The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-07-16
THE ESSENCE OF SLAVERY.
The Chains Are Being Fastened Upon the
Farmer, and He Must Act.

The Chains Are Being Fastened Upon the
Farmer, and He Must Act.
The farmers are the largest and most
important class Of our people, adding
more than all others to the wealth and
stability of this nation, for they feed the
people and furnish three-fourths of our
exports. While the main wealth of this
nation consists in its agricultural prod
ucts, and according to the census Of 1880
SO per cent. of our population were en-
gagged in it. they do not exert that in
fuence in the state and national affairs
that the Importance of their calling de-
nands that they should. If it be true,
as it certainly is, that the essence Of
slavery consists in making one man la
Dor while another takes his earnings,
then the masses Of the American farm
ers have been reduced to the condition
of slaves, for they have had not only
what they have earned, but the capital
they had invested, taken from them.
In 1850 the total wealth of the United
States was SS,CO0,000,000; Of this the
farmers were worth $4,000, 100000. Dur
ing the last thirty years the farmers
have more than doubled their crops.
While the farmers and their families
have been laboring to produce those
crops those who are interested in national
banks and corporations, combinations
and trusts have procured special legisla-
ton that has given them the power to
accumulate immense fortunes through
the vast amount of wealth that the farm
ers have annually produced, and the
consequence of this legalized robbery is
that the farmers in 1890 are estimated to
be worth only s15, 900, 100000, while the
rest of our population have increased
their wealth to $47 ,0O0,0 100000.
Those figures do not indicate that we
are living in republic such as our patri-
otic fathers intended it should be-.
Equal rights for all and special privi-
leges for none" will no more apply to the
American farmers today than it would to
the farmers in the most despotic govern
ment in Europe.
Some of the fruits of the special legis-
lation that congress has granted COM
paratively few of our people within the
last thirty years, which has given them
the power to legally rob the farmers, can
be seen in the depreciation of farms and
their products, in the present heavily
mortgaged and impoverished condition
of the farmers. in the large number of
farms that are passing into the hands of
the sheriff.
The present prospect for the farmers
indicates that unless they resolve that
henceforth they will lay aside all parti-
San and sectional prejudice, and unite
their ballots to elect true and tried men
from their own ranks to the different
state legislatures and congress, large
number of their farms will pass through
the same process in the near future.
The preservation of their homes and the
comfort Of their families should be of
far moro Importance to them than iparti.
san politics. The farmers have long
struggled with the gross wrongs that
have so generally been practiced against
them.
The fortitude with which they have
borne them is absolutely wonderful.
The time has come when something
must be done. for the fact is too plain
to be longer ignored that the liberty OF
the serfdom of the American farmer
hangs trembling in the balance. There
is great danger that the latter condition
will preponderate unless the farmers
will unite their ballots and demand that
they have relief from their onerous
burdens: that the relief must come
quickly. and must be adequate to re-
move thu great perils that now threaten
their important calling.
The time has come for the farmers to
come to the front in a united effort to
remove the many wrongs under which
they are now suffering. This country
cannot long prosper with the present de,
pressed condition of agriculture.
We, as nation, may enjoy prosperity
for O season. We have no history where
country or nation continued to prosper
where agriculture declined, and the in
dications are today that unless some
thing is done and done quickly to relieve
those who are engaged in agriculture OF
the unjust burdens that are now placed
upon them our much boasted country is
doomed to follow in the footsteps Of the
Roman republic.-Elizabeth A. Rogers
in Grange Eulletiu.