The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1883-09-25
He Prophecies.

Wendell Phillips, lifelong sectionalist,
with occasional lapses Of fair iudgment),
sees with the clearer vision of second
sight in his age, and becomes prophet,
and in a way that leaves him with less
honor in his own country. He prophecies
the decadence of his own New England
emphatically throws it in the very teeth
of her tarif:protected manufacturing cap
italists, in an address of painful interest
10 them delivered before the Boston Me
chanical Association AT a recent meeting
of, that influential society. We extract:
The handwriting is 20 plain on the wall that
none but fool need mistake it, New England
is doomed lust as sure rs natural laws will pro-
duce fixed results. New England has no soil
worth mentioning and her wealth has all been
derived from her manufactures. These are
gradually leaving her, and eventually they will
all go; some 10 the West tie most to the South
rhe,e the advantages for profitable manmtdcfo'inq
are al located The coal and iron in the South
easily gotten at and inc Xhaustibe in amount
aud the iron mills, the ioundncs and machine
shops go TO them better than they can be
carried Ia the shops. Then cotton and wooden
mills must go there for The raw materials are.
and are To be- produced here most chcaply, uni
tnrmlv and better As the South
grows stronger and stronger, the wealth, culture
and power OF the country will be cenered there
until she will become not alone the mistress OF
America, but the central empire of the world.
Thus Mr.. Phillips grants the South the
manufactures and the mineral wealth,
deeming them sufficient to make our
South the "mistress of .\merica," the
central empire of the world" but we
must claim yet other conditions of empire
the soil and the climate: that, to pro-
dncc abundance easily this, to lessen the
necessities of man--thus assuring the
support of 4 dense population. One is
amazed at the possibilities of the future
when he considers the extent and charac
ter of the natural resources OF the South
ern country, especially of the peculiarly
favored portion which We Of Middle
Florida inhabit, and which we instance as
being familiar to the majority, perhaps,
of our readers. Consider the population
sustained in New England, with g no soil
worth Mentioning" and our rich lands
with their variety Of products, awaiting
occupation. Consider the rude climate of
New England and that which is here en-
ioyed in perennial mildness There the
soil yields little where much is required
to meet the cost of expensive buildings,
clothing, stock feed and fuel through
many months Of severe weather during
which nothing is produced. Here the
soil yields much, yields the year round,
though little is required to meet all nee
essary cost of buildings, clothing, stock
feed, &c. Thus contrasting the New
England country with ours the ronclu-
sion is inevitable that this is capable Of
supporting a far denser population, acre
for acre, than that, and in greater comfort
because of the climate Indeed it may
be said that lifetime here is almost as a
long summer compared with the long win
ter of lifetime there though they DO
have nice little summers once a year.