Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1867-02-15
FRIDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY Is, 1867.


The change throughout the country,
wrought by the war, is greater than many at
first suppose. It's not confined to The great
labor system of the South, which was wont
to furnish sufficient materials to keep the vast
mills and factories of the world in motion,
but embraces within it change of the pros
poets Of the whole country. In days gone
by the Southern planter made not only suf-
fciency for the support of his laborers and
dependents, but had an abundant surplus to
enable him to lead comfortable and even
luxurious life. What cared he then to make
his plantation self-sustaining when his income
was sufficient to supply his every need with
out it! To-day and henceforth the tables are
turned. Economy, unknown in the South
in former times, is now to be the great polar
star of her pecuniary advancement. She is
no longer able to purchase, as she was ac-
customed, her live stock, cereals, provisions,
&C., from the great North West, but must
needs, in her poverty, raise these cereals and
breed her own cattle. In like manner, for
want of the great staple to exchange for man
ufactures, she must set to work and finally
do her own manufacturing. This she is i'm
PEELED to by another incentive, the excessive
duties on foreign manufactures. With free
trade system she would have continued as
formerly to till the soil, and, with the rich
harvests she would reap, been content to look
on at New England and the outer world in
possession of the monopoly Of manufactures.
But with the present duties, not likely to be
decreased, she can lily afford to pay the de-
mands of New England monopoly, and will,
as we said, be compelled to turn her atten-
ton more particularly to manufacturing.
What she has accomplished, already, gives
evident promise, in the future, Of her indie
pendencc of the rest of the world in this re-
spect. With the goads now upon her it can
be delayed to no distant day.
The North West must ultimately be effect
ed as is the South. No longer a Southern
market for her productions, she will likewise
be unable to raise the means to go abroad for
her manufactures, and will in turn be driven
to the necessity Of manufacturing to great
er extent than heretofore a se
New England is also bound to feel this
change as the Southern and Western demand
for her manufactures grows less. Revelng
in wealth, accumulated by a long and well
protected monopoly, she feels but slightly, as
yet, the running of her mills and factories on
half and quarter time. It is however but
the beginning of the end" The hand
writing is on her walls. The sceptre is slow
ly but surely departing from her. Another
year, and we fear that half and quarter time
will not be all. Many of her factories will
cease operation and where was but just now
the busy hum of industry will be the quiet
of a deserted village" We do not write
as We would wish, concerning that domineer-
ing and self-laudatory section of the Union,
but as we seem to see the finger Of fate un-
erringly pointing. We would not curse her
with such fate as seems to us portcnding,
yet we can but feel that when all was quiet
when each section was but doing its allotted
portion for the advancement of the whole
country, Of which she was getting the lions
share, New England was not content, but
stirred up the cause of strife which has cul-
minated in the present unhappy condition Of
the country, and which will eventuatc in her
own impoverishment. If such be her fate,
who will say the punishment is undeseryed
Since she sowed the whirlwind must she not,
injustice, reap the storm?