The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-05-26
HOW THE SOUTH LOST IT'S com
MERGE

MERGE.
No absurdity can revolt the understanding 4
Southern constituency, if it is put forth in Sc
name of Slavery. 1t is only necessary for .
demagogue to allege extraordinary zeal for a.
rights of the South" and any nonsense he may
utter will be received as Gospel truth. As a
case in point, we quote the following psssal e
from the recent letter of Mr. Letcher, of W.
ginia, to his constituents
I'm the early days of our history, Virgin,
had direct trade of more than So 900, 0001s q
nually; and if our State had been Justly dealt =
in our Federal legislation, instead of having =
minished, that trade would have largely -
creased. For my reference to this fact, in o. 2
of my speeches in the Convention, have been
arraigned by my competitor, and most uniuss =
charged with hostility to the interests of e ;
city Of Norfolk. Is not the fact as have stat ]
it? Will it be pretended, by any man, that 4 i,
direct trade of Virginia now is what i. was ?
the time of the formation of the Federal Co 5
stitution? If not, what has caused its destr9--
ton? Let my competitor, and those who va .
him favor the protective policy, which has hs /
the effect of building up the commercial {,
portance of the North at the expense of s,
OOuiL, dhoWcL W Iuc ptOpic Ol n. 4
her commercial towns and cities, for this {, /
result"
1t would puzzle the head of Mr. Letcher, -
explain how the protective tariff policy, viii !
has only existed for a few years at a time, a /
at intervals, has wrought such ruin to the Sout
and proved so beneficial to the North 1t wot<l
be equally difficult to explain how the freetra
Democracy, which has had possession of t.
Government since 1901, with the exception =
about eight years, came to surrender the &C
troll of our commercial policy to their bitter q :,
ponents. The problem becomes still more d.
fcult of solution, if we reflect that, during t.
last term of Wing rule, under Taylor and Fl =,
more, no change was made in the reven5a
tariff established in 1876, under James X. Poll 4
Administration. During the last thirteen year.
we have enjoyed what is known as a revenS
tariff, and yet during that period the cities: a
Virginia and the South have exhibited no si6
of commercial activity. They may have i1-
proved slightly, with the country at large, b.
not as it regards foreign commerce. :.
Mr.. Letcher, therefore, must either be undea
stood as advocating absolute free trade, ana
complaining of any tariff duties whatever as IL;
furious to the South, or he must abandon III
childish theory of explaining the poverty .
Southern cities, and their barrenness of cofF,
merce. large and intelligent class of Sours.
erners attribute the paucity of commerce Is
that quarter to the opposite cause, viz: the
want of protection. But they are no less MIS-
taken than the free traders. When Southern
politicians cease to amuse the people with friS
olous apologies for the palpable inferiority O.
the South in everything, and when they coms
to grapple with the facts before them, as honest
and candid men, there will be no two opinions
among them. They will infallibly arrive at the
conclusion that Slavery is at the bottom of it.
The idea that the South once had com
merce which it has lost is great mistake Be
fore the revolution, the foreign goods consumed
in Virginia and the Carolinas were imported
directly from England, in English vessels. The
same vessels carried away the exports. The
commerce was not in the hands of the South
ern Colonists at all and they have now ter
times as many ships and sailors as they possess
ed when their exports and imports exceeded
those of the Northern Colonies. The develop
ment of Northern industry and enterprise ana
the protection afforded by our revenue system
has enabled the North to monopolize the com
merce of the South, which was formerly, unde,
the English colonial system, monopolized BY
English merchants.
The idea that the South was ever extensively
engaged in commerce is too silly and childish
to impose on any man of common intelligence
Where is the evidence of it2 Where are tbs
ruins OF the great commercial marts which
must have fourished in those palmy DAYS 9
Southern prosperity? Unluckily for this idle
notion, it has been the practice of the Fedora
Government to have a careful enumeration
made, every ten years, of the inhabitants of eacl
county, city, town, and hamlet, in the Union
and the result proves that those of the South
have had slow but steady growth that the,
were, at the commencement of our career as
nation, far inferior to the Northern towns ant
cities and that the disparity has been constant
| ly increasing. 1t is also obvious, from glanc
at the census returns, that the period of great
| est prosperity III Ino OOuLnern towns was NO
that of its imaginary commercial greatness
when the duties upon foreign goods wess insie
nihcant as compared with their present rates
but the reverse. The Southern towns are thri
wing to-day, upon the internal and coast trade
In far greater degree than during the halcyo
perl'd of direct importations from Europe i
British ships. They owe their present compal
alive prosperity and progress, not to protectiono
to free trade, hut to the internal improvement,
which have been made within the last twent
years. They must continue TO RELY upon tn
internal trade. Under no system of reyenu
laws, whether it be high protective tariff {
free trade and direct taxes, can the South b,
come commercial, while half her capital is sun
in an unproductive investment in slaves. If
like proportion of Northern capital were sim
: larry invested, her magnificent commerce voul
never have had an existence, and we should SIT
, have been in commercial as well as polite
vassalage to Great Britain.
DEATH OF BISHOP PoRTIER-The Right Re
f Michael PORTER, Catholic bishop of the dioce
t of Alabama and Florida, died ct Mobile on Il