The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-03-11

The agricultural bent of Southern industry
which was their chief weakness in war
enabled the Southern people to gather VI
force and energy with unexampled rapidity
This is now admitted by the most sagaciou:
of Northern politicians and Northern jour
nalists and when paper like the Boston
Post speaks Of the cotton crop as the 'cona
''mercial support and sautor." of the Union,
we'may feel that we have fought the good
fight and soon shall possess the wages o.
success The Boston Post says:
"Last years cotton crop Is estimated by in
telligent and careful statisticians 10 be three
million bales. Attwenty-fve cents per pound
- is equal to crop OF six million bales before
I rfie war. Its entire value, allowing four hun
dred and sixty pounds to the bale, is thrc e
hundred and forty-fve millions Of dollars. All
this is hard cash, earned by the single product
Of a single section in single season. On such
basis, with even fair series of good seasons,
that section would outstrip every other in the
rapid accumulation of wealth. Of these three
million bales, it is allowed that two millions
one hundred thousand are for export yielding
the sum OF s24l 500, 900 in gold. Half of this
has been shipped abroad between the last OF
September and the last Of February, leaving
the other half, which is equal in money to over
one hundred and twenty-one millions OF dol
lars, to be exported between this and Septem-
Der. That is to say, cotton will supply US In
| for fbn ciy he
that amount Of coin with which to regulate our
balances 1t is considered preferable tu coin
because it is a leading staple of the worlds
commerce"
This is the secret of the unexpected sta
bility Of the national credit, and of the de-
cline in the premium on gold. Cotton has
enabled us to command all the foreign goods
which were required. The constant pres
ence Of American cotton upon the European
market sustained the general credit, and
now an expected increase in the crop of 1870
strengthens the downward tendency and
makes the situation especially hopeful. The
Post says:
"We touch bottom again, in matters Of trade
and finance, as soon as we come to q full crop
of cotton. That has twice proved itself our
commercial support and savior. Intelligent
merchants and the more comprehensive minds
among our public men SO understand it.
Strange as it appears to dispassionate eyes,
the Congress that has been doing its best to
cripple, confuse and obslruct all healthy inan-
cial operations, by its jargon fphrases, its
medley of schemes, and its plots Of personal
and partisan profit, is the very same Congress
that has been revengefully bent on keeping
the cotton-producing States in condition OF
servile degradation, on repressing every at
tempt of their property-holding citizens to es-
tablish order and well-regulated industrial
system. and on driving away capital from their
valuable fields by destroying the growth Of
confidence and trust. The object was nothing
less than the absolute degradation vi the pco-
pie that give those States all the character and
importance which they ever enjoyed. Mr..
Sumner publicly announced that thirty years,
the term Of generation, was none too long
to keep them suppliants dependents and ser
wants outside the Union. His craftsmanship
must have borrowed the eyes of the mole when
it inspired such an anathema on an entire sec
ton of the country. # did not reckon on the
vast productive capacity of their favored soil
and climate, and the great staple which they
alone can supply for the resuscitation OF our
commerce. 1t forgot to allow for those press
ing necessities in the national finances, for
whose instant allcviatiOn we should be CON-
PEELED to turn to the South as we had done
before"
This is no exaggerated statement. All
that the United States had as the basis of
national credit, was the crop of the South.
Cotton and sugar, rice and tobacco, were all
powerful in the marts of Europe. Plymouth
Rock was q drug in the market, and there
was no sufficient demand for the grain OF the
Western fields, or the provisions OF Porkop-
oils. At any moment the tide might turn
and five-twenties by the bag full be thrown
upon declining market. But King Cotton
was too strong for war and for peace, for
political agitation and gossip OF reputation.
A country, one OF whose crops had specie
value for export Of over two hundred mil
lions, could not be bankrupt and lost, but
while Europe relied on the cotton bale and
sugar hogshead, Congress did its best to cut
it's own throat and ours.
The loss of political hope but turned the
South the more to hard and honest work,
and now the whole Union depe nds for its
safety. for its stability, for its commercial
existence, upon the despised and abused
States of the South Ours is the strength
and the force and the money power. With
out the cotton and the sugar and tobacco OF
these Southern States the North anl West
are nothing. Without the North and West,