New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-02-06

The Louisville Journal says

/ TgKt DUTY on suGA4S.
| The Louisville Journalsays:
The New Orleans Crescent thinks that ssthe tar.
| H30f the Southern Confederacy will be much lower
than the existing tariif.1 What do YOU guess the
| duty on sugar will be. Mr.. Crescent And how
| dc yon think your sugar planters will relish the
change Won't they be as sour as their sugar is
| sweet2
| Very likely, Prentice got off the above only for
the sake of the joke In the last sentence. But we
answer the question by saying that we DO not know
what viii be the duty on sugar in the Sorshern
| Contederacy. Whatever may be the reduction
however, if there should be any at ALL of one thing
we feel very well assured; and that is, that, in
any event. in peouniary point of view, the sugar
planters Of louisiana will be benefited BY the act
Of withdrawal from the Union, which the State has
| just accomplished.
But thers is New York paper, called the
World, Il which treats this question more seriously
and witlfa considerable show of yirtuous indigna.
ton. Here is what it says:
II Louisiana chooses now to turn against the
hand that has fed her. it is high time this pamper
ing process should cease. The Federal Govern.
ment OF course, cannot acknowledge her out Of
the Union, but 1t can cease from loading her with
benefits which she repays only with treason. The
/ new tariff bill, which will probably soon become
law, ought to be amended. on the very day it is
known that Louisiana has voted herself out Of the
Union, so as to take away every cent of import
duty on foreign sugar and molasses; and these
aftlciesr like tea and coffee, should be thenceforf
free. This action cannot be too summary. 1t will
| be only the simplest Justice. Generous forhear
/ ance, in a case like this, would be only pitfu
Weakness i is very likely that Louisiana calcu-
ates upon setting up for herself and vet retaining
i all the substantial benefits of the Union. Hermis
l take cannot be too speedily brought home TO her.
/ Oh with the sugar and molasses! So much for
i Louisiana.
Il will be recollected that when the secession
movement was first made in the South the North
ern people hooted at the idea of the withdrawal of
Louisiana. They said the other Gulf States might
possibly secede, but Louisiana never. The protec.
ton to her sugar would keep her in the Union, be-
yond a doubt. Wholly material and selfish in the
view they take of things, these people never sup
| posed that any higher impulse conld move a com
| munity than love Of dollars. So, when, contrary
to their expectations, Louisiana promptly seeded
as soon as her Convention met, they were not less
surprised than Indignant.
Perhaps they will be still more astonished when
we tell them that majority of the sugar parishes
Of the State elected delegates to the Convention in
favor Of immediate secession The materialists of
the North may not understand how it is that some
people do not estimate their honor at money
value, and consider that there are other things bet
ter worth striving for than goldbut that is their
nature, and we suppose they cannot help it. The
secession OF louisiana so Immediately after the as
sembiage of her Convention, may possibly open
their eyes to the fact.
But it is pitiful exhibition Of spleen and malir-
nifty for Congress to remove the duties on sugar
because Louisiana has seeded. If they choose to
f}n 4 intt bap, II j
more like the fretful peeyshness Of an i'll hammered
child, retaliating for some disappointment, than the
deliberate act of mature years. IT the object be
to punish Louisiana-to make her regret. in the
slightest degree, the step she has takenor to
produce discomfort among her loyal and patriotic
citizens-the attempt will most certainly fail of
its purpose. What Louisiana has done she would
do again. with sterner resolve than before, and
with greater unanimity, even though the Govern.
ment of the North should make her the special
target of its resentment and malignity.
Y We are perfectly willing that the balance shall
be struck between the benefits Of the duty on
sugar, and the proportion of the burdens of the
late Federal Government which Louisiana, every
year, had to bear. Unless we are much mistaken,
the figures will show the State to be the loser in
stead of the gamer. The Federal Government in
the shape Of duties upon foreign goods, costs
Louisiana more than she receives in the protection
to her sugar interests When, therefore, these
Northern people think to punish us by repeating
the duty on sugar, they forget the process by
which we can get more than even, in reduction
ofthe duties we are now paying upon importations
from abroad. They forget also perhaps, that
there IS such thing as retaliation. They forget
that we can discriminate, if we choose-that we
may SO shape our commercial policy as to destroy
the market for Northern manufactures here, and
establish one for the manufactures of England,
France and Belgium It will be well enough for
them we think, to remember all this while venting
their rage upon Louisiana, and exhibiting their
petty malice and spite.