Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-06-12
Climate, Products and Health North
md SOnth.

/ Climate, Products and Health North
| and south.
| In the June number Of De Bows Review,
DIR. 4. III. Barton, of New Orleans, has pub
lished very full and able paper upon this
subject. The following extract exposes some
popular fallacies:
"Instead of awakening us, as alleged slavery
adds greatly to our military strength as ma
ton. All warlike countries have been slave
States. 1t furnishes the sinews by which war
| is supported, while other nations absolutely
| require from five to eighty men to carry on in
dustral pursuits to maintain one in the field,
| nearly our whole white male population already
trained to arms and warike pursuits in a de-
gree far exceeding that of any other people, is
ready for defensive or offensive war; and
neither our brethren north Of us nor any other
nation can furnish simalar example of proud
independence.
. The South is accused Of weakness, indo
lence and eheminacy. The strongest and
largest animals known to man have their ma
tivties, their homes in the South. No north
ern man has physical strength or physical
endurance superior to the Kroomen on the
coast of Africa, nor can bear greater burden
than the Mexican; and in relation to our own
country, have before referred to the physical
perfection intellectual superiority of the natives
in the elevated parts of these southern States.
The comparison with any people will hold good
If applied to any portion of them. Indoence
does not belong to the Anglo-Saxon race, how
ever it may attach to others, and finds its refu-
tation in every page of our history and on
every acre of our territory. And the accusa-
ton effeminacy is slander that finds its an
swer in every field of our country's victories,
and on the deck of every naval lattle, where
the prowess of America has shed its blood for
the rights of man.
"ln nothing, then, need the South shrink in
comparison with the Northern portion Of this
Union. Not only has it been built up and en-
riched by the products of Southern industry,
but some of the principal nations Of The world
are dependent on the Southern States not only
for their commercial but their social existence
and stability. Here, in fact, resides the goose
which lays the golden eggs; here is the foun-
tain which originates the wealth of modern
nations, and especially the Northern part Of
this nation. Her merchants, her manufaciur-
ers, her shipping, her seamen, all derive EN-
ployment and wealth from these much SANDER
ed Southern States. A hurricane, or a late or
early frost that destroys the cotton crop of a
considerable portion of the South, is felt in all
the markets of the world to the EXTREMIST range
of civilization. Drought of floods, which ma
terialy injure the cereal crop, causes gaunt
famine to stare millions in the face, and be-
comes the harbinger Of frightful pestilence.
Nor are there any sound grounds for the
opinion that the South is not as susceptible of
dense population -as the North. The capacity
to sustain large population depends upon the
productiveness of the soil for such articles
which are necessary to support human life, and
this has been shown by the extensive preva-
lence Of its capacity to produce every species
of the cerealia in such eminent profusion; and
the question might be safely left here. But
there is scarcely an article that nourishes man
which is not more easily and abundantly pro-
duced in the South than in the North. In the
more Southern portion, where two crops of
grain, Jas before said) can be produced every
year on the same soil, and garden vegetables
and fruits in the utmost abundance, they do
not always exist of the same quality in the
South as at the North, merely because we are
not compelled to exercise the same care in
their cultivation for livelihood, because the
larger and more important staples are more
profitable, and we have not TO depend for sus-
tenance or comfort on the minor productions,
as those in less favored regions.
"In the South we are comparatively free from,
sectarian disagreements, no bigotry, no ridicu.
lous humbugs about woman's rights, false
philanthrophy or pseudo.relgion; each attends
to his own business, and is contented under
the blessings kind Providence showers upon
us in such exhaustless profusion.
If then, we prepare the soil and produc.
tion, agricultural and mineral, the climate and
salubriiy, the scenery, the comforts and refine
ments Of life which give it a charm, the intel
lectual and moral qualities which give eleva-
ton in the scale Of high civilization, those
which produce its wealth and those which as
sure its independence, we have no reason 10
complain"