At the time I am writing, the owners of property in Richmond are holding it at such high rates as to repel Northern purchasers.  Letters from that city say, the residents have determined to sell no property to Northern men, when they can possibly avoid it.  No encouragement is likely to be given to Northern farmers and artisans to migrate thither.  A scheme for taking a large number of European emigrants directly from foreign ports to Richmond, and thence to scatter them throughout Virginia, is being considered by the Virginia politicians.  The wealthy men in the Old Dominion, who were Secessionists for the sake of secession, and who gave every assistance to the Rebel cause, are opposed to the admission of Northern settlers.  They may be unable to prevent it, but they will be none the less earnest in their efforts.

This feeling extends throughout a large portion of Virginia, and exists in the other States of the South.  Its intensity varies in different localities, according to the extent of the slave population in the days before the war, and the influence that the Radical men of the South have exercised.  While Virginia is unwilling to receive strangers, North Carolina is manifesting a desire to fill her territory with Northern capital and men.  She is already endeavoring to encourage emigration, and has offered large quantities of land on liberal terms.  In Newbern, Wilmington, and Raleigh, the Northern element is large.  Newbern is “Yankeeized” as much as New Orleans.  Wilmington bids fair to have intimate relations with New York and Boston.  An agency has been established at Raleigh, under the sanction of the Governor of the State, to secure the immediate occupation of farming and mining lands, mills, manufactories, and all other kinds of real estate.  Northern capital and sinew is already on its way to that region.  The great majority of the North Carolinians approve the movement, but there are many persons in the State who equal the Virginians in their hostility to innovations.

In South Carolina, few beside the negroes will welcome the Northerner with open arms.  The State that hatched the secession egg, and proclaimed herself at all times first and foremost for the perpetuation of slavery, will not exult at the change which circumstances have wrought.  Her Barnwells, her McGraths, her Rhetts, and her Hamptons declared they would perish in the last ditch, rather than submit.  Some of them have perished, but many still remain.  Having been life-long opponents of Northern policy, Northern industry, and Northern enterprise, they will hardly change their opinions until taught by the logic of events.

Means of transportation are limited.  On the railways the tracks are nearly worn out, and must be newly laid before they can be used with their old facility.  Rolling stock is disabled or destroyed.  Much of it must be wholly replaced, and that which now remains must undergo extensive repairs.  Depots and machine-shops have been burned, and many bridges are bridges no longer.  On the smaller rivers but few steamboats are running, and these are generally of a poor class.  Wagons are far from abundant, and mules and horses are very scarce.  The wants of the armies have been supplied with little regard to the inconvenience of the people.