New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-04-20
sOUTHWARD HO

few people have not forgotten once
Famous volume Of the mos, odious and imper,i-
Inent comparisons, compiled and published
lew years ago. under the most exciting OF diff
lcultics, by one Hinton Rowan Helper OF North
Carolina. Viewed in the light Of this Springs
Occurrences, it seems TO have been suggested
i'll the spirit Of prophesy. How indignantly
were the ideas Of an irrepressble conflict and Of
1 any impending crisis Of the South spurned az
/ that time YET the crisis impended none the
less, and came, and has chiefly passed. Com
parsons which were odious then can offend NO.
body now. The secrets which Helper 80 i'm
1pertinently ta,tlcd of have been thrown open
since to public gaze By the keepers of the prison
themselves. In tearing down the barriers
erected for their own protection. in order that
they might spread Slavery and let itpass out
1.-The rebellous leaders forgot that Freedom stood
waiting to rush in. They invited and deiied
1.-The irrepressible conflict whose existence they
secuted; and the question which two genera
|tions have bat,ed over has now been forever
settled in four years.
The Typographical structure Of the Continent
CLEARLY shows that il must be inhabited by one
nation, inasmuch as all the natural boundaries,
1.-THE rivers aud mountain chains, tend from North
Ito South. and no artificial line can ever destroy
them. But the unity Of political existence
Tvs which these natural and ineilaceable boundaries
declare necessity had been unknown until the
war came. The Ohio was a veritable barrier,
'. North North and South were more truly foreign
nations than Turkey and Russia, for they were
mot only not the same, but not homogeneous;
not only separate, but dramatically opposed in
system and interest. Along the line of the
|Ohio River, as along an insurmountablc and
wall, the stream OF emigration
which rose in Great Britain and Continental
Europe rolled to the West. But this was not
because westward is any more the natural move
ward OF emigration than southwark; but be-
cause one path was open, the other closed.
Emigration seeks to exchange the hard for the
|easy, the stubborn for the generous soil. IL
cause Slavery guarded the way soutbwerd with
IA flaming swords now it will follow them.
We will not repeat the comparisons frequently
made between several Free and several Slave
States, bu! merely note at present the relative
extent to which cvilizaton-such civilization
las it was-has penetrated the prominent States
|of the ex-Southern COnfederacy. Even yir-
|ginia, the oldest Of all, had III leG0 but cleyen
millions Of acres Of improved lands,
|acainst nineteen millions unimproyed
giving only round numbers; North Caro-
lima six millions against seventeen mil
lions; Georgia eight millions against eigh.
teen millions; Missouri six millions against
thirteen millions; Arkansas one million against
seven millions; and so on to Texas, which had
two millions against twenty millions.
Only Delaware and Maryland had I'M.
proved bali their land; but in the case
of the Free States the comparison is sim.
ply the same difference turned the other way.
of course each man had the wilderness for his|
nearest neighbor. Missouri State larger than|
all New.England-had 1884 inhabitants to tho|
square mile, which was almost precisely the|
average through the South. Maryland, With
one crowded city, reached the high figure of
73.4a this maximum lessening down.
through the list, until the inhabitants
ofTcxts and Florida shouted 10 their nniohbors