Year: 1860

1t would appear from our our New York
correspondence, in another column, that the
"Union meetings" which have been held so
frequently, of late, in the Free States, were
gotten up principally by the commercial in
/ terest of the North. No doubt, our cores
pondent has represented the true state Of the
case. And herein we have demonstration
of one very important truth, upon the exist
ence of which we cannot too much congratu'
late ourselves The commercial interest OF
the North is the great guarantee of the pre-
seryation Of the Union. The moneyed men
Of the Free States, the merchants and manu-


aeturers, cannot afford to see the Union dis
solved. They cannot afford to see even the
ordinary harmony existing between the two
sections disturbed Three.fourths ofth busl
ness done by many of the largest CONNER
cial houses of New York, Philadelphia, Bos-
ton and other Eastern cities, comes from the
South, and this business is altogether depend
ant upon the good will of the Southern peo.
pie, because they have the resources within
themselves for supplying all their necessities.
if they choose to confine themselves thereto.
They have, in the first place, the great sta
Piles of cotton and sugar. market for the
surplus of which they can find in any quar-
ter of the world Then they can raise all
their breadstuffs in the utmost abundance
and whatever is requisite among the substan
tials of life. Their manufacturing facilite,
are ample, if they only choose to profit by
them, and they can use up the raw materia
in their manufacturing establishments fol
themselves, if they choose, without sending
it into the Northern States to be done into
fabrics for sale in the South


All this can be done by the South, if she
is driven to the necessity. But she should
not either be driven into such necessity OF
voluntarily place herself in such condition
as would enforce it. 1t is better for her tc
continue the great producer, while the
North is the great manufacturer 1t is better
that the present reciprocity of interests should
be perpetuated, because, while free labor is
the best adapted to fabrieating, slave labor is
peculiarly adapted to producing that raw
material which can alone be produced in the
Southern States. In fact, the whole world
is looking to this Southern market for the
raw material All the efforts of England in
her East Indian and other provinces, to raise
such an amount of cotton as would obviate
the necessity of applying to the United
States, and render her at least independent
in this respect, if she could not compete with
the cotton-raising portion of the Southern
States, have proved an absolute failure.
White labor is too expensive to compete with
labor which costs nothing in the way of hire
and which can be driven to the farthest ex-
tent of continuous physical exertion. France
has been equally unsuccessful, and every
other power that has undertaken it, So isit
also with the raising of tobacco. Slave labor
alone makes that profitable, and Spain and
the United States hold in their hands the sole
profits of this great article of commerce. Add
to the Southern Confederacy Cuba, and
where would be the competitor of the South ?
The additional richness of the resources OF
the South lies in her extensive rice fields, the
slave labor of which can alone be competed
with by the Chinese coolie system, end by
that but partially.


In regard to the vast resources of the South
in the staple of cotton, let us look at the ex.
portation of that article for the year 1859.
The value Of this expectation amounted to
Sl6l ,494, ,923. And to demonstrate how lit
tie the attempted competition of foreign
powers by means of free labor has affected
the value Of this annual expectation, it is
| sufficient when we state that the amount of
the ports, the past year, has exceeded the
highest amount of any former year by thirty
millions Of dollars


With such producing resources as these,
well may the South feel confident of her
strength, in case of dissolution, but there
are other considerations of far too much
weight to ignored-censideratio of pat
riotism, considerations of consanguinitv, con.
of mutual interest in the great
cause of Republican Liberty, considerations
of the peace and happiness of millions of be
ings, considerations of the vast seas of fra.
ternal blood which would be poured out be-
fore the consummation Of final severance of
the Union.