The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-02-24
As to Carpet.Baggers.

AS 10 CdTVeIsDISSeTSs
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The twelve States of the South con-
tain in round numbers 1876, 600, 600
acres of land. OF this only 165, 900, 600
acres are embraced in farms, and of the
acreage of these farms 40 per cent. is
unimproved, SO that only $4,000, 900
acres are actually cultivated. There
were at the time referred to thirty-six
scres of land to every individual of the
population; yet there are fourteen peo-
Pile to every farm. In other words,
there were l0,O00.0 900 people and less
than 700, 600 farms. And this, it must
be remembered, in a section having no
great cities and few towns. Yet eight
ainths of the soil was unimproved!
Here were waste land and landless
abor lying side by side. Is it strange
the Yankee sought to take advantage:
of the seeming opportunity? If the,
spirit of enterprise, welcome and gem
erous rivalry which obtains at the West
had manifested itself at the South, the
years between 1865-the close of the
war--and 1870 would have witnessed
an immigration to the South never
equaled by the ever-fowing westward
tide. 1t would have numbered hun.
dreds of thousands, if not millions.
Such result would have been but
natural But what is the fact?
How many were the number Of
the s'larv;e of the North who thus
y..overran the South?' Comparing the
returns of the census, we shall find
that, while in the year 1860 there were
1898 persons in these States who
were born north of Mason and Dixon's
line, in 1870 there were 1861 of
Northern birth resident in the Confed-
eracy, making 10, 69S to constitute the
gives almost 1000 persons to 1000, 600
of the population, or one in 1, 1,000-on"-
tenth of one per cent. In North Caro-
lima there were 491 more than in 1860.
In South Carolina, 172 more
slave regime. Yet they were both
"overrunr' In Georgia there were
149 and in Alabama 5O3 less than at the
beginning of the decade. Yet they
were. also overrunr' Those States
contain almost 1000 counties, SO that
the inundation must have amounted to
no less than 10 persons to a county.
counting male and female, or perhaps
as many as p voters. No wonder the
Solid-Southron compares them to
the scourge of locusts which over
run Egypt. 1t must have, been
terrible infiiction. In the
whole,, South there was perhaps
an accession of 3. 600 voters, an average
of 220 to State. or about 8 to a coun-
ty., In those States there. were not
less than O,0O0 State and county Off
GERS, Judges, legislators and Congress-
men, and at least twice as many Magis-
trates and other subordinate municipal
officers Yet the larvae ..overran'' them
ALL. It would seem as if the time had
come of which the prophet spake when
lone shall chase thousand. and two
shall put ten thousand to flight"
But when we come to apply the test
to particular cases it becomes still more
ridiculous. The number of Northern
men that went to almost any one State
and remained till 1868, when the first
Republican governments were organ
lied, was so small that they were nearly
all known to each other. They were
active, energetic men. Of that there is
no doubt. They were very lively
s.larve." The fact that the larger part
of the wealth and intelligence of the
South arrayed itself at once in deadly
and unremitting hostility to the re-
construction measures threw into polit-
ical life many of these men who would
otherwise never have dreamed of en-
gaging in it. Almost every one of
them had held a commission in the Fed
eral army, and many. OF them bore hon
orable marks of service therein. !
know very few of them who went there
under Federal appointment. do not
remember that any of them held office
under the Johnsonian Provisional
Government from 1865 to 1853. Upon
the organization of the State
Government of North Carolina in
July, 1868, out of the eight officers
chosen on the State ticket two "car-
pet-baggers' were elected; there was
one Judge out of seventeen, thirteen
Legislators out of LA, and perhaps
twelve or fifteen Clerks or. Sheriffs and
county officers in the various counties
though can now speak positively as
to only nine-out of the $50 elected in
the State. Of 1.-THE 5000 Justices of the
Peace, Constables and other minor
municipal officers, I presume there may
=" larve' selected. --ia---i bsa 5i-1
The impression largely prevails, and
is given countenance by the Solid
Southrons, that only negroes and
carpet-baggers'' were to be found in
the Republican party of the South
The following table of the proportion
of white and colored people in the
different ex-Confederate States will
show the fallacy of this idea: li7