Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1860-02-18
COTTON AND AMERICAN SLAVERY.


The importation of cotton into this country has since
the import duty was abolished, increased sxteen-fod.-
Having been SO 600 600 lbs il is now lOOOOOO,uOO lbs.
This one of those giant facts which stano head and
shoulders higher than the crowd-so high and so broad
that we can neither overlook affect not to see It,
II nroves the existence of thousand smaller facts that
must stand under its shadow Ii tells OF sixteen times MS
many mills sixteen times many English families living
by working those mills, sixteen times as much proht de-
rived from sixteen times much capital engaged IN this
manufacture Ii carries after it sequences OF increased
ouantty of freghts and nsurance and necessities for
sixteen times the amount of customers to consume to
our profit the immense amount OF produce We are turn
ing out There not many such facts as hese arising
in the quiet routine OF industrial history 1t Is so large
and SO steady that can steer our national policy
Inv il: il is so important to that should be
reduced to embarrassment if it were suddenly to
disappear. 1t teaches Us to perseNere IN policy
which has produced so wonderful result; its he
inefficient operation makes il essential to US to deal
| carefully with it now we have got it, Some years
ago an island arose in the Mediterranean and We were all
discussing il and quarreng abont 1t, and keeping up
brisk fire of diplomatic notes over 1t, when one hne
morning the disguised island suddenly went down again,
and ships sent survey sailed over the site had
occupied We must do anything to disgust this huge
lump of profitable work which has suddenly risen among
us We are inclined to look upon it with respectful
and supersous tenderness, rather as gambler does
upen run Of luck of cards hoping it may last forever.
Lord Brougham and the veterans of the old Anti
Slavery Society do not we fear share delight this
great increase in the employment OF our home popua-
ton Their midds are still scared by those horrible
stories which burnt in upon them in their youth,
when England not only slave owning, but even a
slaye-trading State. Their remorse is great
that the ghost of a black is always before
them They are benevolent and excellent people;
but if a black man happen to have broken his shin
and white man were in danger of drowning, we much
fear that real An-Slayery zealot would bind up the
black mans leg before he would draw the white man out
r, a., Il il Mt
while we see only of generalization in this Won
derful increase Of trade Lord BRoUGHAM sees in it the
e1aggeraon of evil he ceases to deplore. We,
and such who content to look upon society a
Providence allows it TO exsttO mend 1t when we can,
but not to distress ourselves immoderately for evils
which are not of creaOn-we only the free and
intelligent English families who thrive upon the wages
which these cotton bales produce. Lord BRoUGHAN sees
only the black aborers who on the other side OF the At
| lantc pick the cotton pods in slavery. Lord BRoUG-
HAN deplores that in this tremendous importation OF
thousand millions of pounds OF the lions share of
the profit goes the United States and has been pro-
duced by slave labor Instead of twenty millions,
| the United States send us eight hundred and
| thirty millions and this is all cultivated by slaves
! IL is very sad that this should be so, but We do
not see our way to a remedy, There seems to be
rather a chance of its becoming worse If France who
il already moving EDWARDS in restless purbnd state,
should open her eyes wde should give herself fair play
by accepting Goals iron and machinery and under
the stlmuluS OF NuOltsOme TAXI
manufacturing upon a large scale then these three mil
lions will not be enough. France will be competing with
Us in the foreign markets. stimulating still further
the produce OF Georgia and South Carolina. The jump
which the consumption of cotton in England has just
made is but single leap which may be repeated indeh-
nitely There are thousand millions of mankind upon
the globe all OF whom be most comfortably clad in
cotton. Every year tribes and new nations are ad-
ded to the category Of cotton There Is every
reason believe that the supply Of this universal neces
/ u will for fail 10 keep
with the demand and, in the interest of that large class
of our cOuntrymen 10 whom cotton Is bread We must
continue to hope that the United States will be able to
supply us in years to with twice as much as we
| bought of them in years past
"Iet Us raise up another market says the Anti-Sa-
very people So say we all. We know very well that the
possibility Of growing cotton is not confined to the New
World The plains of Bengal grew cotton before Column
bus born, and We with our mechanical advantages,
can actually afford take the Bengal cotton from the
growers and send it back them in yarns and pieces
cheaper than they make it up. So also thousands
of square miles in China covered by the cotton plant
and day may perhaps repeat the same process
there Africa too promises cotton. Dr. Livingstone
found a country in which the growth was indigenous,
and where the chiefs anxious to be taught how TO
cultivate it for European market. There is no lack
of lands and climate where cotton could be poduced-
Ii is said of gold that substance in nature Is more
widely dlsed and more omnipresent; but unfortunate
w. is is dfused under conditions which make seldom
possible to win it with profit So it is of cotton The
conditions under which become available for our mar
kets are often present in the wild cotton which our
travellers discover they to be Immediately sup
Piled Remember the efforts which the French have made
to produce cotton in Algeria the enormous prize they Of
ered the prices which they brought all the produce
the care with which such fabrics prepared from these
cottons Rouen and exhibited at tue Paris Exhibition
and then the miserable result after so many years
of artificial protection. 1t will eventually as the
cotton wants of the world press heavily and more heav
y il must come We shall have cotton from India, from
China aud from Africa would advocate every means
within reasonable limits to quicken the development we
would ask whether to introduce cotton culture
upon large scale into Africa would be TO secure that At
rican cotton would be raised by slave labor. But
Lord Brougam would not ask to believe that there Is
any proxmate hope that the free cotton raised in Africa
will within any reasonable time, drive out of culture the
slave-grown cotton of America If this be So of what
use can be to make irritating speeches in the House OF
Lords against a of things by which content
to proftg Lord Brougham aud Lord Gray not men
of slch illogical minds to be incapable of understand
ing that it is the demand of the English manufacturers
which stimulates the produce of slave grown American
They neither of them, apprehend so reck
less or wicked wish to close factories and
throw some two millions of our manufacturing population
of bread Why then these inconsequent and these
Irritating denuucations? Let fields of pro-
duce if cam but meanwhile it is neither just dig
nfed to buy this material from the Americans, and
to revile them for producing it,
From the Neo York Express.
HEROIZING HICKMAN