Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1867-04-03
KnoxrIlle as 3 ManufaetnrIng Center.

Knoxville as q Manufacturing Center.
1 have spoken Of Kuoxvilless cOasasreias cen
ter. now propose to submit . few thoughts IN
reference to It as probable nsaafactAFsg center.
Let it be kept in mind that we have entered new
era Old things have passed away. For forty years
the policy, and the folly as well, of the South was
% raise and sell cotton and with the proceeds pur
chase ner supplies from the North and West. In
otner Wcrds, sac discouraged manufacturing as de.
grading and enslaving in tendency, and devoted
herself alone to raising and selling the raw mate
rial. an were producers So far Was this shirt
carried that even foreign market was preferred 10
domestic one. There was no diversity OF division
of labor A fortunate few, the great Lind and slave
proprietors, grew rich, while the great body Of the
population remained poor, or were forced to emf
CRATE to the West. Constant streams Of population
the bone. sinew and wealth of the country, moved
to the free States Of the West The latter grew
mighty and reared great towns and cities and built
railroads and factories school houses aud churches
while the South languished in her own exclusive
ness. While assuming to be the most Independent
people in the land, they in fact absolutely de-
pendent on the North for everything except cotton
rice, sugar and tobscco They raised cotton with
Northern plows, hoes and food shipped it in North
ern vessels, and sold it in Northern Market where
it was manufactured into prints. demestics baggng,
&C. Then they went North and purchased these
articles for the use of the planter. Look at this
system for moment. A bale of cotton, raised in
Mississippi was first sent to the commission mer-
chant in New Orleans, which, after being insured
was sent to New York for sale where it was sold to
manufacturer in Lowell, who converted it into do
nestle and then sent it back to his agent in New
York, who sold it to the large jopber, and he to the
retail merchant from the South, who returned home
with it to sell it to the planter. Finally, then, the
same cotton, in q new form, after travelling from
Mississippi to Massachusetts,, and being taxed by
way Of profits, in a half dozen hands, arrives on
the same plantation where it was raised. By such
system few Ensn might grow rich, but the eOun-
try was compelled to grow poor. There was no
for the small farmer the hope and stay Of the
land; for without him, in predominant numbers
no State can be prosperous. His hands create
wealth. 1t is as true now as when Goldsmith wrote,
that,
Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ills prey,
Whers wealth accnmulates and men decay
For bold peassntry, their conntry's pride,
Wnon Ohoe destroyed can never % supp1eu.
Under that system South Carolina scarcely moved
for half century. While under an opposite sys-
tenn the North marched to wealth and to empire,
the South marched TO ignorance snd poverty. FL
nally, maddened by the perceptible loss of power,
she made bold and desperate effort for separate
political existence To the Democratic party the
South is to-day indebted for this false system Of po
itical economy, and all the consequences resulting
from it. For many long years Henry Clay with
true love for his whole country struggled to engat
his great American system of protection and labor
on the policy of the country, but the false theories
of Southern Democrats defeated all his efforts The
result was that while the North and West were
moving forward, the South sat still, hugging her
idols, repelling immigration, discouraging manufac-
lures and preparing her people for the great day of
fire and blood, which was to prove for her the great
day of desolation and of humiliation
have said we are entering on new era be-
heve the South viii at last cast aside her folly East
Tennessee, never much welded to Southern theo-
ries and not at all now, viii surely change her pol
icy. 1t would seem that nature designed her for
manufacturing district. To name her minerals,
would be to repeat an old story familiar to every
one To speak of her water power, would be to
close our eyes to her bold mountain streams that
come leaping down into every valley. To dwell
upon her climate would be to forget is nearly
as mild and uniform as that of Italy or Central |
Mexico. Her central position too, is remarkable.
She stands on the confines of the cotton region, |
about equidstant from the Atlantic coast and from
the Lakes, with soil and climate capable of rails
ing many Southern and nearly all Northern pro-
ducts. Being on the borders Of the great grass
growing and stock raising region, she is likewise
grass growing and stock raising region in high |
degree With coal and iron, copper and zinc, lead /
and marble wood and water, food and climate, and |
with railroads running from Knoxville in every d.
rection, as well as from other points and with her
great climate and geographical central position,
what element is wanting for system of manufae-
lures on the grandest scale Ee
But what is our present ssatas in that respect
With few establishments at this place, and few
at Chattanooga and some others in different coun-
ties in East Tennessee, all is told part even Of
tie iron that is forged in East Tennessee is shipped
six hundred miles to Cincinnati there to be convert
ed into plows stoves, and engines and sent back to
us. Even the very brooms with which sweep,
the pows with which we pillow, the to chop, the
chains to draw the carriages the engines, the tubs
and buckets, the furniture in our houses in word,
nearly every article we use wear, comes from
distance. Beneath OLE mountain sides lie the iron
and the COAL it grow the oak, the pine the cedar
and the ash, and down it rushes water power capa-
bic of moving the heaviest machinery, and by it
glides the swift railroad car and in the valley near
by grow the tall grass, and wheat and corn, and
yonder foic the heecy sheep and the fat cattle and
above these smiles in golden light geniasky from
year to year. yet with all these bountiful gifts We
are dependent on the North for al our manulac-
lures. Will not some one erect a factory for maxi
ing brooms, and tubs and buckets, and remove this
shame2 Will not some one make arrangements 10
manufacture first class agricultural implements
Have we no enterprise, no Skill capital, no
sSane9 How long will we adhere to system which
has ruined the South MORE ANON.
Friendship for COIOFed Men.
The selfstyled Conservatives, of Tennessee seem
to think that the Radicals have acted in bad faith
towards the freedman, in that they have enfran-
chised them, and did not at their February Con
vention, nominate one of them for Governor They
tell US that A,aerso, Of Knoxville Dyer, Of Jack