Newspaper Page Text
(NEW SEBIES,)
\ VOL. I. (
no. 22 .
The Devereux Grape.
(VITIS .KSTIVAI.IS.)
Synonyms. Black July, Lincoln,
Sumpter, Thurmond. Sherry, Blue
Grape, Lenoir, etc.
The Devereux Grape is of Southern
origin, and was formerly a popular
grape, but owing to its unproductive
ness is not well adapted to vineyard
culture. Its vigorous growth and free
dom from disease, entitles this grape to
a place in the garden and in the list of
the amateur, and in favorable seasons
Written for the Banner of the South and Planters’
Journal.
Is there any Real and General Pros
perity in the South'?
ISY COI~ B. T. lIARKIS, SPARTA, GA.
The solution of a question without
the aid of statistical information and by
argument alone, is scarcely ever so
palpable as to satisfy all minds. There
is such diversity of intellect—such vari
ous inodes of thinking and reasoning,
that different conclusions are most gene
rally reached, because of the different
methods of argumentation adopted.
The different datas regarded as correct,
by different reasoners on the same sub
ject, will readily account for the results.
Facts are assumed which vary, neces
BY THE CHRONICLE PUBLISHING COMPANY, AUGUSTA, GA.
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1871.
and soil will produce moderate crops;
and like most grapes of this species
makes excellent wine. Mr. Berekmans
gives the following description:
“Bunches medium, very compact and
long-sliouldered; berries small, black,
sweet, vinous; never rots or mildews;
very vigorous grower, but not a pro
fuse bearer; ripens last of July, and
makes a fine wine.” A. C. Cook.
Covington , Ga., Feb., 1871.
sarily, the conclusion, according to
their strength and the influence they
may have in every reasoning process.
Few of these assumed facts are facts in
reality. They will not always bear the
closest scrutiny. They are often exag
gerated, and not unfrequently, they are
underestimated. Other facts of greater
or less importance are left out of view.
Facts, are of the first importance in
the solution of all questions. Hence
the importance of their entire accuracy
and their perfect completeness, for they
are the controlling power which directs
and moves the whole machinery of the
human mind. And these thoughts ap
ply with all their force to facts of a
statistical character. To bring about
correct results, the facts themselves
must be strictly correct. Figures never
falsify, but accomplish their results with
unerring certainty, however wonderful.
But they, too, must be strictly correct
or they signally fail to place the whole
truth in all its completeness before our
visions. Wesee, then, eschewing all
statistics, the difficulties which surround
us in giving an answer to the question,
propounded at the head of this article. 1
We are but a plain farmer and have
never been a student of statistics. We
shall then, in the discussion of the sub
ject assume our facts with the utmost
care and soundest discretion which we i
can command. For our object is, not [
to mislead hut to instruct ns far as we
can—not to work evil but to do good j
—not to join in what we conceive to \
be a senseless cry of prosperity when j
every great interest of our beloved land i
of inevitable ruin. We shall ignore the j
is either languishing or on the pathway
fact too—one of th , greatest import-1
ance, as every cautua and sane mind
must admit—that good government is
an indispensable pre requisite to last
j ing and solid prosperity.
I Now, is there any real and general
j prosperity in the South ? Where are
the evidences to he found? In her
! agriculture? She counts her cotton
) hales by the million and multiplies the
I whole by tlie price per pound and hun
dreds of millions of dollars are the re
sults? What becomes of these hun
dreds of millions? Where are the
fruits to be found ! Where the invest
ments? Where the evidences of in
creasing wealth and of general pros
perity ? We answer, nowhere, scarcely.
Our farm buildings remain in a dilapi
dated state—our fences are still decayey
! and worthless—our farm stock are cle
j creasing and degenerating—our grana-
ries are seldom filled as they were be
fore the war—our supplies of meat and
flour and a large portion, of our corn
come from the West, and our syrup
and sugar are largely supplied by the
I islands of the sea—our mules and
| horses are brought to us from grain
i producing sections only, though mostly
located in the South, and our commerce
is carried on in vessels belonging to
strangers, and, what is worse still, by
! strangers who hate us and are doing
j everything in their power to destroy us
I—our manufactures come principally
j from the same sources—our banks are
! owned and controlled by them, and our
! railroads are being built and owned by
the same people with State bonds en
l dorsed by our own State governments
1 —our very lives and property are tnost
| ly insured by Northern companies, who
reap all the benefits, however large they
may he, from a business so remunera
tive as to double and treble t|»eir capi
tal every few years after paying all ex
penses. These are stubborn, undenia
ble facts. They strike every reflecting
mind with astonishment, but they can
not he controverted. Even the guano
now so generally used in the cotton
belt is brought to our shores in North
ern vessels and bought primarily of
Northern men, and paid for out of the
proceeds of the cotton crop, as the
South exports but little outside of that
crop.
Where, we ask, are the evidences of
a general prosperity ? We ans wer that
they are nowhere to be found on any
thing like a large scale? We admit
that here and there in comparatively
a few localities, some •of the evi
dences are to be found. "We will
not stoj) inqure whether the capi
tal employed is owned by our own
people or whether it, comes from
abroad. It is a fact, well known, that
a large portion of it was accumulated
in other latitudes and that it seeks in
vestments here, because it is thought to
he more profitable here, than where it
was accumulated. Subtract this from
the capital accumulated on Southern
soil and you get the true measure of
Southern prosperity, be it much or
little.
