FARMERS' REGISTER— NORTH CAROLINA, &c. 



205 



associates and supporters in the legislature of 

 North Carolina, to propose the construction of 

 a simple experimental rail road between Raleif^h 

 and Swift Creek — to the v.ant of a spirit which, 

 <Ae?i, in the expenditure of -910,000, would noio 

 have ensured a saving; to the state of ^ 10,000,000 — 

 to the want of that liberal spirit that, in the first 

 instance, had employed an engineer, who had 

 formed docks in Bermuda, for his own govern- 

 ment, and constructed canals for that of Sweden — 

 all of them proving, after a lapse of fifteen years, 

 monuments of his real and practical ability ; and, 

 ■in the last instante, yielding to a feeling of a total- 

 ly opposite character, reducing him to a rank low- 

 er than that of the lowest surveyor in the United 

 States, voting him a per diem allowance of one 

 dollar and a half for his expenses — and this at tlie 

 very moment when there was not a county court 

 lawyer in the legislature, thus exercising the pri- 

 vilege of estimating tried talents, proved intelli- 

 gence, and evident experience, that would not have 

 spurned a five ibid remuneration for a days exer- 

 cise of his professional verbosity, and the applica- 

 tion of the sublime chicane of the common law. 



Buf primary markets" — this is tlie slang — as 

 though Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ken- 

 tucky, Tennessee and Mississippi — all sections of 

 the United States in the most flourishing condi- 

 tion, with populations hourly augmenting, an in- 

 ternal and external trade both constantly increas- 

 ing, and a domestic want incessantly calling ibr a 

 larger and larger supply — as though these states 

 were constantly sinking in the scale of moral and 

 political importance — as though the official list of 

 the tonnage of North Carolina dees not, to the 

 close observer and the accurate calculator in poli- 

 tical arithmetic, clearly demonstrate the relative 

 superiority of North Carolina over either Virgi- 

 nia, South Carolina, or (excluding Charleston and 

 New Orleans,) all the ports betioeen Charleston 

 and New Orleans — as though, (if to illustrate our 

 ideas and prove their correctness, we may be per- 

 mitted to cross the Atlantic,) Bavaria and Aus- 

 tria, and especially the latter, with her numerous 

 provinces, alike distinguished by the wealth, hos- 

 pitality and generosity of her nobility, and the 

 happiness and comfort of her peasantry, ibr the 

 small comparative amount of her expenses, the 

 high value of her money, and her successful pro- 

 gress in manufacture, agriculture and domestic 

 improvement, and of course, her uniiorm progress 

 in national wealth and national power — as though 

 these powers were essentially inferior to Holland 

 and the Hanse towns, because, Ibrsooth, the latter 

 were the great shipping ports or " primary mar- 

 kets" of Germany — as though JNIunich and Vi- 

 enna were inferior to Venice and Trieste, because 

 the latter were the " primary markets" of the Aus- 

 trian dominions — as though France and Italy, 

 which, when their population is contrasted with 

 that of Great Britain and her dependencies, have, 

 comparatively, no external commerce, do not pos- 

 sess an equivalent mass of political power and in- 

 fluence and of national wealth — as though Great 

 Britain limited to five foreign trade ports, France 

 to four, Spain to two — as though all these countries 

 would be better off, if each county, department 

 and province had a "primary port" — in fine, as 

 though North Carolina had better, in those ports 

 and on that coast " where the genius of the tempest 



no large ships dare to approach, and on a coast 

 which, time immemorial, has been a source of ter- 

 ror and appreliension to the weather beaten tar — 

 as though North Carolina had better erect ports 

 here for small craft, which will merely contribute 

 to the sustenance of the never satisfied and ever 

 craving maw of the master city. New York, that 

 Babylon of the western hemisphere, than endeavor 

 to elevate Norfolk to the character of a " primary 

 market," and its own "^ri'mar)/" and justly merit 

 importance. 



Let not the reader sir, say " this is all declama- 

 tion" — nature has denied to North Carolina the 

 power of having a port, even if commercial arrange- 

 ments and local circumstances would seek to do so — 

 this the experience of two centuries fully and 

 clearly demonstrates. 



How ever, it is time to stop this strain of indig- 

 nant invective — indignant, because a feeling aris- 

 ing jD«r/;flZ/7/, from personal inspection, and gene- 

 rally, fiom an accurate investigation of the sub- 

 ject, exists of the utter fallacy and profound igno- 

 rance of every notion which is italicised in the 

 above paragraph ; and because it is time to appeal 

 to the returning reason of North Carolina. 



Of all the acts of folly of a politically and com- 

 mercially disordered intellect, there never has 

 been one so great, as that national benefits are to 

 be found in great cities. " Of all the advantages 

 to be derived from rail roads," said the London 

 Quarterly, " there will be none so great as that 

 they will put a stop to the growth of such cities 

 as the Babylon in which we write." The senti- 

 ment is a correct one. It is fully proved to be so 

 by the horrible display of crime in New York and 

 Philadelphia. Let a criminal census be taken of 

 the city and state of New York, and another of 

 Virginia and the Carolinas, and we shall soon see 

 the horrible effect of crime in large cities. But 

 of this horrible effect, we have a sufficient proof 

 in the relative quantum of crime in England, and 

 especially in its great cities — in England especial- 

 ly, the seat of tliat " perfection of reason" — the 

 common law — compared with that of France — of 

 France, that with the exception of Paris, has no 

 large, overgrown and overgrowing city. Indeed, 

 if as a citizen of North Carolina, the alternative 

 were offered to me of contributing to make Rich- 

 mond as large as New York, and of erecting a 

 town of the same magnitude either on the sea 

 coast or in the centre of Noith Carolina, I sole.nn- 

 ly aver, that on Richmond I would confer this sup- 

 posed favor ; but, Hercules with the shirt of Nes- 

 sus, did not feel a torture more horrible and tor- 

 menting than would Richmond in such a predica- 

 ment. Thanks to the rail road system, the exis- 

 tence of such a nuisance there or elsewhere is not 

 to be feared. 



However, it is time to quit this digression on a 

 problematical question; although there is little 

 doubt tliat the evil thus deprecated, would in the 

 highest degree be positive, perpetual and perni- 

 cious. 



The times and the progress of knowledge, the 

 growing wants and increasing necessities, the want 

 of pro{)erly developing her real, immense, and 

 compared w ilh their present developement, the al- 

 most illimitable resources — all unite to render it 

 proper that this subject should now be urged on 

 North Carolina, and in the plain and undissem- 



has fixed his abode" — in ports towards even which) sembled language of candor and. of truth — to other 



