Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1857-05-30


and found facilities ii shipment every
where deep water, Wharfage and accessible
iiy 10 navigation up TO the very steps IF tic
Blue Ridge of the AIleghalies. This also
tentled to difitso population and capital,
and prevented the concentration Of eitGerat
any one point to form city fer purposes Of
commerce. Every plantation found lan5-
log al its own fields Or near in its own
Ine9hborhood, and but ship-lcad had 10 lie
collected at any one locality, such vas the
convenience TO and from market If the car
lest settlements of Eastern Virginia
Again Nhen fernlation moved west
ward, IT crossed the Blue Ridge mountains
into a rich aud beautiful valley, running
north and south, which has 10 natural cut
let bat at It's northern terminus in cur iim-
Is, aud II bad to pour lis products cut of
cur marts into those Of the adjoining State
of Maryland, at the head Of he Chesapeake
Bay And when it crossed the next and
parallel ridge OF the Alleehanies, il settled
upon rivers flowing westward into the great
basin of the Mississippi, and had to send lis
products by the Monongahela and the Guy
andotte and the two kanawhas and the San
dy, to Gout On the Ohio, to build up Pits
burg and Cincinnati and New Orleans, cit
les OF Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Louisiana.
Thus, by every geographical and geological
cause, we're oar people segregated into sep
crate communities and divided from eacl,
ether and all mutual commercial dependen-
cy. Thus, at the beginning, from the char
aeter Of their settlers and interests. aud Of
their operatives in labor, from The nature Of
their various territory, from both physical
convenience and necessity, the habitudes of
our people were formed anti-eonlmereial. -
They grew up a planting and purely paste
raj people, segregated and isolated Il away
utterly opposed to the concentration Of pop
ulation and capital, tothc building of cities
and of ships, and to the encouragement of
the mechanic arts, all depending upon ccln-
merce.
Again; besides these causes, a great
oceanic cause compelled the concentration
of commerce at New Yorl; as long as sails
have been the motors by sen The iceberes
Of the Arctic and the trade winds of the Tro-
pies and the Calf Stream have mad4 cur
rents OF water and of air so defined in their
course and limits that whether snip sail
from Florida cape or Barnegat, from Ches-
epeake Bay or Newfoundland banks, size
has to take the same ofing and pursue the
same track over the seas to make the quick
est trip to Liverpool or Havre. If she
veers fraction Of degree too far north
She is in mists and storms and floating ice
and If too far south she is in battling currenis
of air and water to delay ard cndaneer her
passage. The great turnpike over the At
lantic is about a degree and half in
breadth, with New York at the western and
Liverpool NJ the eastern end Of the WY
The laws ofinsurance and e time i'll trade
then made New York the importing and ex-
porting point Of the Atlantic front Of the;
American continent, until steam has inter-
posed to defy batting airs and currents. \
steamship can now lay straight across. south
Of the old sailing line, in lattules compara-
lively much safer, from Norfolk better than
from New York. But | am speaking Of
the past; and in the past there was no COM
petition tram this cause alone with New
York, No fact can better illustrate tbs
than the rivalry Of Philadelphia With New
York for commercial supremacy. She had
more capital than New York, higher COM
merelal character, vas the centre for many
years Of the financial means If GoyernmoAf.
and lacked neither ambition nor enterprise
to contend for the mastery; but she was Oh
liged to yield, Aer ship would get to the
capcs u pelaTare. whilst the competing
New Yorker, beaten perhaps on the way.
turned IN direct to port aud had out her
shipping liSt5 while the Philadelphia ship
was slowly beating up a swan-neek channel
The two DAYS delay determined the struc-
gle Philadelphia had to withdraw from
the contest, became distributing point for
New York impertations, and eaeaciously
turned her capital to manufacturing And
yet she has not gone behind-hand, nor have
we, by not struggling against natural and
uncomfortable causes She has ceasedco,n
paratiyely to import, but she has gained anl
not last therehy and thus far So have we
In this we have done wisely ana we'll, and
this | will try to show
BY the operation of these causes We have
begun and kept ourselves an agricultural
people, producers of the raw material, re-
lying on manual labor in planting and
grazing, and as yet left commerce and mi
nlng and manufacturing and the mechanic
arts to the concentrated population and
capital and skill Of other people And
thereby we have lost nothing. the world has
gained great deal, and we have fulfilled
mighty destiny in the moral and political
field, greater than the achievements Of trade
and arts III the physics Of ether States
We have no cities but we have a meliora
ted country populaco, civilized in the soil
tude, gracious in the amenities of life. and
refined and conservative in social habits.
We have little associated, but more iads-
rtdaat wealth than any equal number Of
white population in the United States
We have no mechanic arts, bat are better
able, ca alasSe, to own their utensils than
the people are who manufacture them
Our labor ia the past has been and at pres.
ent is better employed than to manufacture
them ourselves We have no commerce.
that Is, we are not our own earriers-but
we supply the very pabulum Of commerce.
which would hot be 50 largely ;a.l sell sup
pied II we were to turn traders. We are
wanting in body of laboring white yeo-
many, but our operatives are slaves, AN in
terior race, who are blessed by patriarch
al government Of henigu domestic rule