Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/517

 Address Delivered by Governor Z B. Vance. 511

they made, of the labors all classes peribrmed; of the subsistence and material furnished by those not in the ranks ; of their feelings, their hopes, patriotism, and their despair. No history can be useful or instructive which gives us no glance into such things as these. The broad, catholic, cosmopolitan history of this most remarkable strug- gle has yet to be written, wherein the story of the people shall be told ; wherein, when it is said how that a great general won a vic- tory, it will also be mentioned what troops and where from fought it for him ; how the artisan in the shop, the ploughman in the field, the little girls in the factories, the mothers at the old hand-looms, the herdsmen on the mountain's side, the miner in the earth's bowels, the drivers and brakesmen on the railroad engines, how all these felt, and strove, and suffered equally with the soldier, and yet without his stimulus of persona! glory. Such a history would fill with con- tent the palaces of the rich and the cottages of the poor, would imbue the humble masses with still greater patriotism, and our states- men with a most useful knowledge : would remove local jealousies and increase brotherly afifection.

Having shown how North Carolina performed her duty to the Con- federacy in furnishing soldiers, I desire to call the attention of the Society to the part she took in furnishing supplies and material. And here it would greatly interest the political economist were I able to give accurate instead of estimated figures, to consider what re- sources a people may exhibit under pressure of circumstances. Every industry looking to the support of an army in the field, or the people at home, sprang forward with astonishing activity, espe- cially those wherein we had formerly been dependent on foreign manufacturers. Like most of the Southern people, we were slavish tributaries to Northern and British m mufacturers ; the simplest arti- cle in common use bore their impress, from a broom or an axe-handle to a water bucket. In the manufacture of cotton she had less than $1,500,000 invested ; in wool, not over $300,000, perhaps not more in iron, and these latter were but small establishments for local accommodation. There was not a manufactory of arms worth men- tioning in the State. Of cotton goods, not half a supply, even of the coarser sorts, were made for our own consumption ; of woollen goods, scarcely a tenth ; of iron, for ordinary purposes, not a twentieth ; of shoes and leather, not a tenth part of home consumption was supplied. Yet in less than twelve months we were not only filling that demand and furnishing large quantities for the army, but selling heavily to our Southern sisters. When the capacity of the cotton