The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-03-23
virginia's Wealth, Power and Influence
Rest upOn her Slave System.

date secession in the State.
Virginia's Wealth, Power and Influence
Rest upon her Slave System.
Since the world began there has been no
system of labor comparable, in productive
efficiency, with the slave system of the South
ern States. If we look back through the
ages, we shall discover no great achievement
of human toll but such as was the product.of
slave labor In modern times two conpeti-
tors have appeared to contest the palm OF pro-
ductive capacity with the slave-the machine,
and the cooley but the machine can be en-
ployed to advantage only in manufactures,
and the cooley only as an indifferent
substitute to supply the want of slaves. The
immense demands of modern civilization for
labor have called forth these new agencies OF
production but except the machine for par
ticular branches of industry, no equivalent
has yet been discovered for the slave laborer.
Slave labor is the foundation of productive
power-the other agencies are but auxiliaries.
The commerce and wealth of country de-
pend upon its surplus products. If a man
makes only what he consumes, he may be
very comfortable, very tidy in his person and
his form, very independent; but he cannot
grow richer A country made up of rich citi
zens may be very populous, very beautiful in
all its features and departments, and very
powerful for its own defence; but it can have
no foreign commerce of importance, and can
not grow a whit in external influence, power
or consideration.
The only States, of what were the Ia tie Uni
ted States, which produced SURPRISES for ex-
portation and foreign commerce, were the
slaveholding ones. The exports of the Union
- l~tl, &I,n
great bulk of which were the peculiar produc
ton of these States. There were also ex-
ported grain, provision stuffs, and other pro-
duets, such as are produced alike by slave
holding and non slaveholding States; but the
quantity of those that went abroad scarcely
equalled the amount of the same articles
which were sent from the South TO the North
30 that it may be said with truth, that the
.ohole foreign expectation Of the Union ,oent
directly or indirectly, erclusiueiy from the
sldpehoIding States. In other words, the
slaveholdiug sec ton of the Union furnished
all the surplus products that constituted thu
basis of the foreign commerce of the country
while the non -sla eholding section furnished
nothing, but consumed all that it produced.
The most fortunate condition of a commu
nifty for prosperity is where slave labor Ii
largely engaged in the production OF articles
valuable for importation, ut the same tina
machinery and intelligent free labor may b.
employed in manufactures and the NOR
highly paid branches of industry and botl
of these conditions exist under circums tances
geographical and political, favorable 10 tn
growth of external and internal commerce.
Precisely in this fortunate relation TO al
these subjects does Virginia stand at TIL
hour. But the substratum and foundation @
her whole power and wealth OF resources, i
her system Of slave labor. She is the larges
slaveholding State in the Union; Eastern ' II
ginia the largest slaveholdng community i
the world. Blot this slave sytem Of Virgins
out of existence, and at the same time cut he
of from trade with the procure tive, wealth
teeming, because slaveholding, South, an
she becomes a vast waste, with here and ther
q cluster Of counties cut up into small farms
tenanted by owners, we'll fed, comfortable
Glad, and independent it may be, but who's
whole business of life consists in making tn
two ends of the year meet.
To show the value of the slave system {
Virginia, we have only to adduce the sing
subject Of annual taxation; although the bull
Of the white population of the State reside
in the West, the great bulk OF her taxab
values, which are the result of the labor
the slaves, is found in the East. Taxed a
cordiug to white population, the West woul
have " pay the larger portion of the publ
revenues. Taxed, however, as the fact is, a.
cording TO the values of the State, and u
burden falls two 10 one upon the East Fl
while Tidewater and Piedmont paid last yea
Of the taxes locally levied, s., l04, 1856, Il
Valley. Northwest and Southwest, paid on
u ,2ie, SOC. OF the taxes of a general chara
ter, amounting additionally to three q uarte
Of a million of dollars, much the larger DO
ton Is paid by the East 80 that in trut
while the West pays OF the annual taxati,
Of the State only about a million and a h,
dollars, the East pays more than two miilio
and a half, or two for one.
Now,it Is proposed 10 destroy the slave s,
TEN Of virginia-which contributes 80 ma
to Der general wealth, and discharges so Lar
portion of her annual taxation--by t,
processes, TO wit: first, by adhering 10
North In the division Of the Union that /
taken place, which puts our slave sys tern
the mercy Of an abolition majority and. s,
ondly, by taxing the slaves in three form
that IL to say, by not only taxing the Walt
which they produce, and taxing them 4
capffa, A. il already done, but also by tax
their individual value, as represented by ,
cash prices they would bring in the market
Uisnnjon being fact accomplished; I