The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-12-19


Wealth Of tho south.
The impending crisis to the commerce aud
manufactures Of the North, which is gathering
in force through the fanatical teachings Of a
few hundred Northern demagogues and politi-
cal parsons. is beginning to come home to the
public mind and awakening il to recognition
of the true relations of Northern aud Southern
industry. The abolitionized republican party
managers are constantly endeavoring to falsify
the facts of the case and the agrariau incen-
diary Helper frequently asserts that the South
ern States are stepped in poverty aud wretch
edness, and to support this statement he
brings forward a series Of garbled statistics
made up from the census reports, and which
fewNorthern readers will take the trouble to
analyze before accepting.
He introduces what he calls "the bushel and
gallon estimate Of the production and wealth
Of the South, with foolish rhodomontade,
from which we extract the following most sin
gular exposition of political economy we have
ever met with
Any ooservant American, from whatever point of the
j compass he may hail, who will take tho trouble pass
through the Southern markets. both great ana small as
we have done, and inquire where this article the
0ther came FROM will be utterly astOnshed the variety
and quantity Of Northern agricultural productions kepfo
sale. And this state OF things growing worsc aud
worse every year. Exclusively agricultural the South
is IN her Industrial pursuits she is barely able sup
| port her sparse and degenerate population Her men
and her domestic animals both dwaried into shabby OBJ
iecis of commseraton under the biighting effects OF
slavery, are constantly feeding the multiarous pro-
ducts Of Northern soil And the whole truth must be
told may here add tina, these products like all other
articles Of merchandise purchased North are gene
rally bought Oh credit and, in great number OF in
stances BY far too many never paid ne
mr. uvi 10
pay but because they ace impoverished aud depressed
BY the retrogresve aud deadenng operations of slavery
that most Improbable aud pernicous institution under
| which they live.
IN this case the witness, like too many others
who have gone upon the stand to support an
unsound cause, proves too much. He ac-
knowledges his establishment at the variety and
quantity OF Northern agricultural productions
sold at the South, but which are never paid
for, not because the purchasers are dishonest,
but because they are impoverished and de-
pressed "by the retrogressive and deadening
operations of the institution under which they
live" Now there is not merchant, trader,
farmer, manufacturer or ship owner, from the
! capes Of Delaware to Passamaquoddy, but
knows that, as a class, the merchants and ira
ders of the South are the safest and best pur-
chasers that come from distance to buy in our
Eastern markets. 1t is patent, too, to every
sensible man in the community, that when the
crisis came upon lis in 1857, ripping up the
bubble of Eastern and Northern expansion, it
was the trade of the South that saved thou
sands upon thousands of our merchants from
bankruptcy then, and which first set the
wheels and hammers Of our manufactures
again in motion. The trade of the great
Northwest was as rotten as punk at that
time and has not yet entirely recovered
sound condition. But the South for the last
twenty years has never failed in its payments
to the North, and instead Of getting large
amounts Of agricultural productions and
of manufactures on credit which is
never paid, there is not Northern merchant
or producer Of any kind but would be glad to-
day to sell to the South twice as much Of North
ern products as he now sells.
Even Helper cannot but confess the magni-
tude of the Southern consumption of Northern
productions, and yet he is foolish enough to
argue that the North should destroy the South
by an aggressive and agrarian invasion of its
social institutions. The first effect of such
policy as Helper and his sixty-eight black re-
publican Congressional hackers recommend
would be to destroy the great Southern market
for Northern productions, which he acknow
lodges exists. Such a result would throw back
upon the Northern market the surplus Of pota-
toes, onions, apples, corn, hay, butter and
cheese, which Northern farmers now sell In the
South, and the innumerable fabrics of cotton,
linen, wool, leather, metal, glass; clay, &C.,
which it now takes from Northern workshops.
Helper and his helpers may not be able to fore
see what effect such closing Of the Southern
markets would have upon the North; bat there
is not banker, merchant, or any other man of
common sense, who does not see that it would
affect values of all kinds, and produce greater
financial revulsion here than has ever before
been experienced.
We do not believe that the North is so blind
as to permit such agrarian incendiaries as
Helper and his abolition associates to lead it
; into the adoption of their aggressive policy
against the South, and are confident that the
common sense and patriotism Of the conserva-
tive masses will save us from such a catas-
trophe. But the agitation which these fanatics
in the North are getting up is fast driving the
South into the adoption Of certain principles of
political economy, which will eventually de-
stroy the Southern market for Northern pro-
ductions. Already the idea Of industrial indie
pendence is rife there, and efforts are being
begun to stimulate local efforts in production
and manufacture. Cotton mills are on foot
FORCES and foundries set up, workshops Of all
kinds opened, and a general public feeling is
being created to use or consume no one thing
not grown on Southern soil, or manufactured
on Southern water privilege or by Southern
steam engine. Direct trade with foreign coun-
tries is a thing easily accomplished BY the