Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, and rebel ventilator. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1863-1866, 1866-01-03
The next Cotton Crop.

The following article, taken from the Boston
Journal, enforces with vigor the views heretofore
presented in our columns, the Importance to the
country of securing full cotton crop the approach
ing season:
The resolutions of the Board Of Trade, of this
city, at it, special meeting, convened for the par
pose Of considering the best me rs to be used for
securing the cotton crop of the coming year, have
been widely noticed by the press throughout the
country and have met with general approval The
Baltimore Commercial has published very able
and earnest series of edit rial articles on the sub
iect and in is issue of the lIth inst, call upon the
Chamhsrs Of Commerce of Baltimore, Philadelphia
ana New York to take action similar to that OF the
Boston Bnard Referring ~ thu >tatenl mt recently
made in Liverpool hy Mr. Dudley. our Consul ~
that port and confirmed by Mr. Secretary McCul-
loch, thst The cotton now on hand in the United
States, both # the old and Of the new crop, does
not probably ,xre~d seven hun !rei thousand bales.
the Commercial Well says that the most Supine and
careless in this regard should awake to the presen'
condition Of affair. and thar ruler also should
see the scessIty of taking some imueds-s measure
calculated to assist the Treasury. hv giving - tn
people the ability 20 pay taxes and 70 relieve tn"
money market. by furnishing thut which will pay
our foreign debts.
Our imports are enormous and, according to al
present indications will continue so; and yer far
as we hear, little nothing is doing to supply
selves with the only article which is sure to be in
demand for export and which have always De
pended upon mainly, for the settlement Of our bal
snces with other countries. Surely, in view of its
financial bearings, there is question in which SO
legitimatev comes within the notice of our COM
mercal organizations rs that Of the future supply
of cotton; and important rs are the subjects now
pressing upon the attention of Congress no one IL
more worthy than this Of the most careful Cnnsde
ration and of the most prompt and Wig rous legisa
ton. We have no desire to disparage the claims of
other measures before Congress and the country
but which Of them all like this, involves the indus
Try Of millions people, and the lives of perhaps
hundreds of t. usands )! Not now to mention the
welfare of the TLte population of the South which
every call of duty and Of interest we Of the North
and the Government especially are bound to pro-
mote in all proper ways the happiness and prosper
ty; yes, the very existence of the colored race re-
quire at that the relations of labor be organized
and defined; that idleness and vsgrancy be
counteracted and that industry be encouraged and
sustained. The estimates of the mortality among
these peor creatures, who but just were reoic-
ing in their newly acquired freedom, most fec
ting and alarming. In some portions IF the South
twenty five per cent Of. the manumitted slaves are
said to be dying; in Georgia the proportion is be-
lieved to be still larger Is it too much to suppose,
in view of all the information now coming to hand,
that throughout the Southern States ten per cent Of
the freed population will have to their graves
before next spring? This would be four hundred
thousand; equal to the numb'r of inhabitants of
Boston and all its suburbs Can we fold our hands
and be indifferent while this dreadful mortality is
going on? Are We not responsible in some measure
for the lives of those men, women and children.
W HON we have virtually taken under our guardian
ship, and who, throughout the war, looked so loyal
Iy toward the Government, and so expectantly and
trustfully to us2 1t a noble utterance made in
our hearing not many weeks since by the highest
authority in the land that the truest humanity is
the safest political economy. By helping to save
the laborng Glasses of the South from needless and
untimely death, we shall assist in saving untold
wealth to the South and to the North; and shall
contribute largely to the speedy and solution of
difficult political problems which now threaten to
become more difficult and unmansgeable by the ag-
gravating circumstances of poverty and perhaps OF
INV,