Year: 1879

Two floLureSi


A brief statement from Washington


declares that in the year ending june


80, 1879, 14l, 1881 immigrants arrived il


this country as against 103, ,062 in the


previous year. This tide of emigration


has set in again, and is steadily flowing
to the Northwest. Not five per cent. o.


the arrivals go to the South, and Ger.
tainly the South wants fresh blood and
muscle as much as the West. Why is
it that this, the most favored portion Of
the country, is thus passed byP The
South is rich in everything to invite
emigrants; with rich soil, mighty rivers
and an Incompatible climate; with
mineral wealth that is waiting to be de.
veloped, it would be thought that that
would be the goal of those seeking
homes in new country. The advant-
ages of the South are not unknown.
Emigrants have gone there, some To
stay, but the larger number to return.
In speech made in the House of Rep
resentatives, April 26, 1879, by the
Hon. Il. G. Horr, of Michigan, the fol
lowing occurs:


"When l was in that country 1.-THE
lower peninsula of Michigan] l asked
men why it was they sought homes in
such cold climate when the South was
full of unoccupied lands. One gentle
man told me he had tried to live in the
South, but that having been Union
soldier, and having settled in Mississip-
pi near where Chisholm and his family
were murdered, he was compelled to
flee for his life. Another in
telligent appearing gentleman stated to
me that he, too, had tried to live in the
South; that while he was there he was
under no fear of his life, but he claimed
that the people treated him with such
indifference on account of his political
notions that he could not stay"


All this, we are aware, is an old story,
but in considering the reasons that the
South, if not retrograding, at the most
is only making slow progress, while the
rest of the country is steadily advanc-
ing, it cannot be passed over, for it con-
tributes not little to those conditions
which are so seriously operating against
the Southern portion of the country.
1t can be claimed for the South, of
course, that having been the theater of
war, it would be unnatural to expect
that prosperity could attend it, especial
ly after having passed the war it fell
into the clutches of the carpet-b bag
gers" but that there is really no good
ground for such assumptions is wit
messed in the fact that last year
the crop of the great staple of
the South was greater than ever
before in the history of the country.
This then proves the South is not wholly
prostrate; that it has made some prog
ress, but while it has been creeping
forward the rest of the country has been
going at a canter. Fourteen years have
elapsed since Lee laid down his arms at
Appomattox, and in that time the Ma
tion has grown as in no corresponding
period. Up to- the panic immigrants
poured in in an increasing stream each
year. Few went to the South; all to
the West. Why was this? The South
had more to offer than the North, but
the immigrants, who had heard the
stories of blood and outrage, sought
the colder North. This is one way the
South has stood in it's own light. There
has also been disposition evinced to
repudiate obligations. Rings have taken
hold of the Government. In the en-
deavor to make a Democratic close cor
poration bold and INSCRIPTIONS men
have acquired power and welded it to
their own pecuniary advantage. The
condition to which Louisiana has been
brought since the close of Governor
Kellogg's Administration is a case in
point. 1t is idle to assume that the
present decentralization of the South is
attributable to the effect of war. 1t
can be directly traced to the Incidence
and apathy of the people, and of their
stubborn objection to the presence of
strangers, in the fear evidently that
they will be deprived of political power.
Could other rulers have brought Louis
lana to more desperate condition than
Nichols hasP AS to the apathy and in
difference of the people to their own
interests, the case of Memphis is one in
point. Had the people there been as
industrious and energetic as they ought
to have been, yellow fever would not
be epidemic there to-day. The South
wants new blood, new men, and differ
erent government before it will be what
it ought to. 1t has in it all that makes
a country rich and prosperous, but, in
stead of being this, it is a debt-ridden,
badly-governed country which gets
along il happy-go-lucky way. 1t is
like the drunken, staggering scion of
an old house, who haunts taverns,
boasting of his greatness, while his
heritage is going to the dogs.-M Y
Commercial Advertiser.