The weekly pioneer and Democrat., 1864-07-15
NEW SERIES-NO. 554

AN"vv OGl N11IO ANOs OcE
ago. Virginia has no such stock left. Patrick
Henry and he sprung from the same soil. Sir,
Virginia is peOpling the whole South and West
by birth. The ungrateful sons ran off Ny
wife wanted me to settle in Nashville, but not
I. I love Virginia too WELL And if this Union
| was separated, could fight against Virginia? !?
No, oh no, never! But this cursed American
system is running US. 1t is depopulating old
Hitherto (says Mr.. BrOoks) had been too
much interes led in the'open hearted and lively
conversation ofmy Virginian, even to interrupt
him. believe his conversation thus far en-
bodies the pith of Virginian politics and Vir-
ginia philosophy. His argument on secession
son ever given is, that if Virginia is oppressed
| Dy the nation she can secede; but then arises
the ulteriOr question, whether peaceably or by
revolution. As conversation was here tagging,
determined to apply the spur. "Have you
ever been to tue North ?" asked f,
Yes was in Philadelphia, and it broke
my heart when 1 compared Pennsylvania with
old virginia. saw their beautiful farm houses
| and their beautiful villages and the fiourishing
manufactures, and l almost wept tor old Vir,
glnla. The American system is running us aud
enrlching her at our expense. You know how
4
fore we entered into partnership and you see
how poor we are now. !
But is there no other cause ?" interrupts
ed. did not like to tell him that slavery was
the root of all the mischief, and that when
one half worked without stimulOus, and the
other hall lived on their earnings. thu country
must be poor. "Where I came from con-
tinued, ''they have at this moment March IL,
perhaps two feet of snow, but a summers sky
is now over our heads. Vegetation is spring.
ing up; the wheat is green. The early frost
OF autumn ripens our corn, cut the long sum-
mer ripens yours See what climate you
have; see what soil, if you would but culti-
6y the way, you seldom or never do. We buy
even corn of you, for we cannot raise enough
tor ourselves. Our soil is rocky, and our sky
is unpropitiOus. See the cargoes of flour and
corn you are daily discharging northward
Bee your tobacco manufactures. We grow all
these with exceeding difficulty. We have no
rice, no cotton. no sugar. Tell we what we
can export. Do you not wonder that we live
at all And yet tell you that among our
rocks, and on our coast, there is not a city nor
village that does not seem more fourishing
than the best have seen in Virginia"
"How the ID do you live ?" exlaimed nv
Virginian, in perfect astonishment. 1.-TWO
feet of snow now! !" Yes, added, and on the
I'd of March. see by the newspapers that our
harbor was frozeu over with ice, which only
happens in extremely cold weather. ''Two
feet OF snoW!" he muttered again, as he saw
the green grass around him; when 1 went on
to say that every man with us must have some
visible occupation that all men but the pro-
feSslOnal men worked, and that they had to la
hor hard for livelihood in their way that we
had few or no race-horses, and that our Jock
eyS were among the most suspicious of our
population that no farmer thought it disrep-
utable to drive his own wagon to market, and
that work was honorable and by no means dis
honorable; that we were as industrious IS
possible, but with all our industry, had hard
work to get along; that failing on the land,
we tried our luck on the ocean, and that our
fisheries and our West India trade gave us q
living when the land would not that these
falling, we were obliged to emigrate unless we
could turn our water falls and steam power to
account. told him that what made Yankees
more inventive than the rest of their country
men, was the necessity of being so, not
that they had in reality more inventive ge-
MUS; but their inventions, as he would see
by going into the Patent Office at Washington,
were probably three to one in comparison
with other sections of the Union. told him
also, that the reason of bis seeing so many
Yankees abroad in the cities of the Union
and elsewhere, was because they could not
live at home. l told him again. that if we
had the SOIL the climate and the rivers of
Virginia the wilderness would soon blossom
like the rose.
''And why" he inquired. Because we
have no slaves" answered, and because alI
work, and work not for Others but for them.
selves" "Oh, It's your American system,D was
the reply. We will soon outdo you in this.
We will establish manufactures; and as labor
with Us is cheaper than it is with you, we can
sell cheaper, and shall thus have possession of
the market Slaves can labor in manufactures.
The experiment has been tried and has proved
successful" 81 do not doubt it." was my
answer. Provision is also cheaper. Fuel
Is cheaper 1t costs less to support labor
ing man: Try the experiment, and my life
TOR lt-Virginia, if she strangles her race
horses, keeps her boys out of taverns, quits
the study OF metaphysics, and adopts more
liberal system of politics, will be again the
good old dominion that you justly feel so
proud Of
Our conversation was broken off here, much
to my regret. was interested IN 1t, and have
given it as correctly as [ can remember.
EFFECT OF SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH.
During his tourney in the Southern States it was
Mr. Brooks habit to write occa ionaly besides his
letters editorial articles to his journal in Portland.
The following from his hand appeared during the
So far as slavery is concerned it is the interest
eternity, If the North cOnsuts her own interes,a
recklt IS of humanity. philanthropy and patriotism
20 long as the South are saveholding population,
an long the south notwithstanding Heaven has
blessed her with the richest of SOIL and the best of
climates must be poorer, less prosperous, and less
fourishing than the North. II il fct susceptib
of demonstration and confirmed by observation and
experience that tariff or tariff free trade or no
trade, white voluntary labor is worth more than
ack involuntary labor white labor stimulated by
ambition, emulation and sefinterest is worth mora
than black labor slimulated-by whatf-bt the
frowns of the master, the iash of the oyerseer-bv
fear and nothing else But the involuntary WORKING
man consumes us much Of the products of the EARN
as the voluntary working man, and yet brings not
half as much into existence. Who among uS does
not see then that is the interest of the North t6
have the south slavcholding peoplei Cupidity and
avarice and meanness all point that way. Give the
South, with the climate the free labor Of the North
sne with ner rocks and her lie. must yield. The
must come richer. The country must become bet
ter populated, for is law Of our naturc thai what
we DO f0r ourselves we do with better heat than
have no interea in hberating the slaves Of the