Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-09-01

! Slttlng--to the actual period of the highest
manifestation of southern discomfort in 1882,
When u produced the enactment of the South
Carolna multiplying ordinance. At that time
all the dtsproportlons between the foreign
commerce oil the two sections had inordinately
increased. The New York imports (since
| 1921 had more than doubled the Virginia
had fallen off one-half South Carolina two
thirds. The actual figures stood New York.
ffty-seyen millions-Virginia half million
South Carolis one million and quarter.
This was disheartening view, and rendered
more grieyous by the certainty of its continue.
ton, the prospect of its aggrevation, and the
conviction that the South Gin its great staples)
furnished the basis for these imports of which
it received SO small share TO this loss of
its import trade, and its transfer to the North,
the convention attributed, as a primary cause,
the reversed conditions Of the two sections
the great advance of one is wealth and i'm
provements-the slow progress, and even COM
paratlve decline of the other ; and with some
allowance for the operation of natural or
Inherent causes, referred the effect to a course
OF federal legislation unwarranted by the grants
Of the constitution and the objects of the Union.
accumulated it in the other Protective tariff.
internal improvement, pensions, national debt,
two national banks, the funding system and
the paper system, the multiplication of Offices,
profuSe and extravaeant expenditures. the
conversion of limited into an almost unlimit-
cd government and the substitution of power
and Splendor for what was intended to be a
simple and economical administration of that
mr. If off i'll
head.
These were the points of complaint, and
which had led TO the collection of an enormous
reVehue-chleiiy levied Oh the products of one
section Of the Uh;on and mainly dsbursed in
another. So far as northern advantages were
the result Of fair legislation for the accomplish
mcnt Of the objects Of the Union, all discomfort
or complaint was disclaimed All knew that
the superior advantages of the North for nay-
CATION would give it the advantage in foreirn
commerce but 1t was not expected that these
advantages would operate q monopoly on one
side and an extinction on the other: nor was
that consequence allowed to be the effect Of
these advantages alone but were charged TO a
course Of legislation not warranted BIZ the
objects Of the Union, or the terms of the con-
stitution which created it, To this course of
capital in the North which had enabled that
section to monopolize the foreign commerce
which WAS founded upon southern exports-to
cover one part with wealth while the other was
Impoverished aud to make the South tri-
butarcs to the North, and suppliant to it for
small part Of the fruits Of their own labor
unhappily. there was no foundation for this
view Of the case, and in this lies the root Of
the discomfort Of the South and its dissatisfac-
ton with the Union, although it NAV break
out upon another point. 1t is in this belief of
an incompatibility of interest from the perver
ted working Of the federal government, that
lies the root Of southern discomfort, and which
constitutes the danger to the Union, and which
statesmen should confront and grapple with
and not in any danger to slave property, which
has continued to aggrandize in value during
tie whole period of the cry Of danger, aud is
now of greater price than ever was known be-
fore, aud such as cur ancestors would have
deemed fabulous. The sagacous Mr.. Madison
knew this-knew where the danger to the I'm
ion lay, when, in the Seth year of his agc, and
the last Of his life, and under the anguish of
painful misgivings he wrote, (what is more full
ly set out in tie previous volume of this work,
these portentous words -
The usiae susceptibility to the coatngio, of nulfca
lion m The southern stGtesthe sympathy arising from
ko,"a CasesGnd the iacdcited impression of pfrnq-
tht t"con1t'ot,tg 81 t"eFeSt oeceen t's North and the
Souh'1y Pat 1t an the porer e popular leaders, aspir
ing TO the hghest stations, to unite c South on some c1t
cat occasion IN sc1e course Of action Of ichich uc1on
my be heC Cys step. secession The second and fa,etreH
separation Ike tGst.'
So viewed the evil, aud in his last DAYS, the
great surviving founder of the Union seeing as
he did in this incucated impression of per
mo ir,pp nf into lot
two sections, the fulcrum or point of support
on which dsunion could rest its lever, and par
ricidal hands build its schemes. What has
been published in the South, and adverted to
in this view, goes to show that an incompati-
bty of interest between the two sections.
though not inherent, has been produced by the
working of the gorernment--not its fair and
but its perverted and unequal work
ing.
This is the evil which statesmen should see
and provide against Separation is no remedy.
Exclusion OF northern vessels from southern
ports is no remedy but is dsuniou itself. and
upon the very point which caused the Union
to be formed. Regulation of commerce be-
tween the states and with foreign nations was
the cause of the formation of the Union
Break that regulation and the Union is bro
ken, and the broken parts converted into an
tagonst nations with causes enough of dissen-
sion to cngendcr perpetual waves and infame
inccssant animoStics. The remedy lies in the
right working of the conSttuton-in the ces-
sation of unequal legislation--in the reduction
of the inordinate expenscsof the government
III It's return to the simple, limited and econo-
mical machine it was intended to be and in
the revival OF fraternal feelings and respect for
each others rights and just complaints which
would return OF themselves when the real cause
OF disc0ntent was removed.
The conventions of Augusta and Charleston
proposed their remedy for the southern depres-
sion aud the comparative decay ol which they