The truth is we fear that all this talk
about Southern prosperity is not only a
delusion but an error of the most seri
ous import. It comes down here from
a more frigid clime than our own and
from lips that have too often deceived
us to our own injury. It emanates
from heads that are too fertile in
schemes of plunder, and from hearts
that are too cold and unfeeling for the
abode of human sympathy. We do
not feel inclined to embrace the idea,
because of its parentage. It did not
originate here or we should have been
among the first to discover the welcome
truth. It is patent to all that no such
fact can he true without leaving every
where the unmistakable evidences of it.
lsur thousands of water falls would be
improved. The hum of the spindle and
the rapid click of the shuttle “would be
as familiar to our ears as household
words.” The smoke of the furnace and
the ring of the anvil would be seen and
heard from every hill top, the princely
mansion and the tasteful cottage would
beautify the landscape, wherever, fer
tility of soil and health and convenience
united—the land would be ours—all its
improvements would be ours—the pro
ducts of the soil—ot the loom and spin
dle—of the machine-shop, would belong
to us—we should own the vessels that
bear our products off to other lands—
pocket the interest on banking capital
as well as the profits from the insurance
business.
And these would he the necessary
and legitimate results of a general pros
perity. In the absence of such results
there can be but one conclusion and
that is, that we pay out these hundreds
of millions of dollars annually, as ex
penses in some form or other, for it is
not true that “the Southern people are
hoarding their gold for the want of con
fidence in greenbacks” to any considera
ble extent. Nor are they hoarding it
at all as a general thing. There may
lie isolated cases here and there but
I they are rare. It is a libel upon South
ern character. We are too sagacious
and enterprising to commit any such
; folly. It is a miserable attempt to flat
i ter an oppressed and down-trodden
. people into a willing acquiescence of
[ the demands of an insatiate and ever
’ present tax gatherer, “who gives but
“ten days” notice for the payment of
his unjust demands. We spurn it be
| cause it is false and full ot rottenness
; Its iniquity we loathe because it is
“charged to the brim,” with base de
signs upon our purse, to fill the coffers
of others and to support the fungus
: growth of hungry office holders upon
the body politic.
We see ourselves, as a people, with
oit prosperity. We must be* careful
! not to confound individual prosperity
IOLD SERIES,)
t VOL. 111. I
NO. 32.
with the prosperity of the people. And
seeing this we are again falling into
the same old errors that we have ever
practiced. In fact, we are augmenting
and intensifying our follies. We are
planting our broad acres in cotton, en
riching by fertilizers that come from
“the very ends of the earth” at a heavy
cost, increased in price to us, by the
labors of the manipulator—by internal
transportation—by an exorbitant rate
of interest and by the charge for ac
ceptance of the draft by the factor. "We
are making all the cotton we can to
the exclusion of all the necessaries of
life only to reduce the price of the one
and to enhance the price of every neces
sary. What folly! What madness!
liaise our own supplies and after that
make what cotton we can, is the true
policy. The cotton crop would be
clear gain to the planter and, the best of
it all would he that it would bring him
as much, if not more money, than the
large crop could possibly command.—
But how difficult the task of convinc
ing men of their true interests and
getting them to pursue them! It is
really a melancholy fact, that the plant
er, of all men, reasons less, calculates"
less and blunders more than any other
man. It may be that he has more
hope, even in adversity, than other
men. The sale of his cotton at a loss,
one year, rather stimulates him to make
the more the next year and the next.
“The hah - of the dog is good forthe bite.”
This is his argument. He is in debt
from making cotton and buying every
thing in the way of necessaries. The
price of last years’ crop was too low,
although the crop was much above an
average one 1 Therefore he must try
it again, hoping for better prices or
what is equally as preposterous, for bet
ter luck! He realises the fact that the
hair is not good for the bite, “but that
it aggravates the symptoms in the ex
act ratio" of the application of “the
hair.” Wonderful philosophy this. It
overturns all philosophy. It does more.
It negatives all experience, and not
content with this demolition of all rea
son and experience, it actually brands
its devotees as stupid, senseless, crazy,
j fit only for a lunatic asylum or “as
hewers of wood” <fcc.
We should do injustice to our South
ern planters, if we were to leave them
in the position in which we have placed
them. What we have said does not
apply to all, we would hope, not to the
many , but to the few, not to the intel
ligent but to the ignorant, not to those
: who read, think and understand, but
; to those who are too wise to receive in-
I strnctions, to those who are incapable
| of understanding the relation between
I “cause and effect”—who ridicule all
j all true science, whatever its origin,
whether established after long and
1 patient investigation by the most pro
found intellects of this or any proceed
ing age and sustained by every rational
experiment or by the wisdom of God
himself in the “great laboratory of
nature. No! no! Upon them argu
ment has no effect, for it is like “cast
ing pearls before swine.” We leave
them to their fate for the present—to
their “luck' until forced by their neces
sities and bitter experiences to learn
■ wisdom, or until education or example
shall have their legitimate influence
! over them and their children. This
; muddy stream must be purified or the
: fountain of knowledge must be polluted
l lor all time to come. And he or they