Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-02-06
Why De Bow was Imprisoned.
A New Corner Stone for the South-Cotton no
Longer King.


II is fact not generally known that De-
Bow, the Southern Reviewer and the only
man at the South possessing attachments suf-
ficient to edit a first class review, has been
imprisoned by JEFF. Davis and his Revieo sup
pressed in consequence Of an article going to
show that cotton was no longer King. An
article based upon indisputable figures and
facts.
The following are the more important por-
tiOns of the article which have caused De.
Bows incarceration:
1t is true we have believed that cotton is
king; il is undeniable that we possessed a
monopoly for its production, arising out of a
variety of causes, but it is not true that il
will grow nowhere else. Indeed we find that
the production of it in various countries is
increasing in a geometric ration, and that in a
guar or so the South will no longer be needed
to supply the commerce of the globe with
what we vainly hoped would grow nowhere
else.
Shall we not learn from our enemies :
What are the causes of their prosperity ?
Why 10 even the laborers of the North 1--we
with degree of comfort often unknown to
the wealthy planters of the Sonth?
The statistical reports accompanying the
census of 1860 establiA fully the results OF
material conditions; and if we admit that the
people of the North have already hardly felt
the war up to this point, we must look to and
examine the material conditions which sur
round them.
They cannot be more prosperous because
there is no slavery; certainly it is cheaper 10
have slave who labOrs for YOU than TO labor
yourself; therefore, slave labor is the more
economical, or rather il was before the time
of Henry 4. Wise and John Brown. Consid-
ering the present condition of the country,
and prospectively, also, il may well be sup
posed, as it already is by many in the slave
States, that il actually may be more econom-
zeal to labor for ourselves than to maintain
negroes for that purpose.
We have taken to raising cereals, and have
succeeded so badly as to make il a matter of
doubt whether we will not have eaten every
thing before the time of green's, which when
boiled with fowl, are so priced by the First
Families of Virginia.
In the meantime, the production of cotton
is slipping away from ms, and we have already
slipped away into unknown depths and
are drifting to a fearful and to an uncertain
future.
The people of the North live comfortably
more so, indeed, than the majority of the
slave owners in the South They educate
their children, and teach them that there is
no dishonor in employing either their hands
or their heads, and | say boldly, even against
our prejudices, | think they are right in that.
We know that the turnip crop of England
is now by far more valuable than any other
cultivated by the English, although it has be-
come so recently. In regard to the compare
tive productions of the people of the North
and of the South, as given by the census re-
port, we observe in those common to both
regions that the widest divergence exists in
regard to mich cows.
In the North the ratio Of increase of milch
cows was slightly in excess of the ratio of
increase of population between the years
1850 and 1860. In the South there was an
actual deficiency i'm the ratio above stated OF
43l ,5bl In proportion to the ratio of in
crease of population, the chivalrous State of
South Carolina is deficient in milch cows "a, i
766 = As her decadence is far greater than
that of any other State, and her deficiency
in the ratio of mileh COWS to the proportion
is the greatest, may we not suppose that eth
or the deficiency indicated, or some cause
coincident to it, has been the ruin of that
State?
cannot get milk, naturally they take to whis-
XIV, and We may well lament the result. The
subjoined fables show plainly that the de
crease IF milch COWS in proportion 10 the
population indicates precarlous condition of
society and, ii it has not led directly TO the
rebellion, the causes of the decrease of milch
cows are coincident and analogous, at least,
To it.
In the slave States, tabulated in 1850, there
was mich COW to every "a persons. In
the free States, tabulated, one for every 81
persons In 1860, in the slave States, one TO
every Sc persons, or slight gain of the pro-
portiOnate number of mich cows.
The want Of good meadow lands in most of
the slave States, the poor and insufficient
quantity of food usually given milch cows,
the unsheltered condition in which they are
kept and the neglect of them by the negroes,
would make the Weld of milk less than one
half per each COW of those in the Northern
States This appears to be shown by the
amount of butter and cheese produced.
Mr. De Bow then gives in tabular form the
amount of butter and cheese produced and
the number of milch COWS in the free and slave
States and adds:
ave see in the above our road of progress /;
cotton has failed or will fail us; the negro
has failed us or will fail US it is idle to hope
longer to enjoy peacefully the proceeds of his
labor when at this moment eighty thousand
of his color are organized and hold arms in
their hands TO free their fellows. The longer
the war is protracted the more violently will
slavery be destroyed. For two years and n
half we have waged war, and lost more than
half the territory over which we asserted
jurisdiction; the supply of cattle no longer
comes from Texas, nor does cotton escape
longer from the frontier to furnish us sup
plies. The Mississippi bears hundred gun
boats, half of them iron-clads, that effectual-
ly prevent our occupation of any point along
its entire course, or even the passage of it
except under cover of darkness and by stealth.
''The fruitful valleys of Kentucky and of
Tennessee have been desOlated by war, and
are held by the enemy. Arkansas, a large part
of Louisiana, of Mississippi, of North Caro-
lima and Virginia have been held or are now
held by the enemy, and have been exhausted
bv the supplies drawn by the contending
forces. Nor can we regard Alabama, Geo
gia, South Carolina or Texas exempt from
the march of heavy armies now organizing
for purpose of invasion.
We will say to Congress and to President
Davis that a careful study of the last "Cen-
sus Report of the United States" will correct
or destroy many perturbations in their minds
as well as our own. Let them legislate so as
to increase the number of cows and think no
more of the negro The'land, then, instead
ants gaGnt with privations and misery, will
A m. ~.