Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1855-09-08
The Eloquence of Cotton.

The materials of eloquence are certainly very
abundant. Every now and then, fine speech
on some unrecognized topic surprises US into
discerment of the hidden stores of thought, that
await the magical touch Of a master mind,
Burke made great speech on the hardy habits
of the Englanders, and Webster found inspira-
ton in steam engines. Sir Humphrey Davy would
grow sublime over description of Il gas, and the
poet Wordsworth was famous for taking any COM
mon topic and investing it with the hres Of
creative fancy. Our countryman, the Hon.
William Elliot. Commissioner of South Carolina to
the Paris Exhibition, has made an address before
the Imperial and Central Agricultural Society of
France, on cotton, and Judging from the extracts
which we have seen, we should say, that cot
ton ought to be hereafter considered legitl-
mate subject for literary and oratorical treat
ment. 1--WE have authentic information" says
Mr.. Elliot, "going to prove that the Sea Island
cotton, which in our opinion, should exclusively
be known as the gossypium Barbadense, was
cultivated in South Carolina as early as the year
100, and can it be a matter of indifference to
you, gentlemen to know that the field selected
for the first experiment in the culture of the fine
material in Carolina, includes the very spot where
Jean Ribault (the pioneer of French discoveries
in America, planted his column of stone in 1862
and claimed the territory for the crown of France!
'On that very spot on which Ribault planted
| the standard of France, as marked down on the
charts and maps of Ladonere now preserved in
the Imperial Library, the cotton seed from An
guilIa came first to be planted; which improve
ing from year to year under the joint influences
of the climate and culture came to supply France
with the material for her unrivaled cotton fab
RIGS, and has thus proved the indus of nursery
bed from which Algeria has drawn the seed, from
which she has raised those beautiful specimens
oc olo nd Viii in q
lais de PIndustrie, and which rival the finest
specimens of Carolina production
After having mentioned the various modes of
culture practiced in Carolina, Mr.. Elliot, spoke
| of the benefits cotton renders mankind.
| sLet us trace out this delicate, fine fibre, from
its very origin to its final disposition and observe
what benefits it has diffused through its course
When brought to the domestic market and sold,
it pays or should pay rent of land, cost oflabor,
and transportation, and leaves profit to the
| grower When sold it pays profit to the mer-
chant In it's transfer to foreign port, it pays
the freight; to the ship owner, including wages
to the mariner Arrived at foreign port, it
pays its tribute to the custome house, then pays
for commission and storage, and cost of trans
portation possibly to Rouen or to Alsace to be
transformed into laces and muslines; possibly to
| LYONS, to be woven in with tissues Of silk. Ar
rived at the mandatory, it pays the carder,
spinner, weaver, printer, embroiderer, all en-
gagged in the process of fabricaton-and lastly,
the manufacturer who vends it at a profit to the
dealer, from whose hands it passes in the con-
sumption of the country, cloths with rich drape-
ries, the gay saloons of fashion, by a happier
destiny, encircles with its gossamer folds the
rounded forms of female loneliness, embellish-
ing and frightening what in itself is perfect, as
floatiog clouds by the happy distribution of their
into sa1 to hav anh Qn
| splendors even of the terrestrial paradise. -
[SOat1esn Times.