Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1861-01-11
MCottoll.,,


Abraham Lincoln to the Presidential chair.
The substance of the address may be briefly
'ummed up, as follows: "Cotton is King;
Ne, as q nation, are dependent on and wholly |
It tho mercy of King Cotton; therefore, any
act or sentiment conflicting with the wishes
Or interests Of King Cotton is reasonable
and revolutionary, and should be dealt with
as SUCH" The opening or statistical portion
of the address was very interesting, as q
careful exhibit of the wonderful magnitude
to which the cotton-growing interests Of the
United States have attained. We make room
for short extract upon this head 4
"The American cotton has built up for
itself . power so extensive as to almost stag
ger the imagination. Our average exports
to the different countries of the globe
amount to more than 1856, 900, 900 lbs;
while the home market absorbs $40, 100000
lbs. more amounting, at an average price
of l23 cents per h., to nearly $2O9, 600, 900.
Through the various appliances of mechan-
ism developed in manufacturing establish
ments, it 10 computed that this amount is
made to produce .tiva times this sum-mak-
ing total Of more than 81, 0O0, 200, 000."
1.-THE total amount of raw cotton imported
| by England ia 1858 was 800, 463, 800 lbs, of
which 5S4, 6O5, 400 lbs. was from the United
States; and fifteen days ago, there was in
| the port oil Liverpool $685. 600 bales of cotton,
of which 491 200 bales were American"
at is estimated that in 1858 England
(whose relative dependence on the United
States for the raw material is indicated by
the preceding paragraph) exported more
than CTS, 900, 900 yards of cotton goods, while
her own people consumed more than 1875,
900 900 yards. The London Economist, after
tracing the progress of the trade from 1888
| to 1850, arrives at the following conclusions:
That the supply from all other sources than
the United States has been irrogularly de-
creasing; that the supply from all quarters
available for home consumption has of late
years been falling off at the rate Of 800, 000
lbs. per week, while the consumption has
been increasing during the same period at
the rate af l ,0S0, 900 lbs per week that in
the United States alone tho gros0th Is
Increasing"
Beyond this, the remarks Of the Judge
were marrsd by the strong partizan com.
plsxion of his reasoning and conclusions.
Morals, religion, and everything partaking OF
the nature of "higher law" were ignored,
and the most abject subserviency to cotton
intsre SITS was advocated in the adjustment Of
the present National troubles. The pro-
gramme of unconditional compromise and
Cancellation proposed on this occasion,
evinces, on the part of the Judge, a surpris-
iny progression towards what was recently
known as "Breckinridgs Democracy" The
same points conceded at the Charleston Con.
vention, last spring, by the Judge and his
Northern colleagues, would have saved his
party from disruption and ruin-it might
indeed, have cost the sacrifice of pet can.
didate, but it would havs immortalized the
man accomplishing so great salvation. The
South, says the Judge, substantially, must be
conciliated, on almost any terms; the mats.
rial Il. 6. the cotton) interests at stake are
too vast and important to be imperilled for
considerations of merely moral or philan.
thropical Characteristic result, probably, Of
prejudice or misguided judgment.
The speaker cntertains the dogma that
without slave-labor cotton cannot be success
fully grown and he offers no encouragement
to the superstition thata free negro could ply
the hoe and pick the seed with facility
approaching, at least, that Of an enslaved
negro. Slavery, he processes to believe, is
ordained of God, who, in His own time and
manner, may see fit to abolish it. Very well.
But is he (the Judge) willing to allow Gods
way of doing SO? We think not. Else why
refuse to admit the possibility that the dis
traction now prevailing in certain portions of
the country is an agency divinely employed
to effect that object--to overthrow q system
the abuse of which has rendered it the mark
of His indignant visitation. We are no
abolitionist; but these are points that stag
ger comprehension and battle logic. The
convenient assumption that God will accom-
modate his administration of government, in
this case to our own peculiar notions of pro-
prlety is unauthorized and fallacious.
The Judge wound up in pure stump.orato
style - deprecating what he considers the
abuse of free speech, political preaching,
opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law,
Supreme Court decisions, etc.-a waste into
which we do not propose to follow him. In
conclusion, We have no apologies to offer for
the course of the free people Of tbs North in
voting for the man of their choice, and do
not feel authorized to concur, on their behalf,
n any wholesale and dishonorable conces-
sions, however such refusal MAJ affect the
price Of cotton.
TaE DEAD OF 1660.-Many great names
nave disappeared from the catalogue of the |
living during the past year. Of Americans,
deceased, there are Theodore Parker, WIN.
:. Burton, Rembrandt Psale, "Peter Farley |
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