Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-09-09
From ire Ne,o ORLEANS Picoyu,se.
Manchester and the south.

The agents OF the Association OF Manches-
ter for the promotion of the culture of cotton
are almost ubiquitous. Scientific explorers
no sooner reveal the existence of new terri
tories aboundiug in fertile soil and blessed
with semi-tropical climate, than they test
their capacity for the production of cotton.
In Eastern and Southern Asia. along the er
tire southern shore of the Mediterranean, and
in Western, Southern and Central Africa, the
Manchester Association has at intervals been
busily at work distributing seed and laying
plans for the future culture of this great
staple. Nor have the capabilities of the
States of Central America been neglected
An official document, appearing in the G0ce-
Ia de Guatemala, of July %, informs the agri-
culturists and owners of estates in that Re
public, that the Government has received
sacks of New Orleans cotton seed from the
Manchester Association, for general distribu-
ton. and proprietors of haciendas are urged
seriously to direct their attention to the in
PRODUCTION of the plant among the products
of the country. Pamphlets giving informa-
ton in regard to the best mode of OF culture
accompany the seed which the Minister of Ex-
terror Relations is urged to translate into the
Spanish language for general distribution and
the people are assured that Manchester de-
sires to cultivate the most intimate relations
with the agriculturists of the State of Guate-
mala.
can accomplish the object, Manchester is de-
termined to open new fields of cotton produc-
ton. She has agents everywhere-some en-
terprising private gentlemen. others. holding
official positions, but all provided with ample
means to build up, if possible, formidable
rival to the cotton planters of the South, not
with the expectation of obtaining better ar
ticle. or through fear that the cotton States
will fail to produce a supply equal to any
hut 10 Aarf Nan
chester spinners independent OF the markets
of this country.
No objection could be made to this enter
prise on the part of the Manchester AssOcia-
ton if it arose from the single desire to
cheaper the pride of cotton manufactures. 1t
has the undoubted right to labor for the pro-
motion of the culture of cotton, until, if 1t
were possible its efforts should be followed
by overproduction of the raw material. But
its activity and untiring industry in the pur-
suit of new fields of production seem the re-
suit of other impulses, and should not be
overlooked by the cotton growers of the
Southern States. Manchester has plainly no
sympathy with them. 1t would prefer to OBJ
, tain its supplies from any other quarter than
the slave cultivated plantations of the Uuit-
I'd States. II would fain dscOnutenance,
were it possible, the peculiar relations of their
labor to capital.
peated failures, to introduce cotton culture
into every region apparently possessing a
favorable soil and climate, could not bear
another construction, even if distaste to
slavery had not been openly avowed. For
the region in the United States peculiarly
adapted to the production of hesnowy staple
is too large for inauspiciOus seasons seriously
to affect the supply; and the power OF high
prices to stimulate extraordinary production
has
lands, not yet subjected to the plough, exist
in sufficient quantities to enlarge the crop be-
yond any probable consumption for u century
to come; and the cotton Of the United States
is acknowledged to be superior in quality to
that obtained from any ether country. Even
if England and the United States should, at
any future time, engage in hostilities, she
would be able TO obtain an abundant supply
of our cotton through the ports of the con-
tinent. The Manchester league cannot, there
fore, be SO earnest in its efforts TO promote
the growth of Gotten everywhere else but in
the United States. except from desire to &C
quire independence of our markets, through
hostility to Southern institutions.
1t is, perhaps, fortunate for the Southern
States that nature has endowed them with a
singularly favorable soil and climate, and
that circumstances have built up a system of
labor specially adapted to the highest develop
cotton, while every effort to introduce the
plant elsewhere has singularly failed, or
proved only partially successful. 1t has given
the South power felt throughout the civiliz-
ed world. These States are now developing
energies which will have an influence scarcely
estimated upon all civilized nations. 1t has
enabled them to win moral victory by stay
ing and turning back the swelling flood of
false philanthropy, that but a short time
since thr, rpVOlufion and wide snroa1
ruin.
The efforts so persistentlv made by the
manufacturers of the Old World to become
independent of the cotton market of the
South, should teach cotton planters the wis
dOm-nay, the necessity, of measures to be-
come independent of fOre gn manufacturers.
The South can manufacture for the world as
easily as it now produces the raw material
that keeps its spindes and looms in motion.
Manufactures contiguous to the cotton fields
have already proved more profitable than
cotton culture itself The South should man
ufacture largely-nOt simply what is needed
for home consumption, but for export 1t
should soon enter the open markets of other
nations as 4 successful competitor with Old
and New England in textile fabrics, as it has
hitherto been without rival in theirs as the
producer of raw cotton. The smoke of the
steam engine shonld begin to float over the
cotton fields, and the hum of spindles and the
click of looms make music on all our noun
tain streams. Then the Southern planter will
be unaffected by any future development of
cotton culture by Manchester leagues,
though they cast the seed in every rood be-
tween the tropics.
The invention of TIE plantation spinning
machine promises to produce. more rapid
change in the industry of the South than
otherwise could have been anticipated. 1t
must hasten the general tendency to manu-
featuring industry. Improved. as it is likely
soon to be, SO as to spin yarns of different
weight and quality as it regards fineness. it is
not improbable that much of the crop, before
many years elapse, will be worked up at
home. Factories for coarse fabrics at least
will weave only instead of buying a supply
of raw cotton.
What position the South would occupy
should she become the centre of cotton manu-
featuring enterprise, and at the same time
hold in her hands the raw material upon
which all nations depend! Nothing is more
true than cotton is king" Add TO the in
fluence and the wealth which the control of
the cotton crop now gives the South the
greater power aud more enlarged resources
drived from a successful competition with
the world in cotton manufactures, and the
cities of the South would excel all the glory
OF ancient Tyre or the grandeur of more
modern Venice when in her palmy' days, or
that OF London Liverpool aud Manchester now.