The National tribune., 1894-05-03
ANOTHER SECTIONAL CONSPIRACY.

| ANOTHER SECTIONAL CONSPIRACY.
That portion of the history of this
country which seems doomed to periodi-
cal repetition of itself is the vicious con-
spring of the dominant class in the
South against the peace and prosperity
of the rest of the country. The sham
chivalry, the pseudo-aristocrats who form
the controlling element in that section,
have always been in violent hostility
against the leading sentiment of the
other sections, and engaged in schemes
more or less malignant against it. From
the very first they have connived, con-
spired, and sometimes fought against it,
and at others betrayed it in matters of
deepest consequence.
In the very beginning, the Southern
Colonies were with the greatest difficulty
drawn into the War for independence.
Only Virginia, then controlled by the
hardy middle class people of the Pied
mont region, gave the Revolution a
cordial support. The great majority of
the influential people of North and South
Carolina and Georgia were loyal to
King George, and the severest strains
upon the strength of the struggling
Colonies were those of holding those
"wayward sisters in line and defending
them against the British forces, who
found everywhere more, many more,
friends than enemies among the people
of the country. One searches history in
vain for any act by leading Carolinian
or Georgian in favor of independence.
All that was done there for independence
by the natives was by such "poor whites"
as Sumter and Marion, who formed
guerrilla bands and annoyed the enemy.
Northern Generals and Northern troops
had to be sent to the South to fight at
Savannah, Charleston, Augusta, Ninety
Six, Eutaw, Guilford Court House, etc.
The army which Washington commanded
at Yorktown was almost wholly made
up of Northern troops and Virginians.
New York City was then, as now, in
close sympathy with the Carolinians and
the Southern slaveocrats, and its hos
tility to the war was fearful obstacle
in the way of independence
After the young Nation was organized
the Southern States became a constant
ANNOYANCE and menace. The rest of the
country was thriving upon magnificent
splendid foreign trade developed by the
Napoleonic wars. All of Europe was
battling, all its commerce was injured
almost to ruin by the naval struggles
into which the ships of every Nation but
ours were drawn. We were the only
neutrals and the only food producers.
Northern farmers grew rich raising
breadstufs for Europe; Northern ship
masters grew rich carrying these across
the ocean.
Their prosperity excited the hostility
Of the slave lords, and the result was the
passage of the infamous Embargo, which
was leveled directly at the grain raising
and grain carrying interests of the North.
Its hard to conceive of more iniquitous
measure, and the wonder grows that any
people could be got to submit to it. 1t
prohibited every American ship from
leaving the harbors of the United States,
and no foreign vessel was allowed to
enter Our coasting vessels could only
leave port upon giving bonds that they
were to land their cargoes in some other
domestic port, and the seaports were
filed with Federal officials clothed with
extraordinary powers to arrest ship
masters and confscate vessels. Then, as
now, this course received the highest ap-
proval of foreigners. Napoleon praised
the system extravagantly, and the British
Government was no less laudatory. 1t
ruined New England to the great benefit
Of Nova Scotia and Canada.
But though this policy was immensely
disastrous to the North, it brought about
good in a way that astonished and dis
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