The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-05-17
New Europsau Views of the South,


srnments and people. They begin to under
stand the South. They are realizing at last
the high relations Of tho Confederate States
to modern civilization. They have been in
the habit Of looking At America only By the
light Of the Northern press. They saw only
the great North in the foreground, and moth
Ing of tho South but the negro in the dark,
dim and distant perspective. They saw
nothing Of this great region, except from the
repulsve point of view Of the Aboljtionists.
They had some faint idea Of the fact that it
furnished cotton, but they COMPOUNDED it some
bow with Northern wealth and enterprise
they purchased the cotton Of the North, and
settled with that section for it.
The war is making a great disclosure to the
European mind. 1t reveals to that people
that the true sources Of American power and
prosperity are Southwark. 1t unveils the fact
that one-half the American States ara the nat
ural allies Of commercial Europe, and that
only the Northern half Of them are rivals and
competitors. 1t shows that the shipping which
met that Of Europe in every port on the
globe belongs only to the North; that the
American goods which competed with their
own ia all the open markets OF the world, even
in the markets Of Europe, came altogether
from Northern factories. Nay, more: it
teaches them that tho monopoly which the
North possessed Of the Southern markets and
of the Southern coa:ting trade, built up, en-
riched, and strengthened Northern manufac-
IL -,
which enabled that section to wage so success
fully with Europe dangerous rivalry and
competition in these branches Of enterprise.
The merchants and manufacturers Of Europe
are beginning TO see in the South not merely
source for the supply Of cotton and other lend
ing staples, but new market for European
goods heretofore closed against all the world
except the North. They arc awakening to
the fact that, in the coasting trade of this
great section, lew field for the enterprise Of
European shipping is now opened, from which
1t has heretofore been driven of by our jealous
navigation laws.
1t has been the policy Of the North to pre-
judice tho European mind against our section,
and by every artiice to dcpreciate us in Euro
pean estimation. 1t has been its study to conceal
the resources Of the South, and to envelope
its concerns in cloud Of obscurity and pre-
iudice. AS fortunate prospector in Calif0r-
MIA conceals the discovery of rich placer
from all around, and tolls in secrecy and ST.
lence, by day and night, in extracting its pre-
cious nuggets Of gold; so has the North with
lao Lo, ~ l.. ~
onriching itself from her exhaustless treas
ures. The war interrupts this most profitable
game of avarice and plumber [. brings the
South prominently forth to the eye Of Europe
from the clouds of defamation and ignorance
which had enveloped her; and it discloses to
Europe that, IN all matters Of commerce, while
tho North is her natural rival, the South is her
natural ally. The spell by which the North
held our section in commercial yassalage 80
long has been broken; the machinery by
which she turned all our commerce into her
own ports, and emptied all our treasure
into her own Golfers, has been destroyed the
obstacles and barriers by which she had shut
out the rest of the world from our trade have
been at last thrown dowa. The very jealousy
wiki which she will now Ell force her blockade
will teach Europe he value Of the Jewels thus
guarded; aud while disclosing the existence
and the value of the jewels will also prove that
the tenure by which they have been claimed
Is lost forever
But the material wealth Of the South is not
all that the war will disclose to the world. 1t
will demonstrate that we are not the barbarians
and the brutes that we have been painted to be
by tue SUMMERS, the Stoves, and the GARRI-
SONS. Europe VIII learn that there is moral
wealth at the South superior TO any that can
be found elsewhere on this Continent, and equal
to any that exists on that. II will End some
thing moro than a community Of slave. breed
e's and slave-drivers--a community alive to
the sentiments Of honor, to the obligations o,
religion, and to the tenets of honesty and good
faith. As its acquaintance with the South
grows. so will its respect for her grow; and It's
distrust and prejudice will rapidly give way to
esteem aud confidence.
Bishop Meade's Address.
49,