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VOLUME 11.
THE #a
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Official Organ of the Patrons of Husbandry.
GRANGE GOSSIP.
—German Granges are being organ
ized in Wisconsin.
—A Grange packet is soon to be
placed on the Ohio River.
—The Patrons of Kentucky are mov
ing to have a dog tax law passed in
that State.
—The Farmer's Friend says that
the Saltsburg (Pa.) Grange has $20,000
in its treasury.
.—A new Grange cannot be formed
in the jurisdiction of a suspended
Grange during the time of its suspen
sion.
—Anj member of the Order hold
ing a dimit is subject to trial before
the Grange in whose jurisdiction he re
sides.
—The Grange is now firmly es
tablished in eighty-four counties in
Virginia.
—The order in Kansas appears to be
considerably exercised about the Pomo
na granges, and would rather not have
them.
—The Patious of Indiana want all
dues and fees of lady members abol
ished, in the hope of adding a larger
number of the sex to the Order.
—The Patrons of East Tennessee
have taken steps to establish an iron
manufactory at Telford’s Station,
Washington county.
—There are about two hundred gran
ges in Canada and the order there is
beginning to attract the attention of
some of the leading men, who are using
the most strenuous efforts for its ad
vancement.
—Brother A. B. Groscb, Chaplain
of the National Grange, has completed
his labors of revising, rearranging and
adding new matter to our song book,
to which duty he was appointed by the
National Executive Committee.
—Everybody is pleased with the new i
National Grange headquarters in Lou- !
isville.
—The Cherokee Agriculturist and
Patron of Husbandry is the title of a
new grange and agriculturial paper
published at Dalton, Ga., by H. A.
Wrench. We have received the first
number. It is a fine paper, ably got
ten up, and will fill a very uesful sphere.
Success to it.
—D. W. Adams, Master of the Na
tional Grange, truly says:
“ The history of the world and its
present condition has established this
fact: that all countries are poor which
export crude, raw material, and im
port the manufactured articles, and
the tendency of the people is all the
time toward a condition of dependence.
To this there have been no exceptions,
and we would do well to ‘ heed the
warning and escajH? the doom.' \\ here
the great industries —agriculture and
manufacture*—are equally dvveloj-ed.
the gem ral prosperity is assured. ’
ADDRESS
Delivered before the Early County
Agricultural Society.
BY ROBERT B. TAYLOR, ESQ.
Jfr. President and Gentlemen:
The honor conferred upon me of again
addressing your society, I assure you is
appreciated, and though feeling inade
quate to do justice to the task, yet, I
offer my humble effort for your consid
eration, and will be entirely satisfied if
but the slightest ray of light be brought
to your reflections. I propose then to
enter into the most absorbing subject
of the day, “ Capital and its Influ
ence,” and to delineate this topic in
all its general and special bearings. In
the outset, I look upon capital distrib
uted by the baud of justice and ruled
by the rod of wisdom, as a nation’s
safeguard, developing its resources in
time of peace, and strengthening its
borders in time of war. It imparts a
tone of confidence in the government
throughout all classes of its people,
and supports with a powerful arm, the
fundamental principles of liberty and
prosperity. It sustains the currency of
a country; keeps the rich secure in
their investment, and the poor satisfied
with the i eward of their labor.
To acquire this general satisfaction in
the security of person, property and
liberty throughout a nation, every sec
tion of the country must have its re
sources developed to such an extent as
to open an inviting field for sound and
healthy capital to flow into, so that each
portion organizing its own peculiar in
terests, can stand upon an equal foot
ing in the grand march of a country’s
glory and honor.
The best, the strongest governments
the world has ever seen those in which
power and wealth have been sustained,
those which have successfully stood the
shocks of war, are those in which its
capital has been equally distributed, as
far as possible, throughout all its sec
tions ; bringing from all, those reve
nues which place it upon a basis of suc
cess and stability. And, therefore, cap
ital which knows no North nor South,
nor East nor West, but flows on its un
interrupted course, keeping down the
barriers of prejudice, and cementing
the ties of national affection, is the
great promoter of a nation’s peace within
itself, and the guardian of its safetv
from danger abroad. And why ? From
the simple fact, that every citizen has
unbounded confidence in his govern
ment, faith in his fellow countrymen,
and in his bosom burns a national pride
that nothing but death can quench;
hence, a country so guarded and pro
tected by the hearts and affections of
its people, can never be conquered, and
upon its banner the words of liberty
will ever blaze in characters of burn
ing light.
