The southern press., 1850-11-02

attracted crowds of emigrants intotle State from
the poorer lands ofthe North whilst Virginia hav-
ingverv little new lands that was good was send
ing. ont Of the Stale emigrants to Kentucky. But
having thus to his own satisfaction shown in his
second number that Southern citizens, are not
as contended, superior ia comparative acreage
ioealLh to Northern, particularly an Virginia, he
performs a complete somerset in his third num-
Der, and says: @The fact is, that tho very causes
which produced The iaporerishmem produced at
the same time greoter conparatire acreage,
and no one doubled this fact" What an anus
lug specimen Of argumentative vibration And
what an unparalleled leap from premises to con-
cusion, that the causes Of the superior compa-
rative wealth Of Southern men over Northern
are the "yery causes that produced fie mporerish-
meiF ofthe Southern men! aAnd no one doubts
this fact .W' - r..rt s. ... .r.5.-s.... ..... n
Now we must not Judge too harshly of -just-
ice" for this monstrous performance. He had
written largely, he had yauated highly in this
| controversy, and yet when he Lad in his progress
arrived ut this exigency and beheld the appat-
ing chasm that lay between what he had COM
PEELED TO admit rs to Southern wealth, and what
he had undertaken to prove of Southern poverty
and decline, and when he saw that the staring
and glaring repugnanry of these propositions
was fatal to his whole effort, he was compelled
either to surrender the argument and lose all his
labor or to perpetuate the marvellous parodox
that they were essentially identical that the
two opposite results were produced by the same
causes; that is, like causes do not produce like
effects but opposite effects. As, however, "Just-
lee" is not the on'y one of his school who has
been driven on this rock aId shipwrecked, it
will be amusing to observe the manner in which
those mariners respectively navigate, as they are
all impeled by the cruelty of their case or their
fate to this catastrophe. In one respect they
will agree when they approach this breaker
They nll hypothesis Justice supposes the
people of Boyle county, Kentucky, to impoy-
erish their lands, so as to reduce the value from
$17,09 to an average of so cents per acre, and
then for all to enigrate but ten white families of
five persons each and fifteen slaves, who are to
buy the rest, and remain there, on an average
worth $4,000 instead of $500 us at present
the aggregate wealth of the county being less
than before. The editor of the Richmond Wing
adopts the same hypothesis. and applies it to
Henrico county, Virginia. Now is it not very
unfortunate for these gentlemen that neither OF
them could find county in Virginia or Ken
lucky where this process of reducing the ag-
gregate of property had occurred in fact-not u
single county in these two large States where
the "curse" and "blight" of slavery arc so obvi-
Gus, and where such results ought, according to
| these theorists, to have occurred almost every
| where! Was there ever a more perverse dis
crepaDcy between theory and experience or II
| more gallant retreat from fact to conjecture
| Tut like to indulge theorist, and will con-
slider even the extreme distractions to which
Justice has been compelled to fly, in order to
| escape from the ponderous momentum of facts
before him in his own State. | must however
,sist, for the sake of appearances at least that,
il, the construction of his hypothesis, lie shall
| preserve some analogy to the things he Intends
II, illustrate. He contends that the average of
Individual wealth in the South, aud particularly
il, Virginia, has been augmented by depopu-
lton, as might be the case in the county of Boyle
Int has the South of Virginia been depopu-
lated! Was either ofthem ever more populous
t1an now! Not at ALL The census shows the
reverse. Why then depopulate Boyle county to
show the effect OF Il system on communities not
depopulated but increasing all the while in pop
,tlation! 1t is true that an impression has ex-
sted that the South, particularly Virginia, was
undergoing depopuaton as well as impoversh-
aent and that is one of the notions the lecture
undertakes to destroy, and therefore shows that
tue natural increase of the South remaining /,
, the South l. greater than in the North But M
raan, not even Justice" will permit himself t
aaintain in print that Virginia is or has been dc
populated. A few counties may have less po
l,ulation now than they have had, but that NIGH
occur in any State, and is no test of system.
Well, Justice" them in his BOYLE county
hypothesis, reduces the value of land from SIT OS
per acre to so cents by impoverishing the soil
m order to illustrate the effect of the impoverish
ricnt of Southern soil.in increasing the average
wealth of Southern citizens. But the value even
Of Virginia soil has not been reduced, and wha
evidence Of exhaustion of Southern or Virgiui,
!, soil does Justice produce. lie says it has
risen i'll ralue but little since 1915, but he him
self attributes the enhanced value of lands chiefly
to increase of population, and hence although
Virginia has not been depopulated, yet, as it has
increased in population but little, and other neig
barring lands far more fertile have been brought
into market, its lands would increase in value
but little We have heard, it is true, much cant
and slang about the worn-out, exhausted, and
abandoned lands Of Virginia. yet there is eridence
that her population has steadily increased and
her wealth become eren in proportion TO an aug
anented population greater than that of any other
State. If her lands or any considerable portion
of them We're worn out and deserted, how could
there be any augmentation Of her wealth The
low price OF Virginia land as compared with that
of New York and Pennsylvania land is cited as
evidence of the exhaustion Of Virginia soil, But
this depends on its original quality as compared
with these States The assailants of Virginia
Why they all declare that naturally the soil of
Virginia was the most fertile! "Justice" says
this-so does Osgood Mussy-so does the North
Caronan correspondent of the Era. And yet
the statement which is so Indispensable to their
argument is utterly untrue have not seen it
sustained by any geography whatever, and it is
completely falsified by works of the highest au-
thority. Why, Darby tells us that about one
third Of the area of Virginia is covered by noun
tains whilst only one.seventh of Pennsylvania
is And about another third of Virginia, the tide.
water region, is low, sandy, poor, and sickly and
it is remarkable that Pennsylvania and New York
have but very small tide-water region. The
1 geographers say that Pennsylvania and New
York have large quantities of rich soil. None
Of them say so of Virginia. We have seen what
is said of her tide-water and mountain REGION
Western Virginia is also poor and broken
country. The lands of Virginia even of tolcra-
bic fertility in the central and valley region
and on the narrow borders of her streams but