Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-05-12

| efeutudiity, IL appears Indispensable t. give
a rapid glance at the Importance of this new
Confederacy.
The Southern States-ffteen in number
occupy supericies of one million square
miles, exclusive of the portion of the COM
mon territory due them on separation. The
sea-coast extends from the Chesapeake to the
Gulf of Mexico, into which flows the Missis-
| sippi River, 400 miles long, and Offering
the only economical and normal means OF
transport for the produce of large portion
| OF the Western States.
Their population, almost wholly an agri-
cultural one, is more than twelve millions OF
inhabitants; the principal productions. be-
| sides woods highly esteemed both in Europe
| and America, are cotton, tobacco, sugar and
rice.
The average yearly crop is 100000
bales representing the Of. 900 900 900 francs
fo6Icco; -...- loo coo 600 {.
f Fogd and nn;;;oo: ~ wr 20 600 O0O
| 1,2so, 900 900
| A great portion of these productions fig
ures now in the exports from New York,
| Boston and Philadelphia, whence they are
sent to Europe.
| The imports of the Southern States are not
| less than eight hundred millions of francs,
including American as well as European i'm
..
exaggerated. From the increase of popula-
ton in a country where the space not yet
cultivated and occupied exceeds greatly the
| land under culture, it may reasonably be sup
posed that in not distant future the imports
and exports will progress pari pdssu with the
population.
then, intimately united with European inter-
ests in general, aud with French interests in
particular. All these States. as we have al
ready remarked, produce primary articles
and consume manufactures, and they can not
but extend, with time. both their production
and consumption. All their ports will soon
be opened to the commerce of the world, and
if France knows how to profit of this favora-
BILE opportunity, which will facilitate the car
rying out of the new political and CONNER
cial policy inaueurated by the Emperor, her
industry may. notwithstanding the distance,
become formidable rival of the Northern
States; for her productions, always sought
for in foreign markets, will find, besides in
the difference of the price of handiwork, an
advantage which, Joined to the custom du-
ties upon Northern merchandise, will assure
a considerable market for our commerce.
The Southern Confederacy is, besides, des-
tined to become a natural ally, capable at
need of giving to Europe, if ever circumstan-
ces demand it, powerful helpin exchange for
the simple recognition, which will suffice very
probably to hold in check the fanaticism of
the North, and preserve from an almost GER
tain destruction the productions of the South.
of which Europe could not row be deprived
without a catastrophe. We no longer belong
to the times, thank God! when it was glori-
Gus to cry out, let the Colonies perish sooner
than principle.
The developments upon which we have
called the attention of readers and of econo-
mists may be grouped in few questions:
l. Can Europe do without American cot
ton? She keeps up amiable relations with
Brazil, Porto Rico, Cuba and Manila. cOun-
tries owing their prosperity to slavery, and
must she renounce cotton because produced
by a system of work that she disapproves?
Evidently not. for danger would result to
her manufacturers and her laborious classes,
whose moral and material condition has pro-
gressed since the commencement of the
country in direct ratio with the increase OF
cotton. Is not the cotton industry of Eng
land, and especially of Lancashire. now in
such critical condition as to inspire the fear
OF serious disorder resulting from the dis
tress of the workmen.
2. Does another soil and climate equally
well adapted to the cultivation of cotton ex-
ist? No! England has long sought in vain
for a solution of this question. France, more
fortunate, possesses Algeria; but Algeria can
only be counted upon when it will be settled
and serious attempts will have been made to
acclimatize cotton in Africa.
Should we deprive our commerce and our
industry of the certainty of exchanging our
productions, and transporting them directly
between France and the Southern States, and
sacrifice such important interests to aques-
ton of false philanthropy? No. France ought,
on the contrary to seize the occasion to extend
her commerce with them in order to employ
the influence resulting therefrom in obtaining
progressively, aud in the form of ameliora-
ton. change in their system of labor, in
stead of proceeding as the Northern States
have done, to raise the question of ruin or
revolution, destruction or war.
There is the whole American question,
which sentiment alone could not satisfacto-
rily solve for the great interests at stake.
But, while waiting the results which will
flow from the good reception given in Europe
to the new Confederacy, let true philanthro-
pists be treasured, for they are strangely mis-
taken upon the real condition of the blacks
in the South We admit willingly that their
error is pardonable, for they have only learn
ed the relations between master and slave in
Mrs. Beecher Stoves book. Shall we follow
her in the lucubrations of this romance
raised to the pitch of philOsophic diserta-
ton, but inspired more with the desire of
leading astray public Opiuion, provoking re-
volution and recurring, if need be, to MUIR
der and incendiarism, than any real benevo-
lence for blacks or whites?
A romance is work of phantasy, that can
not serve as the basis to any argument. We
seek elsewhere cur documents and the ele-
ments of our discussion; facts are eloquent.
and statistics learn us that under the guild
ance of these cruel and terrible masters. de-
picted by Mrs. Stowe, the black population
OF the South increases regularly, in a much
greater proportion than the white population,
while in the Antilles, in Africa, and especial
ly in the philanthropical Northern States, the
black race decreases in a deplorsble ratio
How does Mrs. Stowe reconcile this fact with
her strange assertiOnsr
The condition of the negro is assuredly
better than that OF agricultural workmen in
| many parts OF Europe; their morality is much
superior to that of the free blacks of the
North, and the planters encourage marriage
and the constitution of families among them,
| in order that they may become more attached
| to their masters. 1t must be recognized, then
that the interest of the planter in default of
other motives, compels and assures the we'll
| being and morality OF the negroes. Certain
| ly, we believe it is possible to ameliorate
| their condition to a further point, and it is
| just for this purpose that the South has been
working for long time in their preparation
| and education for more complete civiliza-
| ton.
| Perhaps nowhere does there exist more
eminent men, endowed with nobler and more
generous sentiments than in the Southern
States; no country possesses prettier, more
distinguished and more charitable women
| To commence with the immortal Washington,
| the list of statesmen who have taken part in
| the Government of the United States shows
| that all those who have cast lustre upon
their country and conquered the admiration
of Europe owed their birth to this South SO
| absurd.
Is it possible or probable that so mech dis
| tinction, talent aud grandeur of soul, can
have been born from all the vices of cruelty
and corruption that is to-day attributed to
| the population of the South? The laws OF
| infexible logic destroy all these false impu-
/ talions. Is Is a strange coincidence that as