Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1849-03-16
WHOLE NO. 235.

the free people of the slaveholding States-of
those States which are uniformly regarded as
the victims of poverty and ruin-are all richer,
much richer, than those of the non-slavehold-
ing States which have been usually consider
ed as the most Furnishing members of this
confederacy, and the most prosperous commu-
mites the world ever saw. Such at least is
the testimony of official documents on the sub
ject-the highest authority that exists. For
have taken nearly all these statements of the
property of the several States alluded TO, from
the assessments made by public officers, for
the collection of taxes OF the accuracy of
the valuations, it is of course impossible to
speak from personal knowledge but those of
Ohio and Kentucky are, according 10 my op-
portunties of observation, as nearly correct
as need be desired. And as TO the other States
the chances of error are perhaps as great on
one side as the other.
In the slayehoiding States, slaves are of
course included in the property. This is
sometimes objected to, but / think without
reason. The question is, which is the most
profitable investment of captain land and
slaves-as is usual in the slaveholding States
OR in land alone, or commerce and manutac-
lures, as in the Northern States? And this
question is almost universally decided in ia
vor of the latter. In the South, according 10
its laws, the slave is as available to his owner
for the purposes of property. as any other
property. The North has held, however,
that this peculiar species Of property, instead
of being profitable to the owner, has been i'm
povershng and ruinous. And in contradic-
| ton 10 this have shown that in every COM
munity where it exists there wealth abounds
TO far greater extent than in the States from
which it is excluded whatever may be their
climate, soil, or territory, But even if the as
sessed value of all the slaves in Kentucky,
Virginia, and Maryland, were left out of the
schedule OF their property, the white people
OF those States would remain weather., on an
average, than those of Ohio, New York, and
Massachusetts,
! By others again it is contended, that in es-
timating the average wealth of individuals in
community, the slaves ought to be included
as persons, and left out as property. This, I
think, is also an error, for the reason before
stated. Where it is contended that the white
man ought to abandon slave property because
it makes him poor, or prevents him from get
ting rich, it is absurd 10 assert that he not on
ly has no property in his slave, but that other
property belongs equally to him But if for
any other purpose or view of political econo-
my, the slave be included with the freeman in
averaging the property of State, it will even
then appear that in the States have Consid-
cred the Southern are still Weather than the
Northern, counting the slaves as persons and
deducting them from the property. So that
in no aspect of the question whatever, is there
any foundation in fact for the popular delu-
sion, that the Southern States, or any of them
are either now or heretofore, or likely 10 be
hereafter, inferior to their Northern neighbors
| in wealth-but the reverse.
The triumph of Southern enterprise and
capital in the accumulation of wealth being
established as fact. demands of us an inves-
LEGATION of its causes-and this, think, will
materially elucidate the character of modern
civilization, and particularly that which has
been developed in the United States.
The original methods of acquiring wealth,
adopted by men on their organization into
| communities, was by conquest or commerce.
Hence the almost exclusively military charac-
Ter OF one great class of the ancient States,
which resulted in the universal empire sue
cessively of the Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and
Roman governments and hence the rise of
Tyre and Carthage. Hence, also, in the mid
J die ages, the empire of Charlemagne, and the
! long protracted efforts of France to conquer
| England, and England to conquer France
and the wealth of Venice, Genoa, and Hol-
land. AT a later period when the arts had
made more progress, manufactures were inclu-
ded in the means of creating wealth. The
policy of England has combined the three
conquest, commerce, and manufactures-and
by these she has succeeded in the consruc-
ton of an empire which, for extent of terrific
ry and wealth, has never had parallel. The
policy of England has been dictated by her
insular position. This rendered it necessary
for her to acquire the empire of the sea to be
secure from invasion by great continental
powers; and with the dominion of the sea, it
was easy to establish great colonial empire.
The growth of such great power in COM
merce, was the strongest possible stimulus to
progress in the arts and manufactures hence
her success in them But an extraordinary
development Of commerce and manufactures
has always resulted in the concentration of
large masses of people in cities, which causes
inequality of condition, great depravity of
morals, great increase of want, and of crime !;
consequences that are fatal in the first place
to liberty in governments, and finally to indie
penderce in nations. This tendency has been
so obvious and universal among the great
States of all ages, as TO have caused the belief
that communities, like individuals, contain
"JIuIu tucIlSclfco Tic etSuS VI OlSSOlutIOH
which must ultimately bring them to the dust.
But whether we consider State as a moral
being, whose essence consists in the princl-
pies on which it is constructed, and therefore
not necessarily mortal, or whether we regard
it as mere creature of the race or persons
that founded or inhabit it, and therefore tran
sient, there can be no doubt that its prosperity
is seriously impaired by the evils referred to,
that generally attend the progress OF civliiza-
ton.
Rural life has always been celebrated by
the poets for its innocence.
"God made the country and man made the town -
But it is kind of life that has seldom been
thought favorable to the accumulation of
weath-the first want of civilization. 1t is
also usually associated with rudeness of man.
ners Hence the votaries of fortune and So
ciety have preferred the city, and if to these
we add the vast multitude who seek the i'm
mediate qualification of their appettes AMI
passions, which cities afford, at the hazard of
future want, we have clear solution of the
undue tendency to city at the expense of
country life. This great evil, sufficient of it.
self to cast stigma on civilization, and even
ultimately to destroy it, was for the first time
successfully encountered and CONQUERED by