Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1865-12-05
from the Boston Advertiser
BOARD OF TRADE ENEEETING-NATI0NA vi
COTTON CONVENTION.

EIONiI6 carly III DCCCmDef, 10 TAX
measures for insuring a large cotton crop the mex
season.
Mr.. Edward S. Tobey offered the following resou
ton upon the subject
Whereas, by the recent civil war. many of tn,
Southern States have become greatly desolated ant
large part OF their capital destroyed and no ncon
siderable portion of the laborng classes are destitute
of employment whose labor. unless now aided b,
capital must ~ be lost to the county;
ResOkUed. That the commercial and financial inter
ess of the United States alike demand that speedy
and efficient measures be Immediately employed t.
organize and develop industry in the Southern State
in order to increase the production of their staples
and especially of cotton.
ResoUed That while we recognize the fact that thu
causes and principles which less affect the
ability of the banks to redeem their circulation
specie the quantity of cotton raised in this country
payments can be safely resumed, and that to haster
that time IS the part of sound political economy anC
a wise statesmanship, and is indispensable to tht
permanent prosperity OF entire country.
Resotred, That in view of the facts that efforts by
private enterprise to draw capital and intelligent
labor to the Southern States must in their results be
remote and contingent and however ultimately use.
full they be, cannot be relied upon materially tc
increase the agricultural products Of next year,
to the interests of the nation that the Government
should, within the sphere OF It's legitimate powers
ald forthWth n sustaining ana organizing such por
ton of the iaborng classes now in the Southern
States. cannot be reached by private capital not
only on the ground OF a cOnsiderate humanity, but
also to save their labor TO themselves and to the
country.
Mr.. Tobey supported the resolutions with the fol-
lowing remarks
Mr.. President The communication from Wash
ngton addressed to this board inviting its cOOpera
ton with the Chamber of Commerce of New York
IN forming National Cotton Growing Convention,
embraces objects which, in my Judgment, are second
in Importance to others which now occupy the at
tention of government.
Of those objects, the recommendation of mea-
by which labor be successfully applied to
the crops of next year in the Southern States will
doubtless be the most prominent.
As the grave emergency which has suggested the
necessity Of convention for such purposes is appa
rent, and if held much time must elapse before any
measures which it might adopt could lead to prac-
cal action, appears desirable that the views of COM
mercial men should be expressed on the important
topics involved through the several Boards of Trade
OF our country, in the hone that they may at least
promote the objects of the proposed convention
if they do not receive the more immediate approval
of those who have the power and responsibility of
carrying them into effect.
L have, therefore ventured to introduce the reso-
lutions before the board, and to ask for hem
wei for the method proposed for carrying their OBJ
Jects into effect, your candid consideration and ia
vorable action. The question of immediate import
ance, and perhaps paramount at the present moment
to any other having reference to the condition and
future welfare OF our country is that of deciding
the best mode in which industry in the Southern
States can be most etfectualy secured and rapidly
promoted.
Disorganized through the desolations of war a
large portion Of the laboring classes by whose in
duStry the Southern States prior to the war,
nched, are now without employment. In the alb
scnce of capital the implements of husbandry or
other means in the hands of their former employers
if the relations between these two classes were
ever so friendly deness and destitution exist and
must cont to exist until suitable measures of re-
lief shall be adopted. Overwhelming evidence of
character as to these facts reaches us
from various sources
The Freedmen's Aid Society. whose officers must be
regarded as good authority, found their appeal to be
presented to the people through the churches on the
approaching national Thanksgiving on the extreme
destution of the laborng classes in the South and
it asserts rs probability that in Georgia alone not
less than lUNHl persons DeriSh
this winter unless timely aid shall be extended to
them. The American Union Commission and Refu-
gees Aid Societies urge thcr claims the sympathy
and benevoence Of the people of the North on SINH
lar grounds and with recitals of sutlcringS unsur-
passed Military men and civilians recently from the
South corroboratc these statements. If need
evidence Of the facts that capital and the means Of
working the plantations are to great extent want
ing, it may be found in the frequent applications
from Southern to Northern capitalists to invest
in cotton lands at low prices, and also in the forma
ton Of large associations to promote enterprises of
that character.
But it is not necessary to multiply evidence on
these points. allude to these facts not as matter
of Humanity, although that is by no means an inap-
proprate topic for the consideration of this board
under some circumstances but it is at present chiefly
on the ground OF political economy and of CONNER
cial and financial interest that propose to invite
your attention to designed to effect the or
ganizaton of labor in the Southern States so as to in
crease their production nearly possible to the
quantity raised before the war. Ncoripte sane ,7oYk-
ing poptation chtch ro1sea the foc millions Of bales
Of cotton and Other products an 1850 IS there to
be made available to effect the productions of
1866? Let private capital. so far it exists in the
gGm Hne hg g 95 a sH %
greater and more general response will be made than
has been supposed.
