Washington sentinel., 1855-01-07

try, so as seriously TO cripple all business trans
actions, and produce heavy losses to the COM
munity. Stocks of all kinds have also greatly
fallen in value, to the detriment of many of the
States, as well as Of individuals. Besides all
this, the shipping interest has suffered, and is
suffering extremely.
During the great wars in Napoleon's time,
owing to the fact that Great Britain was ex.
cluded from most Of the continental ports, our
ships had the carrying trade. Such, however,
is not now the case but there are, in fact,
nearly as many foreign ships engaged in trade
as before the war began, owing to the fact that
Russia has not the means of molesting the
Allies on the sea. In fact, while the number
of carriers remains about the same, the abso.
lutte value of freghts is likely to be diminished,
so that really the whole shipping interest is
languishing, and the value Of ships is twenty
or thirty per cent less than it was few
months ago. A gentleman behind me, from
the maritime region, says that it has dimin-
ished fifty per cent. Doubtless he is right on
this point.
1t is also probable, if the war continues for
years, we shall suffer as purchasers. 1t is true
that certain kinds of manufactures seem to
have fallen in value. 1t must be remembered
however, that the present supply was created
for state of peace. One of the effects Of
fall Of prices is to diminish the amount pro.
duced. 1t will also follow, that if laborers are
forced to serve in the armies-and on this ac-
count, and also by reason Of exorbitant taxa
ton, manufacturing establishments are broken
up-there must be corresponding rise in the
value of articles produced These are not new
opinions with me for in 1850, contended,
while discussing the tariff, that one of the
raasnns why manufactures were SO cheap, was
that long Poaoo - E--.r~ LID ~s-us0d 1ne
wealth and labor, formerly expended in wars,
to be employed in production, and thus brought
down the prices Of articles, and put them in
the reach of larger number. If this was
sound argument as | still think, then the re.
verse, viz: withdraw labor and capital from
production, and expending it in war, will tend
to raise prices in those commodities.
refer to all these matters to show that our
interests are suffering from the effects of this
war; how much it is not easy to determine.
My own opinion is, from fifty to q hundred mil
lions of dollars year. | have no doubt that
it is largely more than the expenses Of this
Government. Now, if this be so, is it not worth
while to see if any measures can be devised to
remove the cause of such a loss2
But it may be said that this is only tempo
rary, and that matters will soon get right. On
the contrary, it strikes me that these evils must
continue and be permanent. England and
France have already sent more than one hun
dred and fifty thousand men to the East Now
if they cost the Allies as much per man as our
soldiers did in MeSay, it will be upwards of
one thousand dollars per man for campaign;
and this, in the aggregate, amounts to one hun
dred and fifty millions.
Besides this, they have already made an
enormous expenditure of money for the naval
ornaments, both for the Baltic and the Black
Seas. So that the whole expenditure may be
nearly twice that sum. From the English pa
pers, observe that the British Government is
about building hundred and twenty steam
gun boats, at a cost Of S25O,000 each. That
item alone will amount to $30,000,0 900. The
Russian and Turkish expenditures are also
very large, so that the entire war expenses
must reach several hundred millions.
Now the money expended in this manner is
as completely lost to the world as that invested
in the Arctic when she went down into the
waters Of the deep sea.
1t is supposed that the Allies have lost forty
or fifty thousand men, including those who
have been slain in battle, died of disease, or
have been permanently disabled. The Rus
sian loss is greater especially if we take into
account the campaign on the Danube. The
same is probably true Of the Turks. The loss
Of all must exceed one hundred thousand men.
Now, North Carolina is an average sized State,
in population, and she has only one hundred
thousand voters. There has, then, been num-
Der of men destroyed as great or greater than
all the voting population of my State-men in
the prime of life, men selected for their bodily
vigor, and many Of whom were men Of intellect
and education-all these are swept away. The
effect of the war is far more disastrous than an
epidemic disease which sweeps over country,
and takes away like number of men, women,
and children, indiscriminately.
Ny object in making these remarks is to
show that an immense amount of the wealth
Of the world and very large number Of pro.
ducers as well as consumers of the products
Of our labors, are annihilated. / hold that
such loss is injurious to the commercial in
terests Of every civilized country in the world,
and especially to that Of the United States.
To prove the proof of this proposition, let us
suppose the United States to be the only civil
lized country in the world, and all the rest to
be filed with savages, we should have then no
exports and no imports. This is evident as
soon as stated. AS in that contingency, all
surplus would perish on our hands, need not
argue that this state of things would be i'm
mensely injurious to us. i maintain that, as
you OesuOy the Wedltn OF the Civilized world
to any great extent, you approximate that con-
dition to which have alluded. For instance,
suppose that other nations were thrown back
TO the condition Of things which existed tven.
ty6ve years ago. We then sold less than
thirty millions Of dollars worth of cotton. II
Europe we're in the same condition as at that
time, and we had now a hundred millions TO
sell, but could find market for only thirty
millions, where should we find ourselves? The
| extra amount Of seventy millions would rot on
| our hands. But i take the further position,
that even if this war; or any other cause,
should keep the rest Of the world stationery
| for the next ten years, we should be greatly
losers, because we are constantly increasing
our productions; and hence, if there should
not be proportionate increase in the markets
Of the world, we should be losers.
] think, therefore, that the position can be
maintained as n sound one in political economy,
that You cannot destroy large amount Of the
wealth Of the world, without injury 10 us as a
great commercial nation. There may be excep.
tons to this rule here and there, but as a gen.
eral proposition, il holds good II, then, the