The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-01-22

which. with tie priasipal and iatAssst e5vss@sd
in that time. added to the forty-thres niliIcns
and halt. mskes gssnd total Of cost up 10 the
end Of 1850, Of about 870000,OO0. Fro~ l8A3
10 1850, inclusive, the nett revenue wss sixtaep
niliions, and the interest four millIons, which
makes twenty millions; and this deducted erem
seventy millions, leaves the total nett cost 81
the canals up to this date, fifty millions Of
dollars. And ~ the nett revenue now IL about
g., 1000, that is five and half per cent. on
the cost, and 10 obtxin that, the State IL oon-
PEELED to exact canal tolls from the railroad
companies on all the freight they transport and
canal tolls amount 70 about half the expense Of
canal transportation.
II will be seen that we have made bnt two
rests 10 the computation Of interest one when
the canals were opened for navigation, and the
other when the scheme of enlargement was sus-
pended in 1912
But if the accounts were made up from year
to year, as current accounts are between man
and man, and interest allowed reciprocnlly on
receipts and expenditures, the nett cost Of the
canals would be much greater than we have
made it.
We have thought it important thus to simplify
and confirm the demonstration we hal previously
made Of the results Of the New York system
because the policy Of internal improvement 10 Of
immense consequence to the States, and the ex-
ample of New York is continually referred to,
and misrepresented to give stimulous to such
systems in other States.
The Richmond Enquirer says that this paper
is an 4intermeddling concern" and that It inter
fercs "impertinently with the domestic, al we'll
as the general policy Of the Southern States.
Our original article on the internal improveme IL
of New York and Virginia. was written express
ly to repel the imputation made in HUNTS Mer-
chants Magazine on Virginia, for not rivalIing
New York in constructing canal to the West.
The Richmond Enquirer interfered impert;-
nently in that controversy, and attempted to sus-
tain the imputation on Virgins enterprise, and
sagacity made by New York journal. But
what is the allotment of topics and limits to
which we are to be restricted, and who is to
determine the orbit Of this paper! Is it little
local paper down in Virginia town, the pre-
tended organ Of a part of party---a paper
whose editorial faculties are even incalcuIsbly
more circumscribcd than the few topics and petty
schemes Of the local organ Of the modcum of .
party, receiving and repeating orders from the
central organ here?
AS for the imputation of being warlike, which
the Enquirer makes on our quiet Quakerism, it
was perhaps to have been expected from the
hotspur, who urged, entreatcd, and insisted that
the Virginia legislature, should pass resolutions
to resist at all hazards and to the last extremity,
not only the territorial spoliation, but tie oboli
ton Of The slaue trade in the District of Column
bia-and when the measures passed, heroically
avenged the outraged rights and honor Of the
South, by an attack on the candle factory of
Jackson, the Abolitionist This was great i'm
provement on Don Quixotte's attack on the wind
mill. And the exploit is such refinement: of
chivalry, that even old Quaker women might
contemplate it with composure.
To one who knew any thing about Quaker.
ism, or was capable Of comprehending that sub
lime creed, it would appear entirely consistent
in any believer to condemn any and every form
ofaggression. Nopeople are more exempt from
committing or submitting to it, They do not
resist by physical, but by moral force But none
of them have ever taught or pretended that il
was better in those who do not confne themselves
to moral force to submit than to resist even by
physical force-much less to rejoice in subms-
sion. a
AS orthc renewed mputation ofthe Enquirr
that we are in faror Of amalgamaiion, even IL it
were true, the Enquirer ought not to be dr.
tressed. Those only ought to be troubled who
fear some sable rival in their Northern loves-
And we are certain the editor Of the ENQUIRER
can have no hopes of Northern abolition beauty.
as long as he wages such relentless war against
abolition candles.
As for the termination of the Southern Pres.
which the Enquirer desires so much to see, as
to be tempted to hope, We arc sorry we cannot
indulge him. For as long as subscribers con-
tinue to increase, and to cheer us in our conrse,
as they are now doing, the Enquirer will have
to revel in the joys Of hope deferred Mean
while tits rather OVERRIDING the exquisite modesty
of that print to talk Of our want of support when
in six or seven months we have acquired sub
scription twice as great ms the Enquirer has
achieved with two generations Of editors, and
when it is now compelled to wage see-saw
competition with an ADLER and sounder rival, and
to depend for subsistence Nom such crumbs of
State patronage as the magnanimity Of its party
will give.
The Enquirer complains Of the selection in
the senior editor of this paper, of IN man from
free State Surely this comes with i'll grace.
from the little echo of the organ which proclaims
that "the institutions of the South must depend
for support on the Democracy Of the NORTH
a sentiment which has no foundation whatever.