New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-01-22
TO THE PRESIDENT or TIE UNITED
STATES.
LETTER Nj.

"IbIty-one Independent States enjoying thou
sand adv antages, are mutually engaged in free
"trade with each other That is the free trade we
"wantr Such, Mr.. President, was the most accurate
view OF the great and pressing "want' of your coun-
tsymep, presented by yourself, but few years snce
Seeing most clearly you then did, the enormous
amount OF taxes paid by our farmers IN the form OF
transportation commissions and other charges-the
necessary consequence Of dependence upon distant
markets-it to you most obvious That what
they really needed was commerce among the
Ststes-oomInerce within the States--commerce
in towns and villages-that commerce which, IN
other countries, enables men 10 exchange with each
other ideas, services and products with little charge
for intermediate agency, and thus 10 emanclpate
themselves almost entirely from the grinding taxes OF
trade and transportation.
What however, is it, that has given TO those thirty.
one States the power to maintain any commerce what
soeyer? Isit not Mr.. President, consequence of
diyersty in their modes Of employment, resulting from
the fact that, while portion OF the country Is
Fitted for raising cotton or sugar, others are bet
ter suited to raising wheat, rice, corn, barley or
yrsss-that while the soil OF is underlaid with
Goa! that of others il underlald with lead,
or copper mari or llme That such IL the case
Is beyond all doubt. That without difference there
can be no commerce. is shown by the facts that the
cotton planter of Carolina maintains no commerce with
his fellow planter of Georgia. and that the farmer oi
illinois makes exchanges with his fellow farmer OF
Indiana.
What. however, is the actual amount of commerce
among the States How much does kentucky eX-
change with Missouri What is the annual value of
the commerce of Ohio with Indana-of Virginia with
hentItky scarcely more, as l imagine, than that
of single days labor OF their respective populations;
and. perhaps, not even half so much Why Mr..
President is this the case l. il not necessary con.
sequence Of the absence of that diversity of enlov
ments aritkta he States which we see everywbere ~
be so indispensable to the maintenance of Commerce
A.suredlyi, is. Ohio and Indiana have little more
than one pursuit-tha OF scratching out the soil aud
exporting il in the shape Of food. Virginia and Ken
iucky have the pursuits-seling their soil in the
forms OF tobacco and of corn. Carolina and Alabama
have the same pursuits and il is throughout by
the larger portion of the Cnion-mhons OF people be-
ing employed in part of il in robbng the earth OF
the Constituents of cotton while in Others other mill
ions are employed in plunderng Me great treasury Of
nature of the constituents of wheat and rce corn ana
Tobacco and thus destroying for themselves ana the
successors the power to maintain commerce.
The commerce of State with State is thus Mr. Pres
ident, but small and the reason why II IS so Is tnat
the Commerce of man with his fellow man, WITHIN the
States as general rule, is exceedingly dimnutVe,
Were the people of Illinois enabled " develop theI
almost boundless deposits of coal and iron ore, ana
thus to call TO their aid the wonderful power OF steam
Inc Internal commerce Of the State would grow rap
my making market at home for the food produced,
ana erabng is producer 20 become large consumer
Oi cotton Cotton mills then growing up bales of
COTTON wool would travel up the Mississippi, to be
gwen "a exchange for the iron required for the roads
OF Arkansas ana Alabama and for the machinery de-
snoeJ iot the construction Of cotton aud sugar mills
IN Texas and Louisiana
That Mr.. President as Won an well have aid is
the sort Of free trade that We really require II grew
with great rapdlty III the period ending in l8i6-that
Pepod n which the domestic market asorisd 40 large
PROPORTION Of cotton that was produced. II died
sSay. IA The year, that followed, from 1917 to 1921