Daily Republican., 1883-07-17
1UESDAY. July ~. 1883.


Whatever changes may occur in busi
ness transact, ,ns between the respec
tive sections of our country, New Eng
land with her richly endowed colleges
remairs the seat OF learning. Why
Virginia, with her advantages of sit,la
ton, climate and resources, does not en-
Joy this distinction is a matter fol
thought,a in looking over the columns
of figures in the last census denotine
the wealth and progress of the respec'
tive States, the mind is instinctively
drawn to make comparisons between
North and South, Puritan and Cavalier.
A centlry ago a prophet would have
said that the centre of national strength
would lc in Virginia. Its harbors We're
amongst the finest in the world, its
water COURSES lent themselves to navi'
cation and to industries with valleys OF
un-ivard fertility, mountain ranges
whose beauty conceals countless wealth
and splendid climate, removed from
the rigors of the North as from the
enervation of Southern latitude, the
State has the advantages of position
and opportunity. These are her advan-
tages, what have the people done with
them ?
Turning to the census reports referred
to, we are struck with the difference in
progress between the old Dominion and
the small States of Connecticut and
Massachusetts. AT the close of the
revolution nd until the census OF 1890
Virginia was the tirst State in the Union
in population and influence. BY the
census of 1860 she was the fifth and by
1881, having lost 600, 900 of her popula-
ton by the set-otf of West Virginia.
her record was the fourteenth. In 1888
Virginia real property was assessed al
$2.I, ,O5l, aud its personal property
at S7O,39l ,01S. Connecticnt's real was
assessed at S-2S, 4S7 100, and its person.
al at $95, ,9Ol, 223. Massachusetts real
was assessed at $l,1s9, 524 $40 and its
perso.al Sl04, ,6S9,056 The amount
raised by State taxation was in Nir
ginia 8 ,523, ,33S; in Connecticut, 81 $50,
14i; in Massachusetts,, $6,66G, 549.
Take another series of figures and the
comparison is no less striking. In 1881
the expenditures for public schools in
Nir ,inia were 81, 100, ,229; in Connect
cut, 81, 1864 in Massachuset $. Sj,-
776 6,j42, and to 60 II little farther in New
York, they were SlO,923, 4O2. These
figures may well be characterized as
instructive and the common conclusion
is that the industries, and not the nat
ural advantages, are the basis Of the
prosperity and progress Of the State,
and that all u State has to do to put
itself in the front rank is to establish
and multiply manufacturing establish
ments. In material point OF view
this is true, but there are still deeper
truths connected with the subject. 1t
was not manufacturers, that made the
people OF Massachusetts so much as the
people that made manufactures. Con-
necticut, called by French writer,
that leetIe yellow spot on the map" a
State where everything is manufactured
FROM pin to a steam engine, State Of
wonlcrous invention and ingenuity,
owe, much, and will owe more every
year to the training of her youth in the
scientific school at Hartford
We might 60 on at great length and
show the enervating effects Of slavery
ut the South, bat the day OF slavery is
gone forever though it went down in
sea Of blood and bowed TO he force of IA
superior education. Neither will we
say anything Of the differences Of eli
mate and the early characteristic, of
the settlers vino landed upon Southern
and New England shores,
They were both equal in that they had
to nIke living and ad Just themselves
t. their new situations with the balance
OF disadvantage on the side of New En-
gland. Education has had much to do
with this. New England has always been
= lenihC " nile the South is classical,
and while the former sought facts and
truths the latter sought beauty and
poetry. New England'S education was
to control harsh nature and get the most
out Of her without the expenditure OT
vital force, while the Southcrner wished
only to revel in natures profuaeness.
loll under her magnoIias and he famed
by a slave. This was fully Illustrated
Ly Southern ora Ors and statesmen -
Calhoun cOnd never get a sound basis
for his logic Randolph was but bril-
liant flashing meteor Haynes rhe'o
rical defence Of the South, was but flash
in the dark COmptrcd to the heavy
thunderbolts of Webster's reasoning
The South is classical, has the beauty
Of Greek expression and Roman valor
1t revrls in the loHry OF feudal
ism and is picturesque, bu
New England deals with facts nol
faucies Her rhetoric is polished and
cold, AID as exact as mathelnatlca
prOh.3n Thomas jefferson gives IN
high styir Of fdictiOn the declaration tl
independence, but i, was Hamilton
who bluI' the solid foundations Of oui
cOuntrI, Patrick Henry appealed d &C
the el 1n"n"e N our nature, .bnt it was
Ben Fr nklin who built us h. went and
quilt stro Ig. This is the SUN Of the
hole matt, id educators might as
about II FIR Last NJ.