The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1859-08-17
Can the South Prosper under a sepa.
rate Government ?

II would be easy to show that, while a dis
soIut;on Of the Union would be fraught with
? certain ruin to the Northern States it would
tend to elevate and give increased security
to the South. A severance from her main
I sources of wealth and prosperity, would ne
cessarily cause the North to suffer But
;; such a separation would act quite differently
. upon the Southern States. 1t would not only
place their domestic institutions beyond the
reach of the daily dangerous interference to
which they are, now exposed, but 1t would
tend to extend their commerce, and impart
new and quickening impulse to Their Agg:i-
culture. BY throwing open the Southern
ports to the trade and shipping of Great Brit
ain and exchanging the rich staples OF the
South, for the manufactures and money of
| customers who would be forward and glad
to open free intercourse with them, the
Southern people would at once be placed ur1-i
dsr the gold >dFeppings Of England and
France. They would receive the wealth-dif-
fnsing returns of the most enriching commerce
ever enjoyed by free people.
i The South under separate government,
| would be brought into direct commercial inS
tecourse with the Eastern continent and
would thus be placed under the necessity of
maintaining expensive steam lines, or mill
tary marine for the protection either of her
trade or her sea board-as the ships of other
nations laden with the rich products ofsher
teeming soil, would be conveyed by, or ena-
bled to traverse the ocean safely, under the
guardianship of the navies of those nations, or
their respective governments Through
blindness to the future, mot kindly gven'' =
| or rather, from false notions of patriotism
the South concurred in the policy by which we
drove England, our best customer, from our
ports, in order to build up Northern shipping
| and Northern manufactures We were thus
furnished with inferior, and in the end, dearer
articles of consumption than those previously
supplied US by the mother country In this
way We diverted the rich commerce which
had previously flowed between the two coun-
tries, from its natural channel, and gave it an
oblique and unnatural direction to the North
ern marts. By this means, not less than
twenty millions of dollars annually are skim
med from the proceeds of Southern exports. |
For these sacrifices the South is requited by |
an implacable and insane hostility, by plots |
against her domestic peace, and by unceasing |
efforts to destroy the sources of her agricul-
tural prosperity. And on the part of the ben
efciaries of patriotism, there is an insatiate |
desire to take advantage of the South's gene
rous devotion to the common good of the coun-
try; and to profit by her faithful fulfilment |
of Federal duties. The manufacturing inter- |
ests of England, have, fora long time formed |
the handspring of her vital existence. Hence |
it was but natural that she should resent the |
attempts which have been made in the United |
States to build up and sustain Northern man.
uhctories, at the expense, injury and probable
ruin of her own. In this, we have an expla- |
nation of the persevering efforts of England |
to procure the raw MATERIAL for the supply |
of her countless spindles, from the East and |
from the Northern borders of Africa And |
here, too, originated the cause of her dark and |
deep laid conspiracy for the overthrow of sla-
yerE in the cotton osnp-isao, St"t f
Now II the South were to secede from the |
Union and become an independent govern
ment, all the old commercial relations between |
her and Great Britain would be Immediately
restored. The ships of England would bear |
hence the produce of the South, and bring |
back the rich returns of those exports. The |
English manufacturer, instead of the North |
ern Abolitionist, would prepare fabrics from
the matchless staple of the South. This am
icable relationship aided by a strict non-inter-
course between the South and the North |
would at once allay, and forever put to rest |
the agitation of the subject of slavery. Eng
land would likewise cease her exploratory at
tempts to find another Gossypin, from whence
to procure the wondrous material whereby a
new bond Of peace has been formed between
nations, and fabrics are wrought almost as
fine as those described in the fairy tale-which
it was said could be drawn through the eye
VI q AiSSOAO ehOuSA ChouSh "
the flowing robe of a Queen. Were the
subject of slavery agitation dropped by Eng
land, it would simultaneously cease, or die out
in the North, where her echoes and agents,
and the emissaries who have been so literally
supplied with the means of printing, preach
ing, exciting, and suborning mobs to resist the
execution of the laws, would, we repeat, on
the suspension of payment by their employer,
become SILENT cease from troubling, and
be heard no more.
The highest benefits of the Union have ever
accrued to the Northern States. For they, as
the carriers of the produce of Southern soil,
and as the factors between the planters and
the foreign purchasers of that produce, and
through the protection which has been given
to their manufactures, their shipping and their
fisheries, have waxed rich, and grown rapidly
great "above their fellows" Yet, with stu
pid infatuation, and the mingled insolence and
insensibility which long continued prosperity
seldom fails to engender, they treat with
taunts and insults their Southern brethren by
whose capital and industry, they have risen to
riches and power Then let submission cease
to be the instrument of conciliation on the
part of the South; and let right, equality and
Justice assert their supremacy.