Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-05-13
The Party Lac of the Future.
NelU Orleans Democrat.

Whilst we have been cropping in the
dark, trying to form alliances and to draw
lines-alliances which are essentially de-
fective and lines which are distinctly i'm
possible-the silent but irresistible forces
of commercial necessity have been at
work. We drew our line latitudinally
across the country and we gathered our
selves together to the south of it and de-
clared that the right and proper thing
had been done, and that we were the
most homogeneous and contented people
on earth. The old ties have held-they
will also hold so far as concerns our
| feelings; the memory Of our common
peril and common humiliation would
forbid any weakening of that bond of
brotherhood. But the potent impulses
of commercial aspiration and material
interest are making themselves felt.
They are asserting themselves upon a
scale of steadily increasing urgency.
We have been made to feel, it has been
impressed upon us in manner not to be
misunderstood, that the line which shall
mark the boundary of our trade relations,
and, consequently, of our political alli-
ances, must not be drawn
from East to West, but
from North to South. There is not
an intelligent man in Louisiana but per-
ceives that with every year the ties be.
tween the Southwest and the Northwest
will become stronger and closer; that the
interests of the States drained by the
Mississippi and its tributaries are identi-
tical; that the people of these States are
animated by common motive, are striv-
ing toward common goal, and that
they must find their greatness and pros
perity in one and the same consumma-
tion.
We have long realized that Louisiana,
Mississippi and Arka0sas have nd inter
ests and purposes WhicG are or can be
shared by Georgia, the CarO!inas and
Virginia Nothing could be palmer than
that the Atlantic seaboard has one am
bition and the Mississippi valley another
Boston, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk
and Savannah are working to draw the
products Of the Great Northwest upon
transportation l.1es E1nninG Last and
west. They are laboring to over
come the tremendous advantages
which nature has bestowed upon
the vast water route system eliminating
in the lower Mississippi river
striving by means of artificial agencies
and all the appliances of human inge-
nuity, backed by the most wise and libe-
raj management, to neutraliZe the
natural facilities which Heaven has given
US without effort on our part to win or
to deserve them. They have displayed a
signal energy and devotion to this work,
and for years they have achieved sue
cess. They have kept the line of party
where we, in our blindness and folly,
sought to locate it. They have built rail
roads upon that line and have starved
the Mississippi river by drawing off its
nourishment.
But commercial laws are asserting
themselves at last. The forces of econo-
my and expedlency have undermined
the structure of mans hands, and now
the whole gigantic equation is reforming
itself upon the sound and wholesome ba-
sis of common sense. The Southwest
cannot longer blind itself to the logic of
the situation. Our interests run parallel
with the Mississippi and It's continents.
They do not diverge to the East-no hui
man power can locate them elsewhere
than where nature has ordained that they
shall be fixed The great States of Illi-
nois, Missouri, Iowa. Wisconsin, Min
nesota, Kansas, Colorado and Dakota
are the commercial allies of Louisiana,
Texas, Mississippi and Arkansas. Cir
cumstances, the Development of trade,
the necessities of expansion, will make
them our political allies The hand.
writing is on the wall as plainly as
though the letters were of flame.