The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-02-18


Would she Southern states be Losers by .
| Dissolution or tho Unions-rhc Folly OF
Coercion.
As corollary to the coercion dicta Of re-
publican journals in the North, and the fatuous
utterances of representatives OF ant-sla or.
ultraism in Congress, ince the last Pres 81"
tial election, no sentiment has been more freely
and axiomatica ly promulgated by poll i
Of the Massachusetts school, than that The South
cannot exist without the North; that slayetoii
ing institutions are cankered by inner mt ele
ments of decay; and that H. vital strength o.
the seeding members of the confedc acy vii
be gone, if they persist in their resolution 10
withdraw from the Union They maintain that
the manufactures, breadstuffs. and agricultural
products of the Eastern and Middle States, are
so indspen, able to their brethren South Of the
Potomac, that men and cattle must starve with
out them, and that, from sheer necessity, the
conditions must be acceded to, which intole
rance and fanaticism have laid down as the
basis upon which the pillars Of the republic
should in future rest. "The South cannot do
without us, has been, probably, the substruc
ture of large amount of the theories and de-
lusive calculations of Northerners, who have
believed, and believe still, that any amount OF
anti-c0nstituti0nal aggression can be crammed
down the threats Of confederates who cannot
with impunity oppose measures, however
odious in themselves, which involve the sacri-
fee Of indispensable material interests.
| These calculations Of anti-slavery despotism
are, however. false. There is no one
point in which the South is inferior to the
| North, and there are many in which it is supe-
rior. "a little learning is dangerous thing"
in nothing more emphatically than the details OF
political economy; and upon no subject do re-
| publican writer's and speakers appear more
| superficial 1t will be found upon inquiry, that
| the North can provide the South with nothing
whatever with which they cannot amply provide
themselves. The population Of the South
ern States, in round numbers, is 12,5OO,oOO
| That of the North is $4,000, 900. If we
| examine closely, we shall discover, how
ever, that, during the last fifty years. the ag-
gregate Of emigration to the non -slaveholding
States has been nearly eight millions, which
would make up the difference. This immigrant
increase has brought with it into the Northern
| States not less than thousand millions OF dol
lars, local gain from which the Grceleys,
Phillipses, Summers, Stewards and Garrisons of
the day would predicate superiority for non
slaveholding over slaveholding institutions
although il has nothing to do with either one or
the other 1t has been an accidental transfer Of
capital from one place to another where itcould
| be more advantageously bestowed. 1t may
have been temporary advantage to the North.
but it has been an uncertain indication of pro-
gress in the past, and still less is il any sign of
the relations which the respective sections will
| bear to each other in future. A careful study
Of the last census shows that the South has kept
full pace in population with the North within
the last twenty years, il their relative eircum-
stances are duly considered
| In the event Of final and ultimate dissolu-
ton Of the Union-of an irrevocable with.
drawal Of the Southern from the Northern pOr-
ton OF the confederacy-it will be found, in
the end, that the slaveholding have every ad-
vantage over the non slaveholding States
Their territory, embracing that part of the con-
tinent which lies between Mason and Dixon's
| line and Mexico, will be vastly greater than
ours, and, in climate, IL will proffer advantages
TO the settler, infinitely greater than any the free
States offer 1t will include the coal and iron
| formations Of Missouri Kentucky, Georgia and
Tennessee; the magnificent wheat fields Of Viz
ginia-superior to any on this continent; the pa
radise of cereals, around the ridges Of tho ALLIE
gheny, and water power, greater than that OF all
the rest Of the Union put together in the valleys
| Of the Ohio river and the Susquehanna. There is
no fruit of the temperate or the torrid zones that
| the States OF the new Southern confederacy will
not bring forth in superiority. Producing cereals
tobacco, rice, sugar, cotton in abundance-they
will, with proper enterprise, industry and ener-
gy, make Of their new republic the garden Of
the world. II is idle, foolish, absurd and igno-
rant, therefore, to pirate of the dependence of
the South upon the North. Let us take heed
that the slaveholding States do not turn the
tables on us, and proclaim our subsection to
them. Were civil war to take place; il the
violent counsels so recently promulgated by
Seward and other republican mouthpieces are
to have potency; il is by no means certain that
the economical interests Of the New EnAand
and Central States might not be crushed into
powder, by the very elements which they them
selves seek, at the present moment, TO reduce
to submission.
| Were a dissolution OF the Union to be sue
ceeded by internecine strife, the very frat be-
ginnings Of Southern legislation would be
shaped with q view to iDiure the North
although the sentiment Of the Southern con-
fcderacy, a. expressed up to this period, is Of
moderate and friendly character. In the
event coercive policy being adopted,
the first pages Of their statute books
would shut out from Southern ports North
| ern manufactures, and the history Of
| the rise and progress Of New England fabrics,
would find its parallel in Virginia, Delaware