(1856) Cotton Is King

m

COTTON

IS

CULTURE OF COTTON, AND

KING:

ITS

RELATION TO

^giitutow, Panufectuws min Commtra;

Tb tin ftw Cobred

^

People of the United

Stateg,

and to these who hold that

Slavery is in itself sinful

BY DAVID CHRISTY. SECOND EDITION, EEVISED AND ENLAEGED.

l^EW YORK: & JACKSON". CINCINNATI H. W. DERBY

DERBY

1S56.

& CO.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by

DAVID CHRISTY, In the Clerk's

Office of the District Court of the Southern District of Ohio.

E

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION,

Cotton

**

ally,

with

King"

is

much

favor

has been received, gener-

by the

The Author's

public.

name having been withheld,

the book

was

left to

merits.

The

first

edition

has been sold without any special

effort

stand or

fall

upon

of the publishers.

and enlargement. first

edition

phrases.

own

As

on the part

they did not risk the cost of

work has been

stereotyping, the

alterations

its

No change

left

open

for revision

in the matter of the

has been made, except a few verbal

and

Two

the short

addition

of

some qualifying

paragraphs only have been

omitted, so as to leave the public documents

and

Abolitionists, only, to testify as to the moral condition of the free colored people. to the present

work.

The matter added

volume equals nearly one-fourth of the

It relates

mainly

to

two

points:

condition of the free colored people;

economical and

First,

The

Second,

The

political relations of slavery. iii

The

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

IV

facts given,

it is

believed, will completely fortify

all

the positions of the Author, on these questions, so far as his

The is

views have been assailed.

field

of investioation embraced in the book o

a broad one,

which

its facts

and the sources of information from are derived are accessible to but few.

It is

not surprising, then, that strangers to these

facts,

on

first

seeing

them arranged

in their philo-

sophical relations and logical connection, should be startled at their import,

and misconceive the object

and motives of the Author.

One

For example:

reviewer, in noticing the

edition, asserts that the writer

"endeavors

a great blessing in

to

that slavery

is

agriculture,

manufactures and commerce."

candid reader will be unable

its

first

prove

relations to

The

to find anything, in the

pages of the work, to justify such an assertion.

The author has proved labor are in

that the products of slave

such universal demand, through the

channels named by the reviewer, that

it is

impracti-

cable, in the existing condition of the world, to over-

But

throw the system. of things called a

**

such a charge be made? strates that

in

no instance

is

this state

Why, then, should Does the man who demon-

blessing.'*

epidemics are the basis of the prosperity

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDmON.

V

of the medical profession, necessarily hold that epi-

demics are great blessings?

Another charges, that the whole work on a

fallacy,

The

are unsound.

consists in

and that

all

its

is

based

arguments, therefore,

fallacy of the book,

making cotton and slavery

it is

explained,

indivisible,

and

teaching that cotton can not be cultivated except by slave labor; whereas, in the opinion of the objector,

that staple can be

the is

Author

true

is

grown by

free labor.

misunderstood.

beyond

all

He

Here, again,

only teaches what

question: not that free labor

incapable of producing cotton, but that

produce

it

it

is

does not

so as to affect the interests of slave labor;

and that the American Planter,

therefore,

still

finds

himself in the possession of the monopoly of the

market

for cotton,

made upon him enlargement of

ment

its

to

meet the demand

staple,

except by a vast

and unable

for that

cultivation, requiring the

of an increased

amount

of labor in

employits

pro-

duction.

Another

says:

" The

real object of the

an apology for American slavery.

work

is

Professing to

repudiate extremes, the Author pleads the necessity for the present

economical,

continuance of slavery, founded on

political,

and moral

considerations.**

PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

VI

The

dullest reader cau not fail to perceive that the

work contains not one word

of apology for the Insti-

tution of Slavery, nor the slightest wish for

view

far other objects than these.

King Cotton nable to

con-

its

In writing the book, the Author had in

tinuance.

It is

shown

that

entrenched in a position impreg-

sits

and

the forces marshaled against him;

all

that he not only

successfully resists the assaults of

but makes them contributors

his enemies,

support of his throne.

to

the

But the volume nowhere

contains a single expression of approbation of this

condition of things, or a desire that It only

continued.

we can

not

shows

shake off the incubus

Were some one

to

it

should be

that, as things if

now

are,

we would.

prove that the attacks upon King-

Alcohol, by our legislatures, have not lessened the

consumption of whisky, and charge the Temperance

men with

a want of

their laws,

wisdom and

foresio^ht in framincr

would that make him an apologist

for

Intemperance, or indicate that he was desirous of continuing the

were he

to

not sufficient

sale

declare skill

of

intoxicating

that to

arrest

that justify the charge that he

extension?

drinks?

quack physicians the

cholera,

Or have

would

was favorable

to its

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Vll

Another charges the Author with ignorance of the recent progress

by

making

free labor, in India

our side of the ocean, the

lates his readers that, **on

prospects of free

soil

in the culture of cotton,

and Algeria; and congratu-

and

free labor,

and of

free

and

free

cotton as one of the products of free soil labor, fair

were never so

example of one's

fair as **

now."

