Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-04-18

appropriations in aid Of the National Military
Academy.
THE SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONVENTION.
An annual Southern Commercial Conven-
ton has come to be ono of the peculiar insti-
tutionsn Of the South. Ia tho Northern and
Western States, in which production and ex-
change are carried on in conformity to natural
laws and men are left free to take care OF
their own interests, individual intelligence and
enterprise produce effects which are attempted
to DO accomplished in the South by extensive
combinations.
Slave labor, being mere brute force, without
intelligence, versatility, forecast or tho hope
of reward which nerves and elevates the labor
Of free man, can be rendered most profitable
in simple forms Of industry, and naturally
tends to the production Of one or two great
staples. The owner Of slaves finds it easier
and cheaper with such labor as he can COM
mand to raise tobacco or indigo, or rice, or
cotton, OF sugar. and depend, for the infinite
variety Of articles entering into his consump
lion, upon exchanges, than to attempt to diver
sify his enterprise, by using one portion Of his
slaves in farming, another in planting, anoth-
or, in the mechanic arts, another, in manufac-
lures and another, in trading.
OF course there are exceptions to the remark,
but, as a general rule, the peculiar nature of
slave labor compels the country in which it
prevails to the adoption Of simple modes of cul-
turc, and prevents the dversifcation of indus
try.
To countcract these workings Of the system
Of Slave Labor, Shareholders are constantly
driven to extraordinary expedients. Violating,
by their fundamental institutions, the laws of
nature, they would attempt by artificial con-
trivances to prevent the effects of such violation,
and secure results which can be accomplished
only by conformity to those laws.
Ii is curious to turn back to the colonial his
tory Of Virginia and Maryland, and find the
planters even at that time pursuing the same
policy, substantially, which is SO popular among
them now--the principal difference being that
then they sought by Legislative enactment
During the first century of their existence,
oil kinds OF experiments were tried, to check
the over production of their staples to stimulate
the production of articles Of general consump-
ton, to encourage the growth Of the mechanic
arts to build up towns, to bring into existence
a navigation interest, and to establish direct
trade in their own bottoms with England and
Europe-in other words to do just what their
Southern Commercial Conventions have been
laboring for, during the last twenty years.
Among the first statutes in Virginia, was
one to encourage the growth Of corn, by lcav-
ing its price unrestricted while all other prices
were to remain as fixed by proclamation and
it was provided, that in every parish there
should be q public granary, to which each
planter, over eighteen, was to bring yearly a
bushel Of corn, to be disposed of for the public
use and three sufficient men were TO DO sworn,
in each parish, to see that every settler planted
and tended corn enough for his Jdmiiy*
In 1882, a law was passed, to limit the pro
duction Of tobacco, their great staple, and to
raise he price, and also requiring every planter
to cultivate two acres of corn per poll.
, In 1889, the planters still dcvoting their at
tention chiefly to the culture OF tobacco, the
price went down to three pence, and thereupon
the Assembly enacted that half Of tho crop
should be burned and that the crops of the
two succeeding years should be kept still
smaller
Ia i6l3, legislative attempts to Diversity the
industry Of the Colonies were renewed, and
premiums offered to the producers Of potashes,
soap, salt, flax, hemp and cotton.
All these attempts failed. In 1860, It is re-
corded the tobacco culture still attracted the
greater portion Of capital and labor, and the
result was, the dependence Of the colonists
upon others for their supplies Of nccessaries
Cloth was manufactured successfully in New
England, but nothing Of the kind was at
tempted ia Virginia; and tho maritime char