If I were asked to predict the longest
standing of the nations of the earth, I
would select from the multitude, those
countries which have the greatest com
mercial and internal improvements; im
provements, which not only have de
veloped the wealth and energies, but
the intelligence and affections of its
people; improvements, which cause a
love of country, a love of home; im
provements which atone can come from
a sound and impartial capital. On the
other hand, the greatest cause of dis
sensions and rebellion, crime and blood
shed of nations, if you trace it to the
fountain head, can be attributed in a
majority of cases, to monopolized cap
■ ital, as when one section possesses more
i advantages and resources than another,
|or when the ingenuity, and energy of
I the one have ma’.ured its abilities and
[improvements over the other ; thereby
controlling the moneyed facilities of the
land. Clothed with this power, ras
cality and corruption are generated and
cultivated, and with these elements,
bribery thrusts in its hideous head, and
‘ under its baneful influences corrupted
FRANKLIN STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, AUGUST 12, 1875.
representatives are bough*, and unjust
and tyrannical laws are forced upon the
dependent section. The liberty and
peace of the country are threatened,
and the poorer section suffers the
burden and oppression of the richer.
Confidence and love of country are
gone ! Prosperity is stagnated, energy
prostrated, and monarchy and ruin
hover like a darkening cloud over such
an unfortunate people!
Trace up the downfall of nations,
from the days of Rome down to the
present, and nine cases out of ten,
greedy monopolies have been the grand
motive cause of their fall. Monopoly
creates party, party forms rings, rings
breed corruption, corruption weakens
government, and a government sur
rounded with these misfortunes is di
vided against itself, and being divided
cannot stand, and therefore, perishes
the liberty, the power, the wealth, the
progress of the nation. To illustrate
my position in a true and practical
light, in. an individual capacity, let us
lake from our midst one of our own
citizens, place around him wealth and
power, let his authority be gospel to his
community, his commands be undis-
what becomes of him ! From
his long usage of power he becomes
conceited, ambitious, imperious and
tyrannical; thwart him and he will
crush you. His sympathies are dead,
all the nobler impulses of his nature
are swallowed up in the stream of sor
did, degraded ambition, and he stands
before the eyes of an honest people, as a
monumentof the vilest degradat ion. The
picture, though an unpleasant one, is
true to life; it is the course of human
nature, when shorn of the influence of
religion, and if the meanness of human
nature can be developed under these
influences in an individual capacity, it
will be more rapidly matured in a col
lective capacity, and inasmuch as there
is wisdom in the multiplicity of good
counsel, just so there is in the mul
tiplicity ot rascality much meanness,
danger and corruption.
Now, sirs, having shown the great
advantages of a well organized and
general cap : tal, developing the entire
interests of a whole country, and the
untold sorrows and disadvantages of
monopolized capital, destroying all gen
eral prosperity, let us proceed to apply
it to our own country, and to investi
gate its influence, and the order
of investments before and since the
war. Many years ago the North saw
that slave labor was unprofitable, and
characteristic of the yankee people, not
holding anything that will not pay,
commenced transferring this property
to a climate more suitable to the negro
nature, and turned its attention to a
different order of developments and
investments. In the course of a few
years, Northern capital, seeking outlet,
was launched into a variety of enter
prises—railroads, steamships, canals
and manufactories, and when the sound
of war shook the peace of the nation,
the yakees had by their untiring and
indomitable energies, by their economy
and well directed investments, estab
lished a firm basis of prosperity ; per
fecting their educational facilities as
well as augmenting their financial re
sources, all of which resulted in suc
cess, placed them on a sound and pro
gressive footing, and whose power and
wealth rested on their great and va: ied
internal improvements. On the other
hand, the South, equally as ambitious
as the North, but not so ingenious, saw
but one mode of becoming wealthy, and
bent all her energies and applications
to the accomplishment of but one in
vestment. Her hopes as a people, as
individuals, hung upon amassing negro
property. That seemed to be the lead
ing ambition of the Southern mind,
and finding the cultivation of cotton
and the raising of negroes, the most
rapid way of becoming rich, madly pur
sued that course to the neglect of ail
other great, diversified interests, which
are the strength and power of a country.
Rapidly becoming independent, she was
ambitious, and ambition linked with
wild enthusiasm, foreqs reason and
judgment down, and the generations
that mingled in it, each felt it was the
salvation of their times, and the only
road to wealth and honor for their pos
terity. Up to the time of the war
though wealthy, in what did it consist ?
