The national Republican., 1861-12-03
CHEAP COTTON BY FREE LABOR.


The above is the title of pamphlet of fifty
two pages, issued In Boston during the past
summer by "A Cotton Manufacturer" Edward
Atkinson. He treats the subject from the point
Of view Of his businsss as consumer of cotton.
and the considerations which he presents are
entitled to have aud will have great weight in
forming public opinion upon pending gu-s.
tions.
The style Of this pamphlet is in itself 30 con
densed, that we can hardly present a summary
oft But its leading ideas are that free white
labor is perfectly adapted to the cotton cult
walton in the climates ia which cotton is pro-
duced in this country; that It Is q cultivation
which, at the price Of ten cents per pound for
cotton, would afford to such labor much higher
wages than it receives in the general agricul-
,ural pursuits Of the free States; AMI that it is
essential, 10 order that CO ton may be prodnc.
ed in this CO Intry, upon a scale increasing with
the increasing rate Of consumption, that Tree
white labor should be employed in it, Upon
the basis Of these ideas, Mr.. Atkinson proposes
as practical measure that Texas should be
ena .cipation ito embrace incidentally the H.
dian territory west of Arkansas, } and by new
measure of" annexation" in the form of a rail
road from st. Joseph (Missouri) to Galveston,
which would complete the circle of freedom
and civilization from the Lakes to the Gulf
Upon the point Of the adaptation of white
labor to the climates in which cotton is pro-
duced. Mr.. Atkinson cites the facts that vast
numbers Of whites are now actually employed
in those climates, either in the cultivation oil
cotton. or In other agricultural or outdoor pur.
suits, and that the rate of mortality among
them is less than either at the North or West
And he calls particular attention to other facts
viz: that the most pressing period in the pro
duction OF cotton, that OF picking, is in the fall
months, and that the labor of Preparing the
ground and planting it is done in the winter
and spring months, leaving little Or no labor
required during the sweltering heats Of sum,
mer, during which some of the heaviest opera
tons of Northern agriculture are necessarily
carried on.
Mr. Atkinson shows that cotton at ten cents
twenty dollars per month with board, instead
Of from eleven to fourteen, which they now,
receive In the free States, and that planter
actually pay at that rate, in the cost of slave
labor, including in it interest upon the capital
invested In the ownership of it.
That slave labor, unless augmented by the
African slave trade, cannot produce cotton in
this country in quantities increasing with the
Increasing demand for it, is shown by the aug.
mentation of the price of the article of late
years and by the imitation of the price of ne
groe', which had been oonstan: down to thr
breaking out of the present civil war. H.
states. in this connection, that mill with
10000 spindles will consume, annually, 5000
bales OF cotton, which require for their pro
duction capital, in land and slaves, of 81, ,45O,
900; that within two years prior to the rebel
lion, the equivalent Of ten such mills has been
put 10 operation at the North, and of certainly
fty, and probably one hundred such mills in
EOgland. The necessary effect Of this activity
of manufacturing industry, has been to swell
the fortunes of negro owners, who have thus far
been able to exclude freemen from the cotton
field, one of the most profitable theatres OF
agricultural industry.
III only portion Of the South is to be rid OF
slavery by the progress of this war, Mr.. At
kinson deems Texas u much more desirabl-
acquisition for free labor, than either the bord
slave States or the old cotton States. That
view is clearly correct, and is OF vital import
snce in determining the national policy Il
We merely recover Maryland, Kentucky and
Missouri from slavery, We still leave to it that
monopoly, in this country, Of certain great
taples, upon which Its pecnniary and political
lower dspsnds, and We still leave " il The :