The “Western Democrat” says “the great mass of the people are indignant at the conduct of the cotton manufacturers.” So they are or profess to be at the conduct of distillers, of speculators, of farmers and tanners, and every body else, who are asking two or three times the real value of every thing they have to sell. And yet their indignation seems to do little towards arresting the evil. Planters will sell their cotton to them at 7 or 8 cents per pound, and then pay 25 cents for domestics which they used to sell at 8 and 10 cents, and 30 cents for plaids they used to buy at 15 cents, and so on. Farmers will sell bacon at 25 cents, pork at 20, rye at $1 50, corn at $1 00, and so on, still. Every body who has to sell, will get all they can, and the family of the soldier fighting our battles, and the poor of the land, must perish. But the Democrat thinks the people will match the cotton manufacturers by-and-by, when the war is over, and the blockade is raised, with a low tariff. Why wait so long? The longer the South is crippled and ravaged by speculators, the longer the war will last, and the longer the blockade will be upon us.
The Weekly Standard, Raleigh, NC