The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-11-08


present, the more especially as the results and
destination OF our great naval expedition are
still unknown.
Our Great Naval Expedition--A Reyoiu-
tion Among Our Southern seaports.
Our great naval expedition Is destined not
only to mark tho commencement Of decisive
operations by land and sea against this Southern
rebellion, but, in our opinion, it will bring
about tho commercial decline and fail Of some
Of our Oldest Southern seaport cities, and create
new ones in more eligible situations and Of
greater Importance.
Take, for instance, the present insignificant
seaport Of Beaufort, South Carolina, as com
pared with Charleston Beaufort is accessi-
Bile by two inlcts--the south channel of
st. Helena Sound, in depth seventeen feet at
low water, and tho southeast channel Of Port
Royal entrance, commanding twenty feet The
tide rises along the South Carolina coast to
the height Of nearly sevea feet, so that at high
water these Beaufort inlets would admit the
Great Eastern with heavy cargo. On the
other hand, the deepest Of the entrances to
Charleston harbor is not more than eleven ieet
ut low water, and dredging there affords but a
momentary relief, because of the continually
shifting sands under the broad exposure Of tie
bay to the waves Of the sea. Nature, in fact
has indicated some point on one Of the deep
and securely sheltered inlets of Beaufort as the
proper site for the commercial emporium Of
South Carolina The harbor of Brunswick, in
Georgia possesses equally marked natural a.
vantages over the shallow and difficult ap-
proaches to Savannah.
Under the old colonial establishment Of Eng
land, when neither steamships nor railroads
had entered into the maginations Of men, the
founders Of the provinces of South Carolina and
Georgia located their principal seaports at the
best points adopted for their internal facilities Of
transportation 1t must be remembered, too that
IN those good old times a ship Of three or four
hundred tons was q monster. Thus the prin-
junction OF Cooper and Ashley rivers, because
the harbor there commanded a sufficient depth
Of water for the ships Of that day. and because
the size thus chosen commanded on both sides
some facilities OF water transportation and an
open land communication with the interior;
whereas the deeper inlcts Of Beaufort were cut
off from the interior by shallow inlcts, bayol.s
and swamps in the rear. So, too, the site OF
Savannah was chosen over the deeper inland
waters of Brunswick, in Georgia, for the cher
seaport, especially because of the long
line of water communication with the interior
which the Savannah river commanded.
In orr day, however, with railroad or two,
including few bridges and causeways, new
seaport, established on ono of the deep inlets
of Beaufort, will soon eclipse and supcrsede
the city Of Charleston rs the principal port Of
South Carolina. And SO with Brunswick, in
Georgia, Us compared with Savannah. But
how is this to be done? We shall probably see
the work begun under the auspices of our
army and navy, on the one hand, in the opening
of a new cotton port or two, and by orr block
AIDE, on the other hand, in keeping close under
lock and key the interdicted ports of Charles
ton and Savannah.
Mark how the great empires and seats Of
commerce have been shifted from place to
place by wars of invasion, internal revolu-
tfil city of Tyre, "whose merchants were
princes" was for many generations mistress o!
the sea: but since her destruction by Alexander
she has been place of ruins ana desolation.
And the overland trade marble cities Of the
desert-Baaibec and Palniyra-and imperial
Carthage, of Africa, and Venice, the queenly
bride OF the Adriatic. how Instructive The lessons
al, 41,n,- 1fi !.
tudes of commercial supremacy. They justify
Lord Macaulay's prophecy of a learned New
Zealander, at some future day, sitting on q
broken arch of a London bridge, sketchng the
ruins Of st. Pauls. From civil war like this
Of ours, on grander scale than any preceding
civil conflict in the history of the world we
cannot expect anything else than a great revo-
luton in our political, commercial and socia,
affairs, even with the complete restoration Of
the Union. Among the commercial changes
thus impending we shall most probably wit
ness, we repeat, the decay OF some of our oldest
Southern seaboard cities, and new ones rising
in their places under the war policy Of our
government.
If among these incidental revolutionary
changes charleston snail De reduced 10 q Strag-
Cling village Of lazy wreckers and fishermen,
she will be justly punished. As it is she has re-
manned stationary for half century, notwith-
standing all the stimuants applied for her bene-
fit from our federal treasury. But her ambition
Ito which we may trace the inception Of a South
ern confederacy and this Southern rcbellon)
has only been equalled by her treachery. She
has contrved this great conspiracy against the
best government that any people have ever en-
.ioyed in order to become the commercial en-
porium Of the South. She aspires to that dis
tinction, and she, with her Punic faith, may well
dread the fate of Carthage. But to punish her
vanity, folly and treachery, it will not be ne
cessary to visit her with fire and sword. BY
keeping her locked up on a diet of bread and
water, and by opening another port as sub
stitute, Charleston may be starved out Of exist
cnce. In fact she and Savannah and some
other old Southern scaports can only escape
sufocation by the speedy suppression Of this re-
beiiion.