Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1857-10-20
For The En,,,,.,.
4" tFT ENYu'Ter
THE NON-OBSEkvANCE OF THE PRECEpTs
OF THE LORDS PRAYER BY TIE FEDE-
RAL GOVERNMENT HAS NEARLY RUINED
THE COMMERCE OF THE SOUTH.

| LIE NON-OBSEkf ANCE Of IlfE PRECEPTS
OF THE LORDS PRAYER BY TIE FEDE-
RAL GOVERNMENT HAS NEARLY RUINED
THE COMMERCE OF THE SOUTH.
"Lead MS not into tsmptaiion," says the Lords
Prayer. The Federal Government has led the people
| of the United States into an awful temptation, by
| passing a law that gives bonus to fasehood and
swndiing The amount Of duties levied upon foreign
imports is greater if the domestic and foreign mer
chants be honest and truthful. and less if they be kna
Wish and untruhul; greater if the appraisers be pa.
riotic men of unbending integrity, and less if they
he the plant tools Of the Goldfish mercantile arstOc.
racy. Boston and New York owe more of their 70.
reign commercial prosperity to this lay of the Fede.
raj Government, enaced in violation of the precepts
OF tue Lords Prayer, directly leading the mercantile
classes into temptation, than they do to their geograph
cal position. Ii is perfect nonsense to talk about the
steam.fe,ry line between Hampton Roads and Mil
ford Haven, until this law. so destructive to Southern
commerce, be repealed and some other enacted which
will not reward knsvery at the expense of honesty
q law, too, which shall compel the large importing
merchant to pay high duties on his importatons
the small capitalists engaged in commerce have to pay
for like articles in like quantities. Under the present
tsrt the freight s added to the invoice price of the
| imported goods. This is always greater in proper.
ton upon small boxes and bales OF merchandise than
npon large; greater upon merchandise received at the
| Southern and Western ports Of entry than in the
North Eastern. tariff should be- uniform East,
| West, North and South Because New England and
New York lie nearer to Europe than the West and
Southwest, that is no valid reason why the federal
government should exact less from the former than
from the latter for the same kind and quantity of i'm
ported merchandise. Nor is there any valid reason
why tho small capitalist of the West and South should
pay heavier proportional duty on his importations
of half ton, than the large capitalists Of Boston
and New York thousand more tons. The
freight and charges being added to the invoice
the small capitalist TO pay higher duties in proportion
than those mammoth houses which import by the
chip load and have less than half the freight and
charges to pay. The writer of this article is now
travelling the third greatest river OF the United
States. 1t ID two thousand miles long and drains a
territory Of l7S,000 square miles. He has already
gone up it between two aud three hundred miles, and
there is an unobstructed steamboat navigation four
or five hundred miles further up. SO far as he
has seen, it passes through the most fertile re-
| gion in the world The planters on its banks make
cotton to the and to the hand, than in any
other cotton growing country; cotton, too, OF better
quality than any other cotton except Sea Island
Ye! this majestic river, the Arkansas, whose head
waters in the Rocky Mountains, lie directly west OF
Hampton Roads, and its mouth directly west of the
central portion Of South Carolina, has no foreign
commerce, although the king of American commerce
| has his most magnificent residence or its banks
Out OF the Arkansas river goes the richest product OF
agriculture, but if any one were to attempt to e1.
change it for foreign merchandise, he would find
himself in the category of the writer, who being
then cotton planter and physican on the MissssiP'
pi river and seeing that the Southwest mostly
supplied with inferior medicines, the refuse OF he
Northern drug stores, undertook to the evil
by exchanging a portion of his cotton for drugs in
Europe. He bought the drugs at the cheapest rates
from first hands and paid in cash by orders on his Eu
ropean merchants. Yet, when the additional freight
aud charges small packages that came great dis
lance added to the invoice prices, the duty De
had to pay was 80 much greater than the duty paid
by the New York importers for similar articles, that
he compelled to quit the business: Thus, among
| other things, he had concluded to import genuine
r. q. r Al fhl tTnIf0
tiun EPSON Salts, found in the American market
are more or less mixed with foreign and un.
