The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1859-10-05
For the N1ss1sstPpsdn.
Re-opening the African Labor Supply.
NNMBER SEVEN

! nC@OkCILAS VIC 1A444Nd0 AdbOA supply
NUMBER SEVEN.
WEALTH ARGUMENT
Some object that the African labor supply
will increase the production and therefore de-
crease the price of cotton In the United
States South, the cotton interest ought to be
deemed almost sacred What interest is like
1t? VI old, the, august Druids revered
the hundred arms Of the brave old oak, but
such reverence, like most religion, was only
exalted gratitude. For what with his broad
green crown, was this unbending monarch of
the woods, but munifcent, victorious and
sublime benefactor, who to conquer for his
worshlpers, shade and shelter against the
shock and shine, the blast and shower, defied
the summer suns round shield and glittering
shafts, the autumn lightening's forked lance,
and the wings of winter winds, and stood wild
centuries OF war against storms, whose
breathing would fan and whose weeping
would quench world on fire, and against
bolts which the thunders tossed not with a
single fist, but in leap of wrath, slung with
both hands, and fell after his fling Well, in
decd, might the Druids revere the oak for
they were not only priests but politicians, and
| ny COLulHOH CUIlIlOn sense, well
might deem that the British nation would be
built of oak, that its acorn was the seed of
empire, that its very mast would give the
people bread and meat, the leaves would bind
their brows with victorious wreaths, and their
walls with festal garlands the stubborn and
barronical boughs be Orders kingposts and
staunchions for castles to brighten tyrants and
guard great charters, and the trunk be the
keel and joints
"Of oak Leviathans whose huge ribs make
| Their clay creators the vain title take
| Lord of the Sea and Arbiter of War.
THE COTTON PLANT: THE BURNING BUSH.
But for true benefcence, the British oak.
the Syrian olive, the Arab palm and the Chi
nese bamboo, are to our little wooly cotton
plant, but as the rose in the valley, the his
sop on the wall, or the lilyof the field. The
ministers of our politics, the States Young
and ardent Druids, knowing that the world.
until decently and comfortably clothed, can
never be Chr1stianiZed, that civilizing men is
nothing more than economizing men, that of
life's indispensable comforts, habitation NAV
last hundred years, but robe scarce lasts a
season, that all lands give food but few give
raiment, that raiment, if not mere fig leaf
or fox skin, is begotten by art to beget new
arts; that commerce, art and manufactures
to be geneTalized must first be systematized,
that sickly and expensive sheep and tender
silkworms cannot found general and svs-
tematic trade, but cotton can; that hemp is so
coarse and stubborn as to be well worthy of
the hangman's hand and felon's neck and
that fax or fine linnen is still so scarce and
costly as to be the dandy badge of noble peers:
our young statesmen musing thus, like poets
fresh from prayers, well may deem that in
raiment white and clean, the angels of the
vision were even in their robes, types of flu
ture raiment of future betterments and future
bliss, and that the mantle which though hot
and shriveled, fell unscorched from Eliiah's
shoulders, and left his big arms bare and free
to drive home barbs in flame bay at the
start but soon to grow white in the gale of
the gallop, the garment of cammel'S hair
which John the Baptist wore, and the purple
robe of him for whose raiment the Roman
lancers' bloody hands ast lots, were stuffs so
rare and royal as to be worn by conouerors
and kings alone or so slazy, course and cheap
as to be but worthy such base and conouer-
ed rabble, as stoned the Prophets beheaded
the Forerunner, and crucified the Son of God
Indeed the cotton plant is not burning BUSH
| Dub oOo 10 III IL anu LuOuGu uOl III udInGS
shawl its God, still cotton lights the fires and
warns the hands and turns the cranks of
Christendom. Well may our Young and
glowing statesmen, the bold and wiley eugi-
neers, pilots and firemen to the great enter
prises not yet launched upon the current of
events, trace Providence in trade and fondly
deem that in our fields, upon our hills and
through our swamps, civilization grows in
| bolls, and is planted, plowed and scraped,
picked, ginned and baled, weighed, marked
and shipped. For what is the cultivation of
| cotton but the cultivation of the nations ? Is
| civilization its commerce What without
| cotton is the worlds commerce? Is civilza-
| ton its arts Who can name a single art
not directly or indirectly indebted to cotton
Is civilization social progress Then white
cotton represents systematic labor essentially
progressive, free labor is an admitted failure
essentially regressive. Cotton represents too
the subordination of inferior races, and the
coordination of equal peoples. Cotton more
| over represents economic order, and this is
civilizations only practical hope for the gen.