Four milllions of slaves, (a tremendous
capital, but not one of permanent se
curity), a capital that could not stand
the defeat which threatened the South,
and unaided by the alliance of other
great internal investments, stood trem
bling in the balance. War did come,
the Southern arms were overpowered ;
at the mandate of the conqueror, the
great accumulation of years, the only
great investment, was swept away like
a passing cloud, and the poor, bleeding
South, with no financial resources, lay
prostrate at the feet of the North,
while the latter, powerful in her diver
sified wealth, became richer and more
powerful, and to bring the application
of my argument, she was ambitious,
corrupt and tyrannical. How has she
manifested it? In every conceivable
manner that has shown vindictiveness
and relentless hatred. Possessing the
capital and the means of sustaining it,
she has'ever since the late war, main
tained her power, nursed corruption,
fed lawless ambition, and is now water
ing the fast increasing plants of tyranny
and injustice. The seat of government,
in all its legislation, has been tainted
with the foul atmosphere of oppression
towards the poorer section, and it being
unable to have a voice of respect in the
council of the nation, has had to stand
like a poor pleading beggar, only to
suffer and be denied. And, sirs, when
I think of the injustice she has con
tended with; when I think of the ig
noble exactions she has had to,accede
to; when I see the persecutions that
have been heaped upon my afflicted
country, and how nobly and patiently
she has borne them ; when I see the
huge form of monarchy hovering over
the bulwarks of republican liberty, and
still see the efforts of our enemies try
ing to enact every ignominious law to
humiliate our manhood and bring the
blush of shame to the cheeks of our
fair women, patience ceases to be a
virtue, my old soldier nature up
within my indignant heart, and I pant
and long for anether opportunity to
strike one blow for the safety of our
noble women, and the liberty of our
Southern laud!
But under present circumstances, to
gain our rights, or to attain to indepen
dence by another war, we know to be
useless. Shall we, then, be compelled to
abide by corrupt legislation and unjust
taxation the balance of our existence?
No, sirs, I trust not; but we will have
to suffer those indignities attendant
upon an overpowered and impoverish
ed section, for som< i me yet to come.
What, then, is oyt hope, and what is
our course ? Let us see what should be
the true policy of the South, and how
that policy can alone be effectual. I
hold the position that under the pres
ent embarrassed condition of the South
ern people, they can never reach the
foothold of security and equal rights
by submission, nor by statesmanship
or party triumph alone. I know the
opinion is prevalent that the ballot box
is our only hope ; and the government
once in the hands of our party, that
our glory will be achieved and our am
bition reached, whether the great fi
nancial interests otf the South are de
veloped or not. Never, sirs, were the
confidence and hopes of a people led
bv a more delusive phantom ; never in
the history of the world has there ever
been recorded one single instance of a
vanquished nation, stripped of her cap
ital and rights, that ever rose rapidly
to her former eminence and respected
rights, unless the cause were attributa
ble to one fact alone—her great natu
ral resources, and her recuperative
financial power
The same laws of respect that gov
ern individuals can justly be applied
to nations. Let misfortune strip a man
of his earthlv goods, no matter what
his attainments are, he meets the cold
shoulder on every side ; he then and
there loses his power and influence.
Let him, on the other hand, by inher
itance, or his indomitable will, rise
again in wealth : there is a social word
for him on every lip ; his views are lis
tened to; he is offered every assistance,
and his rights are protected and re
spected. Then, sirs, the only hope, the
only resort to throw off the ■ yoke of
our thraldom as a people, is to become
independent, that by its power we can
force our way through the labyrinths
of Radical prejudices and Northern
corruption ; and instead of begging,
we will command our rights. Then
clad in the sunshine of prosperity, our
voice will be heard, and Southern
peace, with Southern rights, will be se
cured. To control this position, all
the Southern States should administer
their governments with the strictest
economy ; that by their savings, they
could offer splendid inducements to
their people in bringing to light the
hidden wealth of the earth—the great
mineral resources which a kind Provi
dence has so lavishly bestowed upon
us. Manufactories and steamships
should be encouraged by special legis
lation, and the most liberal indujjfl*
ments; from the fact that these two
great developers of a country’s wealth
would be the surest foundation of
Southern success —the outlet for direct
trade, the grand thoroughfare to South
ern independence. Thus, a spirit of
competition would ensue between the
ability of the North and the wealth of
the South, and from a feeling of rival
ry there would arise on the part of the
former a feeling of respect; old preju
dices would be wiped out, legislation
would be just, and their self-interest
would prompt them to raise no barrier
against us, but seek to perpetuate ami
cable relations between the two power
ful sections. It is human nature, it is
true, and never, never can we secure
and retain our rights, until our re
sources are equally developed, and we
equally independent with the North.
