The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-12-18
What Has Become OF American Commerce

" hat Has Become oil American commerce
This question is suggested by the intima-
ton contained by the Free Trade article Of
The Democrat of Saturday last, whore it is
charged by implication that the present
tariff is the cause of the present state of
American commerce. The writer says:
sOar commerce is languishing, our mcr-
chant fleet retting in the docks. The
American merchant ships were once the
pride of our country, and their sails Will
tened every sea, now the gallant sailor seeks
another flag, whilst the moth is eating his
own bunting.
The Committee on Commerce, appointed
to investigate and report the cause of this
deplorable calamity, have recently made
public the facts of their investigation, which
were not that import duties on foreign
goods had driven it from the seas, but the
British built and manned rebel corsairs,
which under the encouragement and assist
ance of the aristocratic government of Eng
land, were protected in their piracy on the
high SEAS in capturing and burning de-
fencelcss merchantmen, sailing under the
United States flag.
1t was not the numbers of ships wan
tonly burned and destroyed by this pratt
cal arrangement between the old enemy of
American commerce and the Rebel Confed-
eracy but with such freebooters as the
Alabama rowing the seas, merchants who
shipped in American bottoms were unable
to procure insurance, without paying such
enormous rates as would sink the entire
profits of the cargo. And the consequence
was that American vessels, to escape the
danger of being bounced upon in mid-ocean,
by these pirates, were transferred to British
protec' ion, took out British papers and sail
ed under the British flag. The American
commerce, which had been building up for
the greater part of a centuary, was by this
foul alliance between tho rebel leaders, and
the natural enemy of that commerce, driven
from the seas in four years. A commerce
like that of the United States before tho
war, cannot be re-established in day or
year. Another cause reported by the Com
mittee is the high wages demanded by
American sailors above those of the British
marines, serving at present to keep the
freights of British vessels below those Of
American shippers. These are the prime
causes Of the present state of our COM
merce, clearly attributable to the madness
that ruled in the southern half of our coun-
try in 1860, and not the present tariff
And if the tariff ON imports is high, it is
the result of the debt caused by the self
same war, which was the ruin of our COM
merce, all brought about in the effort to
establish 4 dominion wholly dedicated to
slavery.
This much we have thought it necessary
to say in reference to the decline of our
merchant marine, in taking leave of the
editor pro tenn. who during his brief install
ment in the editorial chair of The Democrat,
gave his readers plain, honest thoughts in
strong Saxon words, in lieu of the hazy,
labyrinthian rhetoric, on which they have
been refreshed SO long.
His theory of paying the public debt by
direct taxation, we fear would not find
many friends among the farmers and those
few would rapidly diminish after the first
levy. To advocate paying our immense
public debt by direct taxation, is only a
mild name for reputation. 1t could not
be done.