The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-04-15

- A. y!
bass Il Nsburaemssts only two-ninths: 1heae
fare, while from 1890 to le46 she has rdad y
]eaSt o7i 400 900, not more than $206, 900 .00e
hayo been spent in her borders the other 1905.
| 100000 have been spent at the North. Add
what she has paid in the diminished price Of that
share Of her produce, which was consumed a
the North. the increased price OF protected arti-
cles, and increased freights, due to the nayiga-
ton laws,* and we have Mt least ~ much more,
making total over $l,200,O00,OOO paid by the
South. to be spent either by government OF
ur&l source of capital at the South, for the con-
duct Of the foreign trade, was dried up, by the
same causes which created it at the North, where
it was still farther enlarged by the gratuitous
loan of the whole government revenue to the
banks, and through them to Northern stock
holders and merchants. This immense tribute
had to be- paid by the South in produce, and
the current of exchange was turned strongly
against her All these causes combined to
force her foreign commerce. through the North
ern route, despite its double expense. Its
transfer from the direct route has kept pace
with the increase of the interest, whose annual
amount has steadily swelled from some $8,000,-
900 in the first decade, (l790 to 1900 to more
than GAG, 100000, in the period from 1871 to
l845. Holland, to which Mr. Derby so often
refers, as a parallel to the New England States,
commanded the carrying trade Of the civilized
world, because she conducted it more cheaply
than any other nation not because she was pro-
tected by their fiscal arrangements. When her
ovn taxes become SO heavy as to affect her
stIity to carry on this commerce at the same
rate, she lost it, just as the South has lost the
conduct of her own commerce, (whic,. she once
enjoyed,) since her labor has been 80 heavily
taxed by the Union, and since the navigation
laws gave New England monopoly of her
freights.
Mr. Derby cannot understand how govern
ment disbursements can trar sfer capital from
the South to the MOI ii, and asks, ii tho Union
were removed. tomorrow, if the South would
net be found in debt to the North? This is
possible, since from uses above explained, the
Northern expo ers and importers are generally
in advance in their account with the Southern
merchants, for the tribute is. in fact, draft in
their favor, on Southern production. But if the
Union were divided, the saving from one years
taxes and disbursements would clear off this bal
ance which only grew out Of the tribute just ex-
planned. But Mr.. Derby overlooks this simple
explanation, and while he is forced to admit "that
the shipping, and direct imports of the South
have declined in the last half century; that it
exhibits diminished capital in foreign CON-
merce;" and that the Northern has advanced
more rap fly, (p. 377,) he says that this may be
clearly traced to the rude climate of the North,
and its institutions, which have there fostered
energy, harlhood, and frugality, while labor
has degraG at the South? How did Mr..
Derby discover that labor was degraded at the
South! Is the labor of the negro degraded,
when, under this degradation, they have attained
a moral and physical condition superior to any
in which negroes were ever seen before! Is
the labor of the whites degraded, when it is
saved from the mental offices, and chiefly en-
ployed indirecting the blacks?
Mr.. Derby says 'the West Indies and the
Brazils, with their fertile soil and institutions
like those of the South, are alike deficient in
&C nmerce and navigation" (p. 37S.) In what
re- It are their institutions alike! Slavery
ex = in Brazil and Cuba as we'll as in the
South, but the first is under monarchy, and
the second tributary to Spain. Perhaps Mr..
Derby justly finds the resemblance in the latter
feature, substituting the North for Spain, and
the South for Cuba; or does he refer to the
British West Indies, and find parallel for the
nower of Old England in the despotism of New
England, and see in the emancipation Of jana
under like foreign legislation!
But Mr.. Derby finds still more potent cause
for the decline of Southern commerce. since the
colonial era, in her superior climate and fertile
soil, as if the revolution could have changed
either of these circumstances. In other words,
because natural causes make labor less .profi.a-
bic at the North than at the South, III ttore the
South has surrendered the profits of her capital
engaged in foreign commerce to these wonderful
sons of toll; these operators" who % accu-
muate and roll up capital at the North
argue that she has done so, but only because
the fiscsl action Of the Union has forced her to
give up part Of the profits of her labor, TO
swell the returns of theirs
MIR. Derby next refers to the picture drawn
OF the comparative condition of the North and
South, in the event of the dissolution of the
Union, and seems to regard it as very ridiculous
to suppose that the North would be materially
injured by that event. | have, however, the.
comfort of not being entirely alone in this ab-
surd opinion; hear what the Hon. James Brooks,
the editor of the New York Express says:
"Grass would grow in our streets, we say, if
this Union was shattered for what Is this city
but great exchange for cotton, for rice, for to-
bacco, as well as for American manufactured
goods, and for the importations from Europe
and here to focus comes the trade of the North
and South, and of all Europe with which we
have intercourse; whereby our commission mer-
chants, our jobbers, our importers and exporters
of all classes live and thrive
"The 100000 human beings within the sound
of the city hall bell, obtain their livelihood from
the sugar and cotton planter of the Mississippi,
the Alabama, the Chattahoochee, the Santee,
&c, who exchanges here the products of his
soil for the handiwork and headwork of the
North and what an utter suicide it is for such
a city to pile on the abolition torch, and set on
fire so glorious work w
Other New York papers were filled last year
with similar calculations Any common OBJ
server would take n similar view at fret sight,
and cannot think that a closer examination
would disabuse him and if this trade in South
ern produce for foreign commerce. supports so
large number ofpeople at the North, and builds
up such splendid cities, is it extravagant in the
author OF the pamphlet TO suppose that it might
produce similar effect at the South, and that
its loss by dissolution of the Union, would be
seriously felt ut the North When consider
that some $l35,0o0 ,00of of the foreign CON-
merce of the South was last year carried through
Markham norta that this indirert trada ,nuat