The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1886-05-13

/ achievements which now invite them, Is
/ the honest truth.
II Is startling to compare the growth If
i Virginia with the CarolInas since the war
+ 1t Is true that Virginia bore more than
/ her share Of the brunt of the battle, "a her
/ territory is crowded with historic fields OF
sanguiuary conflict and much of TIER lands
were laid waste but her loss i,v War was
not more than the loss Of South Carolina,
and not so much considering the value of
enancipated slaves. Virginia never drank
| the bitter dregS of carpet bag rule and
her credit was never wasted by the pruf
gacy of political ;tdVeIturers. She never
| had 4 dollar of debt, outside Of tie uni
/ yer>;ily rejected Confe1e rate Obligations,
| that was not the creation of the Old Do
mIniou in the exercise Q her own proud
and deliberate authority TO day Nlr
ginia is the only State in the South that
has repudlated her own debt created by
her own white people before the war, and
she is in the rear of both the Carolinas in
the growth of legitimate industry, bus-
ness and wealth. But if Virginia escaped
the desolating tread of the carpet -bagger,
she has inflicted upon herself wound
scarcely less vital than the worst of wounds
which yet scar the other reconstructed
| States. When she should have profited by
HeF Natural advantageous rCidIlOuS Win
the capital and industry of the North, and
could have made her mountains, so richly
studded with wealth, and her vast water
powers, so easy of access, fruitful sources
of enduring prosperity, she turned upon
herself with suicidal hands, thrice repudi-
ated her thrice debt, effaced honor from
the Jewels of the once proud Common
wealth, and made capital and industry
and integrity snun her as the valley of
death She will grow and yet be prosper
Gus and great in spite of herself, but she
should to-day be in the front of Southern
growth, instead of tagging behind the
States which had to recover from the
double curse of war and of the empire of
| theft. North Carolina is now single from
the other reconstructed States in having
attained solely by the efforts of her own
people, higher degree of general pros
perlty than was ever before attained in
her history. She has a more prosperous
and thrifty people to-day than at any pc
rod of the past and there is more capital
employed and less debt, State and indi-
vidual, than at any time in the last half
century Texas has surpassed the old
North State because of her large influx Of
immigration and wealth. but North Caro-
lima has fewer foreigners and a more com
pletely homogeneous population than any
other State of the Union. Since the res
cue of the State from the tempest of pro
fllgacy that swept over it after the war
under the Holden government, the taxes
have steadily diminished until they are
only nominal and the schools have in
creased until they proffer education to
every child in the Commonwealth, regard
less of color. Her legitimate debt is stead
lily reduced; her treasury has Il large sur
plus; her humane institutions, conducted
with equal care and outlay for both races,
are monuments of credit; her public i'm
provements have kept pace with the grow
ing want, of her people; her authority re
fleets the pride of the State in its stainless
integrity, and thrift and content are the
common blessings of her people.
For this exceptional record there are
many able and true men to whom North
Carolina is indebted; but it is no injustice
to any to say that to no one is she so much
indebted as to Thomas J. Jarvis, the late
Governor. His term of six years, ended
only by the mandate of the Constitution
has brought the State to the largest meas
ure of prosperity ever known in all her
past, and there is not son of North Car
olina who does not share in the general
pride of a more than rehabilitated Com
monwealth. When it is considered that
North Carolina has every important min
eral within her borders, from gold to iron
,
variety of crops, from wheat to cotton
that she has every variety of climate, from
the sunny Southern coast to the chills of
the highest peak of the Appalachian range;
, that she has water power enough in a
single river to spin and weave the whole
cotton of the South, and that her lands
, are nearly as cheap and her climate better
than the West, when these facts are
weighed in the scale of intelligence, the
fo,1 >f, l.
sectional tranquility assured, may be un-
derstood in the North as it is now under
stood in the Carolinias. And South Car
olina is little behind her sister. Georgia
doubtless ranks next to North Carolina in
the race for recovered prosperity, but
, South Carolina is close upon the heels of
, both, and with graver obstacles to over
come. Her loss in property by the war,
including the property value OF slaves,
. was greater in proportion than that of any
State in the Union, and the very refine
ment of carpet bag theft and humiliation
, reserved as her destiny. She had not only
, the graver problem to solve of an over
: whelming majority of the most ignorant
blacks suddenly clothed with every attrib
ute of citizenship, and with scarcely the
. shadow of property or appreciated respOn
= sibility, but she had the dcepest-rooted
o Southern sectionalism to master and the
: teachings and traditions of generations tC
!, unlearn.
e But the Palmetto State has made the
q grandest progress during the last eight
: years, and emitting wealth reckoned fol
e slaves, she is richer to-day than ever be
t fore, and with abundant evidence that the
4 era of development, of intelligent business
t progress, and of rapidly multiplying
0 wealth is just beginning its great work
Y 1t is naturally the richest planting and ag
: ricultural State in the whole Union, with
: out any exception. 1t has the best soil
), with every advantage for its most profit
: able cultivation, of any part of the South
and the people who have been born upol
: it and who have lived in the luxury o
/ superabundance and again felt the povert.
r of helplessness, are just now masterin!
h the problem that Yankee, compelled t,
it lie awake at night to invent method t,
e get his pork and beans or pumpkin pie
h would have mastered in an hour. Their
n is no other part of the South except Flor
e ida where so lltl labor will produce $
d much, but with the richest uplands skirt
,r ing the Blue Ridge and with three fourth
IS of the State adapted to corn, South Caro-
e lima has ever been buyer of bread.
n The New South whispers of these achieve
-e ments, and that is why the sister Care
IS linas are more hopeful and more prosper
l. Gus to-day than at any time since the