a, estimated at
$100,000,000; difference in favor of New York $816,474,956. (Census, p.
79.)

EXPORTS AND IMPORTS, ETC.--Our exports abroad from New York for the
fiscal year ending 30th June, 1860, were $145,555,449, and the foreign
imports $248,489,877; total of both, $394,045,326. The clearances same
year from New York were 4,574,285 tons, and the entries 4,836,448 tons;
total of both, 9,410,733 tons. In Virginia, the exports the same year
were $5,858,024, and the imports $1,326,249; total of both, $7,184,273;
clearances, 80,381 tons, entries, 97,762 tons; total of both, 178,143
tons. (Table 14, Register of United States Treasury.) Revenue collected
from customs same year in New York, $37,788,969, and in Virginia
$189,816, or 200 to 1 in favor of New York. (Tables, U.S. Com. of
Customs.) No returns are given for the coastwise and internal trade of
either State, but the tables of the railway and canal transportation of
both States show nearly the same proportion in favor of New York as in
the foreign trade. Thus the _domestic_ exports from New York for the
above year abroad were $126,060,967, and from Virginia $5,833,371.
(Same table, 14.) And yet Virginia, as we have seen, had much greater
natural advantages than New York for commerce, as well as for mines,
manufactures, and agriculture. But slavery has almost expelled commerce
from Virginia, and nearly paralyzed all other pursuits.

These tables, taken from the census and the Treasury records, prove
incontestably, that slavery retards the progress of wealth and
population throughout the South, but especially in Virginia. Nor can the
Tariff account for the results; for Virginia, as we have seen, possesses
far greater advantages than New York for manufactures. Besides, the
commerce of New York far surpasses that of Virginia, and this is the
branch of industry supposed to be affected most injuriously by high
tariffs, and New York has generally voted against them with as much
unanimity as Virginia. But there is a still more conclusive proof. The
year 1824 was the commencement of the era of high tariffs, and yet, from
1790 to 1820, as proved by the census, the percentage of increase of New
York over Virginia was greater than from 1820 to 1860. Thus, by table I
of the census, p. 124, the increase of population in Virginia was as
follows:

From 1790 to 1800 17.63 per cent.
" 1800 " 1810 10.73 "
" 1810 " 1820 9.31 "
" 1820 " 1830 13.71