The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-07-02

very fine goods, which the Americans either do not
produce or are unable to export, the price may be
raised by the duties and the southrons may really
be able to share the tax which, in opposition to their
wishes. the northern States have been enabled to
levy on their countrymsn. The protective policy.
however, may not last, rather, we should say,
cannot be long maintained in the States and then,
instead OF the southern States turing cot
tons for all the world, because they grow tho raw
material, they will. like own agrlculturists be
hiled with complaints, and will only succeed If the
wants OF mankind, and the natural laws of supply
and demand. be in their favor"
But if an increase OF the price to the producer
be not the occasion of the recent Southern abil-
ty to sustain manufactures. why is it that the
ability did not exist in 1924 as much as now?
The South then possessed all the natural ad-
vantages which il now does
The material difference is, that their ma
chinery could not be obtained England, in
tenton the policy which dictated Lord CHAT
HAMS declaration, that he would not allow the
colOnists TO make even a hobnai for them
selves, had vigorously prohibited its expectation,
she had that of artifcers. Under the stimu-
lus of protection, New England set all her
cunning heads and industrious hands to work, to
devise machinery and erect permanent machine
shops for its construction. To make machinery
equally good with that of England >would not
answer her purposes; it must be made so far
superior, as to counterbalance the superior
cheapness of English labor. Ingenuity was
taxed to the uttermost; every year saw great
A.. g..
tories, to be discarded in their turn by better
and cheaper machinery.
Now the problem has been worked out,
and the Southern cotton can start, with the
best machinery in the world, made by men
who have perfected their ability to furnish it,
through protective policy, which the cotton
planters have been opposing for twenty years!
If the competition of Lowell be worse than
that of Manchester, it is greatly the interest of
the Southern manufacturers to avoid it, This
they can do by encouraging the diversion of
the Northern mills from the coarser to the finer
fabrics. That this may be done, the cons,ruc-
ton Of improved machinery adapted to the pro
duction of new grades of fabrics, into the value
Of which labor enters more largely and the raw
material less, must be encouraged and pro-
tected. Iron is the chief requisite for its
manufacture, and iron, as the cotton manu-
facturers of New England believe, can be
had al the cheapest rate only by protecting
the domestic producer against the ruinous t1uc-
tuatons of the foreign market. The cotton
manufacturers of New England therefore desire
protection for themselves in the shape OF speci-
fic duties on ron-duties which shall promote
that domestic competition, which will prove in
iron, as it has proved in cotton, more advan-
tageous 10 the consumer in the reduction Of its
price than the foreign competition, and which
shall give the laborers employed in mining and
smelling and rolling it the power to increase
the consumption of cotton clothing. The in
terests of the Southern manufacturer are in
perfect harmony with those of his Northern
brethren, and those of the planter with both
The development of Southern agricultural re-
sources, by improved modes of conveyance, is
the common interest of all; and none appreciate
it more highly than those who have themselves
ened transportation. They think, however,
that such Improvements would be more speedily
and cheaply obtained if the iron used in their
construction was the product Of our own mines
and mills, than if imported That this is not
the case is doubtless the subject of regret; but
it is classifying facts to represent the develop
ment OF Southern resources as exciting, among
the friends of the protective policy anywhere
any other feelings than those Of qualification
and hope.