THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



301 



has failed to take into the account. To 

 offset the additional hire of $150 that 

 you are to get by sending your slave to 

 Louisiana, you are to calculate the ex- 

 pense of the journey, the employment of 

 an ageiU, and the increased risk of dis- 

 ease. Add to this the wear and tear of 

 conscience for a violated humanity, and 

 you will find that slave labor remains in 

 Virginia only upon the great general 

 principle with which we started, that labor 

 will of itself always flow into the most pro- 

 fitable channel. 



No, my friends, it is not in the enor- 

 mous profits of susjar making, nor in the 

 superior fertility of the virgin West that 

 you wili find the cause of Virginia po- 

 verty ; nor is it in the diversion of your 

 Jabor to the one or the other, as Mr. Bruce 

 sagely advises, that you are to seek its 

 remedy. If the competition of the West 

 has reduced the standard price of your 

 products, seek to increase the quantity by 

 redoubled diligence and a more judicious 

 system of cultivation ; if your incomes 

 are, still, less than they formerly were 

 under the circumstances of a fruitful soil 

 and a monopolized market, conform your 

 expenditures to your income, and instead 

 of sighing over the extra advantages that 

 you once enjoyed, be satisfied that your 

 portion, although shorn of its excess of 

 good, still towers far above the common 

 lot of humanity. In your genial climate, 

 in your general healthfulness, in your vi- 

 cinity to market, and in this very slave 

 labor, you possess advantages that, with 

 proper energy on your own part, will en- 

 able you to compete successfully 'in agri- 

 cultural products with any portion of the 

 American continent. But to do this, you 

 must discard your overseers, and attend 

 to your business in person ; you must 

 limit your expenditures, and accumulate 

 the moneyed capital, that is absolutely 

 necessary to the successful prosecution of 

 every kind of business. If instead of en- 

 trusting the science of cultivating your 

 soil and managing your labor to an illi- 

 terate, bigoted and uninterested overseer, 

 you will take it into your own hands, and 

 thus bring to bear at least the great in- 

 centive of self-interest, you need neither 



remove to the West, nor transport your 

 slaves to the South. Over all the free 

 States, the possession of slave lnbor gives 

 you an immense advantage. Whatevef 

 it may be to the more complicated pro- 

 cess of manufacturing, this labor is fully 

 competent to perform all the simple mani- 

 pulations of agriculture. In this respect 

 it is equally efficient, whilst in the com- 

 plete and systematic control to which it 

 is subjected, it is infinitely superior to any 

 white labor that can possibly, as } 7 et, exist 

 in this country. That the product per 

 acre in thefree States exceeds that of the 

 slave States, is owing, not to the difference 

 between the operatives in the one and the 

 other, but to the difference in the charac- 

 ter and conduct of the proprietor. In the 

 one, the owner of a farm goes forth him- 

 self, and sees in person that 'every opera- 

 tion is conducted to the best advantage ; 

 that no less care is used in saving and 

 dispensing, than in making ! his crop. In 

 fact, it is a perfect manufactory of wheat 

 and corn, where the processes are all sub- 

 jected to the influence of mind. In the 

 other, the proprietor leaves every thing to 

 the guidance of an indifferent and igno- 

 rant subordinate, and then complains that 

 he cannot enter the area of competition. 

 Correct this, my friends, and abandon all 

 Idea of leaving your homes and charrging 

 your pursuits. 



But that I have already occupied too 

 much of your time, I could easily demon- 

 strate that in the field of manufactures 

 which Mr. Bruce proposes to you, you 

 would meet much more potent competition 

 from your Yankee brethren, than that to 

 which you are subjected in your present 

 calling. I could say something too of 

 the political and moral advantages of an 

 agricultural compared with a manufac- 

 turing community, but I leave this theme 

 to the eloquence of Mr. Bruce, who, with 

 a singular felicity, extols most extrava- 

 gantly the one profession, whilst he com- 

 mends the other to your consideration. 



A Virginian. 



Newly planted fruit trees should be 

 watered in times of drought. 



