The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-04-05
Rirbmunn pispatth.


FRIDAY MORNING ..... April. &. 1881.
Ts STAMPEDE Her Slaves Il 10 Reduce vir.
etnia - the Condition or spanish Anne.
rican Repablic.
The saddest misfortune that can belong to
country Is the want Of well ordered system
Of productive industry. With the lack or de-
cay Of productive industry is ever found the
lack or decay Of all the higher attributes OF
society--morals, intelligence, religion, letters,
arms, arts, everything. Industry, mannal
toll, labor--eHicient. productive, organizea,
disciplined labcr-this is the foundation OF All
aocial thrift. Of individual and pubic Piety
and morality, Of national prosperity ana EN-
pire.
Says MAcanraos. the traveller and ssatisu-
clan
az m. popula,ion. and productive industry, and
thaeommerre of Mexico, were commentaries with
it's natural fertility and with the extent Q, .re
been before the prssonl time one Of the Wealth..
Get and most powerful States OF the world Win
soils and productions, with magnificent forests,
with the precious and most of the useful metals In
abu ndanee- Mexico is poweriess ana aechhins
State"
Declining, indeed, it is for, though 1t mas
extracted from the earth one hundred and
ukfy m1ilnO0b Oh tue Ric>'S"0 -
poorer at this day than when the mines were
discovered, although its exports OF produce
other than metals. in 1862 were ~. Zi2' they
had fallen off in lS42 to 81 100000, and
none can tell what they are at present, or
even whether there be any at all. Mr.. "AnDr
THOMPSON says in his Recollections OF Mexico ::
.'Ths immense estates of which have spoken,
Of eighty aud a hundred leagues square. WI q
eighty or hundred thousand cattle, and niieen OF
twenty thousand mules and horses, yno ,tas,r s
lit A profit Perhaps acre oA q ten soasdnd
On fb,r ssfafe. is cit,rdfed Now and then the GOV
eminent purchases hve hundred or thousana
horses for the army; but. with TINS eAce Pti1,u,
there are very few occasions when they can De
sold. In the villages, the houses are eenera,as
small ash{ h9se brs 81 .s With small
in which red pepper and q smaii paa,en VI uaxrran
corn for tor.ilss Il cnsiva I,b and sauaid pow
erty are apparent as in an American ih"'ah
lags."
Without an organized system OF eincieh'
labor the lands stand uncultivateo, ana ho
surplus products are raised for eXportatloh.-
There is consequently no commerce, no money
no market. Property cannot be sold, al oos
mess is paralyzed, all enterprise anhlhlia'eo
Universal stagnation prevails, and " ldleness
filth and squalid poverty" the hahdmaios o
social despair, sit idly by her side
The story of Mexico is the story OF all con,
tinental Spanish America. a vast resioh' u
boundless capabilities, of prolific feruilty' VI
exuberant productiveness-smltten III every
part with wretchedness all that 1t ever Ell
loved of civilization in ruins, and every IN
terest of society not only PROSTATE in the dust
ut PROSTATE without hope of recovery.
Various have been the theories advanced 10
explain the admitted social, commerclai ana
political prostration of Spanish America
Some have ascribed it TO the prevailing reh-
gion some to the Incidence and thriftessness
of the Spanish character; some 10 the lhois-
criminate mixture of races, and the enerVal-
ing effects of long -contipued hybridism' III
regard to the first of these alleged causes, II
Is a sufficient refutation to say, that all OF
good that is left in Spanish American society,
has been rescued by the Church; and, IL
abuses have crept into this institution, IL Is
only q proof that even the Church itself has
partaken of the general decay. The other
reasons alleged are but results, and not causes
are but facts needing explanation, and mol
explanations themselves. The great fact I'M
derlying the whole phenomenon Is, that these
countries have been unable to prosper because
they have been without a system of "pro-
ductive industry" The enervated native
could not toll or be made to toll, being with
out the requisite muscular vigor; the naughty
and delicate Spaniard could not and would
not labor in the fields and the African race,
monopolized by the islands, had been i'm
ported on the main land in too small num-
beers to achieve any decided results, at the Pc
Rod Of the Revolution, which brought uni
versal emancipation. From their discovery
TO the present day, these Spanish Provinces
aid Republics, embracing the most fertile re-
gions of country on the globe, have been with
ont a system of organized, efficient labor
This is the true explanation, this the snfii-
cient and exclusive reason, why they are
still, after three hundred years of intercourse
with civilization, but little else than print
tive wilderness.
If we would know what would have been
the condition Of the Southern States Of our
own portion of the continent, but for their in
stitution of African labor we have but to
contemplate that of the Spanish Republics of
Central and South America. If we could by
one fell blow strip these, our Southern States,
of every element of prosperity and every cher
ished attribute Of civilization, we have but to
deprive them of their institution of African
slavery. If we would reduce Virginia to the
deplorable condition of anarchy, poverty, and
squalid wretchedness, exemplihed i'll the
worst Republics of Central or South America
we have but by fixing her destinies with the
abolition North, to stampede her negroes and
uproot her slave institution.