The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-10-17
A. Wall FROM BOSTON.

| III Il uOlelui jeremiah DeWalllllS lle Wallt
of commercial enterprise of the people of
Boston, rs proved by the sale of the
fine steamers Mississippi and Merri-
mack to New York and New Orleans cap
italists. These steamers are both mag
nificent vessels-time, labor, and cap
ital having been expended without stint
to make them really first-class and splen
did floating palaces. They were built
for the purpose of establishing direct
| trade between Boston and the city of
| New Orleans, with the expectation
of diverting large portion of the
commerce of New York, with all the
Atlantic cities, to the metropolis of New
England. This enterprise was partic-
ularly urged upon the young men.
But what has been the result? The old
merchants and manufacturers who have
made and are making their millions by
the protection afforded to their manu-
features, failed to sustain their young
men to the extent they had promised,
took so little interest in the enterprise
the project had to be yielded, and the
vessels sold to the enterprising and pub
lie spirited capitalists or New York.
How different is the spirit manifested
by the two cities Everything New
York touches turns to gold; while all
that Boston attempts in the way of COM
merce becomes mere drOss. New York
has found the philosophers stone, while
Boston produces merely q vile compost
ton in her efforts to transmute the
baser into the purer metals. Her old
foGies," known as the "solid men ~
of Boston, fail to encourage the young
men, and drive them off to Chicago, to
New Orleans, to San Francisco, and
other great cities in the West and South;
and, in fact, everywhere else in the world
they can succeed better than at home.
Even New York is full of the most en-.
ergetic of the young men of New Eng
land; and New Orleans, through their
energy, is fast becoming a grand center
of commercial prosperity, agricultural
| wealth, and manufacturing enterprise.
The same spirit is abroad in Norfolk
| and, indeed, holds complete possession
! of the two hundred and ten owners OF
| property, who clutch the land in per-
| petual grasp, and force their own chill
| dren to leave them, in order to obtain q
| livelihood among a more generous and
enterprising people, in New York or
elsewhere. In any city or land but their
own, they can meet with friendly en-
enlargement, and obtain wealth. And
these ancient inhabitants of Norfolk,
like those of Boston--and there never
We're two peoples more similar in all
respects-particular in their ideas of
exclusion-complain that their city trade
is falling off instead of increasing. 1t
would be singular, indeed, if it did not
fall off. What do they do for it to in
crease its growth? Do they encourage
people to come and settle among
| them by pursuing a liberal course, in
leasing their lands and in either
renting or selling their property at rea-
sonable rates? No; but, on the contra
ny, by every word and action they per-
sist in repellng capital end enterprise,
and even refuse to furnish their own chill
dren-energetic and industrious young
men with means to invest in their
native town. Boston only has the adj
vantage of Norfolk in being larger
nj Nv nd lar fnI A.,
small onos from the same causes. If
either had moity of the spirit that per-
vades the inhabitants Of New Orleans or
New York-or of the liberality Of the
''solid men" of young Chicago-such an
impetus would be given to their pros
perity that nothing would stop their
growth in wealth andpopulation. Bos-
ton, so long as her business men are
governed by the policy that drives away
her best population, will be doomed to
see her trade depart, and all her COM
merciaI enterprises prove failures. New
York will continue to buy out her lines |
of steamers-and so will she buy out |
Norfolk's steamers and divert her trade, |
and nothing will save either from the |
insigniiicance they both seem to crave |
and actually merit. Our Mississippis
and Merrimacks, though staunchly built
and adorned with every beauty, will
leave us if we persist in leaving them.
The sceptre of trade will depart from us
it we make no effort to retain it in our
grasp. The excluding or driving out
policy will destroy the most prosperous
city in the world. ,#..-.. ...
In regard to this loss to their trade.
and the failure of an enterprise so full
of promise, the Adgertisey says:
81 The event is the reverse of creditable
10 the business enterprise of this city,
md speaks as little for the public spirit
If those responsible for this result, as
he full history of the affair, if we are
correctly informed, does for theirshrewd-
less in the management of their own
True, we may be told as we
AVE heard before, that one has right
o do what he chooses with his own, to ,
ell it now or six months hence, here or .
lscwherc. He has this right, no doubt, 9
nd SO. have his fellow-citizeps the right /