Arkansas true Democrat., 1861-06-20
Recent European Views of the South


 Europeans are at length correctly appre- bending the real character and claims of the Southern people, and the true causes of the political disturbances that have result ed in the dismemberment of the Union.- They begin to understand the relations of the Confederate States to modern clT'llza- tion. They have been in the habit of look ing at America only by the light oi tue northern press. They saw only the great North in the foreground, and nothing ot the South but the negro in the dark, dim and distant perspective. They saw noth-
 ing of this great region, except from the repulsive view of the abolitionists. They had some faint idea of the fact that 1t fur nshed cotton, but they confounded 1t some how with northern wealth and enterprise; they purchased southern cotton of the North, and settled with that section for 1t.
 The war is making great disclosure to the European mind. Itreveals to that peo- pie that the true sources of American power and prosperity are southward. It unveils the fact that one half the American States are the natural allies of commercial Eu- rope, and that only the northern half are rivals and competitors. It shows that the ! shipping which met that of Europeon in every port of the habtable globe belongs only to the North; that the American goods which competed with their own in all the open markets of the world, even the mar kets of Europe, come altogether from north ern factories. Nay more, 1t teaches them that the monopoly which the North pos sessed of the southern markets and of the southern coasting trade, built up, enriched and strengthened the northern manufactures to the degree which enabled that section to wage so successfully with Europe dan gerous rivalry and competition in the branches of enterprise.
 The merchants and manufacturers of Europe are beginning to see in the South not merely source for the supply of cot ton and other leading staples, but new market for European goods, heretofore clos ed against all the world but the North.- They are awakening to the fact that in the coasting trade of this great section, new field for the enterprise of European ship ping is now opened, from which it has here toforc been driven off by our jealous aavi- gation laws.
 It has been the policy of the North to prejudice the European mind against our section, and by every artiice to appreciate us in European estimation. It has been its study to conceal the resources of the South, and to envelope its concerns in a cloud of obscuriiy and prejudice. As q fortunate prospecter in California conceals the discovery of rich placer from all around, and tolls in secrecy and silence, by day and night, in extracting its precious nuggets of gold, So has the North with jealous eye kept guard upon the South, while enriching itself from her exhaustless treasuries The war interrupts this most profitable game of averice and plunder.- It brings the South forth prominently to the eyes of Europe, from the cloud of de- famation and ignorance which has envel- oped her; and it discloses to Europe that in all matters of commerce, while the North is her natural rival, the South is her natural alley. The spell by which the North held our section in commercial vas salage has been broken; the machinery by which she turned all our commerce into her own ports, and emptied all our trea- sure into her own coffers has been destroy ed. The obstacles and barriers by which she had shut out the rest of the world from our trade has been at last thrown down. The very jealousy with which she will now enforce the blockade will teach Europe the value of the jewel thus guarded; and while disclosing the existence and value of the jewels, will also prove that the tenure by which they have been held is lost forever
 But the material wealth of the South is not all that the war will disclose 60 the world. It will demonstrate that we are not the barbarians that we have been reprsent ed to be by the Summers, the Slows and Garrisons. Europe will learn that there Is a moral wealth at the South superior to any that can be found elsewhere on this continent, and equal to any that exists on that It will find something more than a community of slave traders and slave dri- yers-a community alive to the sentiments of honor, to the obligations of religion, and to the tenets of honesty and good faith. As its acquaintance with the South grows, so will it's respect for her grow, and its dis trust and prejudice will rapidly give way to confidence and esteem.