Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1867-02-15
SOUTHERN TRADE.


IT is not unusual for us to be
asked why we do not urge, more FREE
quently, the Importance Of securing
Southern trade TO Southern markets.
We feel that Importance as much as
any one, aud would rejoice to see
New Orleans and other Southern
ports reaping the full benefit of the
trade which legitimately belongs to
them. We would rejoice to see the
manifestations Of a Southern senti-
ment earnest enough to unite the
whole people IN a 6xed purpose TO
make the South not only self-sustain-
ing, but leading the way in CONNER
cial enterprise and domestic economy,
until il becomes, in wealth and popu-
lation, all that its natural advanto--
ges, wisely developed, can so sugely
make 49, o. ''aai is
But what is the use Of wasting
ink and paper in appeals to people
who lack not che knowledge of the
advantages they possess, or of the
solemn duty they owe to their own
section, but who seem to lack that
elevated public spirit and pure devo-
ten which characterized the rank
and file Of our armies during the
late struggle. They have but one
answer to every appeal, and that is
that New York has the capita! and
the location, and it is useless to try
to resist its influence upon the
course Of trade. This was not the
answer before the war, when New
Orleans was the great market for
cotton and tobacco, and the North
was pouring into its lap almost the
entire product of her fertile soil.---
Why should it be otherwise now :?
Is it because our people abound in
that christian virtue which requires
them TO love their enemies, and do
good to those who aespitefully use
them? IF this be the motive of &C.
ton, we have no more TO say-not
even to remind them Of the trite
maxim, that charity begins at home.
For six years, the condition Of
the country made New York the sole
market for the products of this sec
ton, and the advantage which neces-
sity gave it is continued through the
free choice Of the people. Every
schoolboy knows that wherever the
leading staples of the country are
collected, there the buyer will go ;
and this well known truism, in the
laws of trade, refutes the argument
founded upon necessity, and leaves
the patron of New York no ground
io.stand upon, save the simple truth
hat New Orleans and New York are
20 evenly balanced, in his affections,
hat dime will turn the scale. No
o,e need be told that the Crescent
Jity can never become tho leading
cotton and tobacco market so long
a. these staples are sent to different
point. Nor. need any one be told
that it will become such a marke,
whenever tho people resolve to make
it the depot Of their agricultural
productions. Both are self-cvident
propositions, and every man who
ships to New York, does so from the
conviction that he can make a few
dimes by the operation, and the pitt
full present profit is, to him, worth
more than all the wealth and power
which the South could 50 readily
reap from different policy.
Is it worth while to argue with
Apcoplc who already understand the
wants of the South and the means Of
applying them? 1t is useless, unless
argument eau engender true devotion
10 the interests Of the South, and
supplant the ort.sighted selfish,
ness which sells the seed and trusts
to luck for the future harvest. It is
not the want Of information that
causes our people to bestow their
patronage upon the North, whilst
their own section lies buried under
the ruins deliberately and maliciously
wrought by those into whose Golfers
they are dropping the hard earnings
of struggling poverty. The appeal
that can reach such people mus
come from the lips of one endowed
with tho attributes Of rc.creative
power. Every argument that genius
aud wisdom could supply has, long
ago, been exhausted; the dosolatiou
of savage war has taught no use
full lesson, and the grinding dospo
tism of to-day has no other othe,