Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-06-25
The Other Side.

To counteract the prevailing opinion at
the North concerning the causes of the late
exodus of Southern negroes, Representative
Whitthorne of Tennessee has addressed
lengthy statement to the chairman of the
House committee on education and labor, in
which he says; Possibly in the whole his
tory of the human family there was never
such spectacle presented of goodly feeling
at the close of long, bitter and bloody
struggle, involving the fortunes, rights and
lives of twelve million people, as existed be.
tween the white and black races occupying
the late slave states at the close of the late
war;" Yet, he says, individual fortunes had
been swept away and the former slave
owners made bankrupt. The losses in value
to farms alone from 1850 to 1870 aggregated
E7l,7GO,905. Adding to this the losses
arising from the bonds, horses, cattle, mills,
furniture, etc., the amount was swelled
to billions, with mourning throughout the
land. Thus weighted down were the eight
million whites, while the black race, eman-
cipated suddenly, were with scant protection
against starvation, disease and crime, having
no means OF support save the unskilled labor
of their hands. In view of the statements
that the negro in the South is denied his
legal and political rights, and deprived of
the just reward for labor, and that his life
and liberty is constantly endangered, Mr..
Whitthorne compares the production of the
South since the war, showing that, from
1869 to 1873, there has been an increase of
more than three million head of cattle and
swine. For the eight years preceding 1861
there were produced 27,l42,2S5 bales of cot
ton, while in the last eight years were pro-
duced 33,226,531 bales In 1871 1857 $40
acres Of cotton were cultivated, while in 1878
there were more than twelve million acres
cultivated. Mr.. Whitthorne estimates that
more than S200,000,000 of Southern labor
products enter into the purchase Of the mer-
chandise and manufactured goods of New
England, New York, New Jersey and Penn
sylvania. The gross earnings of the rail
roads of the Southern states are placed at
si2,927 ,594 year, and it is held that all the
principal cities and towns of the South have
increased decidedly in population, and that
there is constant and general growth of the
manufacturing establishments Statistics
are given showing that while the farm la
borers in the Northern and Western states
are paid at the rate of about 81 per capits
OF population, the compensation of each la
borer exceeds 80 per capita of population
in the Southern states, and that in a popu
lation of little more than 100000 in tn,
Southern states, s97,9O7,l74 is paid to tn,
laborers, while in population of l50O0,0Ot
in the Northern and Western states onl,
sll4,S92, 1884 is paid. Looking to these facts
as Mr.. Whitthorne continues, can it be sale
that the laborer of the South is not as wei
paid as the same class in other sections o
the country? Can it be urged that tn
labor of the South has been so disturbed
that its stalwart men have been so interfere,
with, as to compel one-third of them h
abandon home and birthplace, and that 8
outrageous is the oppression and DANCE
that they should not stand upon the orde
OF going, but flee without thought of tn
present or provision for the future As
domestic and political problem, and We've
in its economic results, it is better for bot
races of the South that the colored race shout
migrate, provided this migration can be mad
with careful thought and prudential consit
Grafton. No one then can or will persuad
them TO any other course.