The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-01-26
Rirhmunh pispatrb.
The Crisi...I.. Commercial, Ass.e,

In the present state of affairs. we Should be
aerelict TO duty Were we TO close our eyes 10
The certain results of those events which are
now thronging rapidly upon the stage unless
they are arrested by returning sense of rea
son and Justice. We are compelled 10 con tenn
plate in all their aspects the consequences of
the current against which we are siill Strug-
Cling like desperate swimmers against an adj
verse tide. That tide may turn and bear
BACK 10 the placid pools where we have so long
noated In peace and security; but, If not, we
ought TO look ahead and see what's before us.
One thing is Standardization can bring no
greater evils than any patched up peace, which
leaves us subject to such frequent financial
and political earthquakes as the present
The merchants OF Richmond alone have lost
many thousauds--wc may safely say hun
,ireds Of thousands-of dollars by the money
panic which the election OF LINCOLN has pro-
duced. When six per cent exchange comes
10 be added 20 the payments due the North,
we can begin, but only be2ia, TO understand
the loss, and may start TO computing the
check 10 commerce which must follow these
quadrennial political revulsions 1t is not
going 100 far TO say that several merchants
have already sustained an individual loss by
arrangements in their business of from twenty
five 10 fifty thousand dollars not to men,
ton what must follow from comparative
inactivity for the next twelve months The
same remarks apply 10 manufactures, which
are indeed but a branch of commerce. Look
AT the tobacco trade oday--see men hiring
hands In the dark, and see in that item, vast
as IL is 10 us, but small fraction of the dis
aster. Now, the confidence of merchants and
manufacturers in the strength and ability of
the present Government has been shaken,
and in many cases utterly destroyed
If without just guarantees 10 the Sonth,
this Government continues, they mean 10
operate in the future, either not at all, or
guardedly, and TO such a limited extent,
that the commerce of Virginia, already Grip
pied by the preference which our banking
system and general commercial policy ope-
rates in favor of the North--this commerce
will be contracted TO nothing, and we shall
thus become the prey OF the Yankee capitalists
giving mp all hope of making this great COM
mercial State. Our capitalists must retire to
the country or be exiled from Virginia
These men fear that any compromise now
Will be a frand on the part of the North and
a mere delusion on our part. They know that
The whole marrow of the dispute lies in this
proposition whether, by the law of God one
man has right 10 call another his slave and
does not admit that proposition, and, from
whatever cause, will not admit ii and per
contra, that the South claims it and acts
npon it, and, to take no higher view has mil
lions upon millions invested in it. They know
that, under our present Constitution as diff
1erently construed by opposite sections there
as an irrepressible conflict between the system
of Northern society, in which agrarianisn,
under the plausible and popular guise of uni |
yersai suffrage, is ceaselessly warning against |
property and the system Of Southern society, |
IN which slavery unites, to 4 preponderating .
extent, both capital and labor i'll the same in
dividuai. They know that the people of these
sections heartily hate each other, and they
fear that there can never be any real, cordial, |
reliable concord between them, even if their !
system harmonizod, because New England /
agitators VIII never cease TO aim a power and !
Office through the passions and antipathies of |
the populace, from whom all power is de-
rived.
They know that the right of secession is de-
MED at the North, and the policy as well as
right OF coercion insisted on there and that |
to compromise now, under the present Con-
htitution, without disposing Of that question
will only be TO adjourn its settlement TO some
other, and not distant period, when it will be
sure 10 arise and reproduce the commissions
that now PROSTATE them.
They know that any proposition TO repeal
the obnoxious Personal Liberty laws, as they
are called, OF the free States, Is only a recon-
mendation of few Governors and other pub
lie functionaries, To people who viii most
probably not take the advice but, who, if
they do, viii violate their own consciences
that they cannot be trusted and who.can,
laws in a short time; and lastly, that it will
be of not the slightest benefit TO repeal them,
because long before they Were enacted, mobs in
every State, and in nearly every instance in
which a capture of a fugitive slave has been
attempted, have by their conduct made such
u law for themselves, ana that they will do it
again, because such is the tendency of their
sympathes, and no free State is strong enough
10 control mobs acting in the direction OF the
public sympathies.
They know that 4 compromise now in the
infiamed state Of sectional antagonisms and
animosites' will not satisfy the body of the
people either North or South; but that j Ohm
BRowS raids will show the discomfort Of one
section, whilst the revolutionary fire through
ont the whole South, which may be smothered
for time, but cannot be extinguished, will
keep them and the country in constant danger
and dread of a sweeping confiagration.
They know that a united South is strong
enough to maintain its Independence of the
North, and rich enough to make friends the
world over. They know that in the present
disturbance of commercial relations with the
North, commerce has now made half the sac
r1nce That separation, even If attended with Z
war, would exact They know that cotton is
now rising, and held for still higher rise,
whilst supplies Of all kinds from the West and
N orthwest are pouring into the more South
ern cities in increased quantities, and at lower
rates, because there is not money or credit
enough in New York TO buy them.
They know that the threats of Black Repub-
leans to raise armies are an idle menace be-
cause they cannot equip, subsist, or pay
hem, under pecuniary system which, as it
depends ON commerce, manufactures and the
carrying trade, is in fact based on a credit
which again rests on peace with us, their best c
customers by many millions They know !
hat we cen raise armies and nayies. because
We can pay them from the avails of produce,
which they cannot rob MS of at home, or take !
rom us on the high seas, without attacking
heir own ships or the commerce of na.
ions more powerful than their own They !
NOW that are better armed now than {
he North. but may not be, when after this q
warning the North may put itself in case for e
var, and may present more formidable front
they know that the Federal Government can e
ot do much harm to now, because il is
eturned vessels cannot get their pay, and mo-
hey cannot be had even at IL per cent. TO keep
Is ordinary employees at work, that IL cannot !
"A Va tha |