Year: 1866

Southern land owners and agrieulturists are
aunted with the paucity Of the immigration
which has responded to their appeals for
abor 1t is alleged that they have failed
rom lack of energy to make proper exertions
q compete with other communities in respect
20 the same object. On the other hand, when,
they relax efforts which have
proved so nearly barren of results, and adj
dress themselves earnestly to utilizing 6uch
elements of industry as are still available,
they are accused of culivating sentiment
and habit of culpable Indifference to immi-
grafton of any kind and from any quarter.
Nay, more; it is asserted by Northern jour
nails of some reputation for veracity, and Of
undeniable influence over a vide circle OF
readers that the Southern people are at this
moment, with few exceptions, falsifyiug the
professions made in their behalf by the press
of an earnest desire for immigration by r1-
friendly manifestations towards those person
who have already gone from the North and
settled for the pursuit of various a7ocations in
the South. If such We're the fact, 1t would
be deplorable in the highest degree. But the
assertion is an impossible one, i'll the face of
other statements made by the same journals and
whose truth is nowhere questioned. They
say, for example, that in every community
in the South there is q terrible need of both
Northern capital and industry. They are
glad to recognize-for they relish the spec
tucle of conscious disadvantages and difficult
ties on the part Of their Southern neighbors-
the many indications which attest that this
need is at once deeply felt and sincerely
acknowledged. And then they declare that
those who thus feel and acknowledge the
need, take pains to defeat supply of it by
repelling Northern immigration, This is no
less than asserting moral and economical
impossibility 1t would be as reasonable to
expect a merchant to throw into the river a
valuable and much desired shipment Of goods,
or planter to drive away his laborers in the
most critical stage Of his crop. Such things
might happen, to be sure, in individual cases


They are conceivable because insanity is pos
sible. But it is inconceivable that they could
be true of a whole people.


The true difficulties underwhich the South
ern States have labored in respect to immi-


grafton may be easily discerned and compre-


hended by any candid mind. Their impoy-


erished condition, as matter Of course, Grip


pied them in that particular no less than in


all others connected with the work Of mate


rial recuperation. There were already exist


ing in the West wealthy and powerful agen-


cies for promoting immigration to that sec


ton There was in the South an utter lack


of the necessary money or credit to organize


an etfectual system of competition with those


agencies. Something, however, was at,


tempted in this way, with inadequate means.


by individuals and by States, and a percept


bly, little has been accomplished. The imni.


grafton bureau Of this State has had pub


lished good deal Of fine writing to set forth
the inducements held out by Louisiana to Eu,
ropean and Northern immigrants; and, on the


whole its advertising has seemed attractive
and deserving of much more attention from
those addressed than appears to have been
accorded


As yet no public Or private plans adopted
in this or any other part of the South have
been able to sensibIy divert the stream of for
eign immigration which, striking the northern


coast of the United States, has thence fol


three-quarters Of a century past, pursued {


westward course. It is estimated that out o


about six millions of immigrants who have
arrived within that period, less than two hun
dred thousand found their way to the South


OF became permanent addition to the South
ern population. It would be tedious ant


needless to explain fully the reasons of tli


7fz
Il and some economical. 1t is enough 10 knoy


that the most formidable of all obstacles t.


either European or Northern labor in th


South, in social as well as an economical


point of view-the institution of slayery--nt


longer exists. Yet it is we'll to consider, also
that the operation Of cause is sometime


felt long after the substantial existence of tn


cause has ceased The stream of immigration


is influenced by a species Of gregarious in


stinct, and when migration has once set in
certain direction, it is almost as difficult
turn it to another as it would be to chang
the course of a flock of migratory birds i
one of their annual flights from the north t


the south, or from the south to the noltE
7 Yet if we suppose that the birds
Z 5tl(lSuly tIINONCi "iIu ICttoOL, LILY
A learned that, by some geographical an
4 climatic revolution, the objects which the
? seek are in the east or the west, instea


of the north or the south, we can not dout


that they would then spontaneously chang
Y their course in order to find those objects
/, This is no idle hypothesis but an instructiy
! parable. It gives us the true key to tn
: problem of immigration to the South. Th


instinct and the habit which now concur
s. direct European and Northern immigrant
e exclusively to the West can only be overcom
n by making them comprehend that the Object
in quest of which they are going are MOI
: abundant and accessible in the South tina


elsewhere, that nowhere can they so easil
and so speedily improve their condition {
+ here. Some time must elapse before sue
II information will manifest its full effects 81
j. these effects will at last be witnessed here j
y the lower valley of the Mississippi, as surel
n as the heavens above shall endure and IL
G ground beneath shall stand firm. NLisfortu1
: may rob us of much, but no mischance orma