Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1861-04-12
submission is Ruin.

nothing more stupid, than the dogma that
slavery is curse to the country. On the
contrary, the heaviest calamity that could
befall any slave State on this continent, the
greatest curse that an angry Providence
could inAict upon the South, would be the
destruction of it's slave institution. The
North ascribe its own rapid increase in pop.
ulation and wealth chiefly to the immigra-
ton Of foreigners; and does so with reason.
The foreigner comes over, in the general,
destitute, obliged to work, and willing to
labor with Lis own hands The Yankee
lives upon his wits but the foreign laborer
is real producer-he works with his own
hands, ha digs the earth, and he produces
food for his own consumption as we'll as for
that of his Yankee taskmaster. Well may
the North ascribe its prosperity in great
degree to the immigrant; for that individ-
ual becomes a producer from the outset,
and not until he accumulates little capital
by his manual industry, does he initiate
the Yankee, resort to his wits for liveli-
hood, and resolve himself into consumer.
1t is from immigration that the North
derives its chief want. its most exigent de-
sideratum-l labor, manuel labor; dirt dig
ging, soil tilling labor; the labor decreed
against man by the curse of Eden the la
Dor that brings to his brow the dust and
the sweat. Various are the devices which
the Yankee contri7es to avoid, himself, this
sweat of the brow-machines without NUNS
Der, factories where women and girls are
made to work in droves; ligneous nutmegs
and hams; protective tariffs, and like in
ventions. But the influx of penniless i'm
migrants from Europe, was the Yankee
godsend-poor, necessitous. stout. sinewy
immigrants, used to privation and toll, will
ling to labor with their hands, anxious to
barter their service for mere bread. But
the evil Of immigrant labor is, that it is not
permanent. Industry In our fourishing
country soon brings its reward of accumu-
lated means and easy competency. The
humble. industrious immigrant soon grows
too we'll -tordo to. be willing or obliged to
sweat and toll longer. His service at the
shovel and the hoe is but an apprenticeship
Of a few years, at the end of which he be-
comes, in his turn, an Employer and consul
mer, rather than lahoring producer.
| It is this windfall of labor by the millions,
pouring into the North during the last TWEEN
| ty years, that has been the leading agent In
the rapid Development and great prosperity
of that section. It remained at the North
because it was wanted there. 1t did not
core South because we had it already. -
The defect of this species Of labor is its
want Of permanency-is the fact that it is
not Gas to the individual life time service,
but mere apprenticeship of few years =
| Virginia contains half million Of life; time
| laborers, descendants of Ham, doubly. de-
creed to service by the divine edicts pro-
|uounced against adam and Canaan-to
service for life, service in perpetaity -
Suppose that, by some fell decree, every la
boring immigrant in the North were sud-
denly swept from that stiff necked land,
who will estimate the thousand millions of
loss that would be instantly inflicted upon
all its busy interests ? Labor, labor, is the
Jewel of great price in nations easket.:-
Labor is the bread and breath of 4 State.
1t is proposed to bind Virginia to po-
litical association that will impede her labor
like pestllence. 1t is proposed to chain
her to a destiny that at once exiles from her
borders the grandest body of productive la
Dor to be found in any State upon the globe.
1t is proposed, by allying the mother of
States to. the termigrants of New England,
not merely to make her an alien and an en-
envy to her daughter ct the South. but to
bereave her Of her institution ct African Ia
Dor, handmade that was born and fostered
r hor bo cd hor
to age, and to whose faithful and efficient
Eservics Sic owes all her comeliness and
comfort. .+c
To show the productive value Of this
slave system to Virginia, we have only to
contrast the property values of those coun-
ties within her borders which have few
slaves, with those which have many slaves.
There could not be a better exponent of the
wealth of each than the taxes levied upon
them by the Commonwealth; for, except
the iuconsiderable stipend which is levied
per capita, these taxes are all levied direct
ly in proportion to the values existing IN
the counties, which values are the product
exclusively Of the labor operating in those
counties. For the purpose of exhibiting
this contrast we have coupled together. in
eight or ten pairs, county from the non
slaveholding portion of the State and a
county from the slaveholding, bringing to-
gether such as contain nearly equal num-
bers of white inhabitants. It will be found
that in every one of the cases adduced be-
low, (and we will extend tie remark with.
out fear of contradiction that in every case
which cen be adduced at all, the. amount
tof the taxes paid by the slaveholding coun.
ty is more than double, often treble, tina,
+ paid by the coonty having few or no slaves
In each couple given, the first is Western
the second an Eastern county:
I Counties. Whites. 7arazt,;ion.
Harrison, 1882 SIS, 191
/ Halifax, 11,O66 51,617
Difference paid by slave labor in
Halifax, $780, 2s
Randolph 4,7S3 $50:
i Rappahannock, 5.01S 1858
Difference paid by slave labor, l0,O4(
Highland, $500 8,49!
King & Queen, 1901 II, 991
D;Moroneo &yo Ec @ 1OS