Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1849-03-16
T. r G. TT e r.

1S4S, on ELWOOD lSHER.
The progress and prospects of the Northern
and Southern sections OF this Union, involves
some of the greatest and gravest questions OF
the age. Each has form of civilization pc
culiar to itself, and to modern times The
confederacy which has been formed by their
union has astonished the world BY its success:
but the world, as well as the two sections
themselves, differ very widely as 10 the eau
ses of this success, and the agency of the two
respective systems of society in producingit.
This controversy has long been advancing
on the country, and now, in consequence Of
recent events. it has become general. In this
part of the country, however, we have had
but one side and as the subject is one of the
first magnitude. | have bought it highly i'm.
portant that it Should be we'll examined In
a Commercial Institution like this, it is pecu-
liarly proper that the causes of the wealth and
the sources of the commerce of the country
should be we'll understood.
When the Constitution of the United States
was adopted, the population of the two sec
tions of the United States was nearly equal
each being not quite two millions OF inhabi-
tants, the South including more than half a
million of slaves. The territory then occu-
pied by the two was, perhaps, also nearly e.
quail in extent and fertility. Their commerce
was also about the same the North exporting
about SO ,S00,540 in 1890, and the South So
2OO,50O* Even the property held by the
two sections was almost exactly the same in
amount, being about 1000 millions in val
lie each, according to an assessment for d.
rect taxes in 1779.* For the first quarter of a
century of the present Government, up to
1916, the South took the lead of the North in
commerce as at the end of that period the ex-
ports of the Southern States amounted to a.
bout thirty millions of dollars, which was FIVE
millions more then the Northern. At this
time, in 1916, South Carolina and New York
were the two greatest exporting States of the
Union, South Carolina exporting more than
$1O,000,0OO, and New York over $14,GOO,-
OOO*.
According TO the assessments made by au-
thority of the Federal Government in 1915
for direct taxes, the value of property in the
Southern States had arisen to $3.50 ST., 697,
the white population being then, according to
an average of the census of 1910 and that of
1920, about 2,749,795, or about 1912 per
head, whilst the property of the Northern
States amounted to ST. ,042 1872 ,264,* for 1885,
$50 population, or only S24O per head
Even in Manufactures the South, at this
period, exceled the North in proportion to
the numbers of their population. In 1910,
according to the returns of the Marshals of
the United States, the fabrics of wool, cotton,
and linnen, manufactured in the Northern
States, amounted to 40, 344,274 yards, valued
at $21 ,061 ,525, whilst the South fabricated
1885, 97 yards, estimated at $16,771, 724.
Thus, after the lapse of the first quarter of a
century, under our present form of Govern
ment, the South has surpassed the North in
Commerce, In Manufactures, and in the accu-
mutation of wealth, in proportion to the num-
Der of citizens of the respective sections.
Since that period great change has occur
red The harbors of Norfolk, of Richmond,
of Charleston, and Savannah, have been de-
serted for those of Philadelphia, New York,
and Boston and New Orleans is the only
Southern city that pretends to rival its North
ern competitors. The grass is growing in the
streets of those cities of the South, which ORR
ginally monopolized our colonial commerce,
and maintained their ascendency in the earli-
er years Of the Union. Manufactures and the
arts have also gone to take up their abode in
the North. Cities have been expanded and
multiplied in the same favored region. Rail-
roads and canals have been constructed, and
education has delighted there to build her COL
leges and seminaries.
These phenomena have made profound
impression on rejecting minds throughout the
Union, and particularly in the South By her
leading statesmen, these results have been as
crlbed to the policy pursued by the Federal
Government since 1916. 1t was at this peri
cd that the system of direct taxation was f.
nally abandoned, and the whole interest of
the public debt, then so much augmented by
the war, as well as the increased expenditures
OF the Government, were made chargeable on
the foreign commerce of the country, except
the slight income from the public lands And
at the close OF the war, the principal articles
OF export, in exchange for which, we obtain
ed our foreign goods, consisted of cotton, to-
baCco, and rice, it was held that the new pol
icy was peculiar burden on the States that
produced those staples. In addition to this,
the establishment of Bank of the United
States located at the North, with large depos-
ties of Government money, and enabled by
the confidence of the Government to maintain
a large circulation, which would naturally be
devoted to the promotion of Northern COM
merce, it was thought was also adverse to
Southern commercial rivalry These two
measures were the work of Republican Ad-
ministration of the Government, but they were
strenuously opposed by the States Right par
ty. On their passage in Congress, it was de-
clared by John Randolph, one of the most
profound and sagacious statesmen in Virginia,
or any other country ever produced, that re-
volution in our government had occurred,
whose consequences no man could calculate
The result verified this prediction. Our pop
ulation is now twenty millions, and yet it is
thought by all parties that twenty-five mil
lions of dollars per annum is enough for the
support of Government in time of peace. Yet
sixteen years ago, when our population was
but little more than half of what it is now,
this Government exactee S32,OO0,OOO as du-
ties on our foreign imports, and that too, when,
in consequence of this heavy burden on our
foreign trade, we only imported $4,000. 900.
The Government took half the value of the
imports, as tax on foreign trade. This out
rage was the cause of South Carolina nullif-
cation.
Now the power of the Federal Government
over foreign commerce, is, by the Constitution,
precisely the same as over that among the
States. 1t is a power to regulate only. And
the South contended that inasmuch as the i'm
ports from abroad were the proceeds chiefly
of her staple exports, and were therefore, to
all intents and purposes, the product of her
industry and capital. that there was no more
| constitutional right to tax them on arriving in
our ports, than to tax the products of the
North. when shipped to the South.
When, therefore, the statesmen of the South