The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-12-11
SOuths Position in the Union.

The following article is word for word as
we would desire it to be written. Indeed it
bath a familiar sound but is from the Char
lOtte Observer
We are not Of the eaters Of humble pie,
and 1t cannot with truth be said that we
have too much respect for that rather nu-
merous class. The war ended nearly fifteen
years ago, and here are a parcel of Southern
people who are still %apologizing and protest
ing that, having seen the error Of their way,
they Will never do so any more. The ques-
tion or right and wrong, as connected with
the war, may with great propriety be with
drawn, at this late day, from the discussion
of public questions which must necessarily
arise. We propose to tax no part in it.
1t has nothing to do with the matters Of to-
day. 1t Is stale, flat and Improbable. The
South surrendered her soldiers were pa
rolled, the war ended and this is the end of
the whole business. Here we are, where
we started In lS6O-back in the Union, and
no fault of ours that this is so. We tried to
get out and were not allowed to leave. The
North desired to keep us and having kept
us, having restored us by the reconstruction
process to the position which we occupied
before-Just as though we had succeeded in
our purpose OF quitting the Union-we are
IN all respects as free as and equal to the
North or we are nothing. This is the plain
matter Of fact and the North has made it so.
1t SO, there is no necessity for our protesting
so much. The past is behind us, the pres
ent with US, and the future before US. With
the two latter have we to do. and there is no
more necessity that the South should 90
back to the discussion of the days of the war
to repudlate over and over again the princi-
Piles which it then espoused, than that it
should be guilty of the folly of continually
Haunting a re-afirmation of it's then prin-
clples In the face of the victorious section.
Having regalned our autonomy and hav-
ing proved by fourteen years of obedience to
law, good and bad, our entire loyalty to the
government of which we are a part, we may
as well raise up our heads and recognize that
we are a part Of it. 1t is idle to say that
the people of the South hate those of the
North. but the charge will not be disproved
by constant professions of humility. 1t is
this section begin to realize its impor-
lance In the nation and bear itself with the
manliness which an appreciation of this i'm
portance would bring. We are not a de-
tendency but equal States. The North
would languish but for the South, while the
South has within it's own self all of the ele-
ments of material greatness. What would
New England be without it's cotton spinning
enterprises? Where does the cotton thus
spun come from? From the South-every
pound or 1t. what has contributed more
than Southern cotton, directly and indirect
ly, to the greatness of the city of New York?
What would the North be in twenty years
without the tobacco, the sugar and the rice
which are produced by the South, the solid
Upon the North the South is dependent
for nothing. If all these States cannot pro-
duce wheat as luxuriantly as does Minnesota,
or corn in the abundance that Ohio does,
they can at least produce sufficient of these
to afford subsistence, and in wheat and corn
find bread and meat, while rice is pecu-
liarly a Southern product. Sugar and to-
bacco find their homes in this section and in
these we find our luxuries, while for cloth
ing we have the cotton and the wool, lack
ing only the enterprise to convert these from
the raw material. This enumeration takes
no account of naval stores-a source of
wealth to the section which handles them,
if not, through its own inertness, to the sec
ton which produces them.
There is no desire at the bottom of all
this to renew in our people that spirit Of
which happily survived the war
but a few years, and which is now so rife in
the North, to our disadvantage. The South
has much to lose and nothing to gain by
.inistering to such spirit and We desire to
stamp it out and see it ended. It signifies
no ill-will to any other section that we adj
wise our own to be more independent, more
self-retained, to realize the dignity of its
position and to avoid an unnecessary and an
Improbable humility.
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