Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1862-03-20
mos Kendall TO the President.


0'HD I'm L PippDhc " COHsl0el
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 progress that operation is making.
/ The cause or causes of the rebellion
may be summed up in the phrase, Pridc
Of WealW md Lust for P0wer. These
are not peculiar to the South, but have
their influence in the North as well -
North and South they pervade, with hon
orable exceptions, those classes of society
which find mcanas 10 aINg Sand enrich
themselves without manuaffabor. North
as well as South the feelings of these
classes revolt against Government con.
trolIod by the toiling millions, and wo'd
overthrow it if they could. In the North
the attempt would be hopeless, and the
arlstocratic classes quietly acquiesce in
things as they are. In the cotton region
OF the South the laborers have no polit.
zeal rights, and the sristocratic classes
govern in all that relates to local affairs.
But they are not content with that. Their
PRIDE revolts at association with any gov
ernment however mild and benefcient,
IN which laboring men participate direct
ly or indirectly. To get rid of such a
government, though it has been the chief
source of all their prosperity, is the object
of the present rebellion The avowed
design Of the South Carolina leaders is
the organization of community COM
posed OF gentlemen and laborers, in
which the gentlemen shall be masters and
the la5orers their slaves. To this end
they were, before the rebellion broke out,
avowedly in favor OF re-opening the Af-
Iican slave trade, and have since submit
ted 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 feelings
Of the civilized world
But there is a considerable class o.
Shareholders, especially in the border
slaveholding States, who do not enter
tain this antipathy to labor. 1t is COM
posed of men of moderate means own
ing but few slaves. They are the self
made men, whose industry and economy
have enabled them to purchase one or
more slaves, and they may often be seen
at 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 hands to the
plow, the hoe, or the axe. These small
Shareholders, numerically probably more
numerous thsn.the richer class, have nc
repugnance to being associated in a Gov
ernment controlled in part by the labor
ing men Of the North, and they are gen
orally faithful to the Constitution and the
Union. Slavery does not make them
rebels.
Cotton is more prolific element than
slavery in generating the pride of wealth
and the lust for power which have pro-
duced the rebellion, though both have co
operated. Had cotton, like wheat and
corn, been product of the North as wei
as the South, its cultivation would not
have been a source of inordnatc wealth
to Southern planters for the free labor
OF the North would then have been bro't
into direct competition with the slave la
Dor Of the South, and the price of the
article would have been reduced to mod
crate profit. But climate has given to
the South monopoly of this culture,
and it is monopoly not at all depend
ent on the existence of slavery. 1t would
still exist as cllcctually as it does now if
slavery were swept out of existence, and
the commercial effect would probably in
that event be an enhancement Of the price.
The invention of the cotton gin and
improvements in manufacturing machin
cry so cheapened the preparation and
manufacture of cotton as to bring it into
competition, under most favorable condi-
tions, with every other article used in
clothing the human family, and the de-
mand for it so rapidly increased that PRO,
duct;on could not keep up with it. The
consequence was an increase in the price
of the raw material until it has reached
point far above that of any article that
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 not in its effects, it is entireI y in
dependent of that institution. But, by
this intervention of the demand for cot
ton, the Shareholders in South Carolina
and few other States were enabled to
employ their negroes in a species of cul-
ture peculiar to their climate, the profits
of which could not be lcssened by gener
al competition. Though there has been
a prodigious increase of production, the
consumption has fully kept pace with
it, and mp to the breaking out of the re.
bollon, in no part of the earth fot the
last thirty years, and in no period Of his
tory, have the profits of agricultural la
Dor been so great as in the cotton grow
ing regions of the United States. But
these profits would have been as great, if
not greater, had the Southern production,
as is the Northern manufacture, been the
proceeds Of hired free instead of slave
labor.
With the immense profits of the mo.
nopoly the cotton planters became intoX-
icated, and thought that, by means of
their cotton, they could rule the world
Cotton is King" they exclaimed and
through his power they aspired to break
up the Union and compel Great Britain
and France to aid them in the rratricdal
operation. 1t has seemed strange to me
that the rulers of those nations have not
seen in this rebellion, or rather in the
means by which the leaders have propos-
ed to compass success, an insult to their