The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1868-04-07
Advice from Liverpool about Cotton.

A prominent merchant of Liverpool has writ
ten to a commercial friend in Memphis, Ten
nessee letter the prospective prices of cotton,
in which he employs the following language:
s'You ask me what think of cotton. Well,
my opinion is that it will go down to price
which must stop its production in America.
Cotton can be grown for less outlay than IN
America with free labor and / wonder that so
much cotton has been planted this year, when
any other crop pays SO much better. L recon-
mend you by all means to raise corn and potatoes
in preference"
This doubtless, is good advice. Free labors
that is to say, free negro labor may do for tobae
co. and may be put up with in Virginia, but it
is too costly and too uncertain for the cultivation
Of plant like cotton, that requires Continuous
attention throughout the year, and which ex-
periences three four climaeterics, during which
the labor must be energetic and applied promptly
to the day when needed The free negro cannot
be relied on, either for steady work. or for hard
work in crisis of the plant. The cotton cul-
ture of the South has therefore ceased to be a
leading and progressive pursuit. We shall con-
tnue to produce cotton but it win be patch
crop-a little affair Of tenants. business of
pounds not of bales Here and there, very
energetic planter, having the advantage of ex-
make it an affair Of fields and of fifty hun
dred bales; but these instances will be few and
far between.
Cotton growing as leading national interest !;
as an imperial power in commerce; as an ex-
change producing industry, against which bills
for hundreds of millions Of dollars may annually
be drawn, has had its day, and is as dead as
Hector
For the most part, the plant fourished in the
regions Of miasma and miasma is slow poison to
the Saxon races, which drives them in doors in
the morning hours, and during the hot sunshine
If the day. 1t is not question of personal in
dustry with the white man Of the South ; for
they are of purer Anglo-Saxon blood than any
white people now in the United States and Of
al people in the world, the Anglo and European
Saxon are conceded to be the most industrious
in the world e.. ... .r
The immediate result of the superior cheapness
of slave grown India cotton (it is virtually slave
grown) to the free negro grown cotton of the
United States, will be the one recommended by
the Liverpool merchant, who has been quoted.
The people will content themselves with patches
Of cotton and will expend their principal energies
upon grain crops and live stock.
But as these will not pay sufficient profit to
Justify life amid the miasma of the lowlands
tucS W ILL., eic HIduy JSdlS, HdfO W uC1idO oSt"SSh
two alternatives: first, that Of removing from the
ailuyial lands to the hill and mountain country ;
or secondly, that of securing laborers from among
Coolies Chinese, or other Of the dark races, with
view Of resuming the cotton culture.
La the first contingency, large districts of fine
country will lapse under the control of free ne
croes; and we shall have Dahomey, Ashango,
Hayti and Jamaica in this great Union Of ours "
This will inevitably be the result, if the negro
influence in our State governments is very con-
siderable They will not labor themselves and
enough has already transpired in our mongre
Convention at Richmond, and elsewhere, to prove
that they will oppose all sorts of immigration.
They will steal so much of the products Of white
labor that this will be paral yzed, and they will
vote to man against all immigration.
In Virginia We can beat them at the polls and
keep control of our government; We can invite
innli grants, and encourage imni igration. We
can induce the negroes to labor; for here star
vation must be the penalty of Incidence; our
climate not permitting the spontaneous growth
of melons, squashes, and Thomas Cooyle's
''pumkins here the negro must work or do
worse. .-.
But in the States of the Gulf, the case will be
diferent and therefore it is, that negro suffrage
is something more than question of theoretic
Justice. 1t is question of civilization. 1t is a
question of upholding our dear bought institu-
tons \ question Of Georgia or Hayti; Florida
or Ashanso; Louisiana or Guinea.-Nortoh
L1urnGI