Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1869-11-06
AFTER THE NEXT CENSUS, WHAT?

ward with great confidence to The next
decade. During the next ten years our
politics will turn upon questions OF Din
ance, currency and taxation and owing
to tie new geographical distribution of
political power, the influence of the West
in our politics will be predominant: The
population of the New England States Is
nearly stationary /; in none of the States
east of the Alleghanies has the progress
of population kept pace with the mar
%velIous growth of the free and expansive
West. Had it not been for the war, the
influence of the West in this decade
~(1s6O-7G} would have been far greater {:
the n2peTmost idea in the Western mind
being ordinarily material and industrial
development an idea which has been
eclipsed and ogefborne by the great civil
convulsion consequent on the President
ial election Of 1SG0-the year when the
last census was taken. Before the new
apportionment Of Representatives on the
basis of the next census, the engrosslng
questions of this decade will have dis
appeared from our politics, and the in
creased ascendancy of the West will be
fully felt. Westward the star OF en-
pire takes its way y and the weight Of
that section in the period between 1870
and 1880, will be increased by the accu
mutations of the t,oo proceeding decades.
In the present decade, the West has not
welded the influence due to its increase
of population from 1850 to 1860.
In questions purely financial the West
and the South are natural allles-the
chief industry Of both sections being agri
c~u!ture-and the influence of the South in
national politics has been practically
abolished since the census of 1860. But,
during the aext decade, the South will be
in the Union with increased power. The
South will have an increased representa-
ton in Congress in consequence of the
abolition of slavery, which will cause
FIVE tenths of its colored population TO be
counted, instead of thrS iftbs, as under
the last censu The weight Of toe South
in the national councils will thus be in
creased; and, from similarity Of interests,
the South will reinforce the West, and
their joint influence will operate as a
unit. But the West will take the lead,
and the increase of its representatives
will enable it to dictate the politics Of the
nation. After the next census, the will
Of the West cannot be successfully resist
ed and all speculations respecting the
future course of our politics will go wide
y astray, unless they are based on a cor
rect estimate Of the tendencies Of West
ern opinion.
There can be no doubt that the pre-
dominant sentiment of the West is Wig
orously opposed to q protective tariff
There eau be no better proof of this than
the fact that free trade doctrines are
making rapid progress among the Repub-
licans of that section. The two most
popular, able, influential and widely
circulated journals III the West-tbe Chi
cago Tribune aud Cincinnati Commercial
--are out-spoken, intrepid advocates Of
free trade. The interests of that section
%enlists it on the free trade side. The
West, as well as its natural ally, the
South, is a community Of agriculturists--
that is to say, a community of consumers
of manufactured goods, and not Of pro
ducers. 1t is the interest of all consum,
ers that goods should be cheap !; and it
is the protested object of protection to
make goods dear, in order that American
manufacturers may be able to hold the
home market. The West and the South
are reliably ansi.tarif ; and, during the
next decade, the combined West aud
South will have q controlling majority in
Cougress--the West gaining a grea:
access of strength by the growth of it's
population, instead of three ffths, as
heretofore. AS the new census is to be
taken next year, we are in the dawn of
a great and fnall triumph of free trade
principles in our tariff legislation.
On the important questions connected
with the National debt, the interest Of.
the West aud Sontb are also identical.
A very small proportion of the Govern
ment bonds is held in either section. The
South has been preeluded from purchas-
ing them by its poverty and its pressing
need of capital for active uses and the
West BY high rates of interest which
afford q more profitable employment Of
capital than investment 10 Government
bonds. There can be no party either in
the West or South tia: will favor the
bondholders at the expense Of the just
interests of the ration IN Y World