The republic., 1851-03-14

pidly disappearing The quantity Of cotton and
tobacco 70 be exported became more and more un-
steady, huctuating from one year to the next to
the cxtout OF forty cent In this state Of things
there existed little for increasing our ship
ping, and accordingly we find the average tonnage
built in these years TO have been only 10 900 tons,
against average, in 1882 and 1885, of about $780,
GOO, Notwithstanding the vast growth of popula-
ton.
notwithstanding great srcsss Of TIE early ysGs,
similar to Mat sDitness the average was but
900 against $24.000, ,009 from 1880 to 1884;
sic, 400 900. and now it was that the Government
was seen TO be begging loans in the cities of Eu-
rope, and everywhere repulsed.
The compromise bill had totally failed to answer
the expectations of those for whose qualification it
had been passed II had diminished the consump-
ton of cotton, and the planter being ruined by
the low prices consequent upon that dimnution. II
and of rice, and prices were ruinously low II had
diminished the market for grain, and pork. and
beef and the farmer could consume no cotton. II
had ruined the iron master, the coal miner and the
maker Of cloth, and had driven hundreds of thou
sands TO raise food to the destruction Of the farmer,
whose former customers were now become rivals.
i had diminished the building of ships, and the
ing. 1t had diminished the import of men, and
those who remained abroad consumed one pound of
cotton, whereas, if here and fully employed, they
would have consumed dozen pounds
The representative of the West had looked to the
building up of the States in the great western val
10y BY means of extensive railroads; bat the States
were ruined, and the dread of heavy taxes drove
emigrants to other States possessing neither roads
nor debts. He had looked to a great foreign mar
ket for the products of his State, but the really
the earth were being abandoned ON the ground
The capitalist who had invested his fortune in
the making OF roads or canals, calculating upon
large increase in the quantity Of commodities to
be transported, now found that the heavy products
Of the earth were 90 nearly swallowed up in the
cost of transportation that there little to be
turned, and that the roads and the canals could
make no dividends.
The reward of labor was to be increased, but il
had diminished. The consumption of iron was to
grow, but it had declined. Shipping was to in
ply the place of those worn out lost. The States
were to become strong in wealth and credit, but
they were bankrupt. The revenue to increase,
but it had fallen 30 low that the Government was
begging in the market for loans. The nation was
to become strong, but it had become weak. It was
TO command the respect and gratitude Of England
for granting almost perfect freedom of trade yet
England could find in her vocabulary no words Of
vituperation sufficiently strong for the bankrupt
debtor, who owed her two hundred millions of dol
lars-no word sufficient to express her feeling of
contempt for the nation that, in obedience to her
will, had closed is mills, it's mines, and it's fur
naces, and had rendered itself dependent upon her
for nearly all its cloth and its iron, giving in ex
change therefor cotton, tobacco, rice, and provi
sions of all kinds, At price so low that the sur
plus left, after paying the cost Of cultivation,
30 trivial to render it unable to pay the annual
twelve millions Of dollars required for discharging
the interest of the debt thus contracted.
We are told that protection is a war upon the
labor and capitap' Of the world, yet at no period
from the formation of the Constitution had the re-
the years 1880 and 1886. Tho first effect of the
Compromise bill was to diminish the demand for
capital and the second was to cause il to be applied
TO the construction of roads, canals, farms, and
plantations, which ruined their owners and the
heaviest effects felt at the period when protec
ton was least. The first effect upon labor was to
diminish the demand for it, and the second to raise
the price of food to such q point that turbulence
and dsorganization reigned throughout our cities.
The third and last effect was to drive into agricul-
ture 50 large an amount of capital and labor that
10 the
to the purchase OF food and still less to that cloth
ing.
Of all the measures adopted. from the foundation
that has been productive Of SO much injury to the
Union as the compromise tariff of 1888. But for
that, the present excitement between the North
and tho South would never have arisen, for the
mania for emigration and for road making would
have had no existence. The domestic market for
the products of the farm and the plantation, then
increasing at q rate 80 rapid, with steady growth
Of price, would have gone on increasing in almost
geometrcal ratio, and the present hour would wit
ness degree of prosperity and harmony, of union
and strength we meyer M yet have seem and po,sibly
widely sown, both at the North and the South, and
they are all of them the fruit Of that bill.
So long as the growth of the domestic demand
for cotton was such materially to affect the in
crease in the quantity for which the planter was
compelled to seek distant market 20 long did the
price continue to rise and Il t0as not until s guam.
rapidly ttan ths crop incrsased, thus proving di-
nuti0n Of domestic consumption that the planter spas
compelled to employ htnse in devising msasres for
asm.n.sasng s production; and With each such step
abandonment Of the old States, and to high esti-
nation OF the advantages resulting from the exist
ence Of negro slavery, has increased, until it has
brought about state Of feeling that threatens
the existence Of the Union, and that will continue
to threaten il 90 long the policy Of the country
tends to close the nines, the furnaces, and the
ducts Of the farm and the plantation, m while Viii p in
crcasing the necessity for applying labor to the
cultivation Of farms and plantations. Prior to the
passage Of the Compromise bill, political anti
slavery had no existence. Prior to that date pro-
slavery had no existence. To that law, and it's
centrifugal, impoverishing, and weakening ten
denciee both are due; and should dissolution Of
the Union result from the present anti slavery aRi
tation, those who shall have to record that event
will find its causes in the fact that the Congress
which paesed that law would seem to have forgot
ten the existence Of ga higher law' than even the
Constitution itself-a law which teaches that the
will Of the majority must rule. A small minority
dictated the passage of the Compromise and the
abandonment OF the then existing system of ma
tonal policy, and It is to that violation of law
which IL the basis upon which the Constitution
rests, that all our subsequent troubles are due.
IT rs common to ascribe the impoverishment of
the country to the action Of the banks which are
looked upon as having been the great of mis-
chief but future historians, looking at the ques-
ton with dispassionate eye, will decide that the
banks were far .more sinned against than SHINING.
Tho action OF the Compromise bill closed tho outlets
for capital and caused an accumulation of deposits
in the banks, which, matter of course, desired
to profit by their use. New markets for the capital
thus rendered surplus opened in the South and
West, and speculation grew precisely az production
fell OIL as it invariably does; and, when the day of
settlement came, the banks were compelled TO stand
the odium Of a bankruptcy that would never have
taken place had the action of tho Government been
Of character tending to increase the legitimate
demand for labor and capital, and to increase the
productive power Of the nation
RAILROAD CELERRATIoN IN SPAIr.--Twclve of
the broad columns OF the CrSnica published at New