Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1861-02-01
Mr.. Alleys Speech.

Hon. John Il. Alley, OF Massachusetts
made good Speech in the House las
week, in which he took thorough business
view Of the subject, and from which we
make the following extract:
In speech which made to this House
on the Both day of April last, used the fol.
lowing language:
'Bu we of the North are not only threa-
ened with dissolution of the Union, in the
vent of a contingency which think Is sure
to happen, namely, the election ola Re
publican President, but we are told that
non-intercourse is to he established immedi-
atty with the North, and the South will pur-
chase no more of her products. This Is, in
deed, alarming; but let US inquire how
this is to be effected. Everything that th"
South has to sell, her poverty compels her
10 sell for cash only, while everything we
dispose o. to the South we give her liber.
al credit upon. The South to day cannot in
my opinion, pay its debts and it has not pro-
perry enought, in my judgment-no what
we in the North call property-to pay
seventy.five cents on the dollar of what il
owes; and shall they talk of non-inter-
course? Why, if you except the last few
years in which the South has been remark
ably prosperous, owing to the high price OF
her products---a state of things which it is
impossible should last---and the North has
lost more money at the South a great deal,
than she has ever made by the trade of the
South, and there is scarcely Northern
merchant who has not been obliged to de-
pend upon his prouts from custom received
from the Middle and Western States to
meet his losses suffered in trade at the
South. / remember well that in the great
commercial revolution which swept ever this
country like tornado in 1887, every
Northern merchant that | know in all the
Northern cities that dealt exclusively with
the South, failed and was ruined. The
same again occurred in 1872 the year in
which the United States bankrupt law was
passed. which wiped out untold millions of
Southern NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., in fact. than
the profits Of the whole trade Of the South
would then amount to for half a score OF
years. The only houses that survived those
two storms were those which had kept clear
OF trade with the South"
Mr.. Speaker: What then said fully
believed and thought knew. 1t has now
become history, which no one thinks of de-
nyirg. | have traded much with the South.
and my own experience is corroborative of
these views. have bestowed much thought
and investigation upon the subject, and
am willing to stake nv reputation as a
merchant upon the record of the declara-
tion--that commercially and financially, if
you take into view only the business inter-
ests of the two sections, the North would
be better off if the Union should be dis
solved tomorrow. Even if this Union is
to be perpetuated, in my opinion the South
never will. and never can pay one half Of
its indebtedness TO the North, without con-
tracing new debts 10 help TO meet its old
obligations; the whole property of all The
Cotton States, if you except slaves, viii
not equal by many millions, in my judy
ment, that of The State of Massachusetts.
The great staple of the South about which
she boasts so much, and with which she is
to move the world, does not amount to ore
half so much as the annual products Of
Massachusetts. And | viii venture the
prediction, that within eight years cotton
will not be of one half the relative impor-
lance TO manufactures that it is to-day.
The introduction of fax will diminish the
use of ii very materially. / have spoken
Of the property of the South--if You ex-
cept slaves. But why except slaves? Be.
cause they are not property only in a con-
ventional sense. They are not good for
any thing 10 pay debts with beyond the
community where slavery is legaIized, and
they add nothing to the aggregate wealth
of country or community. They are
NO more property, so far as the wealth Of
the community is concerned, than our pop
ulation at the North is property.