Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1860-03-02
yon-tntercourse wsth 1;ae North.
Sept. 9, 1859.

Non-Intercourse with t;ae North.
There is bill now pending before the
Legislature Of Virginia, which provides for
a special license to sell all of stated class
Of goods, seeking to include in thatclass all
the leading articles of consumption which
may be most prcEtably manufactured in this
State or imported into it directly from for
eign countries.
In most able speech, (Which we regret
very much our inability to publish In the
1indicstor, J delivered by Mr. James Bar
bour, of Culpeper before the House of Del
egates on the 10Th of February, the purpose
and certain effects of this bill ere elaborate
ly set forth. sa}
+ In that speech we find some very inter-
-esting statistics, to sene Of which we will
briefly allude. 1t lis stated. on the authori-
ty Unreliable documents, that the factories
of Massachusetts, alone give employment to
90, 600 male laborers and SO, 900 female la
borers; that the annual amount paid to these
laborers is $50 700, 900, and that tie an
nual value of the fab les manufactured Is
$3.50 600, 000s almost the whole q which
seeks a nome market, and the most of which
Southern market Now, the first ques-
ton which presents itself to every mind on
consideration of these facts, is, what would
be the effect on Massachusetts, were the mar
ket for the proceeds Of this immense amount
Of labor suddenly withdrawn? We do not
hesitate to assert that the whole industrial
system of New England would be complete
by prostr:ted if the Southern market should
be closed against their manufactures. And
when those hundreds of thousands of labor
ers who receive employment in the North
-ern factories -manufactnring fabrics for
Southern consumption-se the Southern
market closed against Northern manufac-
.tures-when they see trade Frustrated, and
their labor 10 longer needed-when they
begin to feel the effects of that fanaticism
which has heen the bane and curse Of this
Union--they will commence to enquire,
"why this war OF sections 2" why this in
termedding of the free States into the Pc
culiar affairs.of the slave States ?''-and the
succeeding elections will register terrible
and effective rebuke to the corrupt fanati-
cism which is hurrying the country to the
brink of destruction.
Again The Auditors report shows that
Virginia alone affords market for the man
ufactures of the Northern States amounting
to $40, 900, 600; and history tells us that
the closing of the ports of the United States
against the commerce of Great Britain, when
that commerce only amounted to sixty-Gve
millions of dollars annually, Frustrated the
whole industrial interests of England. 1t
is legitimate to argue from this that the
trade of the North would receive an almost
fatal blow by the closing Of the market Of
this State alone against her manufactures,
even though the other Southern States re-
fused to cooperate with her in this most
wise movement.
l. is fact beyond doubt that the trade of
the North---in other words, that the North
lis at the mercy of the South !; and if each
Of the Southern Legislatures would pass
some such prohibitory bill as that now pend
ing before the Virginia Legislature, we
would soon see the State Governments of
the North forced into conservative policy
by the suffering capitalists and starving la
borers of the free States.