Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1856-10-16

York speech.
Mr.. BANKS, says the Philadelphia Ledger
has been enlightening the merchants upon
the increasing preponderance of Northern
wealth, enterprise, industry and commerce.
and showing that in all the legitimate pur-
suits of national industry the North IS IN
fnitely superior to the South, that Southern
men, instead of attending to the develop
ment Of the physical resources Of their Sec
ton of their country, have been devotng
their time to politics, and that the only
way to develope the South now is to take all
the officers from Southern men and SO com
pei them by necessity to increase their ma
terisl wealth, which TO DO, will oblge them
to substitute other labor for that OF the
Slaves. Some of the merchants OF New
York, who understand this subject about as
well as any politician in the country, are re-
viewing Mr.. BANKS speech, and showing
that it abounds with rrors For instance, lie
stated that tho value of the products OF the
United States, for 1856, is fOrty-fve hundred
millions produced by mechanical and man
ufacturing industry, sixteen hundred millions
BY agriculture, and fourteen hundred millions
| by commerce Mr.. SAMUEL b. RUeeLEsr
known for his long and official conne1ion
with the internal and external commerce Of
the country, takes this statement to task, and
shows instead Of commerce producing value
equal to fourteen hundred millions of dollars
the legitimate productions of the seas amount
to only thirty millions Of dollars, and the
exports of these in 1855 amounted to only
four millions Of dollars. The remainder o.
Mr. BASK's imaginary fourteen hundred mil
lions consists wholly Of the very products
of agricultural, manufacturing aud mechan'
! ical industry which commercs had placed
on the seas. but which he's been previously
computed and embraced in his frat two item;
of fifteen and sixteen hundred millions. The
error of Mr.. BANKS amounts to only thirteen
hundred and ninety-six millions of dollan
trife, perhaps, to politician, but sufficient
in the judgment of careful merchants to atfec
the value of political deductions based OF
such figures Mr. BANKS further stated that o
the sixteen hundred millions produced b!
agriculture, the Slave States contribute bu
forty.fve per cent. But as these States have
less than forty per cent. of the total pop
ulation, and only twenty-five per cent. of to-
white population, forty-fve per cent. of pro
duction is, according to Mr.. Banks owl
Arithmetic, moro than the Southern State
fair proportion of national wealth. Bnt fur
Their of the sixteen hundred millions pro
duccd by agriculture, at least twelve hundred
millions are consumed on the spot, and neve
reach the sea at all-the hay, the cattle, tn
poultry, the milk and eggs, all ofwhich he'l
to swell the aggregate, aud the three hun
dred millions of Indian corn, very little o
which is exported. Out of the eight hun
dred and eighty millions of Northern agri
cultural productions, less than forty million
are exported, either to foreign countries o
otherwise, while for every one hundre'
millions of Southern cotton, at least ninet.
90 TO sea, and fourteen out of twenty million
Of Southern tobacco In fact, the ofhcia
statistical tables directly contradict all tn
conclusions that Mr.. BANKS arrives at, anC
proves in the face of them that the agricu!
ture of the South, thus disparaged, furnishe
the very foundation of our commercial
prosperity.