The partisan leader :: :: University of Virginia Library

The impression made on Douglas by these observations
was so strong and so obvious, that his friend
paused and left him to meditate upon them. Some
minutes elapsed before he made any reply. When
he did speak, he acknowledged the existence and
magnitude of the grievance, and again enquired,
with increased solicitude, what remedy had been
found.

“You heard what passed in the bar-room, just
now,” said the stranger.

“I did,” replied Douglas; “and I was as much
surprised at the facts hinted at, as disgusted at the
sentiments of the speakers.”

“Then your surprise must have been extreme,”
said the other; “for I hardly know which amused
me most: their unblushing display of selfish meanness,
or the glow of indignation in your countenance,
which showed how little you know of this world of

philanthropy and benevolence that we live in. But
had you no suspicion of the cause of those enviable
advantages which these sons of Mammon are so
anxious to monopolize?”

“Not at all, and hence my surprise; for I had
supposed heretofore, that, between the two States,
all the advantage lay on the side of Virginia.”

“You judged rightly,” replied the other. “In the
way of commerce, nature has done nothing for the
one, and every thing for the other. But the conversation
you have heard is a proof that the sand which
chokes the waters of the Sound is a trivial obstacle,
in comparison with the legislative barriers which
have shut out prosperity from the noble Chesapeake.
Look at your rivers and bay, and you will see that
Virginia ought to be the most prosperous country in
the world. Look at the ruins which strew the face
of your lower country, the remains of churches and
the fragments of tombstones, and you will see that
she once was so. Ask for the descendants of the
men whose names are sculptured on those monuments,
and their present condition will tell you that
her prosperity has passed away. Then ask all
history. Go to the finest countries in the world—to
Asia Minor, to Greece, to Italy; ask what has laid
them desolate, and you will receive but one answer,
`misgovernment.”'

“But may not the fault be in the people themselves?”
asked Douglas.

“The fault of submitting to be misgoverned, certainly.
But no more than that. Let the country enjoy its
natural advantages, and they who are too ignorant or
too slothful to use them will soon give place to others
of a different character. What has there been to prevent
the Yankee from selling his barren hills at high
prices and coming South, where he might buy the
fertile shores of the Chesapeake for a song? No
local attachment, certainly; for his home is every
where. What is there now to prevent the planter
of this neighborhood from exchanging his thirsty
fields for the rich and long coveted low grounds of
James River or Roanoke, in Virginia? Are these
people wiser, better, more energetic and industrious
than they were twelve months ago, that their lands
have multiplied in value five fold? Is it your uncle's
fault, that, were he now at home the tame slave of
power, he could hardly give away his fine estate?
The difference is, that this country now enjoys its
natural advantages, while Virginia remains under the
crushing weight of a system devised for the benefit
of her oppressors.”

“I see the effect,” said Douglas. “But tell me, I
beseech you, the cause of this change in your condition
here.”

“The cause is free trade.”

“And how has that been obtained?”

“I will answer that,” said B—; “because my
friend's modesty might restrain him from giving the

true answer. It has been obtained by intelligence,
manly frankness, and fair dealing. It has been
obtained by offering to other nations terms most
favorable to their peculiar and distinctive interests,
in consideration of receiving the like advantage.
Instead of nursing artificial interests to rival the iron
and cotton fabrics, and the shipping of England, the
wine of France, the silk and oil of Italy, and
enviously snatching at whatever benefit nature may
have vouchsafed to other parts of the world, this
people only ask to exchange for these things their own
peculiar productions. A trade perfectly free, totally
discharged from all duties, would certainly be best
for all. But revenue must be had, and the impost
is the best source of revenue. No State can be
expected to give that up. But it has been found
practicable so to regulate that matter as reduce the
charges which have heretofore incumbered exchanges
to a mere trifle.”

“How has that been effected?” asked Douglas.

“If that question were to be answered in detail,”
said B—, “I should leave the answer to him by whom
the details have been arranged. I will give you the
outline in a few words. These States were first
driven to think of separation by a tariff of protection.
Their federal constitution guards against it by express
prohibition, and by requiring that the impost,
like the tax laws of Virginia, should be annual.

“They have felt the danger to liberty from excessive

revenue. Their constitution requires that the
estimates of the expense of the current year shall be
made the measure of revenue to be raised for that
year. The imports of the preceding year are taken
as a basis of calculation, and credit being given for
any surplus in the treasury, a tariff is laid which, on
that basis, would produce the sum required.”

“Then there can never be any surplus for an
emergency,” said Douglas.

“Always,” replied B—; “in the right place, and
the only safe place,—the pockets of a prosperous people.
There is no place in the treasury to keep money.
The till of the treasury has a hole in the bottom, and
the money always finds its way into the pockets of
sharpers, parasites, man-worshippers, and pseudo
patriots. But let that pass. You see that a small
revenue alone will probably be wanting, and being
raised annually, the tariff can be annually adjusted.