eral subsistence and security, health, educa-
ton and religion. But above all, republican
liberty WHOM fails in America fails forever
And yet free labor republic, sooner or later,
is demonstrable failure, because free labor
tends either to monarchy or anarchy; to des-
potism if the capitalists govern, and agrarian-
ism if the laborers govern. What indeed is
free labor tits mobility. But what is sys-
tematic labor 1t is stability. Thus cotton
conserves our labor system, our labor system
conServes the republic, and the republic con-
serves liberty; our labor system, its capital
lists, its statesmen, its philosophers, its repre-
sentatives, its States, check the free capitalists
to prevent despotism, and the free laborers to
prevent aggraranism. Thus federal freedom
is nursed in negroes arms. Thus ourcotton
planters hold mortgage on the world peace
and the Unions prosperity. Thus cotton is
worthy to be the clothing of the Christian era.
Thus the cotton press is next to the printing
press; the cotton twig is the true olive
branch, and the cotton plant is the true tree
of liberty and the best hope and help against
THAT forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all woes
COTTON HANDS AND EXTRA HANDS.
There are in the economy of the United
States, two classes of labor One class are
cotton hands, and the other class are extra
hands. All negroes not cotton hands are ex-
ira hands. These also are of two kinds One
kind are mental, and the other kind are ultra
mental servants. Such are ali servants not
domestics and not cotton hands.
BORN MENIALs.
The general opinion is that mental labor de-
grades. This is false. All work is sacred;
all tolls ennoble, and the sweat drops on our
brow are the pearls of God. In truth Heav-
en- is the workers home, and hell the oilers
prison. Work, even without wages is better
than no work, for true work is its own wages,
true work is its own reward, true work is its
own satisfaction, and work for works sake, is
after all the worthiest work. This, however,
is true; it is true that talent has rights; tai
lent has rights which must not be overlooked.
Natures grades must be respected, and either
enyeloped talents or misdeveloped talents are
degraded talents. Some grades are natural,
and social status should be proportioned to
natural grades the social powers, that is, the
grandeurs, should correspond to the grades,
and the State should graduate like nature.
None will gainsay such simple truths. But
if grades are natural, and the people contra
dict nature, then the people lie, and State
lie is always the mother of miseries Hard as
the worker is the work should be. The Graf
tier craftsmen for the craftier crafts, the finer
artists for the finer arts, born seulptors for the
chisel, born judges for the bench, born priests
for the priesthood born kings for the king
craft, and born menials for mental crafts;
the bow to him who can bend it, the sceptre
to him who can sway it; the gifted according
to their gifts, and the powerful according to
their powers. Such is holy natures true law
of toll, and the sooner We follow this natural
law the better, because then we follow our
bent, and such following is felicity; for after
our bent is after our boon; and against our
bent is after our bane.
WHO ARE OUR MENIALs ? THE LADIES.
In ITSELF therefore, mental service does not
degrade. But if the mental servants talents
fit him for higher grade, then mental service
is degradation. Such fragrant wrong the
ladies of our land now suffer. Our menials
are our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.
They are our cooks, chambermaids, scullions
and washerwomen. Are they fitted for higk
er duties Who asserts that they are not ?
Are the kitchen and laundry the places for
which their talents, tastes and virtues best fit
them? None will SO assert. What then is
the fact +? If the higher talent at the lower
toll is degradation, and if our mothers. Sis
tiers, wives and daughters have talents for no.
bier tolls than frying eggs, scrubbinr floors