The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-20

business enterprise-the largest tried in
modern times at lsast-there was some sense in
the Southern scheme of that day. from
a Southern stand point. They had the slave
labor to start with. They had their cotton crop,
the export of which at that time formed the
great bulk of our exports. and the export de-
mand for it had increased so rapidly that they
could foresee limit to it. for let it be remem-
bered that the export of cotton for 1860 was not
equaled until after 1880. Thus controlling our
foreign trade, they thought grass would grow
free trade, because the ships that would carry
the cotton from Southern ports would bring
back the exchange of foreign manufactures,
against which our home manufactures could not
stand or grow, and the South thus hoped to
monopolize the commerce of the country, with
her working capital of cotton produced for
port. In q raw state, by slave labor. That vas
the cornerstone of the Confederacy-not slav
cry, but free trade, allied with slave labor
Upon this they calculated to force
in the border States, and then the new border
States. until the whole was absorbed, just as the
plan afterward adopted, of taking only the top
rail for camp fires worked the absorption of the
whole fence. Itwas great scheme. but trouble
came OF it. Besides, as the South looked at it,
she had every thing to gain, the North every
thing to lose. But that was the very rock the
whole scheme was wrecked on. The South had
no manufactures no mines. and wanted none
Nature had given her wealth of timber, OF
minerals, and of water-power, so great as to be
beyond comprehension, but the hasheesh of Eli
Whitney's old cotton gin was in ner brain, and
cotton was king. his power unknown, and sup
posed to be unlimited. Cotton is q bigger and
better man now than he was then, and prouder
to be a solid and patriotic citizen of the Union
than he was as king of the Confederacy.
The South had long had control of the gov
and the North was divided Counting upon all
these things. and never doubling success, the
South went in as one man for the Confederacy.
and put mp a fight that fight. They
failed, but they had ten times the chance to
win that these impostors and their English allies
now have in their scheme to make the grass
grow in the streets of every city but New York.
The scheme Of growing grass in the streets of an
American city won't work.
'sBut it is easy to what kind of hasheesh
these gentlemen who now seek to establish an
importers oligarchy have been eating The very
magnitude of the trade of the West has dazed
them. as it has dazed John Bull for many years.
and if by combination they could only get
hold of it what fine thing it would be- Join
ing, therefore. with England and using Indian
wheat lever, they hope to rattle our
Northwestern friends into dropping their 80
per cent of home market for 10 per cent.
foreign market and the chances The
Northwest isn't going into the colonial business
on that basis-or on any basis. A large part of
the development of the Northwest has been
based on the stimulating forces OF free lands
operated upon by the homestead laws and land
grant railroads. and still further by the rapidly
increasing foreign demand for breadstuffs,
which existed until four or five years ago, but
which has since greatly diminished. And now.
recognizing that her REIMBURSEMENT must come
by increasing her manufactures and transfer
ring a large portion of her population to en-
ployment which will create home market, she
is rapidly meeting the necessities of her condi-
ton in that direction. The who built up
the great empire of the Northwest are not to be
gobbled up by a lot of foolish and greedy i'm
porting merchants and their English allies.
The tariff will be more and more necessary to
them in protecting their great interests. be-
coming their main dependence as the force of the
homestead and land grant laws are lessened.
these gentlemen count upon the South and
the free-trade sen timent growing out of her
past conditions and which still too largely ex-
ist. but are rapidly changing Here. too, their
calculations will fall. The South is employing
10 per cent. of her population in agriculture.
and, because her railroad system is still mainly
based upon ideas which prevailed in the reign of
King Cotton. has been unable to get at her mag
nlhcent wealth of timber. of coal iron, phoS-
phates clays, and other minerals, the mag
nifcent water-powers of her mountain region
and thus diversity her agricultural By develop
which is SO great that when once opened it will
make her the richest region on the face Of
the earth. But all this is rapidly changing.
Slave labor, which the foundation of the
free-trade ideas of the South. is gone, and the
tail will GO with the hide. The region of
try described in the little pamphlet had the
varied, with such unusual advantages for it's
economical collection and manufacture, and it's
profitable exchange. that when it is opened by
the Nashville q Charleston railway, now being
located through it, it will speedily transfer
majority of the population of four Southern
States-Kentucky. Tennessee, North Carolina,
6uu cOusn OdFoAua IL OCCuphLiOHS III
trade, and transportation, and
other than those of agriculture, and
thus diversity and enrich agriculture in the
South.
Nor need any one fesr that this will inter
fere with Northern manufactures When once
the South can get at her wealth she can use it in
her wilderness into the most popu-
lous and prosperous regions in the world, and
her sections now occupied by Improbable farms
into country as rich as prosperous, and as
populous AS the most favored agricultural por-
lions of the North.
Further than this, as the mineral, forest,
and agricultural resources of the South differ
largely from those of the North, it will afford
vast and profitable exchanges with all other
parts of this country. Faithfully yours,
GEO. p CowLAM."