The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-04-25
COTTON CROPS OF THE UNITED STATES


The fact that the last of these years, though
years of the most enormous production nave
been character zed by the highest prces'
proves that the consumption has been steadily
gaining on production (; and when we consluer
that product of 3,25ooOO bales in 1890
brought higher prices than product of2,OOo,-
600 bales in lS45 the conclusion is safe that
a product of 5 or 100000 Of bales in 1866
will bring still higher prices Gf it can be pro-
! daced) than tie cop os 1888. All &c tss-s'
the demand is rapidly Outstripping the supply,
| and nothing but an extension OF the cnltiNa-
ton into new prarie regions where no time oil
the African laborer shall be wasted in telling
the forest, can swell the production as rapidly
| as the swelling proportions Of the demand-
In view Of these facts, it is evident that the
most efficacious and humane means OF replen-
ishing the cotton labor market is to make the
| North and Canada send back our fugitive
slaves and allow the fine cotton soils on the
| nnhlic domain West and Southwest Of he
Mississippi to be colonzed by the supernu-
merarv negroes at the Southwestern States,
instead of bv eternal agitation, compelling
their retention here and employment IN the
ruder mechanic arts for which Nature never
designed the nigger. Nay, we might go iarth-
er and suggest another wiser and more humane
expedient for increasing the product otcotton,
and that is, by the same rule OF right unoer
which these astute casuists propose to capture
the wild African in Dahomey, to catch tame
Africans infesting the lanes, alleys, nooks and
corners Of the North and Canada, and sell
them to emigrant Southwestern cotton plan
tiers for the two-lold benefit oftheir own State
treasures and the Southwestern cotton labor
market.
1t has been so ordained that the cotton plant
will produce merchantable qualities OF the sta
pie in no considerable regions OF the eartn put
those portions of the United States lying be-
low the parellel of SO deg, and the more ele-
waited lands of Mexico and Central America,
where the several seasons of the year are not
merged into each other, and where rains and
sunshine alternate as on the northern shore OF
the Gulf 1t is also notorious that it is only
in Texas and the adjutant regions west OF the
Mississippi, that vast prairies yet lie uncultl-
vated awaiting the ploughshare, and capable
of producing cotton the very first season in
which labor can be procured to turn up their
virgin soils. Thus, it follows that the only
possibility of increasing the annual product OF
cotton with the rspidity required by the swell
| ling demands Of the world, consists IN push
! ING f,rward every fibre of our spare African
| labor into those untimbered soils, and bring
ing the cotton lands of Mexico and Central
America into requisition by iHvigorating the
system of peon labor and reducing those coun-
tries to the sway Of law and government.
We might 90 here into the statistics OF the
cotton demand, and show that too rapid pres
sure of this demand upon inadequate supplies
would result in civil convulsions in every
free labor society of Christendom we would
show that a failure to produce even crop oi
100000 bales ten years hence might unset
tie half the Monarchies Of Europe and convulse
the social frame work OF all our Middle and
Eastern States. Where is this enormous
increase of the crop to be made, ifit be not IN
soils which are not yet, in the blasphemous
iargon of the abolitionists 'consecratedt to free
dom ?''-and by what labor can it be pIodu-
cei if the negro slave is to be confined to his
present abodes, and negro supernumeraries
are TO be provided with employ ~. ss.,.~s
mechanic arts which nature designed for white
men only, instead of being sent out TO new
, regions where the Almighty always intended
he should find his chief employment as con-
stituent element and active agent OF civiliza-
ton =?