Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1850-03-30

~ IC j1afo ,S5tF''ft4s 1hStp Nv 'oi "a
few years and we must search up the
files of old newspapers to get them,
What, too. arc the advantages Of po-
sition in an age like this, compared
with those of exhaustIess energy and
intrepidity The East has practi
cally levelIed the mountains and
made highway 10 h.22rrs very doors.
for the teeming produet;af the great
valley. we deemed in thee day of our
pride would be oars for ever by an
unalterable fate. The mouth of the
father Of waters. rcially may
be as we'll at Boston as 1T the Balize
Already his foods are tapped by each
o. The Atlantic cities, down almost to
our very coasts, and Charleston, Saw
annah and Mobile enter the field of
competition with their northern con-
temporaries. Thus is it that New
Orleans has not grown with the pro-
gress of the great west in any thing.
like an equal ratio. Our figures
might show relatively in this point oi
view detlinc of the city within the
last few years The fact should a.
rouse the attention of the whole State.
Are there not modes of counteracting
these efforts of our neighbors whose
results are telling with SO much force
upon oursel Us? We are supine and
attempt not one single countervailing
movement. Has public spirit died
in our midst and do we only await
the day Of the ebbing tide to go with
it wheresoever it flows? IF not. then
shall we by studying accurately the
advantages and disadvantages in
h'insic0l7y Of our markets and the
course of Amin stra'ive policy oper-
ating upon il IA oraDIy or adverse, be
the better able to enter into open
competition, maintaining every adj
vanced point that has been gained,
and marching onwards to high and
bGiliant futuriy. If there are errors
of policy they should be amended,
and let us not at the same time be in
different to those great internal i'm
provement movements of the age.
which are to commerce. what light
and Seat and moisture are to the We
getable world.
Indeed the commercial spirit has
been at a low ebb throughout all the
south, almost from the establishment
Of the Federal government. Let us
take Richmond, Charleston, Savan-
nah, Mobile and New Orleans. Their
annual expectation of agricultural
products is immense. II is conducted d
in northern shipping and the return
cargoes received at northern ports to
be re-shipped again with great ex-
pense to us, who sit patiently await
ing the result. The single city of
New York will import skiold more
than all of our Southern Suites taken
together, and for7nr own consumption
too. The South al neared once to be
aroused upon dhe .ubject. Several
great Conventions w re held with the
largest delegations. Then were made
the ablest speeches, the most profound
and elaborate reports, the best RE-
SOLUTIONS in the world, but there the
matter ended, and all was rest again
There are no necessary reasons, foI
southern commercial infcriorify
Venice, southern c;5y, conducted the
trade of all the East ard was the
entrepot of the worlds commerce fo'
the main period of her history. Anti
quity refutes the libel that southern
latitudes are untitled for extensive
commerce. The empires Of Assyria
Egypt. Media Persia and Arabia
were southern. All civilization came
from the South-the Greeks an(
Romans were southerners. Were
not all the southern Indian tribes or
the discovery ofnAmerica, more ad
vanced in civilization than the north
ern? The great south deserves a!
much of our panegyric as the grea
west or north.