The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-04-16

We beg our renders now TO refer 10 the extract
| from Mr.. Rantours speech, and remark the fact
that he stands pledged TO satisiy his hearers
First. That with an Increase OF ynluo there had
been "vast increase in the quantity exported;
and,
Second. That he had concealed the reason " v
the crops Of lsa3-a6 should not have commanded
as high pricees as did thoee which had preceded
them, and as have done tboee which have followed
them.
We have fully exonernted the honorable gentle
man from any charge OF intentional misstate atemcnt;
but he can hardly shelter himself from charge of
being entirely destitute Of the information required
70 FIT him for the task be has undertaken, that OF
leader In the defence Of system which gives us
itss 10 export from year TO year. our population
is more and more driven into agriculture, and has
then TO be sustained by assertions entirely inac
curnte, and calculations absurd "a those 10 which
we have called the attention Of our readers.
To what is ths reduction of price, duel IL il to
any increase Of production in the old planting atcs
II is not. The total crop Of Maryland and Virginia,
Ohio, Kentucky, and the other western States, 10
estimated at I54, 900 bogshesds being the precisc
average quantity erporfsd in the three years lss34
10 1906, and yet the price tends steadily down
wards. Why IL docs - is easily explained. South
policy has killed the domestic market for food
by destroy yin the men who were manu- facfurtng IL
into cloth and iron. The ssmo policy 10 now de.
stroying the foreign market for IT, by killing the
hogs, the horses, and the cattle who were engaged
In manufacturing IL into pork and beef, butter and
cheese; and northern farmers arc now every day
being more aud more driven from the production
Of corn that they cannot cell. to that OF tobacco,
which they sell--thus, instead of being custom
srs to the planters OF Maryland, Virginia, and Ken
tucky, they forced 10 become ,ivais to them.
Such is the result of the policy Of lSt6-a policy
which for bids competition for the purchase of raw
produce, and places the whole body Of the farmers
and planters Of the country In the power Of ,,ngie
buyer, tending everywhere TO produce competition
Tor the production of rew commodities. and thus 20
augment the power Of that single buyer them
selves and the rect Of the sgrcuturss Of the world
h
chester free trade.
We come nov TO an examination OF the bonors-
bic Rcntcman's statements in rcgs rd to the export
Of rooD; and here the fsls6cs,ion is remarkable
that II is quite extraordinary that he should not
himself have IL. The fiscal year 1876 com
menced running with the let Of July. IS45, aud
terminated Jone 30, 1916. That Of lSt7 com.
menccd July ], 1876 and terminated June 30, IS47
The tariff Of 1876 went into operation in December
1886 and Of course not until nearly half the fiscal
| year lSt7 bad elapsed Under such crcumsta nces
il s quite clear that " that year docs not belong
the tariff OF 1884, IL does not belong TO that Of l5I7
II ~as however, great year. for Il that Of fs
mine in Europe; aud, by sppropristing-"thc wise
cor,rey II cal'it for the Of the tariff Of 1876
Ftwo Things might be proved first, that the avers ge
quantities bad increased and that the average prices
I had ncrcascd.
\ Tho skl with which some one has constructed
these tables for Mr.. Rantoul 10 manifested in an
other manner. In furnishing the cotton table he
/ gave Us fire years, including 1851, and he did 81
because II was a year in which, by a series Of ms-
! representations, the prices had been kept up on
this side OF the water to such extent to
the nominal value Of cotton TO exceed by twenty
/ five millions Of dollars the sum that received
for IT, and by more than forty millions what will
be realized this year from the same quantity.
When, however, he arrives at bresdstuffs aud pro-
visions, he hnds 4" the loot the other leg and
totally suppresses ls5O-5l, ss unsuiied to bis pur-
pose; whereas, by conveying lSt6 ~, the author o
the tables finds hinscf enabled TO present state.
ment like the following
istS-t6 aggregate exports 81 ASS ,66e
! lsi7-5O ....... III ,075, a93
Nov, the most that can be claimed by the sdvo
Gates Of the tariff Of 1876 s. that the year ls467
neutral ground. We hold hat it belongs 10 thu