The Arkansas banner., 1845-05-21
REPORT AND RESOLUTIONS
Of an Internal Improvement .Meeting, held
 at the Torn HnI OIL the 3d inSk

convened on the 23d inst, with instructions to report to an adjourned meeting, have had the several subjects committed to them under consideration, and report, that they approve, most heartily of the call for convention of delegates from all the southern and western States to assemble at Memphis, Tenn, on the 4th of July next. The depressed price of the staple commodity of the south requires some united and concerted action, some common understanding among those interested, by which it can be kept within the limit actually required to supply the demand; that to effect this object, we know of no means that will be more effectual, than to divert portion of the labor of the slave holding section of the Union to other pursuits. In doing this, the enquiry arises, to what shall we direct our labor?
 Here we are answered by the example of our northern neighbors, by our own observa- ton and experience, by the embarrassed con dition of the country, to such pursuits as will supply ourselves with all we consume, so far as practicable; to the establishment of manu- l featuring interests for converting the raw ma terial we now produce into such fabrics as are necessary for our consumption; to developing the hidden resources of the country; to the construction oNsuch public works, both of local and national character, as are important to the great interests of the south; to encour- aging the emigration and settlement of me- chanics and useful artizans among us, thereby, inducing system of industry and enterprise, unknown to people whose labor has here tofore been chiefly employed to the produce ton of one great staple commodity.
 The present seems truly ausplclous mo- ment for changing the application of a portion, at least, of the labor of the southern country, and giving it a direction to pursuits that will result in resuscitating the great interest of the south and west. With an over production of the great staple commodity; dependant for most of the articles we consume on foreign supplies; oppressed with debts both public and private; with eongenial climate, an abun- dance of the finest water power in the world; resources that require only the exploring eye of science and ordinary industry to develope; with great revolution now going on in public sentiment, in reference 10 the policy of engag ing in manufacturing interests, all conspire to urge the slave holding States to embark in this new field of enterprise. The southern i people enjoy an advantage In respect to labor, not enjoyed by the northern manufacturer, and which, if made available as 1t might be. 1 if we had manufacturing establishments among us, would ill the aggregate be productive of much profit. That portion oi the slave pop ulation between the ages of eight and fourteen is generally unproductiye, being too young to employ advantageously in the field, which, I if employed as operatives in manufacturing establishments, under the supervision of com petent managers, would be found 10 be pro- ductye and answer all .he purposes of maturer age. The idea that slaves are unsuited to labor with machinery is untenable and pre- Valls to an extent not warranted by the facts of the case. As mere passive operatives for keeping machinery ill operation, and superin- tending its management, there can be no diff ference in point of capacity to do this, between the black and the white operative
 To manufactures, to the growing of prov- sion and the various articles of domesic pro- ductlon, a portion of the labor of the south may beadvantageously directed, while another portion might be employed in the constrnc- ton ol such channels of inter-communication, as the wants of the country, the interests of its commerce, or its protection and defence might suggest.
 Among those works Of national character, so important to the commercial interests of the country, as well as necessary for it's pro- lection and defence, the construction of the ship canal, connecting the Mississippi with the great lakes; the completion of the military road from Memphis through to Red river: the extension of the Cumberland road from illnols through Missouri to Little Rock, Ar kansas where 1t would intersect the former; the erection of western armory and the , completion of the naval depot at Memphis. are the first in the estimation of the committee to claim the attention and patronage of the government. These are all works of great national importance; and the south and west from their defenceless postion-the number of their population, the amount and value of , their domestic productions, and the amount , they contribute 10 the revenues of the gov ernment, have right in justice to expect that they will be speedily accomplished
 By the census of lS40, the population oi the Mississippi valley amounted to more than o,400,000, while the value of their domestic productions amounted to near the sum of S755000,000. In the ten years from 1880 to lo40, the ratio of increase in population had been about 80 per cent By the same ratio, the population now amounts to H. 800,000.
 In l842 the value of the productions which descended the channel of the Mississippi river Tn pursuit of market, was estimated al the sum of Sl20,000,000, and the return trade to Sl00,000, ,000-making only S30OO0,OOC less than the whole import and export trade of the United States. From this data, some estimate may be formed of the amount o revenues the southern and western people pay to the government in the shape of duties on the articles they consume; and when wt contemplate the meagerness of appropriations for the benefit of this vast amount of com. meFce-for the protection and defence of the country, we have right to complain of tho great injustice inflicted upon us by withhold ing that which of right belongs to us, anC which should be returned to the people by the erection of great public works, for tht improvement of their condition, more valuable to them than the money itself The weallf