702 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



ON THE CAUSES OF THE LONG-CONTINUED 

 DECLINE, AND GREAT DEPRESSION OF AG- 

 RICULTURE IN VIRGINIA. 



No. I. 



Political causes — the prevalence and effects of party 

 spirit. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I fcel an earnest desire to address my brother 

 farmers and planters, throughout the state, on the 

 causes of agricultural depression in Virginia; and 

 knou'intr no better way than through your widely 

 circulating puiilicahon, I now ask your permission 

 to do it. My letter would have been sent, as a 

 mruter of" course, and without any such request; 

 but J recollected your (jeneral interdict against po- 

 Hticai remarks, unless they were closely and obvi- 

 ously connected with our own interests; and there- 

 iore I deem it fiecessary to premise, that every sen- 

 tence which I shall utter, of a political character, 

 will be — as I most sincerely believe — in strict ac- 

 cordance with this pre-requisiie; tor they will be ap- 

 plied to every political party which ever has ex- 

 iisted in Virginia since my recollection, and solely 

 with a view to prove the baneful influence upon 

 our agricultural interests of all political party-spirit, 

 however [)opular may have been the title, or art- 

 ful the disguise, under which its true nature mighr 

 be concealed.* I have my preferences, like other 



* We mean to adhere to our rule of admitting nothing 

 of party politics, no matter on which side — and by such 

 course of exclusion, we have already several times 

 given olfence to partizans on both, and have been 

 charged as being hostile sometimes to one, and some- 

 times to another, of the most opposite political opinions. 

 We have even lost subscribers, not only from the opin- 

 ions which we entertain, and in our private capacity 

 assert, and mean to continue strenuously to assert — 

 but also for its being supposed that we were friendly to 

 such as in truth we are entirely opposed to. Condem- 

 nation on such conflicting grounds, is proof that this 

 journal has deserved it on none. Still, we have always 

 claimed for the Farmers' Register, and will continue to 

 exercise the right, of either condemning or applaud- 

 ing any measures of government, that we conceive to 

 be injurious or beneficial to agriculture. 



But strong as may be the censure conveyed in the 

 remarks of our correspondent, they do not transcend, 

 nor even approach, the limits of political remark wliich 

 we have indicated above, and frequently have stated 

 on former occasions — because they apply to every par- 

 ty through alliime, for more than thirty years. But it 

 may be charged that the censure is designed to apply 

 to the present dominant majority in our legislature, be- 

 cause they have the power to act for the benefit of ag- 

 riculture, and rfonoi. This is evidently true — but still 

 we deny the inference to be correct, that the denuncia- 

 tion is on party grounds. For if the places of the 

 parties were this day changed, and the present minori- 

 ty should acquire the power of the majority, does any 

 one imagine that the change of power to other hands, 

 would give more aid to agricultural improvement? 

 We certainly do not; and (from the general tenor of 

 his remarks) neither does our correspondent — and we 



people, in regard both to the principles and prac- 

 tices of all our parties, past and present; but in one 

 respect, and that of the greatest importance to the 

 general good, f think, there is no difference be- 

 tween them. It is in their adoption of the funda- 

 mental principle— the -^sine qua non,'" without 

 which, (according to my sense of the term party,) 

 none could ever exist at all. This principle— than 

 which none can beeithermore base orruinous — is, 

 that individual conscience and judgment must both 

 be sacrificed to party dictation. But party men 

 contrive, in some ^vay or other, to reconcile them- 

 selves to the practice, by another dogma equally 

 false and pernicious, which is, that party of some 

 sort is indispensable to preserve their country and 

 its government, and that they must preserve the 

 party which they think right, and above all, that 

 ■its preservation absolutely depends upon their una- 

 nimous support of all the measures of its acknow- 

 ledged leaders, whatever their individual opinions 

 may he in regard to the certain tendency or proba- 

 ble effects of the measures themselves; these be- 

 ing matters with which their votes have nothing 

 to do, after such measures are decided upon at 

 head quarters. With this assurance of my sin- 

 cerity, which I am perfectly confident that you, at 

 least, will not doubt, I will proceed with the pro- 

 fessed and real object of this communication, (two 

 things by the way, which are often as opposite 

 as the ftices and points of destination aimed at by 

 the rowersof a boat — ) two political and moral sins, 

 moreover, which every individual of every party 

 commits whenever he suti'ers others to control 

 either his words or his actions, in violation of his 

 own moral feelings and deliberate judgment. 



The causes of our aiiricultural depression are so 

 numerous and so nearly equiponderant, that it is 

 quite as difficult to know where to begin as where 

 to stop in the enumeration. Yet I have resolved 

 to make the attempt, although, many perhaps 

 may be inclined to accuse me of a similar folly to 

 that of "locking the door alier the steed is stolen." 

 Be this as it may, I will hazard the effort in the 

 confident hope, (vain as some may think it,) that 

 there is still left among us enough of old Virginia 

 patriotism — old Virginia energy, and love of our 

 native homes, to encounter all our uifTicultics with 

 a fixed determination to overcome them, if possi- 

 ble; and with full faith that most, if not all of ihem, 

 may be overcome, merely by cordial exertion and 

 untirino: co-operation. If only a moiety of the 

 i'ew old times people yet left, and who have not en- 

 tirely despaired of the commonwealth, could be 

 roused to the undertaking, they would probably 

 still have influence enough over the good men and 

 true, of the rising generation to "rally them to the 

 rescue." Most glorious and happy would be that 

 day, should it ever come; and that it might, is cer- 

 tain; for the selfishness which causes men to run 

 away from a house on fire, instead of aiding to 

 save the inhabitants, or the instinct that drives 

 rats from a building about to tumble down, has 

 not yet, (thank God,) frightened away all the true 

 sons of our jxood old mother Virginia. Enough 



farther would concur in applying all the censure ex- 

 pressed on this head, to the outs no less than the ins — 

 to all minorities as well as to all majorities, in all the 

 long time that Virginia has been a prey to the fierce 

 contentions of party spirit. — Ed: 



