Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-08-14
For the Daily Patriot. ]
Wants of the south.

Wants of the South.
1t is manifest to every observer, that there
is great lack of enterprise among the native
mechanics of the Southern States. Any one
who doubts this need only inquire into the
history of the public works which have al
ready been completed, or which are now IN
progress. BY so doing, he will find that none
of them has been achieved by Southern enter
prise or Southern skill. The two bridges
which now span the Cumberland at this place,
the Railroad already completed. and those
now in construction, well as our State
house-of which every Tennessean has reason
to be proud-were neither designed nor ex-
ecuted by Southern skill; and the same is
true of nearly all the other public improve
ments in the SOnth.
Why is it that fhe South does not furnish
her own mechanics? and why is it necessary
to import them from the North to secure
thorough and skillful Workmanship? 1t is
simply because mechanical labor is h"rr de-
graded; while in the Northern States all kinds
of labor. especially in the mechanical arts, is
deemed respectable. The genius and skill of
branches of industry without being trammeled
or degraded by contact and daily association
with the negro race. In the Northern States.
it is requisite TO serve an apprenticeship OF
from five to seven years. at a mechanical
trade: and unless be has done So no man is
considered a competent workman.
In the workshops at the North there is an
go III 80, aIn-
Gated class of men; the sons of master
| mechanics. farmers tradesmen, and of pro-
fessional men generally. With snch material
in the workshop there is with each individual
a great incentive to excel; and hence the
great perfection to which the mechanic arts
have arrived in those States.
Why is it that state of things so lament
ably different exists in the South? The rea-
son is obvious to every casual observer
we degrade The mechanic arts by per-
hitting our negro servants to engage in
them; our workshops are filed with slaves
and in many instances to the entire exclusion
| of white men. There is an unwillingness
among the latter tn labor side by side in the
same employment with negroes; and hence it
is that our young men-those who have pride,
ambition, and capacity, feel themselves shut
out from the workshop; and this state Of
things will continue as long as slaves are per
mitted TO engage in mechanical pursuits.
/ This subject is one of vast Importance
| to the true interests of the South; and our
political economists should write upon it, our
| Legislators and public speakers should talk
| about it, TIL such action shall be taken as will
| forever exclude the negro from mechanical
| employments.
We have been led to these reflections by
! observing recently, at Franklin, the immense
| amount of timber collected there for the con-
struction of bridges on the Tennessee and
Alabama Railroad, and the large and efficient
force of mechanics engaged there trainers.
On inquiry we learned that the cnterprisng
contractors for this work, Messrs. Gray, Whit
| on d Co.. who are also the contractors for
building the Railroad Draw-Bridge across the
| Cumberland at this place. were compelled to
bring hiher not only their mechanics but
their timber from the North. The State of
| New York furnishes the timber for the railroad
! bridges in Tennessee!
We are surrounded by forests in which
| every variety of wood essential for building
is found in abundance. and yet we are so de-
fcient in the requisite enterprise or will as in
the mechanical appliances necessary to con-
vert our forest into lumber. that it is consider
ed much cheaper by parties requiring large
quantities of material To depend on the North.
! This is true not only in regard to material for
buildings. Whence come the window sash.
the door pannels, and the flooring used here?
Whence come the vast array Of agricultural
implements. the fine carriages and the thousand
other mechanical structures which arrive every
day by railroad and by steamers! The an
swer is ever the same. from the north"
This is all wrong. We have the materials
and we should manufacture at home the in
Vulnerable articles that are now imported.
The mechanic arts should be released from
the degrading influence of slave labor, they
will then elevate themselves to the same stand
ard that they now occupy in the free States,
and mechanical emplOyments will then be
sought by the enterprising young men of the
South. The mechanic genius of our people
should be developed and encouraged, and this
will take place only when the South shall
awake to her true interest and drive the negro
g., F,.nr, tba