The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-03-21
EMIGRATION SOUTHWARK.

The influx Of emigrants into the South from
Northern and Western States still continues,
or rather grows greater every year and every
month The interstate emigration going on
in the Union Is probably larger now than
it has ever been before, not even excepting
4s, when thousands Of farmers poured into
the rich prairies Of Illinois, and adventures
Of all kinds crossed the American continent to
the gold mines of California. Hard times. an
over supply Of the labor market in the East, o
thousand causes have produced an unprece-
dented exodus from the more densely popu-
lated States. For the first time In the history
of America this emigration moves from the
North southwark. The tendency Of inter-
State emigration in the past has been to move
in straight lines west. Tennessee was thus
settled from North Carolina, Kentucky from
Virginia, Indiana from Ohio and Pennsyl-
vania. II there was any interchange Of pop
ulation between the two sections of the coun-
try, North and South, it was to the advantage
and benefit Of the North. Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois received large number of people
from Virginia and Kentucky.
Northern settlers In the South, on the other
hand, were, previous to the war, always few,
and probably never amounted to one-tenth the
Southerners who had moved beyond Mason
and Dixon's line.
When Texas was freed from Radical rule,
emigration took new direction, and num-
Der OF persons from Northern States took adj
vantage of the cheapness Of lands in that
State to settle there. Indeed this emigra-
ton from the West far exceeded that from the
other Southern States, although this also was
large. Since that time almost all the inter-
State emigration OF the Union has been from
the North southwark.
Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi and Tennes-
see have all received large number of emi-
grants. The proportion of these coming from
Northern States Is unprecedentedly large.
The report of the Commissioner Of Agricul-
cure Of the State of Tennessee shows that in
that State ninety-nine out of one hundred
emigrants are from the North and West; in
Mississippi, all the new corners are from North
ern States, while In Texas, although there Is a
large number of settlers from North Carolina,
Georgia and the older Southern States, the
Western emigrants far outnumber them. This
change in the direction Of inter- State emigra-
ton promises to produce most important re-
Suits It must give the South an increase of
representation in Congress; it must stamp
out more effectually sectional animosities; it
must, with the wealth Of labor 1t brings,
create new wealth In the South, and with it
new powers and industries.
Among the results which 1t has been pre-
dicted that this emigration would bring about
but which have not occurred, Is change in
Southern politics. The Westemers, many of
them Republicans, who settled in the South
have not had the slightest effect on the De-
mocracy Of these States. ALI white persons
that is, all white settlers, vino come
South to work, not to get office Instantly
become Democrats, whatever their former
opinions may be. The result of this emigra-
ton, therefore, has been to increase, instead of
diminish, the Democratic majority Of those
Southern States that have received this
wealth of emigration.