Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-05-28
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Carl SCHURZ ON THE SOUTH.

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CARL SCHURZ ON THE SOUTH.
Asa result of two tours of the South, one
made in 1865, and the other last winter, the
Hon. Carl Schurz has written and published
a pamphlet containing hisimpressions. Mr.
for wears, He was at one time Secretary
of the Interior, and last fall was prominent
as a leader of the Independent Republicans
who lent their influence to the National
Democratic ticket. He is an able politician
and a shrewd observer, and his views are
therefore interesting. Of the general con-
dition of the South he says:
"Although still poor, the South is decld-
edly richer than it was before the war,
while, of course, its wealth is dl1erently
distributed. New industries have sprung
up and old ones are better developed. me
mineral resources are gradually drawn TO
light. In the iron regions of Alabama new
towns are springing up, and the appearance
of which reminds us of Pennsylvania. Cot
ton mills are multiplying. Manufacturing
establishments of various kinds are rising
in many places. While the sugar interest
in Louisiana has much declined, other
branches of agriculture, such as tobacco IN
North Carolina, have taken new start.
The cotton crop is constantly growing iarg-
er. The question of decisive import is no
longer only how the negroes will work,
for the white people themselves are work
ing much better than before. The number
of young men in the villages and small
towns standing idle around the grocery cor
ners is steadily decreasing. Among young
people the tendency to devote themselves
earnestly to useful and laborious occupations
is becoming much more general. The poor
whites of both sexes are in many places
found to make industrious and faithful ope-
ratives in manufacturing establishments"
Touching the negroes ne observes that
'the most unsatisfactory feature OF thelr
condition as a class is disinclination to
work, shown by many of their young peo-
pie who have grown up since the abolition
of slavery. There is said to be notion
spreading among them that it is the aim
and end of education to enable people to 60
on without work." This is as true as
preaching and concerning this tendency ne
goes on to say that it "is exciting preju-
dice against the education of negroes, not
only among certain classes OF whites, Dut
also among some of the more thrifty among
the negroes themselves" He tells of a
prosperous negro farmer in Alabama own
ing we'll stocked farm of 500 acres, work
ed by him with his children, who refuses
to send his boys to school, because learning
would spoil them for farm work, and who
permitted only one of his girls to learn
reading and writing so that she might be
able to keep his accounts, and says, mere
is q field for missionary work, which those
whose public spirit is devoted to the eleva-
ton of the colored race should keep we'll in
view. The relation of grammar to indus
try must be most tangible to the young
mind. The addition of industrial teaching
| to the common school in this respect is OF es-
pecial Importance. Among those who
have been slaves there are a great many
skillful mechanics-blacksmith carpenters,
harness makers, shOemakers, DC. Their
sons, raised in freedom, seem to be less in
clined to devote themselves in these labo-
rious trades; and yet the negro, who with
his mechanical aptitudes, might, properly
the handicraftsmen necessary for ordina-
ry work." This is excellent advice, but it
differs in noWise from that which the more
intelligent Southern white folk give in all
sincerity to the blacks and which has about
the same effect as water on ducks back.
GAS it is" he proceeds, "the negroes con-
stitute, and will for long period to come
continue to constitute the bulk of the ag.
ricultural laboring force in the principal
cotton States and every sensible Southern
man recognizes them as most valuable and
the resources and promoting the prosperity
of the South. They are there to stay and
must be made the best Of by just and wise
treatment" This is also fact recognized
by the white people and which they, as
a rule, would not have changed.
Of the "Rebel Brigadier," Mr.. Schurz
gives a picture which is true to life. "a
peculiarly terrific figure in partisan har.
angue," he says, sis the Rebel Brigadier.'
From the descriptions made of him, he
might be supposed to be an incurably black
hearted traitor, still carrying the rebel
flag under his coat to bring it out at an op-
perfume moment, still secretly drilling his
old hosts in dark nights and getting him.
self elected to Congress for the purpose of
crippling the government by artfully con-
ion of the Union as soon as his party is we'll
settled in power. Now, what kind of man
is the Rebel Brigadier,' in reality? He
belonged in the South, originally to the
same class to which the Union Brlgadlers
belonged in the North. After the close of
the war he found himself as poor as the
rest of his people. At first he moped and
growled little and then went to work to
make living-as farmer, or lawyer or
a railroad employee, or an insurance man
or a book agent. Being a man Of intelli-
ScuCc uc WdS hioV 'oopSii AAS
eyes to the fact that the war had been per-
haps very foolish venture for the South
because it was undertaken against over
whelming odds-and certainly q very dis
astrous one because it left nothing but wreck
and ruin behind it; one of those enterprises
which man of sense may delude himself
into once, but never again. He is now very
busy repairing his fortunes in the civil walks
of life and the better he succeeds the more
conservative he grows, for the more clearly
he perceives that his own fortunes are close
ly linked to the general prosperity OF the
country and that everything hurtful to the
country hurts him. He is in many in
stances drawn into public life by the choice
of his neighbors. His views on questions
of public policy may frequently be mista-
ken-they probably are. He may also be
always ready to jump up. in defense OF ms
record and the record and character OF MS
associates in the war. He shows PRIDE OF
his and their gallantry in the field, as every
soldier will do, and he is unwilling to have
it said that his motives were infamous-a
thing which but few men, and those not
the best, are willing to hear or admit. But
having learned at his own cost what civil
war is, he would be among the last to think
of rebellion again. He has that military
honor in him which respects the terms of a
capitulation, and if he has any ambition to
show his prOwesS once more 1T VIII De LOT
the restored Union, and not against it,"
Speaking again of the negro, MIR. Schurz
truthfully saws: 'trhe election Of Demo-
cratic President has been to the negro great
b,ooe;pr for If hoe delivare1 him of two