New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-03-11

gentleman Of wealth character and resPectaoh
ity. We have been favoraby impressed by at least
one declaration he has made since he took his seat
This is that auy investigation of the fraud. in Kan
sss would, in bis opinion. tend in nothing but
"inficting almos. uncomfortable disgrace on
the United Sta.es." So far az We have seen'
this is the best reason for not making such an IN
vestgation that has been given on the LecomPtos
side Of the House.
For several years Gov. Hammond hiss been in re-
tirement, cultiyating his extensive POSSESSIONS
During this period, he does not seem to have either
enlarged OF liberalized bis idess. The modes OF
thought which he carried with him into private
life, and which were then warmed by the glow OF
enthusiasm and passion, seem to have only changed
in this-they are now rigid and hardened. 1t IS
the soft mud Of bad road frozen into ruts and
ridges. The way is not better but worse in con-
sequence.
The Ex-Governor occupied the greater part OF his
speech on Lecompton with an exposition OF the
capacity Of the Slave States to establish and main
tain what he called ga separate political organlza-
ton" This is common topic Of abstract inquiry
it, though its special relevancy to the question OF
admitting Kansas into the Union under fraudulent
Constitution We do not perceive. In this review,
Mr. Hammond went over the old ground Of South
ern theorists, and reproduced, with little change
and novelty, the various considerations going to
show how admirably Southern Slaveholding Gov
ernment would work in practice. For our part,
boya bauit ATTIC in
admitting that the Southern States are able to
msintain, in one way or another, an independent
government of their own. How powerful it would
be, or how prosperous, is question upon which
there will be diversity of opinion Gov. Hammond
has the good to admit that it's strength would
not consist in it's fighting power. He gives it
high prospective rank among the nations, how
ever, on the ground that, as he declares, "COtton
is king" aud king with whom none can afford to
90 to war. The reign of this monarch will thus as
Gov. Hammond thinks. be not only eternal, but
externally pacific.
But We cannot allow one fallacy of Gov. Ham
nCnd to gounreproved and unexposed, especially as
it is one that the savehoding statesmen forever
putting forward. We mean the notion that foreign
exports are the measure of a country's wealth and
power. We cannot understand how it is that gen.
tlemen of intelligence can so tenacousy insist on
this dismal fallacy. What can be palmer than that
it is the aggregate production of country that
constitutes its wealth. and is the real measure of its
power1 Exports are nothing but the exchange of
products that are produced, for products that are
not produced, by the exporting country. Diversity
production sufficiently in any country, and 10 e1.
ports or exchanges with foreign countries are neces
saIy. Simplify il by combining production to one or
two staples, and exchanges for foreign productions
or exports must be proportionally large. Is it not
manifest that a country where industry is not d.
versified, but where production is confined to one
or two. or very few staples is constantly in
precarious condition A failure of its chief crop
for single year spreads bankruptcy and famine.
A threatened war fills it with dismay; an actual one
with ruin. The country of large exports in proper
ton to its productions is thus the weakest OF coun-
tries rather than the strongest.
The country whose products are the most varied,
and the gross result of whose industry is the lars-
est is that which has the greatest amount Of all the
elements which constitute wealth, even though its
exports may be comparatively small. But if the
Southern economists reject so sound test of the
wealth and resources of people they surely can
not object to estimate them by the earned surplus
on hand in the form of taxable property. If this
be done, how stand the Slave and Free States in
comparative estimate What then becomes of the
labored attempts of Gov. Hammond and his coad-
tutors to show the comparative wealth and power
of the Slave States, by exhibiting their exports as
contrasted with those of the Free And when we
can demonstrate as We did lately that the aggregate
production of the largest of the Slave States not
equal to its annual expenses of living by $4,000 900
Der annum This one fact exhibits the wastsful-
ness. weakness and poverty inherent in the system
of Slavery, in more striking light than volumes of
theoretical Illustration. 1t shows, too, why it is
that the commercial capital Of the South does not
accumulate as it has done in the older Free States,
and why never-endiDg succession of bankruptcies
seem always necessary TO extinguish the indebted
ess which the South is constantly mourning at the
North. 1t shows why it is that the banks of the
South are so long in showing recuperatve power
after their suspension. If Virginia is any evidence,
and even Maryland any evidence, of the working of
the system of slave labor of the Slave States
are paving the expenses of their own living. They
do not support themselves, they do not pay their
own way, but live, to greater or less extent,
according to situation and circumstances, of the
industry of the rest of the country. In fact, the
Slavery of the South is positive pecuniary burden
mon the Free States-an absolute and memorable
tax upon the Free Labor of the country.