The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-08-21

afterwards. Under these circumstances the
Southern statesmen conceived the idea OF
stimulating hOme-enterprlseS by laying
heavy tariffs on foreign articles, besides CIV
ing special bOunties TO various INDUSTRIES
particularly the cotton, wooden. cordage,
steel, iron. and copper manufactures OF New
England, New York and Pennsylvania.
John G.. Calhoun, and the chief men OF the
South, voted for the measures, which were
recognized as a temporary favor shown to
that portion of the Union least suited for
agriculture, and which was suffering from
the times.
But the precedent proved fatal the tenn
porary expedient acquired the potency of
established success. Eventually the South
ern statesmen, realizing that they had made
of their people mere hewers of wood and
drawers of water for the Northern manufac-
turers who were already shipping goods
across the sea to compete with the European
markets at home, said to the Moth
You nave had this special aid long enough.
1t has made you rich and impoverished us.
Our Southern colonies, before entering the
Union, were advancing in wealth and popu-
lation, nearly twice as fast as any OF the
others, but since we entered the Confedera-
ton we have steadily refrigerated, not because
of slavery, for that existed before, land still
exists in several of your Northern States
but because the policy of the general gov
eminent is against us. Our Southern farms
are wrecked to build up your Northern fac
tories. Surely you have advantages enough
over foreign manufacturers IN the cost and
risk of transportation across the ocean, with
a moderate import duty added, without these
special tariffs. especially as you have the
whole South for a home customer.
But the Northern interests" had now
grown sufficiently powerful to control legis-
lation. They refused to give up their grip
upon the pockets of the agriculturists, and
only when the Union began to totter with
popular CONFUSION could any reduction in
the tariff be obtained. At one time it was
nearly 40 per cent so that a North Carolina
farmer, shipping 100 bales of cotton to
England to exchange for cloth for his slaves
would have to leave about half of them at
the Wilmington Custom House to pay tariff
and freight, whereas the New York farmer
could have his 100 bags of wool made up
and shipped free through the same custom
house. Hence we had no commerce..
Watkins Leigh in the Virginia convention
of 1922, declared = Every commercial
| attained manhood has been detrimental to
the Southern planting States. SO might [
speak-fifty years since his time. The Fed
eral government has given protective boun-
ties to New England fisheries, under pre-
tence OF fostering seamen,) to wooden, cor
dage, paper and other mills to Pennsylvania
steel, iron, nail and leather mills to Maine
and Delaware ship-building to almost every
thing manufactured in New York and to
numerous articles in all the Northern States.
But it has never in anything aided Southern
agriculture, excepting perhaps the sugar
interest. On the contrary, in addition to
,pd1r0ct forifc II hos fcroo1 ms 70 nav liroo%
taxes amounting to hundreds of millions, on
cotton, tobacco, etc.
Fl CAMPAIGN OF 1860.
The balmy breezes and opening buds of a
delightful spring brought no cessation of the
country throughout the winter. The Re
publlcans in the feyerish e8ultation of fore
gone triumph were marshalling their forces
with almost military discipline, as [ shall
hereafter show. The Southern Congress-
men were writing home to call mass-meet-
lngs, and arouse the people to the perils of
the hour. Ere Congress adjourned the Re
publican leaders one after another delivered
set speeches of great vigor and vehemence,
designed to fire the Northern heart and
array the masses-particularly the working
men-in solid support of the Abolition can
didate about to be put forth.
Chas. Sumner, a soured sectionalist, un-
fortunate in his family relations, and full of
bitterness because of the recent reckless as
sault upon him by Preston Brooks, having
distilled his gall into a fierce Philippe on the
.Bo1Jar1sm Of S~Hareay," hurled it into the
faces of the Southern Senators, and over
their shoulders upon the South at large.
Henry Wilson, Wade, Covode and others
barked to the same keynote. Senator
Seward, universally recognized as the expo
,o,< ~ -
pated candidate for President, carefully re-
hearsed his Cleveland and Rochester speech
es in which he promulgated the "Higher
Law dogma declaring that the Federal
constitution gave no protection to slavery.
Hitherto the Abolitionists had bitterly in
Weighed against both the Bible and the Con-
s%tltutlon because they tolerated slavery.
The latter they called "A League with he'll,
and a covenant with Death and-''Give
abolition Bill, on ambition Godr' But
Seward now stepped forward with the doc