But capital, already observed is greatly deficient
IN the Southern States, and it is seldom placed by
Its posessors where society is disorganzed and life
and property comparatively unprotected by Stable
and ehcent government. it cannot Ie presumed that
II will seek investment in Southern property in the
tbnra o,,
amount materially to affect the crops of next year
when IN other portions of our country so great in
ducements offer in the development of mineral wealth
and the various branches of industry which have al
ready made profitable returns to a degree without n
parallel in the history of this of any other coun-
try; Ihls deficiency IN capital and the protection
ard organization o labor now there, can be measura-
bly,, and perhaps may add in great degree pro
ytded for by government and at the present moment
by it ony-and this being done to meet the present
emergency and temporary measure, private capt.
tai will follow order and security attracted by
low prices of land supply of reliable labor and
high prices of products.
Happily the country Congress- at its last session
created an agency and power which in the hands Of
the President may do much towards accomplishing
these most important objects through the operations
of the FreedmenS Bureau, a military branch of
the Government. The act creating it provides for
the occupancy Of abandoned and cORfscated lands and
giUes TO the bureau the control Of al subjects relating
to refugees and freedmen, under such rules and regu-
lations may be prescribed by the head of the bu-
reau and apprOyed By the President" How much
good has already been attained through the indeat
gable labors of its able and humane head, Major
General Howard and his efficient assistant General
Fiske is known to the country. Its efficiency and
usefulness has been especially illustrated in TenneS-
see and also in the Department of Eastern Virginia
formerly under the able and judciouS administration
of General Gordon and if perchance through unfor-
tunate appointments 1t has failed in any Of it7 de-
partments to accomplish all that its friends could de-
SIRE let it be reinforced by men adapted to its service
with the prOmpness with which unskillful Generals
in the army have been superseded by more competent
officers
With enlarged powers which may be granted early
in the next Congress to authorize permit the bu-
reau to lease, and possibly in instances to pur-
chase lands in the Southern States, where abandon
ed or cOnscated lands may no longer be adequate to
the necessities Of the case, the Freedmen's Bureau
may before the next planting season organize and
employ such portion Of the aborers there as
otherwise be employed for want of capital in private
hands, and thereby to the laborer the rewards
OF industry and to the national wealth the results Of
that industry, far in excess in its pecunary return
over the entire cost of its operations.
The government need not nor can it have any in
ducements to interfere with private enterprise, but
faithful guardian of the interests of the States
and of the nation it may thus supplement and assist
individual capital by system adapted to the emer
geney, and at the same time consistent with individ
ual rights and the highest welfare of the community
Indeed, that which the States in their peculiar and
present unsettled condition., and without public
credit, or a large amount of individual credit and
capital unable to do for themselves let the Gov
ernment through its specially adapted agency of tn
bureau do for the benefit of the Southern States and
the whole country, thereby protecting alike the
aborer and the employer in their respective rights of
condition to adopt similar policy.
No part of the country can have greater interest
in the results and advantages of such method of
action has been proposed than the people of the
South and it is to be hoped that candid and com
prehensve view of the subject will lead them to well
come such efforts on the part of the Goyernment.-
Security to lite and property in these States is the
first condition ndispensaby necessary to their future
development and prosperity.
They freely alege that is their desire to interest
Northern capital and cooperation in the work of
repairing the desolgtion OF war and in promoting
their commercial and agricultural enterprises. Can
il then be the part of wisdom and of sound policy to
laborers which it must require many years to gather
in sufficient numbers largely TO affect productions
and IN the meantime allow a considerable proper
tion OF the aborers on the spot where they are
accimated, and have been trained from childhood to
the special branch of agriculture in the South, to
perish and their labor lost, merely from want of
power or disposition to make temporary provision
dustry?
In February last in the columns of one of the lead
ng journals of Maryland ventured to present a
plan for systematizing the labor of the freedmen of
that State just then emancipated in the hope that
all the southern States might ultimately ind 1t
into operation through the Freedmens Bureau, as
the only in which the dreaded mortality of the
freedmen can be prevented, and any crops compare
bic to those OF former years, can be secured next
year. The laborers in the Southern States as indeed
also in all the other States, may be divided into
three classes. First those who active, frugal and
Industrious and who need only the stimulus of wages
| apprehend that this class will be found to be more
numerous amongst the freedmen than has been sup
posed. Second, those who are willing to work when
employment seeks them, but who are wanting in en-