The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1883-10-24
CALHoun couarx, Oct. { 1858.

Inmates that It Is sbetter 70 endure the
ills We have, than AZ to others ws know
not of" But when those ills become
burdensone and oppressive, and We a,
TO some extent, by past experience.
know the lesser ills TO which we fy in 4
repeal Of the Agricultural Lien Law,
which is now being agitated, and when
its operations have sent up = vail from
almost every locality in the common
wealth, it seems high time 70 set il
aside.
Under its protection [ p the poor are
becoming poorer; a few are becoming
richer; labor more ineficisnt; lands de
pieted; agriculture, the interest para
mount 70 all the others in this State, dis
couraged; our best farms going to rum
for want Of improvement. Ceres Wlelda
her scepteF with q puny arm, during
the sway Of this Law, and most OF heI
yotaries are becoming daily entangled
in the labyFinthian meshes Of debt.
Debt is the first consideration to which
Pfnus Sylyanus directs attention. be
calls it the Credit System" In the
science of bookkeeping, We learn that
Credit is the Apostle OF Debit. Under
the present system Debit and Credit are
becoming respectively larger and small
er, as cold blooded facts and figures ap-
piled to landlords and tenants IN rota-
ton, in almost any agricultural district
in the State, will abundantly verify.
There is no logic 80 successful as the
logic of experience. My experience,
assisted by observations drawn from my
neiQhbors, availing themselves OF the
benefits of the Lien Law, has driven me
To this conclusion. / became involved
in debt by procuring supplies Tor my
hands. irving to keep the farm IN con-
dition Of improvement; the tenants
would not do il while they were at leis-
ure and owed me for supplies-and rails
ing cotton 20 pay for those supplies,
stock and every thing else. l borrowed
money at Is per cent. and gave as seeu-
rity q mortgage on the farm. thought
was making holes with large auger.
[ learned ere long, that my farming
had led me in the wrong
direction, and became disgusted with
farming under protection of Agricul-
tural Lien Law and free negroes. But
knowing that reformation Is never
hopeless" and rich p "but honest" ! sold
that farm before the trustee could CLOSE
it out" and paid my debts. live IN
an excellent agricultural district, in the
banner county of political purity, where
negro patriotism is a second if any con-
and politics, by the negro,
almost entirely ignored. | employed
the best hands in the community. but
uAder all these apparently favorable
circumstances, l went down. Since
that time, / have let free ne
groes and the Agricultural Lien
Law severely alone, and now l am
resurrected and on foot again,
because am relieved from the dominion
of debt and have DOTTED that iron jacket.
the deed Of trust. Many of my neigh
bors would not try on the iron jacket,
cut loose from the tolls of the Agricul-
tural Lien Law, hired their labOrers for
wages, controlled their time, to some
extent, improved their farms, began to
raise stock, curtailed their cotton crop,
began to pay their debts and live at
home. Now they are. happy. If you
will come over to our country, Bro.
Pinus Sylvanus, you will find these
solid facts to exist, into the face OF
which you can't point your finger and
refute.
When closed out my farming opera
tions, some of my tenants went over
and hired to my more prosperous neigh
bors for wages. Some of them went to
other neighbors, and worked on shares
or rented land from them and were fur
nished by the men from whom they
rented. The former are doing toleraDiy
well, the latter are going to temporal
ruin. This little. circumstance has q
moral, the which you will discern further
on. The landlord, it is true, under the
bloody grasp of the Agricultural lier
Law. takes the tenants entire crop, anC
leaves him still in debt. He begins thu
new wear in debt to the man with whom
he lived the previous year, with an In
difference of purpose and a wDted spirit
If he continue with the same man, hl
debt increases in an arithmetleal ratio
with interest in geOmetrical ratio. l
he goes to another landlord on Tx
terms, which they usually do, 1t Is oni.
A new hen and the same old nest.
Now there are good reasons Tor a.
these unsettled conditions OF labor, be
gotten and nurtured by this same AZ
Ticnltural Lien Law, which Pinus Syl
yanus seems to appreciate as the pc
workman who has built the impregni
ble wall around the landlords, owe
| which the merchant can not leap, no
the lawyer, with all the shrewdness
his vision, penetrate. Mark, just
soon as the negro, or the hapless whit
tenant, as for that, who takes nothougi
for the morrow" consumes aquantlty
supplies about equal to what ne come
tures sufficient to absorb his interest
the crop, he "lets up" and works !
more for a while. From the time y
cultivation of the crop is concluded, .
gathering time, he rests. And II, Ike
BLACK snake, he can get one square me
in every ten days, he does well a.
tbr;ves on IL In a state Of inertia. I'm
, moves on apace and gathering time
r;ves. The crop must needs be gat
j cred, for your landlord is in debt 70 !. Z
merchant, who furnished those suPpll
3 at rayenous profits, and in majority
i instances has the claim clinched doN
: on the moor landlord with q deed
trust. must be paid, else he viii pr
q Down the screws, so easily put in mott
! hv that lever and fulcrum, the deed
e tsust. or furnish no more supplies
s"e QUERcUs SYLyANUs