MR. GREELEY'S LETTERS FROM TEXAS AND THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI: TO WHICH ARE ADDED HIS Address to the Farmers of Texas, AND HIS SPEECH ON HIS RETURN TO NEW YORK, JUNE 12, 1871. NEW YORK: TRIBUNE OFFICE. 1871. Greeley, Horace. MR. GREELEY'S LETTERS FROM TEXAS AND THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI: TO WHICH ARE ADDED HIS Address to the Farmers of Texas, AND HIS SPEECH ON HIS RETURN TO NEW YORK, JUNE 12, 1871. NEW YORK: TRIBUNE OFFICE. 1871. F 201 THE LESSON OF OUR CIVIL WAR. The New Orleans Price Current-a journal of the intensest Southern proclivities-discusses the visit of Mr. Greeley to the South as follows: "The industrial doctrines professed by Mr. Greeley have subjugated the South. Not because he professed them-they were planted before his day. They originated with the great De Witt Clinton, who persisted in the execution of a great work of internal improvement which connected the Atlantic with the Lakes. That canal conducted population into the Indian wilderness. It was the pioneer of those other ways which have poured all Europe upon the North-Western territory won by the arms of the Southern colonies, and which have naturally brought the votes and arms of that population to the aid of the cities and sections that bestowed these blessings upon them. Mr. Webster, Mr. Carey, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Greeley have been the advocates of the capital, commercial, and mechanical interests. It followed that when the question of inherent rights in the States was referred to the arbitrament of the sword; the one section was on hand with soldiers, ships, arms, food, money, and credit, while the other had courage and a just cause, patriotism and endurance. Now we are far from agreeing with the school in which Mr. Greeley is an eminent professor, that any industry is entitled to special protection at the hands of the Government; but we are satisfied that no people can ever hope to be free that exchange staple productions, worth gold and silver, for commodities which perish in the use; nor who have to send abroad for the guns that they fight with, the food that they eat, and the very clothing that they wear. There can be no doubt but that the command of immigrant numbers, capital, and mechanical skill, with the financial resources of the Government and country, was due to the school of material and industrial development at the North. They received powerful aid from the total want of preparation in these departments at the South. We have always thought that Ames & Co., the greatest manufacturers of spades, shovels, and axes in the world, did more to conquer a people who had not a manufactory of spades, axes, or shovels, than any general of the Federal army. 66 Setting aside, then, the ruinous application which has been made of industrial progress by the Federalists, we have no cause of complaint against the disciples of this school. On the contrary, it is the true duty of the South to cultivate all those industries, the want of which has enslaved her. The foundation of war and conquest was laid when Washington in vain adjured the Southern people to connect the waters of the Chesapeake with the North-Western territory. Mr. Greeley happens to have been a cotemporary of the success of the system founded by Clinton, Adams, and Webster. If there be something in that system to reform or oppose, let us do so; but do not let us commit the mistake of turning our condemnation upon individuals who profess the doctrine. "There is one topic upon which Mr. Greeley is entitled to the unreserved approval of all who live by land and labor. He has been one of the most intelligent and consistent advocates of agricultural improvement. What he 'Knows about Farming' has become a jocular phrase; but, if he knows as much as he has printed, he possesses no despicable amount of knowledge. It is a little late in the day to sneer at book-farming, when the best minds of the world are engaged in analyzing soil and seed to lessen the labors or increase the profits of the farmer. The Agricultural Department of The New York Tribune contains as much of scientific and practical knowledge as any other paper, and, as it has a larger circulation than most, must diffuse much of that knowledge." |
