Year: 1875

address recently delivered IN North


Carolina, before a Council of Patrons


of Husbandry, by ex-Gov. q. B.


Vance, is full Of plain common


Sense and practical and useful sug-


gestions upon the subject of capital


and labor, to workers in any depart


ment Of life:


Brain manure is our great want


education for young and old, espe-


cially in matters pertaining to ag-


riculture. We don's.so much need


laborers as a proper utilization


Of that we have. Instead of croak-


ing 80 much at the negroes, we


should work q little more ourselves.
Ateyery depot and crossroads in the


State, you may see any day crowds
ofidlers standing around loose, whit
ting sticks and splitting at a mark,
abusing the negro as a laborer,


lamenting the scarcity Of money,
and hoping: for that issue Of sA-
000,000 of reserve lately discussed
in Congress and cussed elsewhere
There is reallyno ground for despon-
deney anywhere. Notwithstanding
our great losses by war, substantially


all that we had before ishere. Our
mother earth ishere, and our tillers
to it are undisturbed the early and
latter rains still fall according to
the promise, and the genial sun
shine still warns and fructifes as OF
old, whilst the goodness of God still
bestows the increase. The strength
and courage of our people are still
with them; and though, alas! many
Of our bravest and best are nothere,
yet all the glorious recollections OF
our history remain to cheer and
bless us. And the negro, too, is
hers as good sor better than he
was before, if weknow how to work
him. Don't despair of finding a
way to do that. You say he won't
work unless he is compelled-very
well, neither will white men. But
compu1sion is Of different sorts.
Formerly you compelled him by
virtue of being his msster-now,
compel him to work by force OF his
necessities. Show him that you can
live without him, put your own hand
to the plough and. say to him, if
you will help, well; if not, well
again enforce the laws against vag
abondage, and he will gladly work
when he can do no better. At pres
ent he thinks he can make a living by
voting, but he will come out OF that
in due season. On the whole I am
inclined to think he is the best
laborer we are likely to get in the
South as he is the best tool we
have with which to cultivate the
soil, let us sharpen and improve
him in every possible way. And
for this great Anglo-Saxon people,
whose blood has filed the earth
with the most benefcent and utili-
tartan civilization it has ever wit
messed, and strewed the shores OF
it's oceans with mighty cries, re-
ticulated it's surface with steam
roads, covered the wild seas with
the white wings; Of commerce, and
even invaded their unknown depths
with the iron-shod pathways of the
lightning, for these men to acknowl-
edge that the wheels Of their pro-
gress are stopped because the ne
groes won't work and keep contracts,
is a sorry spectacle indeed! Shame
to us if it be So!


And as to capital, the want of
which makes us complain so loudly
are we really suffering for that?
I say not. We are suffering from
a want of capacity to use what we
have, rather. What relief would a
fresh issue of government currency
do us, unless we had the equivalent
to give for it? Suppose that $A,-
were given to us, how long
would we keep it, if our comsump-
ton annually exceeded our sales as
far as it does now? Like water
seeking it's level it would soon find
it's way to those who had a surplus
to give for it. What is the use of
an idle fellow lounging around with
his hands in his pockets, without a
thing in the world to sell, but who
buys his very axe handle and his
cabbage from the north, abusing
Eastern capitalists for grabbing all
the currency? Let him raise bale
of cotton, and see if he don't rob
that Yankee of some Of his iU-got-
ten gains? Let him grow his own
pork, flour, corn, and hay, and see
if that bloated bondholder don't