Year: 1860




The Boston Joarnal, a conservative pa
Der, bat of decidedly Northern proelivities'
takes what i. terms business view Of Sc
cession. It says:


The men Of the North are commercial
and business people. Whatever tends TO turn
business from its natural channels, TO create
suspicion, or excite alarm in any direction, Is a
disadvantage to us. But none Of these things
can iniure US 70 any serious extent, because
cur ayoeations are 50 various, and our facility
for turning from one TO another Is SO great,
that serious interruption in, or even the total
destruction Of, any one branch Of our trade,
would have but a temporary effect South
Carolina depends on cottOn-the difference De-
tween a good and poor crop is the difference
between wealth and poverty. Her politicians
consider cotton Just as important to us, because
We manufacture some Of it. Let us see now
that is. The net profit Of our industry IN lo1O
was about ninety million dollars. lhe net
profit on our manufacture Of cotton that year
was 81. ~, 600. II that manufacture produced
US nothing our net earnings would have been
nine per cent less. q difference not very materi-
al 70 our welfare.


The relative position of these things Is about
the same now. Clearly, our dependence on
cotton IS very small. ''But," say the cotton
lords, Eve buy your manufactures" True; but
why; simply for two reasons: l. Because you
can't buy 50 cheap elsewhere, and 2, Because
we give you a long credit and everybody else
requires money. For the same reasons you
win continue to buy them, unless you mean to
declare perpetual war with us after you have
set up for yourselves-an idea not to be tolera-
ted for moment, for if you are so demented
as to secede from our partnership you certainly
viii prefer peace TO war-9nd so shall We
Then, If you have peace, your debtors to US
must pay or 90 into chancery, and your hight
ing men will have to retire to private life.


The effect Of secession, in business view,
will, therefore, be hardly felt, and in few
months we should hardly know the difference.


The foregoing views may be correct, as
applied to the ultimate consequences OF
secession; but we can hardly agree with the
latter paragraph. Even should peaceable
disruption Of the Union take place, it would
| for some months at least, interrupt the regu-
lar course of trade between the sections,
bringing ruin upon hundreds Of business
establishments, and producing more wide
spread disaster than has been experienced
in this country since the great commercial
revulsion Of 1887. The disruption would
at first be felt most severely in the manu-
featuring districts many working people
would be thrown out Of employment, and
months, if not years, would elapse before
trade would resume its natural channels.
But the effect of dsunion, in the long run,
would be most disastrous to the citizens of
the border slave States; they would have
no right to reclaim fugitive slaves, the
North would be under no obligations to de-
liver them up, and as consequence the
line separating FREQ and slave territory
would rapidly travel southwark. These
States have the deepest interest in the pre-
servation of the Union as it is. and the in
doatiOns now are that they will not allow
South Carolina to drag them into the dis.
union movement.