The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-10-15

the name, the character, the afiuence,
, the busiaess, the influence ofits merchant
F princes, contributes to This great product
of $500 millions, fourteen hundred mill.
ions as the share of commerce"
Now, gentlemen, what do the seas
thus rhctorically whitened, in fact, pro-
duce That is to say, what articles of
commercial value They produce a
good many Goldfish, many inackerel, aDd
here and there whale the total val
ne whereof when caught, barrelled aud
landed in the United States, hardly ex-
ceeds thirty millions annually, if it
amounts to that. The portion of those
products exported in the year 1855 was
less than four millions. The rem aim
der then of Mr.. Banks imaginary four
teen hundred millions, consist wholly of
the products of agricultural, manufactu-
ring and mechanical industry which
commerce had placed on the seas, but
which had been previously computed
and embraced in his first two items of
fifteen and sixteen hundred millions,
And thus we behold the Speaker in his
very first plunge into the sea of figures,
going astray to the tune ofthirteeaa han.
dTed and 7aa7aety- sac millions. If this
be =" the music of the Union ;" which Mr.
Banks describes the Northern plough
boy as whistliDg, his political psaimody
to say the least, is capable of improve.
ment.
But again. The Speaker asserts that
of the sixteen hundred millions produ.
ced by agriculture, the fifteen slave
States contribute but 45 per cent. How
that assertion is proved does not appear,
but if it be true it does net show the
slave States to fall short of their Just
proportion, for they have less than for
ty per cent. of the total population and
only twenty-five per cent of the white
population. Why then should their ag-
riculture be required to produce even
forty-fve per cent.
But the truth of the statement must
be more than doubtful. The very sun
of the South, so unfavorable to white
labor as to make black population nee
essary, is peculiarly favorable to agri-
cultural development. Time is want.
ing TO compute the comparative product
even of cereals-but if focks and herds !
form part of a nations wealth, and man.
kind has held them to be things of val
ue since the days of Abraham, then the
South in this important element very
far exceeds the North. The census
shows nine millions of cattle standing
South of the Potomac belonging to six
millions of white men, and only eight
millions North it it, -bsleseiag 10 four,
teen millions of white-and what statea.
man entitled for an instant to the epi.
thet does not perceive the rapid increase
of the otton crop? 1t may be true, as
the Speaker ventures to assert, that the
men of the South abandon agriculture
in quest of Office, but the official statisti-
cal tables do not show it.
But again; Mr.. Banks was address.
Tag and affecting to instruct body Of
commercial community.
from the steps of their own Exchange
why on such an occasion and with such
an audience, did he omit to state the
proportions which the agri-
culture of the South and of the North
contributed to the commerce that viii
tened the seas Did he not know that
of the 1900 millions produced by agri-i
culture, at least 1900 millions are con-
sumed on the spot and never reach the
sea at all ? For how much of the hun.
dreds of millions estimated as the value
of tie hay, and cattle, and poultry, and
milk, and eggs, which help to swell the
aggregate, is carried at all in the ves-
sells of the merchant princes How
much even of the three hundred mill.
ons of Indian corn goes to sea?
And above all, does not Mr.. Banks
kuoy, and do not the New York mer-
chants know, that of every 100 millions
A..
sea, and IA out of every 20 millions of
Southern tobacco? While of the total
product of Northern agriculture, esti-
mated by Mr. Banks at 800 millions,
less than 40 millions are exported Ell
ther to foreign countries or coastwise ?
Does he not see, and do not all of US,
whether merchant, banker, landowner or
mechanic, see and feel that the agricul-
ture of the South thus disparaged, fur.
nishes the very foundation of our COM
mercial prosperity And can this great
trading, navigating city be induced, by
any pompous and idle parade of imagi.
nary thousands of millions, to dissolve
their fraternal and national connection
with the whole magnificent domain
spread out South of the Potomac--the
very Ladi of the American Republic
--and aid Mr.. Banks and his associates
in excluding that grand division of the
Union from all participation in the hon.
ors and ernoluments of the government
But [ find the subject growing on my
hands beyond the limits of a single let
ter, and 1 must reserve for further
the remarks on Mr..
Banks political deductions, and his
of foreign commerce, which
the subject requires. -
With great respect,
I am your friend aud fellow-citizen.
SAMUEL b. RUGGLES, W
"a Union Square, New York.
To Messrs. Hiram Ketchum, G. A.
Davis, A C. Kingland, VIM. B. Astor,
Knapp, and others.
TIL alilIrar