The national Republican., 1861-03-27
A LESSON TO BE LEARNED.
A correspondent of the Richmond Enquire,


will spring up in her cities. Her palaces must
lie in mournful ruins, like those of Palmyra
and Babylon, and the bittern and the owl in.
habit her pleasant places. Like Persia 10 the
great cities of the East, 80 has the South been
to New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. As
il was once, so it must be again. The wind
| will howl, and the sand Of the desert be driven
over the shattered columns Of the once proud
temples of wicked and blind generation
"'lhe people would not see, they could not
comprehend, that the wealth that they were
rioting in was not their own. They believed
that the hay fed to their asses was equal in
value to the contributions Of the South. But
twothirds of the wealth Of the Union will
henceforth be confined to less than one.third Of
the people--the Southern pebple-and the
tie inerordble necessity of subsistiny on less
than one.third Of the means they hare hitherto
eryoyedi
The Chief of the Chicago Constitution may
dispense high.soundiug Offices to the greedy
cormorants hocking to Washington, like innu.
merable buzzards to the carcasses which q fell
pestilence has strew wn in some dark and sombre
valley but the seeds Of death are in every
morsel they shall gorge; and, before many
months have fed, they will find the anticipated
emoluments turned to dust and ashes on their
lips The Burlingames and the Adamses,
and the Schultz, will be wanderers and vaga.
bonds in Europe, like the lazaroni Of once I'm.
perial Rome.
The North, alone, cannot sustain Gov
ernment of respectable pretensions And yet
we see the Chicago outlaws dispensing one
hundred million dollars Of patronagel Hear
me, and record it The Chicago Administra.
ton will not, legitimately, receive revenue Of
| L. h,,, oa1c i'll
not get his wages-:tor the days of borrowing
arc numbered.
GAS governmental vitality and national
prosperity came from the South, during eighty
years, so in future, if there be any semblance
Of regeneration, it must be derived from the
same source"
This is an expression, although perhaps
little exaggerated, Of opinions in respect to the
sources of the wealth and prosperity of this
country, which underlie the movement, long in
progress, which has at length eliminated in the
secession Of the cotton States. They represent
errors, so deepseated, that probably nothing
short of the rough teachings of experience could
remove them.
The South furnishing the bulk Of the ex.
ports, because nearly all their industry is di.
rected to the production of exportable COM
modities, it has always been taught in that
quarter, that the only source Of wealth at the
North was the commerce furnished by slave
labor, and that grass would begin to grow in
the streets of the Northern cities, whenever q
dissolution Of the Union destroyed their power
of levying tribute upon Southern products. 1t
is this view of the case, and not anything con-
nected with the slavery question, which is at
the bottom of the disunion spirit in the Gulf
States. 1t was upon that view, that the nulli.
fcation of 1882 was avowedly put, and it has
never really rested upon any other, the slavery
agitation having been adopted merely as pre-.
text, and as a convenient and effective means
of arousing popular passions.
The events upon which we are entering, will
expel these delusions and show that the pros
perity Of the free States rests upon the secure
basis of their own civilization and industry,
and not upon contrivances Of government, or
contributions levied upon others. They never
had bale Of cotton, which they did not pay
for at the market price, and they will never
lack for the article, as long as they have the
means to purchase it. They never freighted a
bale to Europe, except upon the same principle
upon which they secure their portion Of the
freighting of sugar from Havana to Cowes,
that is, upon the principle of carrying it as
cheap, or cheaper than anybody else. And
they will continue to buy cotton, to freight it,
to manufacture it and to speculate in it, whether
the secession Of the cotton States be persevered
in, or not.
This secession, if permanent, will obstruct
trade hitherto perfectly free, and this, while it
will impose new burdens upon the Gulf States,
will diminish, not destroy, an outlet for the
manufactures of the North.
But that is only one OF the changes and chances
of commerce. The dimensions of the loss are
easily measured, and the means of making it
good exist on every hand. The population of
the Confederate States amounts to five millions,
heretofore supplied with Northern manufactures
upon the principles Of free trade, and with the
advantage OF excluding foreign competition to
the extent of the United States tariff, but here
after to be supplied, subject to the same duties
which are levied upon European manufactures.
This is a loss to the North, but not an over.
whelming Or an irreparable calamity. Less
than ten years will repair it, in the natural
growth of the West. 1t may be repaired in
even less time, by new markets to be opened in
Mexico, and the Spanish American countries
to the south of Mexico, by the new policy which
the secession of the Gulf States now, for the
first time, renders possible. And if never
repaired, or compensated in any way, it is not
OF proportions to excite alarm.
But il needed the exnerience of the euent 10