The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-01-16
LIS Virginia IA .nkruptf :

R0f the DlSpEiCHsllR
The discussion about the present condi.
ton of&yirginia, financial and economical,
now going on among The people and their
representatives, Is, think, proceeding with.
out some lights which the statfatfes will give
them. believe that clear understanding
OF the present industrial progress of the
State, and ofjtbe agencies slowly but surely
working for their resuscitatioD, will relieve
approximations OF itnmedfate embarrassment,
which, regret to ssy, have. been largely in
creased by the petition in bankruptcy filed
by Governor Kemper on behalf; OF the Com.
monwealth before the so-ealled Bondholders'
Conferences conference from which the
large body of bondholders were conspicu.
ously absent. "t7
I hope to demonstrate in these papers that
that petition was without foundation, and
that it does this State great, and of course
unintentonal, injustice; for L believe the
Governor has been actuated By the best of
motives, and has made representations which,
according to bis sights, he believed to be SUBJ
stantiaIly sound and true. There IS great
poverty and distress in Virginia owing to
many causes, chief among which are the
destruction of the accumulated capital, In.
Guiding slaves, and the changed social organ
ization brought on US by the result OF the
Hsr. People who were rich have become
poor, and property which had been accumu-
lated has been destroyed or dissipated.
But this destruction of property is in part
ilIusory, as far as the body of the population
il concerned. The value of a slave was based
on what he would produce by his labor, and
this value belonged to his owner. Now the
slave has become free bis value is not lost,
for his power of production remains the
same: and instead of belonging to his master
it belongs to himself. The property in slaves
has not teen lost to the community, but Il
has been divided out among the slaves them
selves. The productive power of the free
man is not in fact as great as that of the
slave. The freeman probably does not pro-
duce more than two.thirds as much as be
did while slave. This loss of production
is the real loss to the community-by eman-
cipatiop, and not the market or assessed
value of the slave.
This loss Of production between the labor
of freedmen and that of slaves is largely
compensated by the increased force of whites
working who never worked before; and in
the aggregate, | suppose, there is no very
great difference between the AMOUNT Of labor
that orking before 1861.
Those of US who were most ardent de-
tenders of slavery-and was one-did so on
political and philosophical principles, and
not those of economy. We never doubted
that free labor would produce larger mate
rial results and would develop the resources
of country sooner than slave. We knew
that freemep, each working for himself and
g. I, go hn ind rio
more frugal, and more profitable to the CON-
munity, than slaves.
We did not believe that the negro was
sufficiently advanced in civilization as yet to
become bis own mas er {; and we were con-
yinced that the ordeal of free labor and free
competition would be fiery ordeal for him,
and we relied on slavery as q great conserYa-
tive safeguard in Democracy.
But the economical advantages Of free
labor we always understood, only we did not
believe that society was organized solely for
the purpose OF the greatest material develop
ment. The workings OF the new system
are visible In Virginia and the whole South
to-day wherever the superior race is allowed
TO control affairs. The cotton crop rapidly
reached figures equalling q high average Of
the ante Jelium crop, and it has produced in
gold for the last four years much more than
it did before the war. The Reorganization
of society is proceeding rapidly in Virginia.
The first result Of free labor is division OF
labor and the aggregation OF populations in
towns and villages. II was so on the de-
struction of seridom in Western Europe,
and the same process is going on in Russia
10 day.
The freedmen congregate together. They
live in villages in France and ltnly, and they
are collecting in villages here The mechanic
who supplied the wants Of plantation now
is supported by those Of the village, and the
planter who sent his own crop TO market
now sells it to q middleman, who sends it
there for him. A large portion of the COL
ton and tobacco crop IS bought on the plan
taion from the producer, and marketed BY
parties whose business it has become to at.
tend TO this division of labor. In the same
way, while the mass of the products Of the
plantation formerly went to the owner OF
the land and labor, now large portion of it
goes to the laborer. Under the old system
the capitalist spent bis earnings in the cities,
at the North, and abroad, for luXuries and
such expenditures. Now these same earn
ings, paid to the laborer, go direct 10 the
country storekeeper, and bence we see the
growth of towns and villages and the multi
pcation Of country stores.
The former capitalist is suffering. He no
longer gets the whole earnings of labor. He
pays the larger portion of them to his Ia
borer. He suffers and is growing poorer,
but the country is growing richer. In proof
of this, witness the remarkable development
of personal property in Virginia during the
last few years. In