Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1861-03-14

THEIR LAST DoDaK Newspaper bluster and
abuse and unmitigated street blsckguardism hav-
ing utterly failed to drive sufficient number of
those elected 20 the Virginia Convention AZ Union
men to the support of the schemes Of the seces-
sionists, 10 secure their triumph, the Richmond
disunion papers are resortng to the depopulation-
dodge. They are proclsiming that hundreds Of
the States wsalthiest SHAREHOLDERS are making
preparations to abandon their Virginia estates and
remove their negroes 10 the Southwest; and that,
n consequence, virginis's merchants and me.
ehsnies should see starvation before their eyes,
and her landholders the utter ruin Of the market
value Of their real estate.
Now, II happens that we have, just over the
river here practical illustration Of the effect OF
the removal of slaves In large numbers from
portion Of Virginia, that tells very different tale,
indeed, from the predictions Of the Richmond
Enqrirr, Examiner, and Dispatch. We refer TO
Fairfax county. Man and boy, we have known
Fairfax well nigh half century. We knew 1t
when the proportion Of slaves to free white
laborers IN II was great now exists in any Of
the lower counties Of the state where the value Of
fair euliiveble lands continues to average under
ten dollars. We knew, In old times, many
estates there, Of from one TO ten thousand acres
each, to be practically abandoned by the removal
Of their owners negroes to the Southwest and then
sold out In lots Of from one to five hundred acres
TO white laboring men, at from 50, IS, 81 to SO
per acre: which estates had come to be worth an
average Of $50 per acre. before the secession game
commenced. We know that the change In the
system OF the cultivation Of the soil there through
Its practical abandonment by the large slave
owners, has not only increased IT'S value from
three to five hundred fold, but that It has SO
diversified the employment Of the people Of the
county al to double the value Of the proceeds of
every labori1g mans labor, In IL. We know that ID
hasmulcplied schools, workshops, manufactures,
&C., &c, in Fairfax, and perhaps doubled the
productive population of the county. And we
know further that the social and industrial con-
dition Of the laboring whites there, has improved
by the change as though 10y magic. Log cabins
chinked with mud, have disappeared on the
lsnds OF the laboring whites, and class of rural
buildings and farm improvements equal to those
occupied by the SINE class anywhere In the
United States, has taken their place. The former
almost invariable herring tat I'm those days. 81 so
per thousand and the then Inevitable ashe pone
only, no longer form the staples of tine laborng
white mans food in Fairfax, Of yore; for, as a
class, the laboring whites Of that county are as
well OF and have around them as many Of the
substantial comforts Of life, az any other white
laborers In the world
With these facts before our eyes we confess
that we see nothing very alarming In the
threats OF the Richmond disunion newspapers
that many advocates of bringing Virginia under
the dominion Of Rhett, Spra,t l. CO.. pro- fri
can-slave-trade and anti white-labor usurpatIon
design abandoning the State for more con-
genial cline That is: to those deeply inter-
ested, a we certainly are, in the glorious Old
Dominion's continued substantial prosperity and
rapid progress.
The politicians who can perceive no other In
terests In Virginia except the alleged (but not
real) interests Of those who now propose 10 aban-
don their Virginia estates, IL those papers are
making correct representations, have been the
milestone around Virginia's neck for nearly half
century; and II they will only follow, too, In a
very snort time comparatively, Virginia will be
reinstated in her proper relative position-that Of
the FIRST State in the American Union in popula-
ton, wealth, the arts, manufactures, improve
menu, mining, &c.