Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1849-05-25

behind them, as the settlers of New Eng
land, on the other hand, from the Round
heads, became highly commercial, These
peculiarities were exhibited ina striking
manner in the progress of the two colo
MES. Bancroft tells us:
But the greatest safeguard of liberty
in Virginia was the individual freedom of
mind, which formed of necessity, the
character of independent land holders
living apart on their plantations. In the
age of commercial monopoly, Virginia had
not one market town, not one place of
trade. AS to all outward appearance it
looked all like wild desert, and the mcr
camille world, founding it's judgment on
the absence Of cities, regarded it as 'one
OF the poorest, miserablest, and worst
countries in America 1t did not seek to
share actively in the profits of commerce,
it had little of the precious metals, and
still less of credit-it was satisfied with
agriculture. Taxes were paid in tobocco;
remittances to Europe were made in to-
bacco; the revenue of the clergy, and the
magistrates of the colony, were collected
in the same currency; the colonial trades
man received his pay in struggling parcels
of it,; and ships from abroad were obig-
ed to be whole months in the rivers, be-
fore boats visiting the several plantations
on their banks could pick up cargo
In the season of a commercial revolution.
the commercial element did not enter into
the character of the colony. Its inhabit-
ants daily grew more and more averse
to cohabitation.
Such was the character of Virginia in
l700--ninety-two years after the colony
was founded, and seventy-six before her
lndependence-such she has remained.
have seen law passed by her Legisla-
ture during the revolutionary war, pro-
hibiting merchants from serving as Rep
resentatives in the Continental Congress.
But this primitive character of Virgin
Ia could not have been preserved to tho
extent we now behold, but for peculiar
circumstances. The soil of Virginia was
found to be adapted to the cultivation OF
tobacco, and African slave labor to its cul-
tivation; and tobacco soon became an
article of commerce. The introduction
OF this sort of labor had the effect of ex-
cluding in great measure, emigration
from Europe-the emigration which sub
verted the ascendency of the Quakcrs ol
Pennsylvania-which has materially mod
flied the original character of New Eng
land, and still more of the new free States
ofthe West. And it has been through
negro slavery that agriculture has been
made, for the first time in the history Of
the world, SO profitable and attractive as
to render rural life the favorite of wealth
as well as of the mass of the people-tc
make the country instead of the towns the
abode of elegant manners and refined
taste. And this system of Society has
prevailed throughout the other States o
the South, owing to the similarity of thei
primitive character to that of Virginia
to her eXample-to emigration into then
of many Virginians, The warmth of tn,
climate, and to the culture of cotton
which is more favorable to the employ
ment of slave labor than that of tobacco
Thus, then, we have fifteen Southerl
States-one half of the number belonging
to the Union, occupying half our terrific
ry--who present the extraordinary, and
SO far as my researches extend, the unpar
allelled result of population which ha
acquired greater wealth by agriculture
than any other people in any other man
ner; and who have consequently givel
ascend acy within their borders to coun
try liie over city, in social and politica
power. In Great Britain, the only coun
try which can be compared in civilization
with ours, the land holders are indeed
very wealthy class, perhaps the most SO
but they have dwellings, in Lonnon, ant
pass a large part OF the year there. Tn
land holders of Great Britain also consti
tute but small portion of the popula
ton.
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.
TI1tYr. pYy,,p np o.. o.,,, HI,-,,