49 It ought to wish this, but it docs not. The human heart is so constituted, that passion therein has the mastery over good sense, and even over the most obvious interest. Scarcely emerged from the strife, the South will hasten before every- thing, if care be not taken, to enter upon a new strife—a formidable conflict on the floor of Congress, and a still more terrible strife in the heart of the states; a strife against the negroes, and a strife against the friends of the negroes. May you be able, citizens of the North, to defend the South against its own mad impulses ! Of all the services that you will have rendered it, this will not be the least essential. The South is a ruined and, as it were, dead country, but its resurrection will be brilliant and rapid, provided that criminal follies interpose no obstacles. No substitute has been found for American cotton ; the European manufacturers demand and arc willing to pay a large price for it; negro laborers, adapted above all others to this kind of cultivation, are ready at hand for the South, and the immigration of colonists and capital will speedily be forthcoming. Provided that it is desired, a few years will suffice to repair the disasters of the civil war. Provided that it is desired, I say. Will it be desired ? Oh ! if it is easy to repair the disasters of the South, it is still easier to complete them. For this, it is only necessary to leave the negro question unsettled. Thenceforth, there will be no more negro labor ; instead of labor there will be conflicts, summons to arms, irritation, and hatred. Thenceforth, there will be no more colonists, and no more capital; they come only when attracted by peace and liberty ; before the prospect of disorder and oppression they will recoil terrified, and serfhood will shut out the South from them, like slavery before it. Once more the interest of the South demands peace, the interest of the South demands labor, the interest of the South demands the termination of the negro question. This must be definitive and not provisional ; the South needs contented laborers and not malcontents ; it needs a good social organization and not disorganization ; it needs a free regime 7 1^-711
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