The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1847-12-11
ADDRESS

-
a., Sldpeyy is injurious 10 The public
,Dsl6aye, aud that it mag be gradually
~IoI;slsd rithom detriment 10 tae rights
- interests of Shareholders; by Henry
prrrNER. d. D., Lerington, Va.
Is,us now turn TO the third great branch
Of productive industry,
Commerce and Navigation.
Tbs Northern people derive much oil
,bs;r wealth from commerce ana siiPPliie'
D., the slave States are more deficient I'D
-. ,ban thew are in manufactures. They
~ -,af,fu and tsbscer<6or NUrihern
o,'3 and foreigners to buy and ship. We
bsre mentioned. in general terms, the excel
Isn, facilities which our State possesses Tor
commercial pursuits. We may say that
Ssr nav and tderivers all make one great
b.ysn 500 miles long, situated midway be-
-, the Nortbern and Southern extremes
n our Atlantic coast. Norfolk IS the naiu-
81 centre of the foreign and coasting trade
of The United States. Ii ought TO have com,
oanded the trade of North Carolina, oil all
he countries upon the waters of the Chesa-
na.ka and of half the Great West. II
ongbt 10 nave been the second, II not the
frsI- commercial city in the United States
Norfolk Is an ancient borough, and once
stood in the first rank OF American seaports.
Rnt rs trade declined, its population was
Iong At a stand. and nothing but the public
NAVY Yard has kept it up. Meanwhile,
Norihem towns have grown uPt cities, and
Northern cities to great and wealthy emPo-
riums; until our Virginia seaport, once Their
soual would cut q poor figure among their
snburbs. Oh, that Norfolk were as pros
porous. as her citizens are kind and hosPI-
table
This sketch of the natural advantages oil
Norfolk. compared with its condition, Is
,ood index Of the commercial history OF Viz
.inia. In fact, the commerce oil our old
saye-eaten Commonwealth, has decayed anc
dwindled away to a mere Pittance IN the
general mass Of American trade.
The value Of her exports, which twenty
five or thirty years ago, averaged four or i've
millions of dollars a year, shrunk by lo42
TO 2.S2O,O1O dollars, and by lS45, to 2,
100000 dollars.
Her imports from foreign countries, were
in the year 1865, valued at upwards o
100000 Of dollars: in 1871, they hat
sunk 10 two and half millions; in 1921
they had fallen to a little over one million
in 1927, they had come down to about hal
this sum; and in 1S43, 10 the half OF thu
sgsin. or about one quarter Of a million
and here they have stood ever since-a
next % nothing.
So our great Virginia, with all her natu
raj facilities for trade, brings TO her port
about one fve-hundredth part Of the goods
wares and merchandise, imported into tn
United States.
Shall we be told that the cause of this de
cline Of Virginia commerce, is the growth 0
Northern cities which, by means OF thei
canals and railroads and vast capital, draw
of the trade from smaller ports to them
selvesl And what them The cause as
signed is itself the effect Of prior cause
We would ask those who take this superb
cial view Of the matter: Why should tn
great commercial ports be all outside Of Vii
ginia, and near or in the free States! VIII
should every commercial Improvement eve
y wheel that speeds the movements OF trade
serve but to carry away from the slav
States, more and more Of their wealth, 10
the benefit Of the great Northern cities
The only cause that can be assigned, /:
that where slavery prevails, commerce an
navigation cannot flourish, and commercis
towns cannot compete with those in the IRE
States. They are merely places of deposte
FOR such country produce as cannot be cal
ried directly to the Northern markets.
Here Northern and foreign ships come
carry away these products Of slave labor
and this constitutes nearly all the trade {
Southern ports.
No State has greater converiencies f.
ship navigation and ship building, than vi
ginis. Yet on all her fine tide waters, sh
has little shipping; and what she has,
composed almost wholly Of small bay era
and few coasting schooners. The tonnag
OF NTgnla-thst is, the number Of tor
that her vessels will camy--is shameful
small. compared with that Of the martini
free States Maine and Massachusetts,, wit
about an equal population, have about f
Teen times as much litlle Rhode Island hi
considerably more; New York has at lea
twelve times as much; Pennsylvania, Wi
her one sea port, has more than twic
as much; and so has halfslaveholding Mar
land.
As to ship building, Virginia, that ougt
with her eminent advantages for the bu'
ness, 10 build as many ships as any State
the Union, does less at il than the least
those free States. All that she builds in
year on her long foresight shores, won
carry only eight or nine hundred tons
that IS, about as much as one good pack
ship Of the North. Maine and Massach
sets build thirty-fv times as much; lit
Rhode Island builds twice as much; Ne
YORK twenty times as much; Pennsylvan
twelve times as much; and Maryland sew,
Times as much; and what would astonish 1
Il we did not know 50 many like facts,
mat much Of the ship timber used in d
North, is actually carried in ships from 0
southern forests, where il might rot befo
Southern men would use it for any such p,
pose. We do not blame our Southern pc
pie Tor abstaining from all employmenis
thus kind. What could they do, Set tn
negroes to building ships, Who ever in
gIned such an absurdityi But could tn
not hire white men to do such thingsl \
ior, In the first place, Southern white m