The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1859-12-23
To tho Merchants of the South and
aOuth- weet

We desire to invite the attention OF the
merchants and business men of our sec
ton to the advertisement in another coll
umn under the above caption. 1t will be
remembered by such of our readers as
were with us ten years ago, that at that
time we brought the subject before the
public, and urged upon the merchants
and trading people of the interior the
advantage and duty ofbuying their goods
and wares at Charleston, instead of seek
ing all their supplies in the Eastern Cities,
with which we had no immediate COM
munity or identity of interest. We as
sumed then, and we hold to the position
now, that there was an obligation resting
upon us to buy of our Southern neighbors,
an obligation Of interest as well as iden-
tity of feeling upon q question of para
mount importance. The South buys all
our surplus stock, bacon, corn, wheat,
flour, etc, and the large sums of money
thus annually derived we either carry or
send northward for goods, not one dollar
of which ever finds its way back. with
in the range of the circulation of this pa
per are some twenty towns, numbering
over n hundred mercantile houses and
employing annually more than half mil
lion of dollars of cash capital. Now we
are certain that nineteen-twentieths of
this capital goes North every year; and
yet, with the proper effort, much the
larger portion, if not all of it, could be
diverted in the legitimate direction. Man
is selfish animal, and will generally, de-
spite all other considerations, buy where
he is made to JG'ierc he can obtain the best
bargains. If we can convince the mer-
chants of the interior that there are large
Importing and Jobbing Houses in Char
lesion, at which they can obtain their sup
| plies upon equally as favorable terms as in
New York or Philadelphia, the difficulty
is at once obviated. To that end we shall
recur to the subject again; and we again
invite attention to tho advertisement on
the next page addressed "To the Mer.
chants Of the South and Southwest"
The GOSPEL TRluMPuING.-It is true
says the Western Waterman, that we
often take responding views of christian.
ity. 1t is aggressive, and it is progres.
sive. We are indebted to Mr. Sharon
Turner for a collection of statistics, show.
ing the advance the Church has made
Here is an abstract of his showing:
There were christian commandments in
| the
First century, 100000
Fifth 4" lj,00OO0t
| Tenth $4,000, O0O
Fifteenth century, l00.00000C
Eighteenth 200.00000(
True, there was one century, during
the madess of the crusades, and the lock
ing up of the Bible, after which there
was a decrease. But take the past, and
you have an advance of 100000 eacl
century, or l46 each day. Is there moi
really something inspiring in such a view
1t is stated that actual statistics show
that during the last fifty years "the mum
Der of members in the evangelical church
es in the United States has increased from
four hundred thousand to three million:
and half, being an increase of eight
fold" while our population has increased
only four-told So much for the oft re
herated statement that the growth q
evangelical churches has not kept pac,
with the population.
South CAROLINA.-The Charleston Mer
curry suggests as the future course OF Soutl