The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1857-07-15
Free labor Advancing.

Our readers are doubtless informed Of
the scheme set on foot by Mr.. Eli Thayer
for the colonization of Virginia and other
Slave States. One or two of the West
ern counties in Virginia, worn out by
slave labor so as to be worthless for plan
tation products, have been bought by an
Incorporated company, and are being sold
in small tracts to Northern farmers and
manufacturers who will take possession
and improve the property. The project
was at first opposed by many Virginians,
but they are beginning to realize the fact
that their lands can be renovated only by
the energetic free laborers Of the North.
The plan promises to be eminently sue
cessful, and so rich in good results as to
afford topic for consideration.
1t has been apparent for many years
that, in the Northern slave States, slave
labor was decreasing in value. Long
years of cultivation without mind have ex-
hausted a soil originally fertile, until inn
u1ense tracts now lie barren wastes. The
traveller in Maryland, Virginia and North
Carolina, will4pften Eass mile after mile
in sight ofruiabus old Emissions and dilapi-
dated huts, gone to decay because slave
labor had sucked the life-principle out Of
the soil. Still these States have chung to
the incubus that fettered them, and froWn-
ed at every suggestion Of relief But
utter bankruptcy begins to stare the Old
Dominion in the face, and she is now
wiling to admit as an experiment. col
ony Of free laborers.
We think the result Of the experiment
is by no means uncertain. It will prove
amply successful, both in material effects
and in its influence. AS q business
transaction it will yield large profit to
the company that makes the purchase,
and will enrich the settlers who emigrate.
This solid basis upon sure material re-
suits viii cause the example to be widely
copied, and we may calculate upon the
emigration, in few years to come, of
thousands of the intelligent energetic
men from the North into Virginia and
the border slave states.
An infusion of new life and activity,
such as this will bring to g slave state,
cannot be overastimated. It would not
be wonderful were it to raise Virginia in
physical prosperity to the rank of Penn
sylyania and other free states.
But the effect Of this scheme upon the
system Of slavery is the aspect which is
most cheering. It is an established fact
that slave labor cannot compete with that
Of the free man. And hence we may ex-
pect to see the abandonment of the one
wherever the other is pushed forward.
Slave labor is even now improbable in
Virginia, and it is not to much to say that
in ten years it will be almost if not entire
" superseded by compensated labor.
AS in Virginia SO in states farther
South and West. Private enterprise and
philanthropy are doing great things for
Missouri. The field is there so inviting
that the immigration from the North is
already very large, and few years will
give freedom the Same preponderance in
the State thst it has gained in her com
mercial metropolis.
We shall see, therefore, narrowing
of slave territory on the East and west
cotemporaneously, in all probability, with
an endeaYor to extend it to the South
OF that endoavor it will be time to speak
hereafter. 1t is enough now to see one
great truth nightly illustrated, namely:
that when free and slavelabor are brought
into competition, the latter inevitably re-
cedes. Here is nature proving by infal-
liblemethods that neither Legislative enact
ments nor judicial decisions can prevent
slavery from being driven away before
the advancing tide Of freedom. Slavery
obtained decision from the Supreme
Court that negroes have no rights which
white men are bound to respect" But a
power stronger than savery-a law high
er than the Supreme Courts working
quietly but irresistibly, to make the prin-
ciples of freedom and equal rights acknowl-
edged and practiced all over the earth.
Prescott Transcript.