The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-02-04
The Winter Embargo Dissolved.

The Winter Embargo Dissolved.
The embargo so long maintained against
navigation has been removed from the
lower James river, and that solid CONCEALED
surface which for some six weeks has re-
mained an impenctrablc barrier to all sorts
Of sailing craft has so completely disap-
pesred that hardly remnant of it can be
seen. It will DO short while before the
canal Is open but the lower James being
entirely clear, the trade Of our city will
revive, and renewed animation and &C
tivity be everywhere seen.
The event is most gratifying. We nave
been for more than six weeks unaer TINS
paralysis, and that, too, in SNORT time
after suffering seriously from the injurious
effects Of cholera, that hideous breeder OF
psnics. At any time these checks upon
the business and energies Of community
are injurious, but coming upon this city in
the very crisis Of its efforts to recover itself
from the ruin and prostration in which the
war had left it, they were almost calami-
tous. Our people have endured and suf-
fered them. and they are numbered with
The army Of our past difficulties.
Let US now look to the future and take
new hope. The political status of Vir-
ginia and the South is seriously affecting
their prosperity and retarding their reco-
very from the desolation Of the war. But
we all know that in spite of the tyranny OF
the heartless sectional majority which de-
tain. us in this oppressed condition, if our
people devote themselves heart and hand
to lettering their condition-each man
his own fortune-the aggregate results
must be great.
We know that here in Virginia our peo-
pie have gone to work in earnest, and that
the crops will speak for them. The large
tobacco crop which will be brought to
market the ensuing spring must afford
much relief. And now that money will no
more be invested in negroes, the proceeds
of this and all other crops will be more
difTused amongst the people, and the pro-
fits be used more exclusively to the gene
raj relief and the encouragement of the
different branches of industry. This is a
most important point to be remembered.
The winter thus far has been favorable
to the wheat crop. During the sharpest
and most biting frosts the wheat was pro.
tected with a mantle Of snow; and that
protector not only keeps away the frost,
but fertilizes the earth and increases the
vigor and productiveness of the crop. We
may then hope for good crop of that
cereal which is so important to this city
with its incompatible -four mills.
These are facts for encouragement, and
if we look about us, we find that there is a
great deal of enterprise amongst our peo-
pie. Never were there so many bills for
the incorporation of mining and manufac-
turing companies as are now before the
General Assembly Of Virginia. Many of
them, we apprehend, are merely bogus
projects; but many must be bona tide
charters for solid corporations, which will
do much to advance the general prospe-
rty. We take it that the fact is indica-
tive Of that resolute spirit Of the people to
meet the e1igencies of the new situation,
and to make the most Of the better conse-
quences that dow from it. These ineyita-
bly, lead to more complete and beneficial
division of labor, and more extensive
field for enterprise and occupation, the
fruits of which will be more rapid i'm
prOvement of the State in the true source
of power-population and wealth.
These things are to come, and that soon.
We need not say how profits from agricul-
ture will be driven to this and other cities
for inyestment-how agriculture and CON-
merce will be more closely allied than ever
they could have been under slavery-and
how great change there must come over
the appearance of the whole country in its
improvements and its industrial economy.
This city has to play an important part in
the new condition, and to become great
and prosperous.