The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-01-13
CHI A E L E S TON
WEDNESDAY MORNING, JANUARY 1s, 1869.
Congress und Cotton.

We do not understand that the bill to
regulate the purchase and sale of cotton
proposes to force producers to sell the whole
of their raw cotton to the government at
twenty cents per pound for uplands and thirty
cents for sea islands; but at the same time the
tax imposed upon oil cotton sold to private
persons, and the remission of oil taxes ex-
cep. the income tax granted those who do
sell to the government, must operate with
stringent force in that direction. With cot
ton selling at thirty cents, the producer
could sell to private persons in open mar
ket, pay the government tax for SO doing,
and net twenty-seven cents per pound. But
thirty cents is wholly abnormal price,
and, in the majority of cases, the planter
would pay premium to his paternal gov
errment for the privilege of selling his cot
ton.
At twenty cents per pound for upland
cotton, free of tax, the planter con make
money; doubtless, therefore, there are many
planters who will be inclined 10 support the
new cotton firm of United States s. Co. But
the establishing minimum price of twenty
cents would so stimulate the cultivation Of
the staple that the crop would soon be
doubled, the market value would fall, and
the Federal Government would have no
choice but between paying for the crop and
holding it for rise, or throwing it on the
mai ket and losing cool fifty or hundred
millions There is also the absolute GER
tainty that the whole scheme would become
o vast plundering machine, giving new life
to hordes of thieving agents, superinten-
dents, assessors and the like. The govern
ment would be cheated at every turn, and
the cotton ring would cause the whiskey
ring to blush with anger at being so utterly
outdone.
But even admitting that the planter would
sustain no loss, that the purchase and sale
of the cotton would be honestly carried on,
and that the produce trade of the West would
be benefited by the fact that the South
would give its whole attention to cotton, and
purchase its grain and meats in the West
ern markets, we should still oppose the bill,
as contrary to every principle Of political
economy, and dangerous to the country at
large.
We do not attempt to revive any extreme
doctrine of statal rights as opposed to Fed
eral powers; we do not discuss even the
nature of the Federal compact; but we pro-
test against that Capitalization policy which,
if continued, will make this vast country
the most grinding despOtism the world has
ever known. We want no paternal govern
ment to send its agents into our dwelling
houses, into our counting rooms, into our
fields, to bid us take this and reject that,
and dictate the manner in which we shall
breathe, and move, and live. This State can
take care Of itself. We want no help from
the capitol, and we say here that we had
rather deal with our own State Government,
with all it's faults, than be given up to the
tender mercies of political rings, aud cotton
rings, and whiskcy rings at Washington.
II we are not interfeTed with we shall pros
per and grow rich; Federal assistance VIC
neither want nor desire.
Aud when the Cotton bill is brought up
for discussion, Congress will surely be able
to see how fatal hos ever been the attempt
of governments or despots to override the
laws of trade-laws not of man's making,
and wholly bey ond his control. Congress can
not do with success what has been tried and
has failed in every country Of Europe; aud
what, in the colonial times, was attempted III
this country Congress cannot make cotton
worth twenty cents, or ten cents, whatever
the laws it may pass; but it can revolution
ize our agricultural system, and, by laws
century old in folly, bring down destruc.
,ion upon the heads Of the Southern and
Northern people.
The proposed bill is wrong in theory,
wrong in policy, and contrary to the prin-
oiples established by the experience OF all
civilized Europe. It would, in the end
ruin the planter, make the government
bankrupt, and pave the way for destroying
what little is left of the liberties and rights
of the people.