Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1856-10-04


the commerce Of New York, sach signalling the
name, the character, the affiuence the business
the influence of its merchant princes, contribute
70 this great product Of ,600,000,000, fourteen
hundred millions as the share Of commerce."
Now, gentlemen, what do the seas thus rhetori-
caIy whitened In fact produced That Is to say,
what articles of commercial valueS They pro-
duce a good many Goldfish, many mAclcerel and
here and there a whale the total value whereof
when caught, barTelled, and landed in the United
States, hardly exceeds thirty millions annually, II
it amounts TO that. The portion Of these products
exported in the year 1885, was less than four mil
lions. The remainder, then. of Mr.. Bankss ina
ginary fourteen hundred millions, consists wholly
Of the very products Of agricultural, manufacture
ing and mechanical industry, which commerce
had placed on the seas, but which had been pre-
Viously computed and embraced in his first two
items of fifteen and sixteen hundred mions
And thus we behold the Speaker in his sery first
plunge into the sea Of figures, going astray TO the
tune of thirteen hundred and ninety-six millions
If this be the music of the Union" which Mr..
Banks describes the Northern ploughboy as whist
ling, his political psamody to say the least is ca
pable of Improvement. But again:
The Speaker asserts that of the 800 millions
produced by agriculture, the fifteen slave States
contribute but as per cent. How this assertion Is
proved does not appear but If it be true It does not
show the slave States to fall short of their just pro-
portion, for they have less than forty per cent Of
the total population and only twenty-five per cent
Of the white population. Why. then should their
agriculture be required to produce even forty-fye
per cent
But the truth Of the statement must be more
than doubtful The sun of the South, 80 unfavor
able to white labor as to make black population
necessary peculiarly. favorable to agricultural de-
veIopment. Time is wanting to compute the com
L. e AL
and herds form part of nations wealth, and man
kind has held them to be things of value since the
days of Abraham, then the South, In this impor-
tant element very far exceeds the North.
The census shows nine millions of cattle stand
ing south of the Potomac, belonging to six mil
lions OF white men, and only eight millions north
of It, belonging to fourteen millions of whites
and what statesman, entitled for an instant to the
epthet does not perceive the rapid increase of the
corn crop? 1t may be true rs the Speaker ven
lures to assert that the men of the South abandon
agriculture in quest OF Office, but the official sta
tistical tables do not show il.
But again, Mr.. Banks was addressing and affect
ing to instruct body of merchants, q commercial
community, from the steps of their own Exchange.
Why, on such an occasion and with such audi
ence, did he omit to state the respective sropor-
tions which the agriculture of the South and of the
North contributed to the commerce that whitened
the seas Did he not know that of the 1900 mill
lions produced by agriculture, at least 200 mil
lions are consumed on the spot and never reach
the sea at all ? For how much of the hundreds of
millions estimated as the value of the hay, and cat
tle and poultry, and milk, and eggs, which help to
swell the aggregate, is carried at all in the vessels
of the merchant prineesp How much even Of the
300,oo0,000 of Indian corn goes to sea?
And above all, does not Mr.. Banks know, and
do not the New York merchants know that Of
every 100, 100000 of Southern cotton, at least 90
go to sea- and IA out of every 90 600 900 of South
ern tobaccol while of the total product of North
ern agriculture, estimated by Mr.. Banks at $50
millions, less than 40 0o0 900 exported, either
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 agriculture of the South thus dis
paraged furnishes the very foundation of our COM
mercial prosperity? And can this great trading,
navigating city be induced, by any pompous and
idle parade of imaginary thousands of Millions to
dissolve their fraternal and national connexion
with the whole magnificent domain spread out
south of the Potomac the very Indies of the Amer
lean Republic, and aid Mr. Banks and his ascot
ates in excluding that grand division of the Union
from all participation in the honors and emolu
ments Of the government
But find the subject growing on my hands be-
yond the limits of single letter, and must re-
serve for further communication the remarks on
Mr.. Bankss political deductions and his statistics
of foreign commerce, which the subject requires
With great respect, | am your friend and fell
low-citizen, SAMUEL B. RUGGLES.