Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-08-18
rhe Faetors Of Our Fnture.

The Factors Of Our Future.
Ingersoll, speaking at Boston some
years ago on the issues Of the hour. urged
the completion of a Southern through
line to the Pacific, and summed up his
argument therefor with the epigrammat-
ic prediction that it would Danish
"the conservatism Of regret and the pref
udice born Of isolation"
Such was the estimate that the North
had long formed of the South, aud 1t Is
but recently that it has learned that the
conservatism of regret" vanished when
the blessing of self-government was
again vouchsafed her. If that distrust.
which the people of the South could
not but entertain of the average
Northerner, who was wont to come
among them in ante bellum days, can
be strictly termed prejudice, his
tory is eloquent in its justification.
That suspicion or prejudice. however,
was not born of isolation. The South
was never isolated voluntarily. No sec
ton of the republic played a grander
part in its conception and development
than did the South, and, though she
sought to build one freer, she would
gladly have stood by it could
she have trusted the men who
threatened to defeat the purposes of its
founders. The isolation of war was a
necessity, which the results of the strug-
gle alone established and the wisdom of
which they clearly indicated. And the
isolation that followed it, unparalleled in
history-exile at home-cOmpared with
which the storied misery of Siberia was
happiness, that was not Of her choice.
OF it prejudice could not but be born,
and the marvel is that it was not invinci
bic. What wonder that it begot the con
servatism of regret2
But hate spent its force Once more
law reigned, and the South, restored to
the blessings of freedom, went back,
took up the broken thread, and invites
the world to help her make green
her waste places and achieve
the future that cOnfrOnts her.
The sacrifice of her valor and the ex-
ample of her endurance were not in
vain, and she stands to-day stronger in
her capacity and grander in her aims
than at the height Of her splendid past.
Year by year she reaches forward, and
though the tide of support is but be
ginning to drift toward her, twill ere
long swell in volume. Great as were the
wrongs she suffered at the
hands of those she trusted, they were
hardly more baneful than the false color
ing of her social life and the underesti-
mates of her resources her oppressors
gave the world.
Year by year both are being better
understood The possibilities of the
cotton field are far more alluring
than those of the crowded cities
of the North, and the genial cline of the
Sunland is more inviting than the win
try prairies of the Northwest. Northern
speculation sees the blindness of its folly
and is looking Southwark with assur
ance. There are those among us that
fear we are going but slowly. and who
fain would hurry the march. There
are others who regard every
adventurer as benefactOr,
and who would surrender solidity for ex-
pertinent. These are of no more service
in the march of progress than the lag
gard, who falls behind. The one must
be taught his interest, and the other
must be saved from or compensated for
his folly. Northern economists assign
this and that cause for the
slow supply of the South's need,
an honest, thrifty and independent i'm
migration. The primary cause, their
own false teachings. they lose sight of.
AS the South becomes known her
growth will progress. There are those
/ in Europe who will seek the West, for
reasons of kinship and choice,
/ but there are thousands who
will prefer the South for its wondrous
resources and its resemblance to their
native land. The efforts 20 attract such
will not be relaxed, and the best teachers
of our resources are our industry and
enterprise. We louged for freedom, we
-
Wehave resolved 10 prosper, and we shall
prosper if we sustain our courage and
are true to our aims. We have every
thing to make us great. Our fields, our
mines, our rivers and our harbOrs invite
US to the task, and the factors in its
achievement are unDending purpose and
| INCREASING work