ul years, like
the _triste noche_ described by Prescott, with ports closed, and under
the imperious necessity of evoking and utilizing every possible warlike
agency, this cessation of wealth-producing industry, this drain upon
material resources, this decimation of our best men, this waste of
capital and exhaustion of the country from the Rio Grande to the
Chesapeake bay, continued remorselessly. Superadd the emancipation of
4,000,000 slaves, the sudden extinction of $1,600,000,000 of property,
the disorganization of the labor system, the upheaval of society, the
"stupendous innovation" upon habits, modes of thought, allegiance,
amounting almost to a change of civilization, and it will be easy to
see that the South started upon her new career with nothing but genial
climate, fertile soil, and brave hearts. Absence of capital, of
concentrated wealth, made it necessary to begin _de novo_. Slavery and
profitableness of crops had prevented diversity of pursuits.
Agriculture, applied to a few products, was almost our sole occupation.
Former habits had disinclined to mechanical pursuits or manual labor,
and our towns, since 1865, have been crowded with young men, who have
sought in clerkships, agencies, and professions the means of support.
These employments, if furnishing remunerative wages, are not
wealth-producing, add nothing to capital, and have aggravated the
general impoverishment.

These evils have been intensified by vicious legislation and bad
government. Federal legislation has been much in the interest of
stock-jobbers, speculators, monopolists, so that "corners" have been
fostered, and labor has paid heavy and depressing tribute to fatten
greedy cormorants. The present system of banking violates the
established principles of currency, and is in utter contradiction to
what, for a decade, by consent of all parties and financiers, was the
policy of the Government. Bad as the system is inherently by injurious
legislation, its benefits are secured to a favored class, and by
combination with other corporations, notably railroad companies, the
business of the country is largely in the control of a few monopolists,
who rule and grow rich in spite of the laws of political economy.
Promissory notes, printed with pictures on fine paper, have been
substituted for the money of the Constitution, and our young people are
growing up with the notion that this rag currency is a legitimate
measure of value and a legal solvent of d