The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-08-02
tended, and an energy and vitality undated,
who can for moment suppose that our glory
is about departing?"
COTTON C0NvEETI0N-Po IEFATUA-
TON

is about departing
COTTON C0NvEETI0N-PoLITICA INFATUA-
TON.
The Southern politicians still cling to the
idea of building cities and creating commerce,
as they make Presidents and Governors, viz !:
by means of Conventions and resolutions. The
latest enterprise of this kind came off at place
called Cooper's Wells, in Mississippi, and con-
sisted of convention of cotton-planters, or
politicians-th terms being, in Southern par
lance, strictly convertible. The leading idea
of the Convention was, of course, to build up
Southern commerce and Southern cities, by
encouraging direct trade with Europe.
Mr.. Baylor, formerly of this city, was the
leading spirit. His plan is to raise an immense
sum of money, amounting to millions, by con-
tributions or subscriptions, or somehow else,
to establish an immense storehouse in Europe,
for the purchase and sale of cotton. The fol-
lowing is Mr.. Baylor's statement of the case,
which the reader may find more explicit than
Our own:
"Mr. Baylor evidently regretted that the sub
become theme of discussion before the Con-
vention. For, said he, in his opening remarks,
Il have come before you with simple business
proposition-One in no wise interfering with
your political relations, one easy of compre-
hension, and which / want investigated by
committee or committees, appointed or Sc
lected from this Convention Such commit
tees we're appointed, and thought favorsbly
of MIR. BaylOr's proposition, which was of the
following character: To establish in Europe
the principal cotton house or factorage, with a
capital of several millions, which should be
safely deposited, the planter to have the most
satisfactory assurances of its solvency, and that
they will be able, under any and every emer-
gency, to secure him against losses. A num-
Der of the committee, it appears, thought we'll
of the enterprise; and though not recommend
ing it, have determined themselves to make
small shipments, as an experiment. About
five hundred bales, as | am informed, will
probably be sent by them"
Mr.. Baylor was some years ago U. s. Consul
at Amsterdam; and we have seen it stated,
that this is the fortunate city which has been
selected by him for the grand cotton depot.
Unluckily for the scheme, there is danger, as
has been shrewdly suggested by Southern
newspaper, that certain clearinghouse in
Amsterdam may attach the whole funds of the
concern-it being Mississippi afair-to re-
munerate themselves for losses on Mississippi
repudiated bonds What pity that such a ro-
mantle scheme of commercial greatness should
receive such a ridiculous explosion!
But, supposing this difficulty overcome, is
there not something intrinsicallY absurd in the
idea that caucus of planters Rd politicians
in the interior of Mississippi can produce
revolution in the commerce of the country by
such expedients? The South is unable to
build up commercial cities by trading at the
North, where the best bargains can be made,
in a market which requires little capital, and
admits of business being done on large or
small scale. And her wiseacres tell us that
the remedy is, to go to Europe, where bargains
are harder, where large capitals are necessary
to begin with, and where credits are almost
out of the question! Don Quixote never en-
tertained CROCHET more sublimely absurd.
The South is without merchants, without
capital, without ships, and without seamen.
Her trade, foreign and coastwise, is for the
most part in the hands of the English and the
Yankees and yet her leading men indulge the
delusion that she can trade directly with Europe,
to the exclusion of the Northern markets, at a
constant and voluntary pecuniary, sacrifice of
every citizen, actuated by patriotic hatred
We can imagine nothing more absurd, unless
it be a resolution Of Massachusetts,, to produce
cotton in lighthouses, and an appeal to the
manufacturers to consume none other.
The true way to build up Southern towns is
for their citizens to avail themselves of every
resource of trade. If they fail of success with
all the advantages afforded by the Northern
markets, for the greater reason may they des-
pair, if deprived of those advantages. The
only way for the South to get her commerce
into the hands of her own citizens, is to secede
from the Union, and then require that all COM
merce, domestic and foreign, shall belearried
on in her own ships. But even this expedient
would meet with serious difficulties in practice;
since it might induce other nations to retaliate
by similar regulations, which would at once put
an end to her commerce. On the whole, there
fore, we would recommend to our Southern
friends, that it is best to let affairs of trade
take their ordinary natural course. This is,
besides, the true Southern free trade theory,
which opposes all artificial BARRIERS obstruc-
tons, and monopolies. G..
The Southern newspapers, and the friends of
Slavery generally, are in a terrible stew be-
cause the overseers of Harvard College have re-
fused to confer the degree of LII. D. upon the
Hon. Samuel A. Elliott, on account of his vote
for the Fugitive Slave Bill. They, liberal and
tolerant souls that they are, think it an outrage
on all decorum to drag such political consid-
erations into the arena of literary competition.
We should like to know what chance Theodore
Parker, or Charles Sumner, or Ralph Waldo
Emerson, or Henry Ward Beecher, would stand
for such degrees before Southern institution?
Their learning and genius have given them a
worldwide renown, and yet their obnoxious
opinions on the Slavery question would be far
more likely to procure them coat of tar and
feathers from tb0 students of any Southern col
legc, than degree from the faculty. G..
TENNESSEE P0LITICs-THE WHITE BASIS.
We find in the Wing or Know Nothing pa.
pers of Tennessee the following charge against
Governor Andrew johnson, who is stumping
the State as a candidate for reelection. We
are glad to believe that it is substantially true
since it evinces disposition to recognise the