New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-01-24
THE DECAY OF VIRGINIA.


and opportunity serve. But there is another aspect
in which We propose to mark its influence on the
physical condition of at least one State where 1t
exists and that State it's once prOudest scat OF en-
pire-the Old Dominion, now the great slave
breeding region Of the South By slaye-breeding
| we mean-not that all the slayehOlding States do
not lend all the negroes they can, consistently with
the profitable application OF their labor to other OBJ
jects-but in Virginia save-breedng, for sale III
other States is the great and most profitable staple
OF production.
By close calcIlstion Of the manner in which
slave children are bred and reared it will be ascer-
tanned that slave child up to FIVE years old, costs
little if anything more to rear than it does Ken
tucky mule of the same age, particularly II the
mother of the child raise the corn to feed it and
herself upon, which that of the mule cannot do.
If o good breeder, she can produce young negro
once in eighteen months a fair average, raising
meantime the corn for her progeny up to their
fifth year. marketable age. The business must be
paving one Let not our language seem revolving,
for il is the language Of statistics, shown on paper
and talked about as freely, when the business goes
on, as any other branch Of stock-rsising. Slaves,
there, are not humanity, but ringers" and crea-
lures Of bargain and sale.
We take from The Cosnt,y CT n'leman OF the 10th
inst. the following advertisement:
"vRGINh LAND have for sale ], l2l acres
woop LAND. 1t well waered and has plenty OF Meadow
Tie distance from Freder asbug is 10 es and the same from
Orange Court House. Further description Any
had per third cash Ii be divided TO salt
purchasers at higher fs AR Fy.S TO fredericksburg
Had this tract of land lain in Illinois, Wisconsin
or Iowa--ndeed in any of the Free States ten or
dozen years old Only--it would not have arrested
our attention except being offered at about its
market value for any enterprising emigrant wish
ing TO establish himself on a good farm; but in
Virginia, the "lone mother Of not dead, but
living "Empires.' this advertisement ia preg-
naut with meaning. DISTANCE from Freder-
"ieksburg eighteen miles, And where is
Fredericksburg By turning TO the Gazetteer
We find it TO be town Of 5000 inhabitants, at
the head of navigation and below the falls Of the
River RappahannOck, 10 miles from Chesapeake
Bay, and 90 miles north Of Richmond If our his.
Orical readings ore correct this town was the seat
of great wealth and refinement in the olden time;
the heart OF a country peOpled by the aristOcracy
of the land and near where Mary, the mother of
Washington" lies entombed. A few miles below,
in Westmoreland, Washington himself was born
SO were the four brothers Lee Orchard Henry,
signer of the Declaration of Independence, and
Thomas, Francis and Arthur, Gen. Henry Lee,
James Monroe, and Judge BushrOd Washington.
A renowned country was that lying along the Rap
pabannock, in those days, and our ,l2l acres of
woodland, which can be bought for IS an acre,
is only eighteen miles from its commercial center,
and on both q railroad and plsnkrOsd This
tract like many more OF the same kind was once
probably the family seat OF descendant OF the
Cavaliers, Astounding in wealth, but run out,
thrown to commons, and long ago deserted for
some fresher and more productive soil furths
south or wet Poor and exhausted as the land
rosnd about it is the Rappahannock s large,
nayigable stream for coasting vessels with fine
fisheries; delicious climate, yielding all the fruits
and vegetables of the latitude Of 3S40 north; q
grand water power above the tide and the soil round
and about it, poor aud worn Is it it, is far superior
in its natural qualities to the most populous and
highly cultivated parts of either Rhode Island or
farmers are annually emigrsting thousand miles
10 the Free States west in search Of new homes.
That this once beautiful and productive country
has been deserted by it, tobscco-g growing and slave
holding residents, il no wonder, for even slaves
do not Hoe pay for growing on ii. But why
Northern people do not 90 there to build ny its
water-pOwer, and cultivate end reinyigorste its
coil, We shall proceed to show.
81 the only one of its kind. For mny years past,
at any time, one could point out in our Northern
papers hundreds of d like kind embracing larger or
smaller tracts Of land, in many equally we'll stu.
ated counties st even lower prices, and with
gester local advantages, thus offered, and without
purchasers. We have been frequently asked why
our Northern farmers 10 not go there, with their
thrifty and economical habits, and buy and settle
those cheap lsnds-where they could easily make
their fortunes Some of these liberal landhOlders,
81 if surnising the objection, have remarked in
their advertisements That :" if slsveholding were
Objectionable there were few or no slaves in the
"neighborhood !" Had they added with truth
IS they could not-tbat there were no Stare tcns
there, their lands would have found ready market
msn born and educated in our Free States needs
some inducements TO leave an old home and seek
new one beyond cheap land and a mild
climate. He has been born near highway that
be could travel upon, educated in the district
school ard taught his morals in the Sunday school
l. IL, of II