The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-16

nOunced valid by the supreme cOnrt.
From this era OF inhation, the
Southern people dropped 10 com
plete destitution. The currency
they had accumulated was valueless.
Tue bonds they had stored for emer
gency were worthless. Their slaves
were freed. Their governments de-
stroyed. Their farms stripped by
the foraging OF two armies and the
demands of two governments. Guer
illas Of both sides plundered under
cover Of law. The swsmps were ran
sacked for hidden stores or crops.
The torch. careiessly and revenge
fully handled, completed the desula>
ton. To meet this awful crisis and
to rebuild from thase pitiful res
sources, wcs people stunned by de-
reat-with raaks decimated by war,
partnerships sundered every family
circle broken, and those relations
that had knit together families ana
neig borhOOds forever shattered.
There was dislOcatlOn everywhere.
And everywhere the weeds Of the
widowed and the cries of the father
less. In every country graveyard
there were new-made graves, aud the
Virginia valleys were red with the
best blood Of the South. Miriam
and her hand-maideDs were yet in
the depths of the flood
THE ERA OF REGULATION.
In the midst of this desolation
small eddies Of trade whirled this
way and that. A few men shrewder
than patriotic, had steadily bonght
gold for the past two years. They
had traded Confederate bonds for
diamonds or silver. Others had
hidden cotton and tobacco in swanps
or cellars, and found it good as gold
when hauled from its hiding-place
There were garrisohs of Federal
troops in almost every town, paid oil
Iii greenbacks, which went rapidly
into circulation. The abnormal lack
of money, and the pressing demand
for 1t, tempted many suffers to in
vest, and brought some money from
the North. The city of Atlanta
Issued script. redeemable for taxes,
and it passed current. Trading was
fast and furious. Almost indescrib
able activity epsued, and, strangely
enough, "fush times" were on US be.
fore the ashes had been Carted from
the buried streets, and the lamenta
ton of the beraaved had ceased. The
recklessness Of war was carried into
the conservative ways Of peace. The
provisional and republican adminis>
tration issued bonds and scattered
money lavishly. The enforced
abstinence for four years took its
revenge in full qualification, and the
sales Of coffee. cheese, sardines, and
like articles, were astonishing. There
was feverish tumult in ell trading
centres, great or small, and there
was neither time nor inclination tC
think of the past or future.
In the country, excitement anC
speculation ran even higher. The
few bales of cotton exhumed aftel
the war readily brought sixty-fvt
cents a pound, and the demand wa:
eager and unsatisfed. At sucl
prices there was a fortune in every
acre. The negroes. cat-llke in then
local attachment. had been jostlet
out Of place but little, even by tht
passing armies. They were still
ready to work, and appeared t.
think that freedom was justified
when they left their masters slav'
quarters and hired out to his neigh
hor. And so cotton became king
1t had always been king. and tn
slave had been his prophet. Thes
two the planter never surrendered t
sentiment or law. An intelllgen
man would himself volunteer, ant
call his sons, even to the mother
boy, to his side in the ranks, bu
would resist to the uttermost whe1
his sorely pressed government a
tempted to levy one Of his slaves
General Toombs, more responsible
for the wa7 than perhaps any othe
man. and pledging to the Confeder
acg his life and his honor. Openl
rcOelled when it proposed. that it