THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



17 



arising from the habits and customs of a peo- 

 ple, present barriers to their progress infinitely 

 more insuperable than physical obstacles. A 

 rough country may be levelled or an arid one 

 watered by physical exertion, but to revolu- 

 tionize the habits and customs of a people, 

 the slow and steady march of moral force is 

 alone effectual. It is exactly the difference 

 between mind and matter. 



What avails it, then, that we have unlimited 

 resources in our mountain minerals, or that 

 our exhausted lands bear within their own 

 bosoms the ready sources of renovation. — 

 These resources cannot be developed without 

 capital, and we can never have that capital, 

 until we learn to accumulate it by reducing 

 consumption below the standard of expendi- 

 ture. 



This is the cause of our poverty, and this 

 poverty will continue to increase until it finally 

 works its own cure. When this great revolu- 

 tion is brought about; when the youth of Vir- 

 ginia shall no longer consider it disreputable 

 to be employed in manual labor, when they 

 have learned universally to succumb to the 

 fate which our republican institutions, the abo- 

 lition of entails and the law of primogeniture 

 so sternly forces upon them, when they become 

 workers instead of drones in the social hive, 

 when the farmers bill with the grocer, the wine 

 merchant, and the retailer of dry goods, is re- 

 duced to one-half its present amount, then 

 will it be time enough to talk about developing 

 the physical resources of Virginia; for then 

 only will we possess the means by which it 

 can be effected. 



We are not of those who scoff and revile 

 our countrymen for the unfortunate circum- 

 stances which no wrong-doing of their own, 

 but the natural current of events, has forced 

 upon them. We most heartily sympathise 

 with them in the struggle to which they are 

 doomed. This struggle they are now encoun- 

 tering with the manfulness that belongs to 

 their race. We can imagine and pity the 

 emotions with which a man finds himself 

 compelled to abridge the luxuries that from 

 habit and education have become necessaries 

 to those whose comfort and well being are the 

 great objects of his existence. This is a strug- 



gle which calls forth all the energies of the 

 man, and though the contest is not marked 

 with the painted cloth or gleaming steel that 

 endears the battle-field to the vulgar eye, the 

 severity of the contest is not the less appre- 

 ciated by the man of feeling. 



From circumstances, then, almost insupera- 

 ble, we are extravagant, and, therefore, poor, 

 and so we must remain until time and our 

 own exertions have ameliorated our condition. 

 We will illustrate the effects of this extrava- 

 gance. 



A very shrewd and intelligent Yankee once 

 called on us to assist him in making an in- 

 tended purchase of land in Virginia. We re- 

 commended him especially to a very enlight- 

 ened and refined portion of the State, where 

 the facilities of lime and water communica- 

 tion rendered the lands, as we thought, parti- 

 cularly desirable. He visited this region, and 

 afterwards informed us that he declined the 

 proposed emigration. He said he could do 

 better at home. It was true he could sell his 

 own land for sixty dollars an acre, and buy 

 equally productive in Virginia for fifteen dol- 

 lars; but, said he, I am improving my condi- 

 tion at home by spending less than I make, 

 and although by purchasing in Virginia I am 

 satisfied I could double my income, still, I be- 

 lieve, that a residence here, such are the man- 

 ners and customs of your people, would involve 

 an expenditure three times as great as that I 

 am called on to make at home. Hence, my 

 farm in Western New York is cheaper than 

 the lands in Virginia. We suggested to this 

 gentleman that it might be possible to unite 

 the more economical habits of his own people 

 with the advantages of our lower priced lands. 

 With an irrepressible sneer of contempt for 

 our ignorance of human nature, he replied, 

 " Sir, 1 should bring my wife and children with 

 me. Do you not know, whatever might be 

 my desire, it would be impossible to mould 

 the habits of my family in a different form 

 from those of the world by which they would 

 be surrounded? At home they are content 

 and happy with an expenditure of four hun- 

 dred dollars per annum; and this, because it 

 furnishes them with a style of living equal to 

 that of the circle in which they live. The 



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