And in conclusion, by what sole
method can we effect our aim ; and
upon what hinge does the great prob
lem hang? I answer, upon agriculture
and home institut : ons rests the redemp
tion of the South, both politically and
financially. Not by such management
as has been adopted for the last few
years, moving Heaven and earth to
strain credit and to make cotton, while
the contents of our barns and smoke
houses, nearly all of our wearing appa
rel and farming implements, are coming
from the North, but a system that has
for its grand aim diversified agricul
ture ; that would make us proud of
wearing Southern clothes,eating South
ern bread and meat, patronizing South
ern institutions generally, and investing
in Southern manufactories. An agri
culture that makes every home self
supporting, knows no mortgages, wants
no credit; and, independent in itself,
can sustain other languishing institu
tidns of the land, and with its surplus
capital, can develop the great sleeping
resources of our noble South. Can it
be done? Yes; with will and econ
omy we can tear from us the sorrows
of poverty, drive away Southern gloom,
and make glad our firesides with the
sunshine* of plenty and satisfaction.
Not to sit in, or about our homes watch
ing a few trifling laborers, under the
impression they will make us indepen
dent ; no, but rise in our glorious
manhood, and, with our sturdy arms,
to wield the blows that will shake off
our trving waftts ; nor to adopt the
ruinous credit system, with every want
at home to be supplied, but to try to
make our homes self-sustaining ; our
wants but little and necessitous, and
fur that little, pay the cash ! Are we
Approaching it? I am proud to say our
condition is improving. The bitter ex
perience of debt, empty cribs and
smokehouses, spurious guano and low
priced cotton, has made such an im
pression upon the Southern farmer,
driving away his wild enthusiasm, that
they have left a space for common
sense and sober judgment to creep
into, and the universal cry is now
“Economy and retrenchment,” with
the glorions motto on his banner, “On
to victory and independence.” The
bulwarks of Southern economy are
gradually being raised so high that the
tide of extortion that has inundated
us in the past, begins to slacken at the
sight of our resistance, and this year
millions of dollars will be saved to the
South in the raising of corn, meat
and home-made manures, which here
tofore have drained us to such an ex
tent, that our merchants have had to
cast upon us a “cross-eyed look,’’and our
loved ones at homer, a gentle, but stun
ning reproof. But, thank God, the
future bids fair to undo the past, and
the poor Southern farmer looks out
upon the horizon of gloom and doubt,
and sees a light gleaming ! It is the
vanguardjof the Grangers’ march,whose
torchlight is in the hand of lovely wo
man, revolutionizing the land with
economy and improvement. Already
the power of the Brotherhood is felt,
as it calls upon the sons of the mourn
ing South to rally to its flag, marching
with its proud banner, scattering roses
of hope among the homes of agricul
ture’s afflicted children, waging war
upon the task-masters and monopolies
of the North, who have been living in
luxury upon the sweat of our honest
toil, and like the canker worm, have
eaten up our substance. And now,
fellow-laborers, let us be true to our
selves and the cause we represent, and
all will be well. Already the task
masters begin to feel the power of our
rebellious spirit, and, like the weary,
oppressed Israelite, panting for liberty,
we will yet march over on dry ground
through the sea of our troubles, and
standing safely upon the other side
from the touch of pursuers, we can
quietly look upon the enemies that
have enslaved us swallowed up in the
waves of a just retribution I Then we
can exclaim,“Once impoverished South,
thy weary wings will droop no more 1”
and grasping her trailing, tattered
banner, we can hoist it upon the mast
head of our industries, and as its folds
are proudly waving, proclaim to the
world liberty and independence forever.
RIPE WHEAT.
We bent to-day o’er a coffined form,
And onr tears fell softly down ;
We looked our last on the aged face,
With its look of peace, its patient grace,
And hair like a silver crown.
We touched our own to the clay-cold hands,
From life’s long labor at rest;
And among the blossoms white and sweet, 1 ,
We noted a bunch of golden wheat
Clasped close to the silent breast.
The blossoms whispered of fadeless bloom,
Os a land where fall no tea: s ;
The ripe wheat told of toil and care,
The patient waiting, the trusting prayer,
The garnered good of the years.
We know not what work his hands had found
What rugged places his feet;
What cross was his, what blackness of night;
We saw but the peace, the blossoms white,
And the bunch of ripened wheat.
As each goes up from the field of earth,
Bearing the treasure of life,
God looks for some gathered grain of good,
From the ripe harvest that shining stood,
But waiting the reaper’s knife.
Then labor well, that in death you go
Not only with blossoms sweet
Not bent with doubt, and burdened with fears,
And dead dry husks of wasted years—
But laded with golden wheat,
For the Georgia Grange.]
Postponed.
Editors Grange—Our Grange fes
tival is postponed until the third Wed
nesday in September. The appoint
ment for 12th of August conflicted
with the Agricultural meeting in Dal
ton, and for 14th, with the Baptist
meeting appointed to commence then
at Fair Mount.
Respectfully, J. G. B. Erwin.
Fair Mount, July 24. 1875.
We learn tQ climb by keeping our eyes not
on the hills that lie behind, but on the moun
tains that rise before us.
The sense of guilt often makes men afraid
without cause.
NUMBER 18.
