Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1862-03-12
Amos Kendall to President Lincoln.

14OSS AAN4AN
bic to their author and inasmuch a
Mr.. Kendall has always been a Democra.
OF the jackson school, having held a posi-
ton in President Jackson's Cabinet, a
Post Master General, and since been dis
tinguished in political circles as the abb,
editor of a journal called the Democrat
sic-Expesitor'-we think his letter can b,
read ad~vaHtageOusly by those person.
who cling with more tenacity than gooC
sense to the opinion that the South hac
ne part N instigating the Rebellion, bu
that Secession is wholly due to Northern
Abolitionism. Mr.. Kendall says: "Tht
Pride of Wealth and Lust for Power
fostered by the Cotton Monopoly. is the
Cause of the Rebellion" that there are
two classes of Shareholders, one for the
Union that the pr~etensions of King Cot
ton is conspiracy against the Commercial
World, &c.
There are yet throughout the North
men of such strong Southern sympathies,
that they will not admit that this Rebel
lion had its origin in the hotbeds of an
i~nsolent Southern aristocracy They have
neither the discernment or candor of q
Kendall, Johnson, Wright, Dix, Dickin-
son., Butler, or Shields, but clinging with
all the blind obstinacy of deep-rooted pre-
judice, 10 previously conceived notions,
they persisteatly reiterate the false charge,
that 1t is Freedom, not Slavery, which
had produced the present condition ofna-
tional affairs. The opinion of a statesman
of the experience and judgement of Amos
Kendall, is worth more han the com.
bined judgment ola legion of those sapi-
emit whiffets. whose political experience
has been confined to the petty jugglery
of town politicians. We therefore COM
mend the letter, alluded to, as embody-
ing weighty words of wisdom and truth
To ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President Of the
United States.
Respected SSr: l propose to consider in
this Letter the causes which have led to
the pending Rebellion, and to show the
advocates of emancipation that they have
every reason to be satisfied with the pro-
gress that operation is making.
The or causes of the rebellion may
be summed up in the single phrase; Pride
of WeaM and Lust for PoDer. These are
not peculiar to the South, but have their
influence in the North as well. North
and South they peryade, with honorable
exceptions, those classes of society which
find means to live and enrich. themselves
without manual labor. North as well as
South the feelings Of these elias. es revolt
against a government control'ei by the
toiling millions, and would overthrow it
if they could. In the North the attempt
would be hopeless, and the aristocratic
classes quietly acquiesce in things as they
are. In the cotton region of the South
the laborers hare nc political rights, and
the ariStocratic classes govern in all that
relates to local affairs. But they are not
content with that. Their pride revolts at
association in any Government, however
mild and beneicient, in which laboring
men participate directly or indirectly
To get rid of such Government, though il
has been the chief source of all their pros
perity, is the object of the present rebel
lion. The avowed design of the South
Carolina leaders IS the organization of a /
community composed of gentlemen and
laborers. in which the gentlemen shall be
masters and the laborers their slaves. To
this end they were before the rebellion
broke out, axogedly in favor of reopening
the African slave trade, and have since sub
mitted with a bad grace to restriction in
the confederate constitution dictated by
an apprehension that it would not be safe
at present so far to outrage the feeling Of
the civilized world.
But there is a considerable class of
shareholders, especially in the border
s~laveholdinC states, who do not entertain
this antipathy to labor. 1t Is composed
of men of moderate means, owning but
few slaves. They are the seif-made men,
whose industry and economy have ena-
bled them to purchase one or more slaves
and they NAV often be seen OF work IN the
same field with their own negroes. They
do not sympathize with the cotton, rice
and sugar planters; who reckon their
slaves by hundreds, and who never put
their own haRds se the pillow, the hoe or
the Ak. These small shareholders numer-
ically probably more numerous than the
richer class, have no r~epugnanee 10 beng
associated in a Government controlled IN
part by the laboEing men of the North,
and they are generally faithful to the
Constitution and the Union Slavery
does not make them rebels.
Cotton is a more prolific element than
slavery in generating the pride of wealth
and lust for power" which have produced
the rebellion, though both have cooper
ated. Had cotton, like wheat and corn
been a product of the north as well as the
South, its cultivation would not have
been of inordinate wealth to Southern
planters. For the free labor of the North
would then nave been brought into direct
competition with the slave labor OF the
South, and the price of the articles would
have been reduced to a moderate profit.
But climate has given to the South a mo-
nopoly not at all dependent on the exls-
tence of slavery. 1t would still exist as
effectually as it does now if slavery were
swept out of existence and the CONNER
cial effect would probably, in that event
be an enhancement of the price.
The invention of the cotton gin and i'm
provements in manufacturing machinery
so cheapened the preparation and manu-
facture of cotton as to bring 1t INTO COM
petition, under most favorable conditions,
with every other article used in clothing
the human family, and the demand torl
is so rapidly increased that production
could not Keep up with it. The conse-
Quence was an increase in the pT;Se OF the
raw material until it has reached a point
far above that OF any article which can be
brought in competition with it in the
markets of the world. This is not the
effect of slavery, but in its causes, though
TIM its effects NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
institution. But by this intervention Of
demand for cotton, the shareholders i
South Carolina and a few other States
were enabled to employ the negroes in a
species of culture peculiar to their climate,
profits of which could not be lessened by
general competition. Though there has
been a prodigious increase of production,
the consumption has fully kept pace
with it, and up to the breaking out of the