Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1855-08-15
LYNCHBURGG iviRGiNitN.
WEDNESDAY MORNING. AuG'T is, 1855.
A Chapter from Benton's History.

iii ~, ,,.;aa lies in n belief of the inccmpa,i-
bility of the interests of the South with those at
the North. and is no way connected win the
question of slavery. He ascribes the eXistence
Of this belief in the incompatihility of interests
between the two sections to the unequal and per-
yerted action of the Federal Government where
by capital hns heen distracted from the south
aud accumulated in the North. Among the iea
tares of that policy, Col. Benton @Peches protect
i've tariffs internal Improvement PENSIONS n"
tional debt, two national banks, the funding sys-
TEN, and tue paper sys,en the multiplication ~
offices. profnse aud eNtrasagant expenditure The
conversion IF limited into an almost unlimited
government and the Substitution of power and
splandor for what was Intended TO be simple
and economical administration of that part OF
their affairs which required general head
The author repudiaies the idea of permanent
and inherent inoompatibility of interest between
the North and South; and argues that nothing is
needed TO restore peace and harmony between
the two sections but the cessation OF unequal le
eisaton and the administration OF the govern
ment on the pure and simple principles contem
plated by its founders.
II i scarcely necessary 10 say that we do not
concur in all of old Billions views upon this
tonic. but whatever he writes whether true 2r
not, is always interesting, and we regret that we
have not space for the entire chapter under con
sderaon.
Col. Benton states thai the complaints of the
South commenced in the first years OF the Federal
Government and continued TO increase until they
reached the stage Of nm organised sectional eS
preston. Conventions Of the Southern states
we're held ahont the year 1888 at Augusta Ca
and Charleston. south Gurolina, aud the evil com
painea of,and the remedy proposed were strong
" set forth, in addresses to he' people of the
Southern. States.
The ohenged relative condition of the two sec
tons Of the country, before and since the Union,
was shown in their general relative depression or
prosperity since that event and especially in
the reversed condition OF their respective foreign
IMPORT trade In the colonial condition the com
.parison was wholly in favor Of the South; under
the Union wholly against IT, Thus in the year
I76o--only sixteen years before the Declaration
of Independence-th foreign imports into Viz
ginia were f350,000 sterling and into South
Carolina { 555, 900 while into Now York they
were only fIs9,000, into Pennsylvania, &l9O,-
900 and into all the New England colonies col
leotively, only f56l 900"
These figures exhibit an immense superiority
of commercial prosperity on the side OF the
South in its colonial state. sadly contrasting
with another set OF figures exhibited by tho CON
yention to show its relative condition within
few years after the union. Thus, in the year
1921, the imports into New York had risen 10
s23. 100000 being about seventy times its colo
NAL import at about an equal period before the
adoption of the constitution; md those of South
Carolina stood at % 900 600 which, for all prac
teal purposes. may be considered the same that
they in l760.
The conventions brough, down their compari-
son TO the year 1892 showing that the New York
imports since 1871 had more than doabled the
Virginia had fallen off one.hali South Carolina /
wo-thrds The actual figures stood New ork, /
ffty-seyen millions Virginia, halfa million
South Carolina. one million and aquarter
This was q disheartnng view and rendered |
more greyious by the certainty o, its continue
don. the prospect of its aggravation, and the
conviction that the South lin its great staples)
furnished the basis for these imports, Of which it
received SO small share. To this loss of its
import trade, and its transfer to The North, the
convention attributed, primary cause, the
reversed condition of the two seotops-the great
advance Of one inwealth and improvements the
slow progress, and even the comparative decline
of the other.
The Augusta and Charleston Convention re-
commended their remedy the establishment of
direct trade with Europe. The plan tried.
but failed and Col. Benton ascribes tho failure to
superior advantages for avigation in the North
greater aptitude of its people for commerce
established course of busiEoss--ac cumulatcd
capital--continued unequal legislation in Con.
gress, embarrassing expenditures of the govern
ment. chiefly dsbursed in the North-and defec,
of seamen in the South
The author closes his chapter as follows:
Aud now. at this period, us5i,) the foreign
imports at New York are 1875 millions; at Boston
So millions; in Virginia million and a quar-.
ter; in South Carolina million and three quar-
tiers.
This is what the dry and naked figures show:
to the memory and imagination it is worse For
it is q tradition ofthe colonies that the South had
been the seat of wealth and happiness, of power
aasd opulence; that rich population covered the
land, dispensing baronial hospitality. and diff
fusng the felicity which themselves enioyed-
that all was life, and Joy, and atiluence then
And this tradition was not without similtude to
the reality this writer can testify; for he was
old enough to have seen latter the Revolution)
the still surviving state of southern colonial man
ners, when no traveller allowed to 90 to a
tavern and was handed over from family to fam
lily, through entire states-when holidays we're
days Of festvity and expectation, long prepared
tor, and celebrated by master and slave with
v1Is fna stin and T.
friends and relatives; when gold was kept in
desks or chests latter the downfall of paper) and
weighed in scales; and lent to neighbors for
short terms without note, interest witness or Sc