The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1855-11-06
Northern and Southern Enterprise

wanting in enterprise, and that in this respect
we are excelIed by the people of the North.
Lieut.. Mauryi in an address, recently delivered
before the Literary Societies Of Virginia Uni.
versi,y thus repeIs the charge:
"'rhe fairest estimate to be made of the enter.
prise of a people is based on the average
amount of property held by each citizen in the
State; for the wealth Of the people in the ag-
gregate, is the wealth of the State. According
to the statement of Professor Tucker in his
admirable papers on the Progress, Popula-
ton, and Wealth of the United States, which
statements are based on the census returns
it appears that in 1850, the average value of
the property owned by each white person was
1894 per head in New York, against $427 in
Virginia. In Pennsylvania the average value
of each ones share was 1921 while for Georgia
it was no less than S652. take these States
because they are the largest of the old thir-
teen.
"Should We not therefore cast abou. and
seriously think oftaking lessons in the study
ofeuterprise, the development of State rcsour.
ces and the creation Of individual wealth, from
Georgia, instead of holding up the example of
New York and Pensy lvania in false light,
and thus assisting with our voice to give cur.
rcncy to that egregious popular iallacy about
the superiority of Northern over Southern en-
terprise as it is called.
"'rhe geographical distribution of labor is
regulated by natural laws, which we may not
with impunity ignore. wherefore, in seeking to
foster this or that branch Of industry, these
laws should be carefully studied. 1t is they
which impress the peculiar traits upon the in.
dustrial pursuits ofthis or that region. Many
people in New England, for intauce, find it
easier to make lvingat sea than then they do
when they attempt to wrest one from the sc
we're climate and stingy soil of their native
State; consequently they take to the sea and
become sailors. But in the Southern States
the converse obtains. Here the climate is ge,
nal the soil generous and the laboring ma
instead of being driven away from it to the
sea is invited to stay and dig.
"You never hear of man forsaking hi:
home in the Mississippi valley and going t.
sea to make living as 4 common sailor. Bu
such things are common at Cape Cod. What
lis the reason? The solution is in those law:
of climate and soil which regulate the industria
pursuits of people; and it is in consequence o.
those laws that we have the absence of sea
farirg communities among us; that the eye o
the political economist, when contemplating
the industrial landscape presented by Virginia
misses and longs for those very attractive
scenes which the business and stir Of the sea
calling always impart toit.
"I'hat southern youths do not therefore, like
the yankee boys, take 10 the sea and follow
it for q livelihood, is no Indication that there il
lacking any spirit Of enterprise or energy
among u.s. They prefer the land to the Sc;
life It.is in obedience 10 the laws which regu
late the geographical distribution oflabor, that
one goes and the other tarries, and it was
owing to the force of those laws and not to
any superior enterprise, energy, or public spir
that the business Of manufacturing took sucl
deep root at the north while certain branche:
oft have always withcred or led sckly exis
! tencc among US at the south.
"That the people of Virginia and the south
have not gone as extensively into manufacture
ing as those Of New England have; is no more
an Indication as to any want of enterprise or
our part than tits want of enterprise on theirs
thar the people of New England have not gone
as extensively into the cultivation of cotton anC
rice as Carolina has.
ave Judge ofnorthern enterprise in grea
measure by their works Of internal improve
ment and by their ventures abroad; Yet The
| first steamship hat crossed the ocean was sent
over by the south; and the first locomotive thai
ever blew its whistle in the United States was
believe, first unthrottled upon southern tracks
TIE WHEAT CRop.-Various estimates Of the
wheat crop for the present year have been made
which vary at least 100000, bushels-some
giving the amount at 100000, and others
as hig gh as 23O00O,O0O. The Washington cor
respondent Of the New York Courier and En-
quircr is under the impression that the lowest
figures are nearer the mark than the highest and
in support of this view he notices the fact that
the extreme Grouth of lust fall prevented the
sowing of a large quantity Of ground which had
been prepared for that grain. The scarcity and
high price Of seed, he seems to think, also leads
to this conclusion. 81 know" he observes,
that the past season is generally supposed TO
have been one Of great productivcness, and that
muny believe the average yield per acre to have
been from one sixth to one quart,r above that OF
ordinary years. have not overlooked this item
but have not inserted it in the estimate because
it is more than eounterbalanced by other con-
siderations. The number of producing resi-
dents of the country was never so great as now,
the number of foreign immigrants since 1850
being not far from 1.75O,CO0, the mass ofwhom
are not yet mingled with the agricultural popu.
ation. The extent of ground sown is less, l
think, than ever before in proportion to the mum
Der of inhabitants, and the quantity of wheat re-
tanned from consumption for seed, is largebeyond
precedent. The almost complete exhaustion Of
the ordinary surplus remaining at harvest from
the growth of preceding years, is also fact