Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-03-04
a daElinR proiect ID sonthern theorisls

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commercial tFrmiai attbetr principal sea-
ports. Those of the Virgins school have
commended that nothing WAS wanting to
make Norfolk rival New York, but the
adoption of policy of free trade with
Europe, as If mere facilities for huying
could enrich them. And so Of Charleston,
Savannah and Mobile; they can see no
reason except the duty imposed on import
cd goods, why they should not be az great
business csnters as Boston, New York and
philadelphia. There are, however, other
and better reasons. and some of them may
be briefly enumerated
Tho South have not got the population,
and consequently the productions to sup
port commerce aud build mp business
centsrs. No country can be a commercial
power that produces and exports but one
or two staples. At least no sucli country
ever has been. The South are deceived
by the idea that their great staple, cotton,
rules the trade ofthe world. The folly of
this Is every day becoming more apparent.
England is penetrating the remotest cor
uers ofthe earth to end new fields for the
production of cotton, and with great
prospects of success It Is evident that
the exclusive control or the cotton mar
ket has even now passed out of the
hands OF the Southern States but if
they cOuld control it exclusively for
ever SO long, they never could create
commerce, with nothing to export but cot.
ton. None but cosmopolitan people can
DC commercial people. Jefferson Davis
says, in his inaugural, that what the South
wants ia "hOmogeuiOty" of population
That is to say, that the white population
shall all DE planters, and the laboring
class all slaves. This, it is true, is what
the South wants, if she means to maintain
her present positions if she means to re-
main poor aud sparscly populated If she
means, as heretofore, to support one class
in idleness on the slow, Improbable labor
OF another if she means to contiue her
production to ono or two articles of com
merce, and thus deprive herself of ma
riue, and remain content to see her cities
drag on dull, unprosperous existence,
and her people be dependent on Others for
every luxury or convenience, or even ne
eeSsity of life. If this is to be her policy,
all this talk about creating trade like
that of the North, is sheer folly. They re-
pei, instead of invite it. Commerce is the
most sensitive thing in the world. Where
ever 1t is cultivated it proSpsrs. but it
thunS with unerring instinct, repellant
policy, It seeks its channels Ms water
seeks level, and is not be driven from its
cour9eUy any artifice. Self-interestguides
1t, and not pride or prejudice. Whenever
tho policy OF the South shall offer induces
mensto commerce, then they may have it,
but not till then.
The Southern seaboard cities cannot do
a business because they have no basis on
which to operate. The interior on which
they must depend for support cannot sus-
tain them in doing anything more than
they nre now doing, be the induremcnt
to importation ever SO great. Suppose all
duties on manufactured goods were re-
mOvedto-morrow,a and n Norfolk or Charles
ton merchantwere to import for one month
like New York merchant prince, what
would DO the result2 Why, simply, he
would be ruined, because he could not
sell again. That is the true reason why "A
Southern mercantile interest like that of
tho North eOnld not be created ami sus.
tanned. There are not people enough, not
customers enough, not enough demand to
keePit up. ~ =
%
- Ono Of the newest projects for faToriug
the cotton seAports is proposition brought
before the Montgomery Congress t6 levy
an export duty on all cotton shipped
through any other channel. This is de-
signed to stop its shipment up the Missis-
siPPi and Ohio rivers, and by railroad, so.
as to force it to the coast for transporta-
tion. This 1t is thought will spite Nor,h-
cru steamboats, and railroads, and win hu-
initiate the North by compelling them to
do without cotton or else buy Mt the ac-
credited cotton mArts. This measure car.
risd Into effect wonld seriously iljure tho
transporting interest on the Ohio, as large
earRoes Of cotton have been going up the
river 70 Pittsburgh and thence East for
some time past.
There is. one eep.tdera,ioa that seems TO
escape the cotton lOrds while thsy are lny.,
ing such trammels on the shipment Of
their staple. That's that it is just as inn
POrtant for them to sell as tits for the North
tobuy. They cannot elothe or feed them.
selves with raw cottOni and as they do
not manufacture ii into cloth, they nre
bOaud to sell ii in order to purchase cloth
ing, They have no middle class whose
skilled labor eau sapply them with the
cOnveniensea and ln1aries of life, eOnse-