healthy substances. When the freight and charges
to New Orleans, and then freight and charges from
| New Orleans up to his residence on the Mississippi
we're added to the invoice price, the duty he had 10
pay the government, than the price of salts
| in his next door nelghbors spothecary shop. The
freight SALTS in large quantities as ballast, is al
nothing, hence the importer, by the large quan-
tity pays less duties to the government than when
the same or a similar article is imported in small
quantities. The effect is TO drive the small mpor-
ters out Of the foreign mske entirely. AS Southern
importers generally email capitalists-mos OF the
Southern capital being invested in agricuture-the
most Of the foreign trade IS monopoll7ed oy lew
wealthy capitalists in our North. Eastern Atlantic ci.
ties But another powerful cause that is destroying
Southern commerce may be found in the greater sus.
cepubty of the Northern people to be led into
temptation, than the Souihern-every ISM that s
starled tempts them into lis evils Hence 1t Is pre-.
sumed that they are easier led into the temptations,
that the present tariff strongly tends to entice
them into, than the people of the South.
In the South there is no large body OF wealthy
importing merchants to overswe the officers of the
| Custom Houses. So much is this the case, that not
long since, some importing merchants in st. Louis
aud New Orleans, viz R-loher & Rrn.he'a. fe"-j ;'
49, from rom GgRps psdI I'H 6y ,bs
way OF Cuba 10 New Orleans and up the Mississippi
than to send it direct to NV Orleans, because the
duty charged in New Orleans, was 80 much greater
| than in New York, OWL 10 the appraisers OF the
latter city appralsing the imported merchandize al
about half the prca il was valued at by the Southern
appraisers. Thus. the great Southern emporium has
| TO pay the penalty Of having independent Govern
ment officers in her Custom House by the loss of her
| foreign commerce. The South may well pray LOT
| harmless Federal Government, one which observes
the precepts of the Lords Prayer and does not lead
| the commercial community into temptation as the
present tariff does. The present Governor OF Kansas
was the father Of the present tariff Commercial
statistics prove that ever since It has gone into ope
ration, the foreign importing trade has been hying
| sway from the South and from the small capitalists,
and docking to the milonaires in our Northern Allan
tic cities The Governor of Kansas, no doubt, honest
| y believed it was fair for the South as Tor the
North, he would not have led the Democratic party
to adopt it; but experience proves that he was mlsa
ken. Equally mistaken is he in supposng that Nan
sas is not adapted to the negro constitution II ne
would travel up the Arkansas river, lie would and
that Virginia and Maryland negroes, born and
/
sidered to be worth at least - per cent. more
than any negroes further South, and fully twice as
much as tropical negroes. But there is no reason
| why a gratuitous and mistaken opinion OF single
| individual should snap the cable that binds the De
| mocracy North and South together as band o
brothers. The National Democracy have only to be
made to see an evil to rectfy it, if it can be constr
tutionay done. Divided, they would be poWerless
for good Under the present tariff OF duties the
proposed steam ferry line between Hampton Roads
and Milford Haven, would be failure unless it be &c
amended that imported merchandise pay no higher
duties in Norfolk, Charleston and New Orleans thai
in Boston and New York. And who has either the
power or the will to amend it and do justice to tho
| South but the National Democracy! Already hare
the railroads from Virginia and the Carollnas nearly
tapped the Arkansas river, which extends westward
20OO miles to the Rocky mountains. The steam ter
ry line could not fail to succeed beyond the mosI
sangune expectations o its projectors, under tarH
of revenue which taxed one section OF the Union no
| higher than another. New Orleans would be nc
less the gamer by such tariff than the Southern
Atlantic Cities All that is necessary to be Done ID 10
strike out these obnoxious features in the present "a
riff that are opposition to the precepts OF the Lord
PRAYER; no other party can be so implicitly depend
ed upon to bring it into conformity with thoss pre-
cepts as the National Democracy. Who ever would
divide or distract that Democracy, although ne may
honestly think he is doing the South service, n
reality the South's worst enemy. 1t is time enough
| TO divide when the Northern and Southern Democra
cy cease to CO operate with one another IN carrying
ing out the great principle of even handed justice
| ali sections Of the Federal Union
ARKASsas RIVER, Oct. g. 1857.
| .
FROM CALIFORNIA.
To The Editors Of the Enquirer:
/ EDa SAnf