Formerly, the West was the only field to which emigrants could direct their steps.  There was an abundance of land, and a great need of human sinew to make it lucrative.  When land could be occupied by a settler and held under his pre-emption title, giving him opportunity to pay for his possession from the products of his own industry and the fertility of the soil, there was comparatively little need of capital.  The operations of speculators frequently tended to retard settlement rather than to stimulate it, as they shut out large areas from cultivation or occupation, in order to hold them for an advance.  In many of the Territories a dozen able-bodied men, accustomed to farm labor and willing to toil, were considered a greater acquisition than a speculator with twenty thousand dollars of hard cash.  Labor was of more importance than capital.

To a certain extent this is still the case.  Laboring men are greatly needed on the broad acres of the far-Western States.  No one who has not traveled in that region can appreciate the sacrifice made by Minnesota, Iowa, and Kansas, when they sent their regiments of stalwart men to the war.  Every arm that carried a musket from those States, was a certain integral portion of their wealth and prosperity.  The great cities of the seaboard could spare a thousand men with far less loss than would accrue to any of the States I have mentioned, by the subtraction of a hundred.  There is now a great demand for men to fill the vacancy caused by deaths in the field, and to occupy the extensive areas that are still uncultivated.  Emigrants without capital will seek the West, where their stout arms will make them welcome and secure them comfortable homes.

In the South the situation is different.  For the present there is a sufficiency of labor.  Doubtless there will be a scarcity several years hence, but there is no reason to fear it immediately.  Capital and direction are needed.  The South is impoverished.  Its money is expended, and it has no present source of revenue.  There is nothing wherewith to purchase the necessary stock, supplies, and implements for prosecuting agricultural enterprise.  The planters are generally helpless.  Capital to supply the want must come from the rich North.

Direction is no less needed than capital.  A majority of Southern men declare the negroes will be worthless to them, now that slavery is abolished.  “We have,” say they, “lived among these negroes all our days.  We know them in no other light than as slaves.  We command them to do what we wish, and we punish them as we see fit for disobedience.  We cannot manage them in any other way.”

No doubt this is the declaration of their honest belief.  A Northern man can give them an answer appealing to their reason, if not to their conviction.  He can say, “You are accustomed to dealing with slaves, and you doubtless tell the truth when declaring you cannot manage the negroes under the new system.  We are accustomed to dealing with freemen, and do not know how to control slaves.  The negroes being free, our knowledge of freemen will enable us to manage them without difficulty.”