The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-11-02
What the South is Learning.

The action of the Louisiana planters
and the reception accorded to Gov.
Mckinley recently in New Orleans and
elsewere in the South where his jour
ney extended, have attracted much
attention throughout the country as
indicative of the working of change
of sentiment in the tariff question in
that section of the Republic
From the time of the founding of the
government the majority sentiment in
the South has been against the imposi-
ton of protection duties on the pro-
ducts of American industry. 1t is true
that the old Wing party attained some
successes in the South, and the slogan
of the Wing party was protection. The
great idol of the Whigs-Henry Clay
was beyond any other of our great men
the apostle of protection, and Henry
Clay was a Southerner. Andrew Jack
son, too, was a Southerner and also n
protectionist, and the same may be
said of Washington, Jefferson, Madison
and, later down, of many other promi
nent Southern leaders. But the pre-
vailing sentiment of the South gradu-
ally crystalized into opposition to the
tariff policy of New England. Under
the leadership of Calhoun, South Car
DINA undertook to abrogate the laws of
the United States for the collection of
import duties in that state by declaring
the revenue laws of the general govern
ment null and void in the state of South
Carolina.
The South was free trade section
and slave section and adhered nearly
as tenaciously to free trade as to slavery.
In truth, these systems with them were
almost essential compliments of each
other.
The great staple of the South was
cotton. With the exception of turpen-
tine, limited quantity of sugar, rice
and tobacco, cotton was the sole article
produced in the South that went out
side its borders Of cotton it had nearly
a monopoly. The Southern product
controlled the worlds market of cotton.
With slave labor and its many other
adyantages-climate, soil, cheap water
transportation, etc. the South pro-
duced cotton at large average profit
to itself; but it produced little else. 1t
had neither manufacturers nor COM
merce. 1t was an agricultural country,
pure and simple, with 1000, 900 of slaves
to do the work and no skilled operators
With the exception of food products
nearly everything the people required
came from the North or from abroad
The raw cotton went to the mills of
New. England or Manchester to be
made into cloth, and was re.purchased
in this form by the Southern planter
for the clothing of his slaves. All uten-
sils, articles for wear, for farm, for
house, for whatever use, came from
elsewhere, and had to be bought and
paid for out of the surplus profit of the
sales of cotton. The world needed the
Southern cotton-it had to have it. Cot
ton was King. Cotton needed no pro-
tection; it was wanted by both the
English and the Massachusetts manu-
facturers To weave into cloth. But the
New England manufacturers wanted
protection on their cloth, on their cut
lery, tools, furniture, ETC., all of which
the South had to buy and for which,
owing to protection, they had to pay
an increased price. Naturally the South
wanted free trade; it wanted to buy of
England and save the import duties.
Scarcely second to its grievance
against New England for the aggressive
anti-slavery sentiment prevalent, there
was the animosity engendered by reason