered in Cooper Institute. New York,
that free labor ID producing better
crops Of all the great staples of tie
South than was ever produced by slave
labor; aod now the sapieut Editor OF
the U.-H, comes to the trout with II
reiteration OF the falsehood. He says:
"We take the great staple OF cotton Nh
q specimen, and We infer that the iu-
crease of the other productions has
been in the same ratio" Let US see
uow how the case stands with '.the
other productions. We begin with
Indian corn, the great staff OF life with
the laboring millions. The Southern
States. excluding Delaware, raised, in
1860. 433, 607, 400 bushels of this al
most indispensable crop. In 1870. the
bushels. falling off Of ll8, Sol, ,297
bushels. OF wheat, the Southern
States produced, in 1860. 40. 1G6. 70l
bushels; in 1870. they produced 50.-
1862, l66. Again. in 1870. of 9S4. .4G5
Bushels, Missouri, with q co!ored popu-
Iation of only ll8. OIL, against II whit.
population OF 1.603. LAG. or on'y one
negro to every nine whites, incI eased
her wheat production by more than
10, 600, 900 bushels, thus showing II
falling off in the balance of the South.
ern States of more than 5000, 600
from 1860 to 1870. OF rice, which is
produced exclusively in the South, the
crop of 1870 was 73,635,O2l pounds.
against 1877. 7.lG7. 032 pounds iu 1860,
aud 2l5. 3l3,4 ,497 pounds in 1850.
Here, Is ialllng of of nearly two
thirds of the rice crop from 1850 to
1870. In 'onr own beloved State.
where there were, in 1870, l26, 900
false MS perjury itself. Those who make
these assertions ar" either wilfully ig.
more negroes than whites, the ric-
production fell from ll9,lOO.52S
ponds to 32.3 .325 pounds. from
1850 to l870-a falling Oft OF nearly
three.fourtbs. In 1860. the South
raised 375. 1856. OBI pounds of tobacco.
against 2OG. .524.739 pounds in 70-a
falling off of nearly one. hnIf. Or
sugar, the South raised. in 1860, 230,
0S2 hOgShoads, against S7,O43 hogs
heads for lS7O-a falling of of nearly
two thirds.
Here are the statistical facts III re-
lerence to the great lending proluo-
tions, as given. not by Democrats, but
ny Republicans. in the service Of the
United States, and they show that the
assertion that free labor produces the
great staples of the South in creator
abundance than slave labor did, is
false as perjury itself. Those who make
these assertions are either wilfuIly ig-
norRnt, or else they lie. with the deli :.
berate design OF dece,ying those who
are innocently ignorant. Perhaps
these worthless believe Forncy's lying
assertion, that the ignorance of the
nntive whites Of the South "is lcnser
than that OF the population of the
Eorst quarter of any city North Of the
Potomac;" and that "were it not that
tho Southern whites have u convenient
contrast with their negro fellow citi-
zons. their iIliteracy would be posi-
lively black" And it may bc TINT,
presnmlng on this ignorance, they
have concluded thnt there in M lnnorr