The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-26 00:00:00

211 E TWO COTTON CROPS.

The Southern planters have not destroyed their
last cotton crop, nor will they give over planting
their next crop. The former is safe on hand; not
all ready for market to be sure, but in the gin
houses ready to be prepared for market. A few
thousand bales have successfully run the blockade;
a few more have been captured in the attempt
to run the blockade. With these trifling exceptions
a full average crop of cotton is now in the country.
The war ended, it will soon be seen with what alac-
rity and certainty this crop will come forward.
There has been no application of the torch to it
yet, and we venture to say there will be none unless
through force of the military rule in particular lo-
calities, and then only in the desperation of retreat.
Even in the rebel councils at Richmond, a proposi-

tion to burn the crop was voted down. The pro-
position was simply the mad thought of men who
have little or nothing of cotton or any other mate-
rial wealth to lose. It scarcely rose to the dignity
of a self-sacrificing idea, since all the sacrifice would
be with the planter, and not the politician. The
talk of Moscow is worse than moonshine. The con-
flagration of the whole three million bales believed
to be on hand in the States in insurrection would
not prevent the national authority from repossess-
ing the places and territory and channels of trade
which Secession is attempting to deprive it of. The
conflagration of Memphis, and Vicksburgh, and
New Orleans would not deter the same authority
from restoring the freedom of the navigation of the
Mississippi, from its head waters to the Balize.
The Government is not after the capture of Southern
cotton or Southern cities. With the first it has
nothing whatever to do. The latter they will either
occupy or restore to their allegiance, not for their
own sakes alone, but for the restoration of the com-
merce of the whole Union to its accustomed chan-
nels. The President of the United States could not
if he would, give up the freedom of the Mississippi.
Backed by the whole North and East, if such back-
ing were possible, he would not be permitted to do
so. The great North-west would never submit to its
surrender. That point is certain. End this war
when and where you may, the free navigation of
the great Father of Waters is part and parcel of the
inalienable heritage of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana,
Illinois, Missouri, lowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin,

—as much so, and more, if possible, than the heri-
tage of Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and
Louisiana. The present cotton crop will not be
destroyed, nor the cotton ports on the lower Mis-
sissippi given to the flames. Nor will the succeed-
ing crop be neglected. The seed is now going into
the ground. It will germinate as usual, and the
plant will grow and bloom, and its textile product
be gathered in due course of the revolving season,
and a second crop will be on hand before the crop
of last year is fairly disposed of, (lien though the
war should end by midsummer. The Richmond•
councils attempted to instruct the planters not to
grow another crop. The attempt failed, and if it
had not the instruction would have been disre-
garded, The planter may devote more attention to
his corn crop than heretofore, but the main busi-
ness of his costly possessions in land and negroes
will go on. By confession of Yancey himself, and
others of the Confederate conspirators, cotton is no
longer king in Europe, nor indispensable to the
North. The destruction of one crop, and the failure
to grow another, would neither revolutionize the
one nor convulse the other. Such folly would
simply deprive the planting States of their chief, if
not their only, element of material strength,—New
York Times.