The national Republican., 1861-01-25
COTTON.

The Paris correspondent of the Charleston
Mercury, who is known to be John Mitchell
says:
"China, at present, produces tvsn sir times
as much cotton as all your Southern States put
toyethcr-not of the finest kind, indeed, but Of
the sort of which nankeen is made, in which
clothed every day. Yet, where that cotton
grows, it is calculated that other and better
cotton may grow and the magnificent aluvia
valleys of Central China, all around the Hoan
He and the Yang.tse kiang rivers are certainly
rs capable of producing the most valuable
kinds of that useful plant as are the valleys of
the Mississippi and the Alabama. Labor, Also
is far more abundant, and costs literally moth
ing at all. Once the country is subjected, Eng
lish coton-grO,cers may haze many millions Of
laborers, all anxious 10 work for their bare
subsistence for what would subsist one negro
would be luxurious supply for five Cinnamon
The Cinnamon, too, will be apprentices, not
saves-the spirit Of the age iorbids-and so
there will be no obligations to care for them, to
feed and clothe them, when, the work is got
out Of them. In short, if the cultivation once
begins on those two rivers, yOu may Did ddieu
TO the Manchester and liverpool markets !; and
Mats the meaniag cfthe China ~dr."
Mr.. Mitchell is not Grstclass authority for
anything, but in this case, he is correct.
When Hon. Humphrey Marshall of Ken.
lucky, was the American Commissioner to
China, he described this cotton region in his
dispatches, and predicted two things which have
since happened, the advance of Russia to the
line of the Amoor, and the forcible opening of
the cotton fields Of China by the English.
These dispatches, which are among the docu.
ments printed by order of Congress, will now
be examined with interest.
The Gulf States have no natural monopoly
Of the production of cotton, which is plant of
a most extensive geographical range. All
things considered, cheapness of freight to the
markets Of consumption, facilities Of transit,
natural and artificial, to their own seaports,
capital and access to capital, and steady
Government securing social order, they have
been enabled to underbd other producers of
the article. But a small enhancement of the
price would cause it to be produced elsewhere
in any quantity called for, and this may happen
without such enhancement. But, at any rate,
the Gulf States have no natural monopoly Of
tHc dTtlCie, anu IL SCoocu W piOuuCt IL AZ
all, the world would not cease to be supplied
with it.
A condition of things is now threatened,
which will impair, and perhaps destroy, the
power Of the Gulf States to produce cotton, and
manufacturers of that article, here and in Eu.
rope, must look these possibilities in the face
Unless revolution is arrested in these States,
social order is at an end, all capital which can
be withdrawn will be withdrawn, and produc.
ton will be so crippled by taxes and forced
contributions that it will be abandoned, and
the negro labor now employed in it will be
turned loose to shift for itself. Men will cease
to plant, when property ceases to be secure,
and the whole business of cotton raising in the
Gulf States wi end in general crash.
What they are trying to get rid of, is the
greatest blessing they have enjoyed, and the
real basis of all their blessings, q strong and
stable national Government, protecting them
from foreign invasion and domestic tumult.
How true it is, that blessings brighten as they
take their fight, and that men only learn how
well off they have been, by experience of the
consequences of foolish experiments to make
themselves better off.