Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1836-11-17
THE NORTH AND THE SOIJTu

1t has often been suggested by the
best men, aud the most enlightened
statesmen Of this country. tina, all Sec
tionai Jealousies aud heartburnipg would
De s'lenced, If the people ofthe different
STATES OF the Union would but visit each
other, and become familiar with the
habits, domestic relations, and customs
and interests of their associates of tn.
Union. 1t is not to be denied. that an
unkind feeling and prejudice exist ne
tween the North and the South and !.
must be admitted, that the agitation of a
"vexed question:" in which the South
is immediately interested, has had d.
rect tendency to widen the breach to
which allusion is made. Since the last
year, many of the eminent men of The
South have visited the North, and il is
gratifying to know, that most of them
have returned home. carrying with them
feelings decidedly in favor of the good
Intentions Of the great mass of their Nor
thern brethren.
Hon. William G. Preston a Senator
from 5. Carolina. visited us the last sum-
mer and with what feelings he returned
to the South. may be understood from
inc following extracts from a speech
delivered by him on the 18th ult at a
meeting held at Columbia, to adopt mea-
sures to facilitate the Charleston and Gin
cinnati Rail Road boston Gas.
HE said that no Southern man can
Journey (as he has done,) through the
Northern States, aud witness the pros
perity, the industry, the public spirit.
winch they exhibit-the sedulous Gull
t'vat'on OF all those arts by which life is
rendered comfortable and respectable
without feelings of deep sadness and
shame, as he remembers his own neglect
ed and desolate home. There, no dwell
ing IS to be seen abandoned, no farm un-
cultivated, no man idle. no waterfall,
even, unemployed. Every person and
every thing performs part towards the
grand result, and the whole land is COW
cred with fertile fields. with manufacto-
nes, and canals, and rail roads, and pub
lie edifices, and towns and cities.-Along
the route of the great New York canal
(the glorious memorial Of De Witt Gin
tom Canal, Rail Road, and Turn
pike, are TO be seen in the width of per-
haps hundred yards. each of them
crowded with travel or overwhelm-
ed with commerce. Throughout their
course, lands that before their construc.
ton would scarcely command five dollars
the acre, now sell for fifty, seventy five,
or hundred. Passing along it, YOU
see no space of three miles without a
town or village, and you are never out
oil the sound of a church bell.
We Of the South are mistaken i'm the
character Of these people, when we think
OF them only as pedlars in horn flints
and bark nutmegs. Their energy and
enterprise are directed 10 all objects,
great and small, within their reach. At
the fall OF a scanty rivulet they set up
their little mandatory Of wooden but
tons or combs-they plant barren hill
SIDE with brOom-corn, and make it into
brooms at the bottom-and on its top
they erect windmill. Thus at sin.
gle spot you may see the air, the earth
aud the water, all working for them.
but at the same time the ocean is whit
ened to its extremities with the sails of
their ships, and the land is covered
with their works Of art and usefulness.
massachusetts, is perhaps the most
hourishing of the Northern States. Yet
OF natura! productions she exports but
two articles-granite and ice. Abso- |
'uteiy nothing but rock and icei Every !
thing else OF her commerce. from which
she derives SO much wealth, is artiG.
cial-the work Of her own hands.
AL! this is done in a region with
bleak climate and sterile soil, by the
energy and intelligence OF the people.
Every man knows that the public good
is his individual advautage.-Then num-
Der OF rail roads and other modes of ex-
peditious REORGANIZATION, knits the
whole country into closely com pacted
mass, through which the productions Of
commerce and Of the press, the comforts
OF life and the means OF knowledge, are.
universally diffused while the close in.
tercourse Of travel and business makes
all men neighbors, and promotes com,
mon interest and common sympathy. In
community thus connected, single
flash OF thought pervades the whole
land, almost as rapidly az thought itself
could fly. The population becomes, MS
1t were, single Sc. of muscles, animal
ed by one heart, and directed BY a com,
mon sensorium.
How different the condition of things
ID the South ! Here, the face of the
country wears the aspect Of premature
old age and decay. No Improvement is
seen going oD-nothlng is done for pos
terity-no man thinks of any thing be-
yond the present moment Our lands