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Show so8 Appendix. mendows. In fact, wo s hould bo roducod to a state more ~hj oct th.an wo .are wil.ling to look at, oven prospectively. And yet with all these tlungll Rtanng us m the Jaco, we shut our eyell, and go on blindfold." All this is most true', but why is it so? Because whC'never, under the free labor policy, as in the years 1814 to 1817, any att('mpt is made at establishing manufactures in Virginia, the representatives of its t enth legion in the House and in the Senate arc always found ready with their votes to crush the unfortunate man who has been induced so to invest his capital. Her SC'nators even now stand, as we believe, instructed to vote for the abolition of the duty on railroad iron, and yet she is capable of furnishing the whole demand of the Union for that important commodity. To the folly of this course, her people arc now becoming awake, and even The Richmond Enqui1·cr tells its readers that, "In no State of the Conforleracy do the fa cilities for manufacturing operntions exist in greater profu sion than in ~irginia: Every condition es~ontial to .~uccoss in these employments is found hero 111 prod1gal almndance anrl 111 a pecul1 a rly convenient combination. First, we have a limitless supply of water-power- the rhe:1pest of motors - in locali ties easy of access. So abundant is this supply of waterpower that no value is attached to it distinct from th~ adja.cent l.ands, except in tho vicinity of tho larger to wn!l. On tho Potomac and Its tnhutanes; un the Rappahannock; on tho James ancl its tributaries; on the Roanoke and its trihutaries ; on the Holston, tho Kanawha, and otlier streams, numberless site's may bo found whore tho supply of water-power is s utiicient for the purposes of a Lawrence or a Lowell. Nor is there any want of material for building at these localities; timhor and g ranite are abundant; and, to complete the circle of advantages, the climate is gonia! and l10althful, and tho soil eminently productive. . . • Another advantal!e which Virginia possesses for the manufacture of cotton is the proximity of itll mills to the raw material. At tho present prices of the ::;taple, tho value of this advanta~o is estimated at tC'n per cont. Our railway system, penetrating into every part of the State, will facilitate the transfer of cotton to the most romoto localities. Jns tead of expatiating on the causes of the shameful neglect of the ma:rnificent resources and advantages for manufacturing operations which Virl!inia possesses in s uch abundance, wo choose rather to suggest some rea!lons why the State should, especially at thia particular juncture, aJlply its oner~y and capital to this in vi tin~ fi eld of enterprise. One among the in evi table ctfects of the cri si!l in Europe, ill tho comparati\·o prostration of tho mauufacturing interest in Great Britain. The withdrawal of capital from tho opera tiou~ of trade to sustain tho operations of war-the ~eneral ri!le in the price of broad- the lltrinl{oncy, uncertainty, aud sudden flu ctuations in the money market- will all contribute to impair the ahility of Great Oritain to maintain its ascondcncy; while, in consequence of tho rupture of old conunorcictl relations, new and exclusive markets will be thrown open to tho products of Alllerican industry. .l\Ioreovor, in this general interruption of trade and pros tration of the manufacturing interest, tho groat Southern staple must s ufler unlesa an original a!1d c.ompe.nsating demand for cotto.n be created iu this country. Leaving out of VIew Its etlect on the general prospenty of the State, the creation of a new demand for labor by manufacturing enterprises would tend to arrest the tide which annually sweeps away so large a portion of our Slave population. The increase in the value of Slave property, consequent on the demand for labor on our works of internal improvement, has already partially checked the trade to tho South. An additional counter demand would stop it entirely." This is almost true. 11 An additional counter demand" for labor would terminate the domestic Slave-trade, to the great advantage of the Slave, his owner, and the State. The establishment of such a demand would, however, be entirely impossible in connection with any Southern Union, for the r epudiation of protection is a cardinal principle with all the advocates of such a Union. They seek to have free trade in the importation of cloth, iron, and negroes, whereas Virginia needs either protection for cloth and iron, or a continuation of that protection to the negro trade that Appendix. she has so Ion~ cn~oyc~, and without which she cannot exist, unles~, as suggested by 1'1le Enq1m·er, she establishes such a" connler demand" for lal.Jor as shall render he.r soil attra.ctin' of immigration, instC'ad of being, ns hereto fore, so rcpulstvc as to dnvc fro111 it not only the slave but the free popula tion. In the last thirty years, the politicians who ha \'C Gerrymandere<l the State haYe governed it with special regard to th£'ir own prirate interests; and have thus compelled the export of population to such an exteut as to · hav.c. built up an extreme South, that now proposes to act for itself in opposttlOn to all the States north of South Carolina nnd Alabama, as was douc by the former State and Georgia at the time of the formation of the Constitution . They desire to free themselves from the nece ·sity for p:lying high prices for Virginia slaves when Africans cnn be boug.ht at l<;w ones, and they therefore repudiate altob"ethl'r the idea of lnri11" h<'r or r> Kentucky, North Carolina or Tenness('e, in the new Union , that is, a,; we arc told, to people "the noble region of the tropics;" to " coutrol" th rir productions,'' and with them the commerce of the worlcl.'' "\Vc will not h ave them," say they-" we do n ot want th('m; we desire to have no grain-g-rowing ~ta te; Virginia and North Carolina may go where th ('y please, but they sltaU not be admitted fl) our companionship." Such arc the circumstances under which Virginia now exists, and those who will reflect upcn this will, as we think, come to the conclusion at which we long since have arriYed, thnt it is not only absolutely impossible that any Southern Union should be form ('d embracing the St:1 tcs n orth of South Carolina and Alabama, but C'l!ually impossible that the present attitude of the extreme South should fail to produce in the more n orthern of the. 'lave States a feC'ling of the necessity for strengthening themselves by an adoption of the policy of those n orth of them, with which th eir interests must, of necessity, continue to be connected. THE REAL DISUNIONISTS. The only States that can by any possibility secede from their connection with the North, are South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and the fh·o States that have been formed from the territory purchased by the Union, and mainly at Nortlwrn cost, for the South, to wit, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Th£'sc eight States, that now undertake to dictate the whole policy of the Union, contained at the last census four millions of persons, of whom nearly cightcC'n hundred thousand were property, euabling less than two and a qum-ter millions of whites to countervail in the H ouse of Itepresentatives the votes of three and a quarter millions of Nm·ll1crn freemen.* To the Senate they furnished sixteen members, while New York, and tho two adjoining States, with almost se\'cn and a half millions of people, none of whom, are property, gave but six, and thus it has been that this population, so insign ificant in point of numbers or wealth, h as been enabled to tax the North for the accomplishment of its purposes. * That is, of voters. J. R. 43~ |