American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-03-01
dia and the Which will
Control the Worlds Cotton Mar
kets2


Control the Worlds Cotton Mar
kets?
For fifty years Great Britain has
eadily sought to destroy the cot |
bn-rEOtiucing supremacy of the |
nit.G States. With this view the |
fiti slavery agitation WAS begun,
Dt thar England loved Africa less,
Mt India more. England II iumphetl,
friran sers i.ntle WAS no more, and
18th 1t the commercial power of
america, on land and sea, was an
Inflated. The negro gained free
om from servitude to man that
lackles might he fastened upon
american progress, that Govern
ients might he polluted, and that
ignorance, and vice, and universal
uffrage might pave the way for
narchy, despotism. counter revo-
ntion, and, ultimately, for the rep
odnctiOn of conservative republi-
a"iSIn. These are the processes
he American system may undergo
before the goal of perfectibjlity IN
government is attained. Hardly
ess important are commercial char
kes and disasters wrought nv recent
historical events. Formerly the
United States furnished three
F"urths, and now less than one-half
he cotton used in Great Britain
The British supply from other cOun-
ries, and especially from India, has
steadily increased, until at length 1t
constitutes One-thili, instead of
'"e sixth, as in 1850, Of the uuanti-
manufactured i'm England. 1t
viii thus be seen that the results of
ne late American war have been
quite as disastrous to the industrial
as to the commercial and political
condition and Independence of the
UNITED States. The future conse
lurnces of changed commercial re-
IatiOns, suhsisting between Eng
land, India aud the United States.
growing out of the disruption of an
cient social systems, arc palpable.
India now grows cotton at a cost of
SIX cents per pound, and delivers it
~ Liverpool at eight and one-half
pence. Planters in the lnwlands of
the Mississippi with levees to MAIN
tam and subjected to constantly re-
currlng dangers from uncontrolled
HOODS, and with the present wretch
Ell systems of labor, can no longer
cnm;'nfe with India save in the
quality OF the fibre produced. Each
pound OF American cotton costs the
planter twelve cents. To compete
with the Indian, the A american STA
pre- must be sold in Liverpool at
eieven pence. In very truth, the
prospects of farmers of the Soul Ii as
n"nopolists of the worlds cotton
n'.rkef.arc by no means flatterins.
II they can maintain any foothoid
at all in competition with ErvDt.
India and BraZii-each having
practIca!ly operative slave c. des,
and each blessed with limitless sub
venflnns furnished by rlcl, and wise
governments, employed in draining
swamps, hedging in rivers and
OniidlnS railwayS-lf Southern
planters can contest the palm with
all these agencies Of wealth and in
dusfry, there is hope for the regain.
Ell pre- emilencc of the South i'm the
worids cotton markets. Let South
ern dealers and producers not for
get that the highest grade in uuali-
ty and lowest possible price has
not been reached in India. With.
u about ten years five thousand
miles OF railway have been built in
India, streams have been leveed,
the sea wallet in, and canals are
aug for purposes of irrigation.
Countless millions are expended
year after year in India to secure
for England a greater triumph in
stat over the United
States than the NOrti, ever won on
battlehelds over the South. While
We were engaged here in the b1u-
tai, accursed business of making
thieves. ibreeding corrupt villains
from tho womb of hciI-bOrn war.
ami freeing negroes IA an incident
OF the foul, Disgusting work, Eug-
land seized the trident of Neptune
ana became mistress of the seas.
and the wand of Pintns, and was
crowne'l Queen q the worlds com.
merce and manufacturers.
By securing The best seed each
year, by steady IN rchanical and
other Improvements in modes of cot
ton culture, by lavish expenditures
in extending the area and enrich
ing lands devoted 10 cotton produc
ti"n, Engl md proposes to maintain
and perfect tie position she has
won. We have but one recourse.
Facilities for cotton planting in the
Son.h must DE multiplied the area
Of iowlaDds. producing for each acre
four times as much cotton as the
uplan;is of Georgia, must he lndefi
1i,ieiy widenca; the railway system
of the Southern alIuvial States
must DC perfected and canals dug {;
and what England docs fJr India,
the Federal Cove nment, as pro
posed by Senator Alcorn, in an
elaborate speech upon this subject j.,
must do for the India of the South.
VI ith view of recovering the com
merciai power lost by Tie who's.
c'un'ry, a.n! won by England when
the North was waging war upon
thu Soath. 1t is now proposed to re-
deem from overflow the lowlands of
the Mississippi. This scheme Con
gress must accomplish, and until it
be effected, the Federal Union must
confess that in It's war for it's own
integrity it lost supremacy on the