The importance of education, of cultivation, the refinement of mind and manners, the possession of wealth, of family influence and social distinction, may all be duly appreciated, as all have their value or social consideration, but where there is a _natural_ substratum of society, where a different and subordinate race are in juxtaposition, where negroes exist in any considerable number and in natural relation to the whites, then it naturally follows that the great natural distinctions fixed forever by the hand of the Almighty become the dividing lines and the fixed landmarks of the social order. This radical change in the mental habits of all brought face to face with the negro; this instinctive consciousness of their own natural equality that accompanied their perception of the negro’s inferiority; in short, this development of the democratic idea to which Mr. Jefferson gave such grand expression in the Declaration of Independence, was and is accompanied by corresponding uniformity or harmony of interests. Agriculture, labor, production, was and is the one great dominating interest of Virginia and of all other communities made up of these diverse social elements. It is impossible to divide the interests of “master” and “slave”—of the white man and negro—when placed in natural relation to each other. It is the utmost interest of the master to treat his “slave” kindly, to care for him in sickness, to feed him well, and not to overwork or abuse him, and it is the utmost interest of the latter to be faithful to the former. It is a sort of partnership, a species of socialism, when the brain of one being and the hands of fifty other beings labor for the common good, for the general welfare; and though possible exceptions are found where a brutal master beats and abuses his people, or a worthless “slave” runs off and hides in the swamp, both alike injure themselves, the master gets less work from his “slave,” and the “slave” brings upon himself a corresponding evil. The so-called “non-slaveholder,” if an agriculturist, has the same interest; he is also a producer, and can not separate his interests from the “slaveholder,” which, perhaps, he was himself yesterday, and may be again to-morrow. If he be a mechanic, a lawyer, physician, or merchant, then, though not identified as a producer with the “slaveholder” or “non-slaveholder,” and in a sense may be said to have different interests, these interests do not and can not conflict with the former, unless, as in the Northern States, government is called on to “protect labor.” But as government is confined to its legitimate sphere in Virginia and most other Southern States, and protects all, without favors to any, there is then no conflict of interests, even when some are engaged in widely different pursuits from the one great common interest of production. There is, therefore, universal harmony in Southern society; the interests of master and “slave” are entirely