New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-03-13
VirRinin mt sea.


Whether the line shall consist of two or FIVE
ships the protector does not say, but they
are to be first rate, two thousand tuns or
more each and to equal if not excel, all
existing vessels in speed and sea qualities.
The protector will furnish two fifths of the
cost, and wants the State to lend its credit
for the remainder. This line once estab-
lished, Virginia and the South will throw
off their lethargy and regain for themselves
that commercial preponderance which the
industry, perseverance and enterprise of
the North have got away. This will be
all the easier, because it is by selling and
carrying to Europe the southern tobacco
and cotton that northera merchants have
achieved their present superiority. The
South has furnished the means aud paid
the expense of the victory which the alert
and cunning North has carried off.
No southern patriot could rejoice more
heartily than we at the regeneration Of
Virginia and all the States now in the
same unfortunate circumstances. We
should rejoice to see them escaping from
the stagnation and decay slowly and surely
taking possession of every energy. We
watch with interest, with more interest
than hope indeed, each attempt they put
forth, or talk of putting forth, to add new
branches to their industry, and to &C
ouire some part of that independence
which every community should pos
sess. We have no sectional partialities.
| We are not anxious for the commercial
superiority of North or South. In fact
commercial superiority is to our mind,
matter of comparatively little moment.
We are not particularly in favor of New
York, or of any other large city, but would
much rather see production and exchange
go arranged that there should be no such
overgrown emporiums. What we desire
is the solid prosperity and secure progress
of this whole country, and Of all countries.
But the prosperity we seek can only result
from equality, justice and freedom In
civil institutions, from the universal diffu-
sion of science and intelligence, from
honesty, industry and independence among
the masses, and from the utmost possible
variety in the pursuits of labor. These
are what make the greatness of a people,
and God forbid that we or any other man
should desire a monopoly Of them for any
particular race or region.
- But in this steamship scheme it strikes
US that our Virginian friends put the cart
before the horse, and that in quito mel
ancholy and discouraging fashion. Let
them permit us to speak our mind freely
the topic is worth it.
Foreign commerce is good thing in its
way, but it is not the only thing, nor the
first thing. Among the illusions cherished
by blunderers in political economy, none
is more baleful than that which magnifes
the foreign trade and overlooks the far great
er importance of domestic industry and
commerce. The South is to a great extent
| a victim of this Illusion Cursed with
fatal facility in the growth of Cotton, to
which circumstances have given facti-
tious and temporary consequence by max
ing it leading element in our exchanges
with Europe; cursed, too, with Slavery,
it has failed to cultivate that diversity Of
productions and that spirit of industry, in
vention and enterprise which give activity
to the internal relations and commerce OF
communities, and form the only basis tor
profitable and independent foreign trade
Let Virginia build workshops and factories
beside her streams and waterfalls let her
reclaim her exhausted lands and induce
free, industrious farmers to come ana
populate her wild districts; let her aDaa-
don negro breeding as profession provide
for the extinction of Slavery, make her
institutions democratic, and dot her terri
tory with Free Schools; let her bring
forth the Astounding treasures OF her mines,
and open canals and railroads for her own
traffic and that of the States beyond her,
let her become great prosperous and pow
erful at home, and then she may talk OF
setting up steamships on the ocean.
Help yourself, is good maxim, in fact
the only safe one but it is necessary to
know how and where to begin its practice.
There is another striking fault in this
scheme, and indeed in most of the similar
schemes which from time to time are con-
ceived and set on foot. 1t lacks originality;
tits mere imitation. New Y ork, Boston and