Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-06-18

Cotton-Its Value. influences, &c.
The following is an extract from speech
made in Congress, January 18th, 1855, by
Hon. A Fl. Stephens. of Ga:
want, to say few things. Mr.. Chairman,
about one of our great staples. l mean the
article of cotton and wish to say what L
do on that subject, from the fact that have
seen it stated that the Ohio hay crop was
equal to the Georgia cotton crop, and that
the hay crop of the United States annually is
quite equal in importance, as an agricultural
product to this great Southern, or, should
rather say, national staple. Those who thus
think or talk, or argue, take very narrow,
imperfect and unphilosophical. as well as un-
statesmanlke view of the subject. As to the
mere money value of this article, or its excess
in value over the other, it is not my purpose
to speak; that-great as, in fact, it Isis q
small matter, Infinitely SMALL when placed
By the side OF other larger and more compre-
hensive considerations OF the question. Some
things have values extrinsic as well as intrin-
sic = Cotton is eminently one OF these. Gold
and silver are not so much entitled to be
placed on the list of such things as it is. The
extrinsic value of these metals arises from
their agency as the adopted representatives
of all values. With their displacement, how
ever, many substitutes could be obtained.
But what substitute could be procured for the
agency of cotton,
Let Us look. for a moment, into some of the
relations of this product to the active bust
ness operations of the world. To illustrate, L
will state simple facts. These facts are col
lected from the very able report l hold in my
hand. 1t was made by Mt. Andrews, a
Northern man. IL is Elk. Doc. No. 136, 1st
sess. 32d Cong. Full credit, therefore, may
be given to the facts. They come with the
stamp of the highest authority. From this
document it appears that the cotton crop of
this country gives employment to at lea
10000 tons of inland steam tonnage. and
1000 persons in Transporting it to points for
shipment. 1t gives employment to 10000
American seamen. and one million OF Ameri-
can tonnage in its cOastwise shipment 1t
gives employment to 800 900 tons of Ameri-
can shipping, aud 10000 American seamen,
in its foreign shipment. Twenty five thousand
other persons, at least, are engaged in re-
c.iving and shipping it. 1t gives employ
ment 10 at least 100 QUO operatives in Amer
lean factories, whose annual wages are over
Sl7 900 900. In these factories there are in
vested eighty millions of American capital,
which turn out, annually, at least seventy
millions worth of products. With these facts
before him, the writer of the report uses this
language. / ask the attention of the COM
mittee to it, because it is no less graphic than
truthful:
Every interest throughout the land-at
the North and the South, in the East and the
West, in the interior, and the Pacific as well
as The Atlantic cOast-receives from it (cot-
toni active and material aid. II promotes es-
sentially. the agricultural interests in those
States where cotton is not produced. 1t is
the main source of the prosperity OF the me-
chanic, the artisan, and other labOring class
es, as well as that of the merchant and man
uiacturer in every section of the Union
Everywhere it has laid, broad and deep, and
permanent, the foundations of the wealth and
strength of the United States, and of their
independence of fOreign nations. More than
else has this product made other ma
lions, even the most powerful, dependent on
the United States of America. More than
any other article, nay, more than all other
agricultural products united, has cotton adj |
vanced the navigating and commercial 1n-
Ierests of the entire Atlantic States, and OF
the whole Union. 1t, more than any ot1er |
agricultural product, has cherished and sus-
tanned those interests, not merely by its di- |
rect contribution, but by awakening COM
merce in other countries, from which they
have received profitable employment. Neither
the whale fisheries, nor the mackerel and cod
f-herIes have been of the same Importance
and value to those interests as the annual
cotton crop of the United States, since the
war of 1872. has been. for its transportation |
cOastwise aud expectation to foreign coun- |
tries. Like the light and heat of the sun, the ge-
NAL effects of this estimable blessing which |
Providence has bestowed upon this favord
people, reach every portion of the land
They extend to every city, and town, and viii |
lage, and hamlet and farm-house-to the ship, |
to the steamboat, to the canal barge, and to
the railroad"
Yes, sir, throughout the length and
breadth of this vast Confederation of States
there is not a tenement. whether cabiu or
palace. where the life-giving and life-sustain-
ing influence of this Southern product is not
felt aud realized. And besides this, it may
be added that the same article gives employ
ment, and the means of supporting human
life, to at least three millions of persons in
Europe, and the investment of at least three
huadred millions of their capital! Figures
almost fail, sir, to calculate the extent of the
influence of this article upon the comfort, the
happiness aid well being OF mankind. The
one sixth, at least, of all these results is due
to that portion of this product contributed
by Georgia. This sketch gives US but a
slight glance at some of the eXtrinsic values
of cotton, to which the money value to the
grower, great as 1t is, Is but drop In the
ocean. But who, in the face of these facts,
and these grand results, can be bold enough
to maintain that this product of the
South, in value and Importance, is to be
b. put in the balance and weighed down by
the hay crop of the North? Or, that the cot
ton crop OF Georgia. that contributes one
sixth OF all these results, is in like manner,
to be put in the scales against the hay crop
of Ohio? The dried grass, the cow food, that
sustans life for a season in their herds oil cat
tie; though they were countless in number!
The subjects hardly allow a contrast, much
less comparison; aud whoever attempts it,
does injustice, not only to bis own intelli-
gence as a statesman, if he has spark OF it
about him, bat he does gross injustice to one
of the most important elements of his coun-
try's greatness! To adopt tine figure of the
author of the report have just read from,
we might much better compare the lard
lamps, or wood fires, or whatever else lights
up The dwellings of the ninteen hundred
thousand inhabitants of that State every
night, to the fuil blaze OF the GLORIOUS King
of Day." at noon, shedding abroad not only
light, but heat, animation, and life, upon a
smiling world around US.