The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-05-07

virginia Policy and Its Results.
"DrRxcr IMPoRrArIoNs TO RIcHMosD.-All the
principal mercantile houses at Richmond, Vir-
ginia. according to the Republican, will send out
an agent by the next steamer to make arrange
ments for obtaining their goods henceforth direct
. from England"
Virginia is distinguished by her love of alb
stractions. Believing in the correctness Of free
trade, she has always been determined TO seek
it in the single direction indicated by the COM
promise tariff and that of 1916, careless, appa
rently, if the result should be the destruction of
trade, as was the case under the former, and
must inevitably be so under the latter. In
their love for this particular mode of obtaining
freedom of trade, her representatives have in
variably been found ready to give nearly solid
vote in favor of not profiting by her vast bodies
of land, capable of feeding millions upon mil
lions of sheep-of not profiting by her vast mass
of lighter labor power, fitted for the work of the
mill, but not fitted for that of the feld-of not
profiting by the coal and the iron ore bestowed
upon her in such abundance--of not proiting by
the immense water power. adequate, if proper
ly used, to convert into cloth large portion of
the cotton and sleeps wool produced in the
Union--and the consequence has been that she
has steadily wasted power capable Of producing
five times as much coal, and iron, and cloth, as
have been consumed in the Commonwealth
and were we to say ten times as much, we
should probably be much nearer the truth. 1t
has certainly been large sacrifice to make TO
an abstract idea; but, large as it has been, and
is, she appears determined to continue to make
it, determined to continue to support the Eng
lish free-trade system, which looks to compel
ling the farmers and planters Of the world to
make all their exchanges in the market of
Great Britain, that British merchants may fix
the price of all they desire to buy and all they
desire to sell.
Virginia has been determined to have but one
pursuit-that Of agriculture-and the necessary
has been, that her seaports, where
they have not actually declined, have failed to
keep pace with the progress Of the country, and
she finds herself compelled to trade chiefly
through the ports Of New York, Philadelphia,
and Boston. At this state of things she now
rebels, and an effort is to be made to bring about
direct trade with the world; but it is forgotten
that the elements of such trade have no ex-
istence. A purely agricultural community ex-
ports all its products in the most bulky form,
and the cost of transportation absorbs the chief
part of the price obtained for them in the dis
tant market; the consequence of which is that
the people are poor, and have little with which
to purchase the products of distant lands. Its
imports are therefore small-quite too small to
maintain ships to do its work in competition
with those of other communities in which en-
ployment is more diversified. Its exports are
few in number, and must go to certain markets,
at which they can be converted into the forms
fitting them for use. Woollen or cotton cloth
but wool or cotton must go to those places in
which machinery exists for making cloth. At
the North cargoes are made up of an infinite
variety Of commodities, many Of which Virginia
might produce if she would, but she will not.
She abOunds in the same raw materials that
furnish to northern ships large quantities of
articles to go to Europe, but she
prefers to let them to GO to waste, while ship
ping the -four that would have been eaten by
the artisans employed in fitting her other COM
modities for cheap transportation. She votes
for the warehousing system, on the ground that
it is useful for making up assorted cargoes in
the port of New York; but she votes against
every measure that might tend to enable her to
make up assorted cargoes in Norfolk and
Richmond, and thus maintain direct commerce
with the world.
At occasional intervals she wakes up to the
advantage Of a direct trade, but invariably falls
asleep again; and she does SO for the simple
reason that while she shall continue purely
agricultural State she MUST continue to main
tain her intercourse with this world through
other ports than her own--little as she may
like it, If she really desires to have direct
trade; if she desires that her ports may flourish
if she desires to be relieved from the necessity
for paying northern merchants for transacting
her business, she must unite with her neighbors
in the establishment of policy that will give
value to her coal and her iron ore, her lands, her
vast unemployed labor power, and her immense
water power; and, doing so, she will have her
desires gratifed Her present policy looks to
building up New York, Baltimore, and Phila-
delphia, at the expense of Norfolk and Rich
mond; and the sooner she opens her Dyes to the
fact that such efforts as that above referred to
must result in failure, the better it will be for