The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-07-02
YcsHsmlcal Inde prudence and Wealth Of the

The impending critis to the commerce and
manufactures Of the North Is beginning to
make itsslf manifest to those who have any
faculties Of perception and of reflection. The
iallacies Of HsLrER's Statistics are no longer
fashionable. Such singular exposition Of
political economy as the following from that
foolish rhodomontads is no longer gospel:
"Any observant American, from whatever
point or the compass he may hail, who will
take the trouble to pass through the Southern
markets, both great and small, As we have
done. and inquire where this article, that and
the other came from, will be utterly aston
ished at the variety and quantity OF Northern
agricultural produc tons kept for sale. And
this state Of things is growing worse and
worse every year. Exclusively agricultural
as the Sou tn is in her industrial pursuits, che
is barely able to support her sparse and de
generate population. Her men and her do
mestic animals, both dwarfed into snaooy
objects Of ommiseration under the blight ting
effects OF slavery, are constantly FEEDING on
the muitifarious products of Northern soil.
Aud If the whole truth must be told, we may
here add that these products, ike all other
articles Of merchandise purchased at the
North are generally bought on credit, and in
a great number of instances, by far too many,
yer paid for-not, az general rule, because
the purchasers are dishonest or UNIV Hing to
pay, but because they are impoverished and
depressed by the retrogre seiye and deadening
operations OF slavery, that most unprofi table
and pernicious institution under which they
live"
It is now beg inning to be discovered, even
at the North, that this witness, like many
others who 80 on the stand to support an I'M
sound cause, proves too much. He admits
the variety and quantity Of Northern produc-
tions which have been sold at the South, but
which he says are never paid for not because
the purchasers are dishonest, but because they
are impoverished and depressed by the re-
Progressive and deadening operations of the
institutions under which they live. The New
York Herald, whose testimony in this case can
not be impeached on the ground Of partiality
to the South, admits that there is not mer-
chant, trader, farmer, manufacturer, or ship
owner, from the capes of Delaware to Pas
somoquoddy, who does not know that, as a
class, the merchants and traders of the South
have been the safest and best purchasers
that ever came from a distance to buy in the
Eastern markets.
1t is another undeniable fact, that when this
crisis came upon New York in 1857, ripping
up the bubble of Eastern and Northern cx-
pansion, it was the trade Of the South that
| saved thousands upon thousands of New York
merchants from bankruptcy, and which first
| set the wheels and hammers of Northern
manufactures again in motion. The trade OF
| the great Northwest was pronounced in New
| York at that time to be perfectly rotten, and
has not since entirely recovered sound con-
dition. On the other hand, the leading
commercial journals of New York, have over
| and over again conceded that the South, fol
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 pro-
Queer of any kind but would be glad with the
return of peace, to sell to the South twice as
much of Northern products as he ever sold
before.
Even HELPER could not deny the magnitude
auctions, and yet he was absurd enough to
argue that the North should destroy the South
| by an aggressive aud agrarian invasion of its
| social institutions. And those very New York
papers which were foremost in exposing bis fall
| lacies, have been insane enough to join the
hue and cry of the present wicked and sense
| less war. The first effect of this policy has
been to destroy the great Southern market
for Northern productions, the existence and
value of which they had acknowledged. II
threw back at once upon the Northern mar
| ket the surplus of potatoes, onions, apples
corn, hay, butter and cheese which Northern
farmers had sold at the South, and the immune
rab!e fabrics of cotton, linen, wool, leather
metal, glass, clay, &c, which it had taken from
Northern workshops. h is needless to say
that the financial revulsion in the North
| which must follow this suicidal war upon it,
own interests, will surpass the most gigantic
| disaster of the kind that has ever been wit
messed in modern times.
But this unholy and absurd crusade, SC
ruinous to the North, has made the idea of in.
dustrial independence as rife in the South a.
that of civil and political freedom. Indeed, il
has now become evident that to achieve thai
Might which is the only Right acknowledged
| by lawless men, a nation must rely upon itsel
for the supply of its own wants. The block
AIDE has already produced new manufacturing
| enterprises in the Southern States which were
never dreamed Of before. Our cotton mills
will be increased, new FORCES and foundries
set up, workshops of all kinds opened, local
efforts in production and manufacture stimula.
ted everywhere, and a universal public senti.
ment established to use or consume no one
thing not grown or manufactured on Southern
soil. Direct trade with foreign countries is a
thing we shall easily accomplish. for the
North was only able to concentrate it through
the ease, frequency and friendlness of its CON-
munications with the South.
For such an economical policy the South is
eminently independent of the North. She
need not rely on the North for the raw mate
rials--such as cotton and wool, timber and
ores, hides and earths-nor for the products
which are now necessaries in civilized life
such as the cereals, sugar and tobacco. She
has them all within herself, aud when she
adopts an economical policy like that which
separates the contiguous nations Of Europe
from each other, she will find it Of easier accom-
plishment than ever has before been found
On the day that she does this the North will
become tributary to the South, and it will puz-
zle Northern economists to find wherewith to
pay for the Southern productions which they
must buy-such us sugar and tobacco, cotton
and naval stores. These have been hitherto
paid for in "Yankee Notions" which will not
henceforth pass current in a Southern latitude.