Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-12-29
IMPORTANT STATISTICS.
Enscts OF Freedom aud slavery Com
pared.

4MPOhTANT STATISTICS.
Effects ofFreedom aud slavery Com-
pRrod.
We make the following extracts from
article No. 4, COntributsd by Hon. r. j
Walker to the Continental Monthly for
January. We have nowhere seen more
forcibly statements of the blessings of
freedom and the curse of slavery than is
given in these able and brilliant articles
By the census. the population of Virgil
mia. in 1870, was 748, ,SOs, and in 1860,
1886, 3lS-making the ratio OF increase
1882 per cent InlIIT90, New York
numbered $40, l20, and in 1860, $780,
I35-the rgtiu ofinerease being s040, ,99s
In 1890, Virginia in population. ranked
first of all the States, and New York the
fifth. In 1860, they had reversed their
positions, and New York was the first and
Virginia the fifth. at the same rate Of
progress from 1860 to 1900, as from 1890
to 1860, Virginia, retaining slavery, would
have sunk from the first to the twenty
frstlState. But if, asin tile absence Of
slavery must have been the cake, Virginia
had increased from 1890 to 1860 in the
same ratio as New York, her population
in 1850, would have been I, ,7S9, 14l, and
she must always have remained the first
in rank Of all the States.
The area of Virginia Il 6I, 1852 SQUARE
miles, aud that of New York, 1000. The
population of Virginia per square mile, in
lTso, was 12, 10, and in 1850, 2, 2,e02. That
Of New York, in 1870, was Z 80, and in
1866 fs4, ,36. Now, if New York, with her
present numberaper squRre mile, had The
area of Virginia, her population, in 1860
would have been s, l75, ,654. apds that Of
Virginia, reduced to the area of New York,
on the basis Of her present number per
square mile, would have been ]. 1870, ,000.-
By the last tables OF the United Statessur-
vey, the shore line of Virginia was II ,57I
miles, and of New York 725 miles. ~
When we leave the tide water rivers for
the interior usvigable streams, Virginia has
a vast advantage. New York has no such
rivers above tide, but Virginia has the Ohio
for hundreds of miles, with its tributaries,
the Kanawha, Guyandotte, ana Big Sandy.
It is true, New York has several of the
great lakes, and the vast advantage of con-
nection With them through her great canal.
But, in the absence of slavery, the canal
projected by Washington (preeeding that
of New York; would have connected,
through Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay with
the Ohio river. The James river, flowing
into the chesapeake, cuts the Blue Noun
tains, and the Kanawha, a couAaent Of the
Ohio, cuts the Alleghauy; thus opening an
easy and practicable route for a great canal
from the eastern TO the western Matefs.-
The valley Of the lakes, with which New
York is connected by her canal, has an
area of 335. 5l5 square miles. The valley
of I'll, tuiAh he Hbaaa
peake would long since, in the absence OF
slavery, have been connected by the Wiz
ginia canal, has an area of 1926, 900 square
miles.
How many decades would We required
after emancipation, to bring the superior
natural advantages of Virginia into practi-
cal operation, Is not the question; nor do
believe that the city OF New York will
ever cease TO be the centre of its own
trade, and ultimately Of the commerce oi
the world.
Virginia has vast mines OF coal, the great
element of modern progress. New York
has none. It is coal that has made Great
Britain a mighty empire, giving her pow
er. by land and sea, squsl- to the manual
force of all mankind, -uo 55
HYDRAULIC POHER.-0mittiug Niagara,
which thus far scorns the control Of man,
/
exceeds that of New York. /: Is to be
found on the Potomac and Its tributaries,
and upon nearly every stream that flows
into the Chesapeake or Ohio The supe-
rior milduess of the climate of Virginia
makes this power available there for a
much greater portion of the year. The
great falls of the Potomac, where Wash
| ingtou constructed the largest locks Of the
continent, has q water power unsurpassed,
and is but twelve miles from tide water Of
Washington. This point is a most health !
and beantiful loeationi euFredHded by
lands whose natural fertility was very great,
and, in the absence of slavery, must have
been a vast manufacturing city. This
water power could move more spindles
than are now worked on all this continent.
Soft We lock St the tables Of mines,
lmanufactures aud isheSies, with the vastly
superior advantages Of Virginia, the whole
product in 1860 were OF the value of S51,-
900 600, aud of agriculture, S68, zoe, 900 /;
whilst In New York these values were re-
speetively S9Ie ,828, 500 PpdI g q, s56, ,440.
l-7ables Of census of 1860, 80 aHd 9e,f
By the same tables, It tappeaFs, omitting
commerce, that the products of Industry,
as given, viz: of agriculture, manufactures,
mines aud fisheries, oyer that giYenini New
York, $6O4, 600, 900, or 81 So per egbitay and
IN Virginia SIG, ,0O0, 900, or SIS per eapifd
| This shows total value of product In
New York more thin h3e times gfeater
4 than IN. virgiliA, aud per egpita, more thar
two to one. csyn
By the census table Of 1860, No. 356p
| 1856, WThe tFuesvalne Of the real and 'per-
sonaI properly according TO the eighth ecu.
/ sus was, New York s., ,s4sr r9ss, 5l7, and ol
VirsiniS $Ts3, ,24s 6sI, Nov. Re have
seen The value of the products Of New
loco. and Of YifEihia St2o 66o, goo. -Ihu,
as Z question Of the actual yield OF capital