The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-08-31
southssn Agricultural conxrsss.

measures preliminary 10 the assembling Of
Agricultural Congress of the slavehoding States,
at such time and place as may be deemed most &C:
ceptabe to the States to be represented in it. The
chief objects of the Congress will be to adopt
sures improve the present system of agriculture
to develop the resodrCss and combine the energies
Of the slayeholding States, SO to increase their
wealth, powerI and dignity. as members Of the
Confederacy; to fortify public opinion within the
borders of the slaveholdiug States in antagonis,n
to that without; to enforce tho growing sentiment
that the children OF the South shall be reared and
educated at home instead of abroad; to foster sci
entihc pursuits, promote the mechanic arts. and
aid in establishing system Of common schools; to
assist in bringing the South in direct CONNER
cial intercourse with distant countries; and 10
cultivate the aptitudes of the negro for civ.
ilization, and consequently Christianity-so that
by the time that slavery shall have fulfilled its be-
ne6cent mission in these States, system may
be authorized by the social condition Of that
here to relieve it from it's present servtude, with
out sinking it the condition of the free negroes
of the North and West Indies.'" ... ..5..r
We cannot but rejoice to see that our south
ern friends are disposed to come together and
confer with each other in relation to the i'm
portant questions enumerated in the above par
agraph, which we take from one of our ex-
changes. The result of such conference will
be, as we think, to establish .. .a. "
First. That if they would Improve their
agriculture" they must make home market
that will enable them to return to the land the
manure yielded by its products, and that this
can be accomplished in no other way than by
taking for themselves the protection that is re-
quired for enabling themselves to open mines,
erect furnaces, and build mills; thereby bring
ing the consumer to take his place by the side
of the producer. a.
Second. That if they would "develop the
resources of the South" they can do SO only
by the adoption of system that will enable
them to retain their population, now flying by
thousands and tens of thousands to new lands,
because of the entire exhaustion OF the old ones.
We have now before US an article from the
London Daily Ns,os, urging the necessity for
looking to other countries for supply of cotton,
and on the ground that the Southern States are
being gradually exhausted, because of sending
from the land all its products, in accordance
with the doctrine taught by itself, that the true
mode for agriculturists to become rich is to
have but one market in which to sell corn, to-
bacco, and cotton, and that market England
and but one in which to buy cloth and iron
and that market also England. Believing that
it may interest some of our readers to see the
manner in which they are spoken of in the Man
chester free.trade journals, we give them the
following extract:
"virginia is wellnigh exhausted, as everybody
L.. T. Aol~ t. kcku
table land, where cotton culture gives place to that
of corn. For many years past Virginia has been
sustained chiefly by the breeding Of negroes and
mulattoes for sale to the South. North Carolina is
equally exhausted, and appears to have nothing to
sell to anybody. The cotton growth is most con-
siderable the virgin soils Of the southernmost
States and IS becasss they, too, must become i'n
poue- isksd that the Americans have seized upon
Texas and Mexico. in order to continue the supply
of cotton to the European market 1t ID obvious
that our dependence would be very precarious
one, under the best circumstances, If we relied
solely on the supply of cotton by slave labor.
1t is not the production Of cotton, but the use
of slave labor, which wears out the soil OF the
slave States; and the only thing We could
DO sure of, if we had no other resource, 10
that tract after tract. district after dstret, tOod
olloto the fate Of the impouershed and deserted la'ds.
,hch eDery traveller observes through the ,cole length
Of Vrsinia and North Carolina; 90 that the safety
of our cotton manufacture must in fact, depend on
the success of American aggression, in annexing
to the United States foreign soil hitherto free from
&he of slavery 1t 10 melancholy to the traOeer
to mark the iodsted fields the ruined fences the broken
bridges the ipassabe roads, the deserted mansions Of
,ohole States ,Dhence Britain deriusd her annual
supply of cotton and to remember that the latest
annexed virgin soils must come to the same pass,
under the curse, whether slavery be called by
it's own name, or by the ingenious title of zap
prenticeship for ninety nine years."
1t certainly is melancholy to think that the
once powerful Virginia should be in situation
TO be so described. Once she stood at the head
of the Union, and there she would still re-
main, but that unhappily she was in love with
British free trade, and thought that the way
to become rich and powerful was to exhaust
her land by constant cropping for the supply OF
distant markets; the consequence Of which is
found in the fact that she now obtains but
about eight bushels of wheat to the acre;
whereas England places on her soil the manure
yielded by her own crops and those of other
lands. and obtains thirty or forty bushels. So,
too, with North Carolina, whose exhausted
condition IS here SO well described. Like Vir-
ginia, she has iron ore and coal; but unlike Vir-
GINA, that noble Wing State would, if she
could, protect herself in the development of he,
resources" Denied the power so to do, he,
people are compelled to exhaust their lands
and then to fly to other lands to be again ex.
| hausted.
Third. That if they would augment the
wealth, power, and dignity" Of the South
they can do so in no other mode than by ena.
bling themselves to retain their population
which they never can do until they shall make
market on the land for its products, by bring
| ing the man who drives the shuttle to thu
side of him who follows the plough. ..n..
| Fourth. That if they would fortify domes
tic public opinion Sin antagonism to that with
OUT" that object can never BIO attained by
pursuing policy that renders them from day
to day more dependent on the public opinion o.
Britain, the most determined enemy to all their
| A.