The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-04-08
Greni,io State Sournal.
HOME MANUFACTURES.

we were shown a magnificent stock of
goods of foreign manufacture, principally
French aud English. Within the limits
of Virginia are mills which manufacture
goods equally beautiful and more durable,
yet Mr.. Smith says that people will buy
these imported goods in preference to those
made, by their own people. Even the very
men who profess exclusive devotion to
their mother State will give preference to
foreign fabrics.
These apostles Of State rights aud ex-
clusivism pass contemptuously by their
own little struggling industries. clad in
foreign purple and fne linen, ,reciting
stale platitudes about noble ancestors who
would disown them for their worthless
ness; they call conventions and resolve to
have Southern manufactures to have a
Southern commerce to breed Southern
literature. Their periodical efforts in this
way are the jest of sensible and practical
men every where. Their own bantlings
coming into life under the stimulus of
these professions are disowned and turned
out to starve.
A wise merchant, who knows how inti-
mate is the connection between production
and trade, that the buyer must have some-
thing to pay with, and that, at last, the
farmer and mechanic pay everything, ap-
peals vainly to these men to adopt policy
which insures all pursuits lasting pros
perity. We call upon all men who pro-
fess love to the State of Virginia, all who
revere her great past, who lament her pre-
sent inferority, and who believe in her
future, to have done with these pretensions
of love and pride for their State. or to
make them good by consistent policy.
Virginia needs no love nor pride God
made her grand and rich in rivers, noun
tains, plains, great forests and mines,
whose wealth shares the shiftlessness that
let's them waste. Her people need only
leaders and guides worthy of themselves
aud of her own matchless resources. The
masses, dumb, almost despairing, have been
robbed of their birlh-right, Of intelligence
AID competence by an aristocracy without
hereditary remembrances or actual achiev-
ments, distinguishable only by its greed
Of land and power and its contempt of
labor. That aristocracy has been over
thrown. 1t went down to ruin amid the
stormy wrath of God and men, vainly
stretching out beseeching hands to its own
slaves to save it from destruction.
The Virginia of to-day is not the few,
with large privileges and powers; it is the
Virginia Of the many, with equal rights
and sacred interests to be guarded and
fostered. Our work is to find profitable
employment for all its labor. Our mis-
sion is to so open the doors of opportunity,
and SO provide for education and employ
ment, that plenty and gladness shall fill
every home. Aud right here, in this store
of our neighbor, we get our first lesson.
If we would help Virginia, We must be
kind and helpful to the people of Virginia.
When they make cloth as beautiful and
durable as any made in the world, we
must give them the encouragement of our
patronage. We must everywhere, pub
licly and privately, bear testimony to the
dignity of labor, by honoring it with a
substantial recognition.
There is scarcely a want which may
not be met by home industry. so varied
are our resources of soil, climate and pro-
ductions, that if the State were set ont in
mid ocean, and cut off from all commercial
intercourse, in five years every need of her
people would be supplied. Let US rouse
to the vast importance of this matter 1t
means for the State greatness and pros
perity that her most sanguine sons have
hardly dared to dream. 1t means for the
laboring masses intelligence, competence,
comfort and happiness, the restoration of
their God-given rights, and their elevation
to the front rank of men.
Let us show our faith by works. Let
us resolve with iron determination to use
no imported goods or articles of foreign
| manufacture, when the same can be OBJ
tanned at home. Let us give the prefer
encs to what is made 10 our own State.
Let ourselves and our families enter into
| this sacred covenent for five years, and
keep it with strict fidelity. Let us advo-
clte this polcy4hrough the press, on the
platform, in private and in public, and
live up to it, and we shall render our
| State a service, which will entitle us to the
lasting gratitude of her people. If we
are unwilling to make this little sacrifice
for Virginia, our professions Of patriotism
are hypocritical pretensions and we de-
serve the contempt of honorable men.
GENERAL BUTLER is constant source
| of irritation to Southern nerves. His pre-
sence the other day on the floor OF the
Senate stung the garrulous old grasshopper
of Kentucky into a ft of fury dangerous
I