American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-08-12
~AsHINGTONs


preceding premises.
When premises SO broad and certain as those
which we have laid down in preceding articles
IN the Cotton Plant" have been secured it is
natural and proper that we should use them for
important conclusions. These deductions are
in truth not only important, but momentous.
And here we would not be misunderstood. We
do not take the ground that slavery is the best
form Of society in ITSELF but that, so far as we
are concerned, having been introduced among
us without our consent and we having made
national covenant while it existed, in which the
interests, in this regard, of large section of
our common country were guaranteed, and it
not being in itself sinful for individuals to hold
slaves under such circumstances, nor for socie-
ty, as long as its general interests clearly re-
quire it, to maintain it, we are bound sacredly
to keep our covenant--we are bound to respect
the true intent Of this covenant onsni er payte.
Moreover, that rash, vituperative, and murder
Gus language SO often employed by political
Abolitionists at the North, and in foreign coun-
tries, is not,the method to effect the extinction
OF slavery, but to postpone its destruction
everywhere, and to rivet the chains of the slave
We have seen that there is vast tract of our
own country in which slave labor may be adj
vantageously employed, and which is still ac-
cessible to it. Texas, alone, furnishes for this
purpose one hundred and fifty thousand square
miles, of which probably seventy-fve thousand
might be probably employed, as fast as there
are hands to bring it into cultivation, in pro-
ducing cotton. Allow one-ffth of this to be
employed for gardens, culture Of corn and yege-
tables, and there will remain thirty eight mil
lions four hundred thousand acres Deduct
again one-eighth part of this, and there will
yet remain thirty three millions six hundred
thousand acres, which can be actually cult
waited in cotton; and, supposing each acre ca
pable of producing one bale, there would be
thirty-three millions six hundred thousand
bales. OF course this calculation relates to the
ultimate capacity of Texas There must be la
bor-there must be the necessary hands to
effect this-as well as the soil and climate.
Texas would not have this necessary number
under a hundred and twenty years. We have
calculated the capacity of production to which
the cotton crop would reach in thirty years, in
the whole United States, at five millions of
bales Surprising peace, and that this crop
would be worth on an average not less than ten
cents per pound, this, at an auerage weight TO
the bale of three hundred pounds, would give
one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. There
Is abundant reason to believe that the average
price will not be less than ten cents per pound
and it is extremely probable that it will range
through that whole period somewhat higher.
Now let us ask, what is the power to create
wealth and prosperity of such an annual in
come rs this from one source-from one stopk-
in country producing at the same time other
staples of an aggregate amount quite equal i?
Has there been such a power of creating wealth
(supposing reasonable economy, for profusion
can squander gains of any amount) in any
country of equal population since time began !?
We believe there has not been. The cotton and
other productive capacities of the South, in
Guiding the manufacturing now begun, are as
rich source of income as the unrivalled mines
Of California, with this great advantage to the
cotton planter-he has not very distant coun
try to explore, and many hardships and incon
veniences of a new country to encounter. The
truth 49, the aggregation of gold from the mines |
OF California benefits the cotton planter as Ger |
tainly as if he were digging in its mines. The
working of the California mines-that q urren
cy-extension act of nature" as it has been well
called-has exerted, is exerting, and will con-
tinue to exert worldwide influence in slim
ulating industry and increasing wealth The
cotton planter comes in for more than an equal
share in this increase, for an obvious reason.
His staple not only affords fabrics of necessity
and mere comfort, but of luxury. Hence the rap |
i'd increase of wealth augments the demand for
his staple, by affording the means Of multiply |
ing Injuries. Hguratiyely, the ores which the |
distant miner separates, hard-toiling in the dry
diggings, or standing to his ankles in water in |
the wet, spangle the cotton bales Of the planter
with gold. In his fttrro,cs the ores are turned
up as well as on the streams and in the gorges
Of the Sierra Nevada.
But we hear some maniac Abolitionist ex-
claim, you contemplate perpetual slavery. We
answer, we do not contemplate bloodshed and
murder with serenity and unruffled conscience,
as you do. We see q vast continent, from which
the black man originally came, which has not
one-tenth of the population Of which it is capa-
BILE. We believe that on that continent We can
most effectually elevate him in the shortest
practicable time. We go for the establishment
Of the African line Of steamers, and for trans
porting, with as much care and humanity as
we would employ for the whites, the free and
emancipated negro Of our own country to the
great and comparatively unexplored and gen.
orally uncivilized and uncultvated continent of
Africa,
From Africa, with the exception Of the little
strip Of territory recently settled by the Colo.
nization societies, the Cape Of Good Hope and
Of part Of Ethiopia, Christianity has long