The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1857-04-28
From the New Orleans Bulletin, March n.
Colonixing Virginia.

Tha papers, OF late have given prominence
TO scheme alledged to be on foot to colon
ize the northern part Of Virginia by free Ia
boren from Pennsylvania and New England.
A company has been projected, it is said,
with capital of three or four millions Of dol
lara, which either has purchased. or will,
large tracts Of worn-out land in Virginia, and
will resell it in small farms to emigrants who
will be induced to settle there.
This is certainly significant sign of the
times and may we'll attract the public atten-
ton. Some of the Virginia papers, we no.
tice, grow furious about it, and invoke the
Legislature to take measures TO prevent the
"assaults of abolition upon the institutions Of
the South" Characteristic enough! We
reckon it would be like "calling spirits from
the vastly deepw II they call the settle
ment Of the worn-cui sedge patches Of Vir-
ginia, which Gov. Wise SAYS "outshine the
sum-" by cmigrants from New England or
anywhere else, an assault upon the insttu-
tions of the South, we fear there will be no
defence against the said assaults. A greater
power than any legislature is vested which
must come TO the res" ne, or there will be no
defence. 1t would be spectacle decidedly
rich and refreshing, to see the Legislature Of
any State undertake to prescribe to its own
citizens to whom they should dispose of their
!, nds, barren or otherwise, who should and
who shoi;!d not settle upon and cultivate
them, or to prevent the cii;;s"ns Of any other
State from entering it and making |; 'heir
permanent abode. The Legislature of
State IL not quite competent to overthrow the
Constitution of the United States. If the
institutions of the South cannot br defended
in any other way than this then they arc not
susceptible of any defence at all Such
mode Of warfare would be, in the first place,
unconstitutional; in the next utterly impossi-
BILE Of execution; and lastly, il would subject
all concerned in il to boundless ridicule-
would make them target and laughing
stock TO the whole country. Quxotic rs it is
however, there doubtless may be found per-
sons crazy enough TO advocate it.
We refer to this matter simply because
there is principle involved in it bearing up
on the southern States, and in which, conse-
quenily, We are interested, though perhap.
not to the same extent as the people of Vir-
ginia. Why is il that the latter State has
been degenerating, its soil becoming exhaus-
ted, aud its whole affairs going to waste aud
poverty3 That she is going down hill, and
has been so for years, let her own press testi
fy.
What is the cause, we ask, Of all this 3
Instead of invoking the Legislature or the
Giraffe to erect barriers against the inroads Of
the Yankees and the Du'ch, the first fnmi.
lies" would be more prottably employed, we
submit, in obtaining an answer to this qucs.
tion, with reference 10 some sensible efforts to
inauguratc new and more encouraging or
der Of things.
The whole secret Of the wasting way of
Of the Old Dominion, Of its poverty, worn
out soil. dilapidatcd old fields, scdge patches,
brier patches, waniigp power and influence, lies
undoubtedly in the fact that her press, bic
men, and leading citizens generally, have de-
voted their attention from time immemorial
almost exclusively to politics. The rights Of
Virginia, TIE mother of States and OF States
men, the rights of the South. the Virginia
and Kentucky resolutions of '9s-99, the De-
mocracy, etc.--these have been the lurden
# the Virginia press ever since we can re-
member. The attention Of her people has
been directed to hair-splitting dogmas, about
abstract State rights, the genius Of Democ-
racy, and President making. The conse-
quence has been that victory has always
perched upon the banner Of the said Democ-
racy, federalism" has been whipped clear
out Of the State time and again, the people
have been sound to the core in the faith Of
the most approved political orthodoxy, and
the State has been running down every day,
to, having had twenty three members Of
Congress in 1880, and thirteen now! Any
lesson to be drawn from thisl While "the
rights of the South have been vigorously
defended. the wooden horse has entered thro'
innumerable gaps in ro,ten fences, and grazed
in thousands Of dhal idated, worn out fields,
wherever, in fact, he could get a bite; find
ing the grass, however, generally, We mus,
say, so stuntcd as nearly to staTe him to
death. Internal improvements have beenig.
nored, AS rather too plebian in character to oc-
cupy the attention Of men Of men Of enlar-
ged capacities; public schools-which always
afford, Of course, the lfe-blood Of State
have been almost entirely neglected. The
rich were able 10 educate their own Children;
and rs TO the poor, what need had they for
educationl Has it not been held Ivy some of
the great ligh's Of the press that knowing
how to read Is rather disadvantage? Con.
s"quently, great numbers of her people have
grown up in ignorance Of the merest rudi-
mcnts Of mental culture.
The very presses that have been directing
the attention Of the people of Virginia to far
of, abstract matters, which, however true or
false they might be, only served to divert
them from practical, home subjects Of the
greatest importance TO their real interest and
improvement, now seem very much surprised
upon waking up to find the State dwinding
down to nothing comparatively, and about to
be taken by the Freesoiers. II they had
though, about this twenty years ago, if they
had let the Virginia and Kentucky resolu-
tions" alone, if they bad urged the people
to build a school house at every cross road,
and to GO to making railroads, hats, shoes,
shirts, plows, hoes, cloths, gimlcts, clocks pins,
&c, &c, Virginia nor might have been lust