356 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Why liave our people ceased to remove from 

 among us in such numbers as formerly. It 

 would be unsatisfactory to attribute it to acci- 

 dent. It must be the result of causes which, 

 however imperfectly they may be understood, 

 or however imperfectly I may be able to point 

 them out, have their origin and foundation in 

 those principles of human conduct that regu- 

 late society. 



Communities, like individuals, regulate their, 

 actions, to a great extent, by their convictions 

 of their interests. Under wise and just per- 

 ceptions of interest, no higher or better stand- 

 ard can be established. It is, therefore, fair 

 to infer from the facts that I have exhibited, 

 that the people of Virginia, so far as emigra- 

 tion has already been arrested, have arrived at 

 the conclusion that their interest is not promoted, 

 or their condition improved by a removal to 

 the South and West; that their happiness and 

 prosperity and that of their posterity will be 

 best secured by remaining where they are. 

 These conclusions could only be rational on 

 the part of our people upon the assumption 

 that they are the result of careful examination 

 of the advantages of remaining where they are, 

 or removing from among us — tried by their 

 experience of the past, and their estimate of 

 the future. 



That they have decided rightly, who have 

 thus decided, I cannot permit myself for a 

 moment to doubt. Many of the inducements 

 that hitherto stimulated emigration still exist ; 

 and would, doubtless, produce the same results 

 as formerly were they not counteracted by 

 other and more potent considerations. With 

 the slave owner, so far as the condition oil 

 things in the West operates upon him, the in- 1 

 ducements and temptations are the same. The 

 reduction in the (pantity of the cotton lands 

 is comparatively trifling. There they lay in 

 extent sufficient to employ the labor of millions. 

 There they still lay in their original fertility, 

 untouched, unenclosed, unsubdued by the hand 

 of man — surpassing the Nile, whose annual 

 inundation restores the exhaustion consequent 

 upon labor; along their rivers lay the accumu- 

 lated richness of all their inundations since 

 they passed from the hands of the Creator; 

 on their hills and plains, the fertility which 

 ages and centuries of rank and luxuriant fo- 

 liage has returned and restored to the earth j 

 for its repletion and fatness — there they lay at 

 prices as cheap, and at man}^ points cheaper, 

 than at any former period; with increased fa- 

 cilities for reaching them; with a saving in 

 time, cost and hazard ; with fewer privations, 

 inconveniences and embarrassments attending 

 their settlement and occupation ; with greater 



advantages in every social and domestic rela- 

 tion than were formerly in reach of the settler 

 and emigrant. Still, gentlemen, our emigra- 

 tion is decreasing and our population increasing 

 more rapidly than at any period within the 

 century. 



Is it because there has been a reduction in 

 the price of the staple products of the South- 

 west? The sugar and cotton in America in 

 the rapidity of their growth and cultivation — 

 the increased demand, the increased production, 

 their annual rewards and their ultimate impor- 

 tance, are the marvejl and the wonder of the 

 age in which we live. Never were they more 

 prosperous than during the last years. 



Is it that there has been a reduction of the 

 value of slaves in the Southern market ? All 

 know that at no time has the demand been 

 greater, or the price higher than within the 

 same period. Or is it that these staples are 

 endangered by the competition of foreign coun- 

 tries and cheap labor? The answer must be, 

 they are more secure than at any previous 

 period. 



Nevertheless, in the face of all these things, 

 the emigration from Virginia to that region 

 has been and is diminishing. 



Then, as to our n on- slaveh old ing population. 

 The prospect of reduction of the price of land 

 in the North-west is the only danger that pre- 

 sents itself. 



The statistics, before adverted to, establish 

 the fact that the tendency to emigration 'of our 

 white population is less than in the Eastern 

 agricultural States. That the ratio of emigra- 

 tion of our white class is, when compared with 

 the black, very small; their respective increase 

 being as 20 to 5. 



So far from our institution stimulating the 

 removal of this class, the habits, opinions and 

 sentiments which prevail in the South are im- 

 bibed and cherished as generally and strongly 

 by the non-slaveholding portion of our com- 

 munity as by others. We rejoice to see and 

 know that in the excitement and conflict of 

 opinion which have arisen between the rival 

 section of the Union, there has been an abso- 

 lute failure in every effort to excite feelings of 

 hostility or discontent between these classes. 

 On the contrary, the occasion and question, 

 have rallied and united in one general senti- 

 ment, opinion and resolution, all classes and 

 conditions of our people. 



The emigrant from Virginia to the North- 

 west finds his opinions, habits and tastes all 

 differing and conflicting as strongly with those 

 who surround him as the slaveholder himself 

 would. The climate, the habits of society, its 



