The Pulaski Citizen

East, West and South.
Within the decade which follows the census taken this year, we shall witness political changes and readjustments greater than have ever before taken place in this country in a period of peace. The census of 1870 will make a large addition to the political weight of the West, and add something to the political weight of the South. In all matters in which the West and South agree they will control the Government; and they are very likely to agree on the tariff, the currency, and questions of finance that is, on the leading subjects of Federal legislation. It may seem odd to expect the South to gain any advantage by the next census, as its population has undergone the wasting effects of war, and has not been recruited by immigration But the abolition of slavery has added a much larger per cent. to its Representative population than immigration has added to that of other parts of the country. In the apportionment of Representatives after this census, all the people of the South will be fully counted, instead of all the white persons and only three-fifths of the negroes. If there are four millions of Southern negroes, this change in the mode of counting will be equivalent to an addition of 1,600,000 to the population of the South, which is out of all proportion to the increase of any other part of the country by immigration. It will more than enable the South to recover its former relative strength in Congress. Although slavery was abolished several years ago, the consequent addition to the Southern representation cannot be made until after the census. There has been no past, and there will be no future census attended with such great gains to the South. Besides this increase in the number of its representatives, the South will make rapid gains in political influence within the first few years of the opening decade, by a full resumption of its former business intercourse and connections with the North. Before the war the South was, and very soon it will again be, one of the most profitable markets for our merchants and manufacturers. Before the war these business relations with the North were a source of political strength. At the war, and during the first year its continuance, a large and influential portion of our Northern business men openly or secretly sympathized with the South. They would been willing to make almost any concessions for the sake of keeping or recovering their Southern trade. About the second year of the war the tide turned, and thenceforward the prevailing tone among the business men of the North was one of zealous loyalty. This was chiefly due to the new fields of enterprise opened by the war. The Government had become a better customer than the South had ever been. To supply its vast armies with food, clothing, arms, ammunition, tents, wagons, medicines, etc., taxed the energy and resources of the country. The great profits of army contracts and the spirit of speculation which dominated in all the walks of business, consoled our merchants and manufacturers for the loss of the valuable Southern market, and caused a pretty complete transfer of their political sympathies. This great change will soon be reversed. The Government is no longer an extensive purchaser of commodities. With the reviving prosperity of the South its trade will have more than its former value, and our active business classes will rapidly exchange their fierce "loyalty," for a tolerant spirit towards that section. There is already quite a change in this respect; but during the first three years after the close of the war, it was impeded by several causes. In the first place, the South had a succession of bad harvests, and the confiscation laws and the prevailing political uncertainty paralyzed enterprise, and prevented capital from flowing into the South. The consequence was that the section recovered slowly and heavily from the desolating effects of war. Another thing which has operated against the South in the investments, made by our business classes in the public securities. They have feared that Southern influence would favor the repudiation of the national debt and that the Government bonds would depreciate or become worthless. The fear of repudiation is allayed. The cotton crops of the last two years have put the South in a condition of comparative ease and prosperity and rendered its trade richly worth cultivating. The full renewal of the old commercial relations between the two sections will do much to restore the former political cordiality. In a year or two more the prevailing tone among our influential business classes will be similar to what it was before the war, when the South, by the aid of its Northern connections, exerted an influence in the Government quite out of proportion to its population. The growing preponderance of the West will be illustrated by the census of this year. Most of the European immigrants proceed immediately to the West, and the migration from the Eastern States continues at such a rate that the rural population of the East remains nearly stationary. The census of this year is expected to show that the West has been outgrowing the East more rapidly for the last ten years than during any former period. All this Western growth will soon be represented in Congress. It will enable the West to dictate the policy of the Government upon all subjects on which the West is united, and can command a moderate reinforcement from some other section of the country. We conclude therefore that the legislation of the present Congress is no index to the future policy of the Government. The present Congress is an effete body, the organ of expiring passions and the representative of constituencies which are about to be remodeled in harmony with the altered distribution of population. The reapportionment of Representatives on the basis of the new census will mark the dividing line between the effete political era that is going out, and the new era that is coming in.