The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1864-03-27

increase in the North and West, after
the best land Is taken up, that Of a Sc
condary character is brought into SER
vice, and by maturing and attention
made TO yield a subsistence to the cUl-
tivator; not so in the South. In an ar
ticle entitled Southern Patronage to
Southern Imports and Domestic Indus
try, published in DeBow's Review of
February, 1861, William Gregg, of South
Carolina, almost despairingly asks:
Then why should the numerous water
falls, ripping over the shoaly beds of
our bold and beautiful streams all over
the South, remain idle and useless?
Why should our lands 90 to waste in
the old planting States as soon as they
refuse to produce short staple cotton
with profit? Why should we stand with
our arms folded, trying to make nothing
but cotton, and buying everything we
use2 Cannot all see that such a policy
will lead US to be more and more de
pendent? And that, pursuing such a
course, we can never be prepared for
separate nationality, or for thrift and
perfect independence in the Union or
out of it,
The answer, which should have come
home at once TO the thoughtful mind
of so observant a writer, was contained
in the simple recital of facts which ne
cessarily accompany slave labor 1t
lacks diversity The system requires
its victims to be kept in a state Of IL
norance; they are only taught how to
work, and are stupid enough ut that
/ They require overlooking, and are,
therefore, more profitahly worked in
gangs, where a single OverSeer can com
pei the performance of allotted duty
The production of a single staple arti-
Gle of commerce Is the agricultural pur-
suit best adapted TO the requirements
of the institution, Hence, cotton, SUI
gar and tobacco are the chief products
upon which organized slave labor is ex-
pended 1t permits of no rotation Of
/ crops 1t gives the land no time to re
cuperate. Slaves and land must both
be made to yield their quota Of work
and crops, or in the event Of failure,
abandonment and emigration results.
II hold myself justified SAYS Mr..
Olmstead, 'in asserting that the natural
elements Of wealth in the sell Of Texas
will have been more exhausted in ten
years, and with them the rewards Of
fered by Providence to labor will have
been more lessened. than, without
slavery, would have been the case in
two hundred " After two
hundred years occupation of similar
soil by a free labOring community, j
have seen no such evidences Of waste
as in Texas / have after ten years OF
slavery" instead of improving by cul-
tivatiOn as land does under the free
labor system, it is positively less capa-
BILE of sustaining "a densely civilized
community than if no labor at all had
been expended upon it.
No State in the Union for instance,
is more richly endowed with all the re-
sources Of great commonwealth than
the State of Virginia. 1t was settled
under favorable circumstances, and re-
ceiyed the fostering care Of the home
government to a much greater extent
than most of the other Colonies. 1t Is
the boast of Nirginians that the race
from which they have sprung was Of no
ble and generous mould, and the early
history of the Republic IS filled with
| their deeds Of patriotism, statesman
ship and valOr. For general productive
| purposes no State surpasses Virginia.
| II has a fertile soil, a genial climate. 1t
is rich in coal, iron, copper, lead, plum
bagO, salt, gypsum, porcelain clay, fine
granite, slate, marble, soapstOne, lime
and gold 1t has a great variety Of sur
face, and abounds in objects of interest
to the tourist and lover Of the sublime
and beautiful in nature II has been
blessed with innumcrable healing
springs, the resort Of the sickly and
fashionable 1t has fine harbors and
rivers; and Washington pronounced
the central counties the finest agricul-
tural district in the United States, while
Webster declared in a public speech
that he saw no better farming land in
his European travel than that in the
Shenandoah Valley Virginia, with a
better system of culture, possesses every
element Of industrial greatness
With such advantages and an area
equal to that of England, she could
not have failed, after a career Of two
hundred and fifty years, to become a
state Of great wealth, population and
power, had she never nave taken to
her bosom the viper Of slavery. Her
own sons have told US how that has
proved upon her vitals-destrOyed her
enterprise, driven off her citizens, pre-
vented the development Of commercial
and manufacturing greatness, impOyer-
ished her lands. After "A national life
Of more than two and a half centuries,
with immigration constantly pouring
into this country from Europe, Virginia
numbers but a million and a half souls,
free and slave Eight-tenths Of her
industry are devoted TO agriculture,
and the progress which has been made
in this, the principal pursuit may be
estimated by the significant fact that
the average price per acre of cultivated
land in Virginia Is only eight dollars.
Contrast this with the progress Of ONO
in fifty years, a country IN the memory
Of many now living a perfect wilder
ness. known as the Far West virginia
has an area Of sixty-one thousand three
hundred and fifty-two square miles,
and vet the population Of OHIO exceeds
that Of Virginia by nearly million OF
souls Ohio has no seaboard with har-
bors for foreign commerce, as Virginia
has. it is strictly an agricultural State,
and the evidence Of its culture may be
found in ehe fact that the land has an-
average value Of twenty dollars per acre
New York IS nearer Virginia in size
and would be fairer subject for COM
parison, because Of similarity OF situa-
ton, age and resources. New York in