Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1859-04-20
Senator Hammond on Direct Trade.

The Macon (Ga.,) Shtte Press publishes the
f,llowing letter, addressed by Senator liam
mond to Howell Cobb, of Houston, in re-
sp,n>e to an invitation to attend the next
Cotton Planters Convention, at Macon:
RED CLrFE, March 20, 1859.
Dcnr Sir:-l ain obllsed to you for your
invitation to attend your meeting at Macon,
anil if my health and engagements will per-
init, will attend, but not to make speech;
that is out Of my line.
entirely sympsthize with your movement.
regard Direct Trade Is absolutely necessary
to the independence Of the South; without
il. Sue will ever bo trvoincill, though she
mny continue to furnish, as she now does,
more of the material Of commerce, than any
other population Of the same numbers ever
did and materials that csnstitute the most
vital currents of commercial Circulation, con-
trolling. IN fact, almost the whole.
Our drawbacks have been, not the superior
energy or intellect of any other people, but
our shallow bars, yellow fever, and want Of
mercantile cap tai. Time l. think, will show
that vessels of 1000 tons are as profitable as
largcr ones, to carry on trade, and these can
9 ter our p 'rts. Tie yellow fever can be
wholly evaded by contining our business sea-
son to the eight months Of tue year during
which we are exempt. These eight months
being those in which We can, and in TACT de-,
carry nearly all our products to market, they
are naturally our business months, and those
best adapted to business and climate such Is
ours.
It il tccause we submit TO the convenience
of Others, that we allow it to be necessary
that there should be ally transactions from
the interior, or rr m abroad, during the four,
possible, yellow fever months. The grand
difficulty Is as to capital; our means are, for
the most part, in fact almost entirely, en-
ployed in settling fresh lands subduing the
forests, and furnishing the materials to clotEe
and feed the world in these we find full en-
ployment for all our means and all our ener-
Nv. But this will not always be so, and if
the owners of the comparatively idle millions,
in other parts, do not soon seek the rich har-
vest they may reap here, onr own surplusage
will enable us to occupy that field also.
Nothing, think, is wanting to our South
ern country but time, provided we have ca
pacity to appreciate, before it is too late, our
uUpdT4IlEicu 1CoOulSSS) o'o tdS W
develop them. think we have. have every
confidence in our future, let mere politics take
what course and produce what results they
may. Southern industry, at this moment the
most prosperous Of any on the globe, rests
also On the secursSt basis, and it only requires
that it shuuld rise TO full appreciation and
assertion of it-slf TO hccome free, in httls
Tine, Of all tlWse provincial elogs which aaw
eueaInlss Il,
! cuhfer. Tint | bsss been dssotsd 10 other
,i,sslyrs tuo Hitch tu have laattiei ntsassly
,hs way In Which sulir Association proposes
10 rif.tt tile great u5jes!; and att1, therefore,
Unable I'd thdgs Is Is its probable results
iii, that there Is Il way; aud that success is
sure, do not doubt:
Very respectfully, your Ubedieht servants
j. II. HAMMOND,
HOWELL Co.'s, Esq.