The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-04-13
The hostile attitude which the Adnai

has now assumed towards the Confederate States
of the South is, of all Others the one best calcu-
lated to crush out the last Wondering spark of
Union feeling that may still exist there The
most ultra anti-reconstructionist could have sug
gested course of action on the part of Mr.. LIN
COLIN, which could tend more efectualy to
strengthen and consolidate the new Republic than
that which has been adopted no line of policy
better calculated to estrange permanently the now
hostile sections of our unhappy country Surely
no rejecting man in the Border States, at least
can now deny the independent existence of the
Southern Confederacy, or believe that it will yield
to-coercion or cease to struggle for its rights until
it is fully recognised both at home and abroad -
What the immediate course of Virginia and Mary
land will be, it is impossible 10 tell-but of their
eventual destiny there can be little doubt Con-
nected together by sympathies and interests with
their great avenues of trade, both natural and az
tifcal, common to both States, the action of the
one must strongly influence that of the other, and
that of Virginia, at least, must exercise powerful
control over the decision of Maryland What
that course may be, we must now determine
upon. Thrown out as it were by a great
national CONFUSION from the central
position which VIC have hitherto occupied,
we ind ourselves now upon the confines of the
old Republic, and feel that many of the ties, which
bound US before have been oosened and broken
in the shock. At the same time we find ourselves
upon the borders of another Republic, formed
from that great whole of which it also was once
an integral part and with which it is equally
easy TO attach ourselves. Between these two, we
must now choose. With one of them we H1ust
unite our destiny. The South is confederacy of
great size and vast resources, but wanting an At
lantic port for its great central depot and COM
mercial emporium. The North is larger, more
populous and weather., and possessed of many
harbors, infinitely better adapted for their trade
than any that We could offer them With the
South our sentiments harmonic. With the
North they clash. The South is great produc-
ing country Of the staples which we need The
North is great producing country of the staples
which we produce The South is large con-
sumner of the products of American manufactures
for the fabrication of which portions of Maryland
and Virginia offer unexamped facilities The
North is large producer of the very articles
which we manufacture, and, by its more abund-
balances the natural advantages we possess,
and retards the development of this branch
of our industry. The Gulf States are deficient in
those vast mineral resources which constitute SO
large portion of the wealth of Maryland and Vr-
gna. The North is abundan,y supplied with
many of those elements of material prosperity. In
fact, we produce for the South what the South
needs. We produce what the North produces
We are, commercially speaking, the natural a.
lies of the South, and are the natural competi-
tors of the North. These facts speak volumes.
They are, IN great measure equally applicable
to Virginia and Maryland. For our own State
we add, that by far the larger portion of our trade
iswith the slave States. We compete successfully
in their market with the North, wherever we have
equal facilities of connection. We compete with
them in many articles which have to be sent to
New York, to be forwarded to their eventual place
OF destination. We produce and we manufacture
a large amount required by the Gulf States; and
we trade with them, indirectly through North
ern port The city of Baltimore, the great centre
of the trade of our State is in fact, swallowed up
by the competition of New York, and only needs
an impetus of some kind to place her in position
to control large portion of the direct trade of
the Seaboard States of the South.
In addition to the great advantages offered by
Baltimore as port of entry for the South, and
as great depot and storehouse cannot be
located at the extreme South, on account of the
dampness of the climate-and also as manufac-
turing centre, Baltimore is the natural port of ex-
change for the products of the West and Of the
Southern Atlantic States. As the commercial
emporium of the Southern Confederacy, she would
inevitably control this trade, being, in fact, the
port which has the closest aud most direct
connections with the Ohio at several points,
as well as with the Lakes All these con-
sderatlons are not merely canvasseed and
discussed at home-they are we'll understood
In other portions of the country and abroad.
Northern capitalists have already been in
quiring for locations for their factories, in case
Maryland shonld 60 with the South. Foreigners
talk of establishing branch houses in Baltimore
for supplying the Southern trade and we have
no doubt that an impetus would be given to our
city by its connection with the South which
would enable her at once to shake off the crushing
weight of Northern competition, and in short
time to place herself in the position to which her
natural advantages enttle her, and which would
at last reward the expenditures of both City and
State on lines of internal improvements, which
have so far been principally feeders to Northern
cities.