“Now, what says justice, as to the revenue to be
raised by two nations on the trade between the two,
seeing that it is equally levied on the citizens of
both?”

“On that hypothesis each should receive an equal
share of it,” said Douglas.

“Precisely so,” answered B—; “and let these
terms be held out to all nations, and if one will not
accept them another will. On this principle a system
of commercial arrangements has been set on foot
which, by restoring to these States the benefit of

their natural advantages, is at once producing an
effect which explains their former prosperity. It
places in stronger relief the evils of the opposite
system to Virginia, and really leaves her, while she
retains her present connexion with the North, without
any resource. Tobacco she cannot sell at all.
Invita natura, she will have to raise cotton to supply
the beggared manufactories of the North, from which
she will not receive in return the third part as much
of the manufactured article as the Carolina planter
will get for his. This is her fate. She sees it, and
would throw off the yoke. But her northern masters
see it too. She is all that remains to them of their
southern dependencies, which, though not their
colonies, they have so long governed as colonies.
Take her away, and they are in the condition of the
wolf when there are no sheep left. Wolf eat wolf,
and Yankee cheat Yankee. This they will guard
against by all means lawful and unlawful, for
Virginia alone mitigates the ruin that their insatiate
rapacity has brought upon them. They will hold on
to her with the gripe of death; and she must and
will struggle to free herself, as from death.

“And now, how say you? Are you prepared to
do your part in furtherance of this object?”

“I am,” replied Douglas promptly; “and I now
eagerly ask you to show me the means by which I
can advance it.”

“You asked for men,” said B—, “and you shall

have them. They are already provided, and want
but a leader.”

“But what authority can I have to be recognized
as such?”

“You have heard your uncle, aunt, or cousins,
speak of Jacob Schwartz.”

“I believe I have; but what can such a fellow
have to do with such affairs as we now speak of. Is
he not an ignorant clown?”

“He is all that,” said B—. “But he writes as
good a hand as Marshal Saxe, and has probably
read as many books as Cincinnatus. But to speak
seriously, he is no common clown. I picked him
up, nearly forty years ago, a little, dirty, ragged
boy, without money, without friends, without education,
and without principles. All these wants I
found means to supply, except that of education,
which to him would be quite superfluous. But he
now has money sufficient, and friends without number;
and, what is better still, he has become an
honest man, and discharges the duties of one none
the worse for having had a pretty large experience
in knavery. Such as he is, he is bound to me by
gratitude, such as few men are capable of. More
than a dozen years ago, he followed the bent of early
habit, and retired to his native mountains, where
he has married, and lives after the manner of the
country, as if he were worth nothing in the world
but his rifle. He has a good deal of money, which

I manage for him; and as he has no taste for extravagance
of any sort, and is generous as a king, he
always has a dollar to spare a friend.

“When I tell you that the people of that district
see so little money that they always count it by four-pence-half-pennies,
you will readily believe that a
little help goes a great way. They don't see that
Schwartz has any property; but their opinion of his
sagacity and enterprize takes away all wonder at the
fact, that he is always able, as well as ready, to give
aid to a friend at time of need. You will of course
infer, that his influence among them is very great.
Now that, and all his faculties of body, mind, and
purse, are at my command. He is aware of the state
of public affairs; adopts all my views, as far as he
can understand them, and beyond that point trusts
me implicitly. It is through his instrumentality that
the minds of the mountaineers of that district are
prepared for action at this moment. No force is
actually organized, but every thing is ready for the
emergency. The dispositions of the people, and the
strong fastnesses of the country, will make it a
secure retreat to a partisan corps. The materials for
such a corps may be found in part among the inhabitants.
A nucleus is all that is wanting, and to
that all the persecuted and distressed, from every
quarter, will gather.”

“You show me, then,” said Douglas, “that you
already have all you want—men and a leader. Your

friend Schwartz must be the very man to command
those fellows, and might not like to submit to the
authority of another.”

“He is not the man to command,” said B—,
“because he could not keep up intelligence with
other parts of the country, though as a medium of
intelligence there is none better. Indeed he cannot
be spared from that branch of service. Besides,
though he might command his neighbors, you will
be joined by men who will not submit to be commanded
by any but a gentleman. As to any reluctance
on his part, go to him in my name, or in that
of your uncle or aunt, and you command him, body
and soul. You will find all his faculties devoted to
your service, without envy, jealousy, or grudging;
and you will do well to use his mind more than his
body. In many particulars he is one of the most
efficient men in the world; and as he perfectly
understands himself, and knows what he is fit for,
you may always leave him to choose his own function,
and to execute it in his own way.”