Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1841-01-15

exports from this country have exceeded The
imports by nearly twenty-seven millions oil dol
lars. This is certainly encouraging, especially
when we reflect, that i'll prior years the reverse
was the fact; and that without going back fur
ther in the year 1886, the excess Of imports
exceeded the exports upwards oil sIXty-one mli-
lions of dollars; in 1887, twenty-'hree and a
half millions of dollars; IN 1898, five millions OF
dollars; and in 1899, forty-one millions OF dol
lars; and that in 1887, the import OF The single
article of silk, a mere luxury, which our own
country is as capable of producing as any other,
amounted to twenty-three millions OF dollars,
while our export Of flour, during the same year,
was but about seven millions of dollars.-lt Is
to be hoped, and the increased confidence grow
ing out OF the resumption of specie payments
| about TO take place, warrants the conclusion,
that business will resume its accustomed chan
nes, and taking lessons Of prudence from the
past, our citizens will not again be tempted in-
to those wild excesses which have well nigh
led on to bankruptcy and ruin, and the prostra-
tion Of public and private credit and confidence
Our Commonwealth possesses fertile sell,
and unbounded agricultural and mineral wealth.
We have within ourselves almost all the neccs-
sares, and many of the luxuries OF life. With
the increase of intelligence and means, we find
our farmers augmenting the products oil their
soil, improving their stocks of domestic animals,
and adding to the neatness of their household
establishments No one can pass through our
Commonwealth, without being struck with the
air of substantial comfort, and increasing pros
perity, which pervades the agricultural districts
of the State.
The variety and extent Of our water power,
give great facilities to the manufacture of our
grain into bread stuff, and for every other branch
of manufacture, either needed for the supply of
our citizens, or for the employment of their cap
ital.
Had Pennsylvania already reached the full
developement of her resources, with her pres
ent pecuniary responsibilities weighing her
down, we might we'll contemplate our situation
with trembling solicitude. But this IS not the
case. Throughout the whole extent of her am
pie territory, there is scarcely square mhe
which does not abound in some or all OF the
great staples of her mineral wealth. AnthEa-
cite and bituminous coal, iron, marble and lime
stone, have been scattered by nature with a
most profnse hand, and have been hitherto work
ed barely enough to prove with what prodiga-
ty they have been lavished upon US. The coal
field of our commonwealth embraces more than
one fifth of its area, and more than three times
as much as belongs to entire Europe.
Connected with the coal, which abounds in
so large a portion of the commonwealth, we
have large supplies of iron ore, almost in imme
diate contact with it. In addition thereto, We
have, within convsnien: distances almost all the
the other varieties of iron ore, found in any part
of the world. The adaptation of anthracite coal
to the smelling of iron ore has been followed
by its successful and profitable application in
the further stages of the manufacture of the met
al and that the same results win speedily follow
from the application of bituminous coal may be
looked for with almost absolute certainty.
| While the iron manufactured with charcoal,
will always be wanted for the finer purposes,
and the demand for it, increased by the natural
increase of the population of the country, that
manufactured from mineral coal, will be en-
ployed in the construction Of rail roads, and for
innumsrable other purposes.
This discovery must stand as a distinguished
era in the annals of our Commonwealth. 1t
cannot fail to add millions of dollars to her ac-
tive and available capital, and will ere long
transfer to our own citizens most, if not ALL OF
the large sums that are now annually sent
abroad for rail iron, and other IRON -manufac-
tured articles. The manufacture of these nu-
merous and valuable commodities will not only
result in enriching Pennsylvania, but will cut
off large item in the imports of this country,
tend to emancipate US from European depend
ence, enable our sister states to complete their
railroads at cheaper and better rate, and
strengthen the National Union, by the strongest
of all ties, that of mutual interest.
Nor is there in Pennsylvania single class
of citizens who will not share directly in the
advantages. The owners of coal and iron de-
posits, and those who engage in the manufacture
: and sale of these productions, will derive the
first benefit but the farmer, the mechanic, the
merchant, and every other citizen, will feel i'm
mediately the salutary impulse which will be
communicated to his own peculiar business.
The value of our canals and railroads must be-
greatly enhanced, as well as that of all other
/ species of property. With the cheap and
, ready means which they will afford for the
! transportation of our various products and man
ufactures, there can be no doubt that the trade
: and business of the State must extend and in
\ crease with uneXarnDed rapidity and bv pr,,-