The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-11-23
COLUMBIA.
Friday Morning, November %, 1867.
Politics, Finanec and Trade.

jects exists at all times, but, in the
present condition Of public affairs in
this country, this connection is par
ticularly observable, and is attracting
considerable attention from the think
ing men of both sections.
The continued exclusion of the
planting States of the South from
representation in Congress, and the
certainty, almost, that this exclusion
will be prolonged for another year at
least; the nefarious tax of three cents
per pound on cotton; the apparent
determination of the party in power
to insist on the harsh terms embraced
in the constitutional amendment; and
the equally positive determination of
the Southern States to reject these
terms-all conspire to unsettle COM
mercial relations, and to keep pros
tratc that confidence SO necessary to
sustain commercial transactions and
to keep the capital of the country in
it's natural avenues of trade and eX-
changes.
1t is, then, evident that continu-
ance of this political condition of
af.,irs must be accompanied by
stagnation of trade, visible even now,
both at the North and the South; but
it not only stagnates business-it
clogs the progress of industry, at a
time when it is so necessary to de-
velop the resources of the country.
Financial embarrassment invariably
follows such Interruptions in the ope
rations of trade and commerce; and
the natural results of an inflated and
deprecated paper currency-commer-
cial failures and bankruptcies will
thus come upon q people who own
and occupy country whose resources
are unequalled by any country in the
world
The prospects of the great staple
of the South are not encouraging.
Cotton was, at one time, the great
instrumentality in regulating ex-
changes, keeping in healthful opera
ton our foreign commerce, and
bringing specie Or its equivalent to
the producers, enabling them, each
successive year, to increase its pro-
duction and develop otherwise the
grand resources of their section. It
built railroads, erected foundries and
factories, and brought to us every
needed article of consumption, and
all the machinery and agricultural
implements required to carry on, sue
cessfully, enterprises OF every kind.
Now, all has changed. No capital is
coming South for the purchase Of
cotton, because the amount of cotton
is not sufficient to induce it, Planters
in Alabama and other States, even
after they have sold their small crops,
have no money left, and we observe
that, in some sections, they find them
selves in debt to their factors, after
the accounts are balanced.
Such is the present condition of
cotton, with no hope of improve
ment. We do not believe, nor do
many practical planters believe, that
the labor we have left is to be more
relied upon next year, or the year
after, than it has been III the past.
The experience of Northern men who
have made the experiment of plant
ing cotton, it is asserted upon good
authority, has been SO discouraging,
that no more capital will come from
that section to the South to aid in its
production.
Such is the deplorable condition to
which radical legislation has brought
the country, and such will be its con-
dltlon-if not worse-so long as they
have legislative control in the coun-
ellis of the nation. Faith, endurance
and patient working and waiting we're
never moro needed by any people
than thew are nae1ed now bv tho poo