This

is

a pretty-

whistling to keep his courage

up," while passing, in the dark, through woods

where he thinks ghosts are lurking on either

side.

Algeria has done nothing, yet, to encourage the hope that

American slavery

will be lessened in value

The

the cultivation of cotton in Africa.

custom house reports, as instead of

late

by

British

as September, 1855,

showing any increase of imports of cotton

from India,

it

will be seen, exhibit a great falling

off in its supplies; and, in the

opinion of the best

authorities, extinguishes the

hope of arresting the

progress of American slavery

by any

efforts

render Asiatic free labor more effective.

made

As

to

to the

prospects on this side of the ocean, a glance at the

map in

will

show, that the chances of growing cotton

Kansas are just as good, and only as good, as

in

and Missouri, from whence not a pound

is

Illinois

ever exported.

Texas was careful

to

appropriate

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDiriON.

Vlll

nearly

all

the cotton lands acquired from Mexico,

which

lie

on the eastern side of the Rocky Mount-

ains; and,

by that

to operate, even

Another

such lands, mainly, hare

act, all

Where, then,

been secured to slavery.

were

it

alleges that the

book

free labor

This

come only from a

The whole testimony, embraced

weak

is *'a

to slander the people of color.''

that could have

is

ready for the task?

is

effort

a charge

careless reader.

in the first edition,

nearly, as to the economical failure of

West India

Emancipation, and the moral degradation of the free colored people, generally,

is

quoted from Abolition

authorities, as is expressly stated; not to slander the

people of color, but to

show them what the world

is

to think of them, on the testimony of their particular

friends

and self-constituted guardians.

Another objects

to

what

hold the opinion that slavery

who

On

is is

said of those

malum

yet continue to purchase and use this point

logic

it

is

of the book

in

its

se,

who and

products.

only necessary to say, that the

has not been affected by the

sophistry employed against

it;

and that

if

those

who

hold the per se doctrine, and continue to use slave labor products, dislike the charge of being participes

criminis with robbers, they must classify slavery in

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. some other mode than that placed

if

they are not par-

if

takers with thieves, then slavery

robbery; but

which they have

in

For,

in their creeds.

it

IX

is

not a system of

slavery be a system of robbery, as

they maintain, then, on their own principles, they are as

who

much

partakers with thieves as any others

deal in stolen property.

The

severest criticism on

the book, however,

comes from one who charges the Author with a "disposition to mislead, or an ignorance which

is

inexcusable," in the use of the statistics of crime,

having reference to the

1820

The

to 1827.

the statistics reasons

why

referred the

to,

was only

show

to

the

scheme of Colonization was then

by the American

accepted,

from

free colored people,

object of the Author, in using

public, as a

relief to the colored population,

and not

means of

to

drag out

these sorrowful facts to the disparagement of those

now one

living.

who

But

the reviewer, suspicious of every

does not adopt his Abolition notions, sus-

pects the

Author of improper motives, and

*'Why go

so far back, if our

the subject fairly?"

dismal topic

Author wished

Well, the

statistics

on

have been brought up to the

date practicable, and the Author

now

asks:

to treat

leaves

this latest it

to

X

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

the colored people themselves to say, whether they

have gained anything by the reviewer's zeal in their

He

behalf.

from the

least,

we hope,

that a writer can use his

pen with

one lesson at

will learn

result:

greater safety to

his

when he knows

reputation,

something about the subject he discusses.

But

warming

this reviewer,

in his zeal, under-

takes to philosophise, and says, that the evils existing

among

the free colored people,

will

be found in

slowness of emancipation;

exact proportion to

th€f

and complains that

New

Jersey was taken as the

standard, in this respect, instead of Massachusetts,

where, he asserts, "all the negroes in the wealth, were,

by the new

a day, and none of the followed, either to the

The reviewer

uals."

Constitution, liberated in ill

consequences objected

Commonwealth is

Common-

or to individ-

referred to the facts, in the

amount

present edition, where he will find, that the

of crime, at the date to which he refers, was six times greater

among

the colored people of Massachu-

proportion to their numbers, than

setts, in

those of

New

Jersey.

to

review King Cotton,

to

rely

facts.

upon

He

his

among

The next time he undertakes it

will be best for

imagination,

should be able at

him not

but to look

least,

at the

when quoting a

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. between

writer, to discriminate

and

insurrections,

evils resulting

when

from

growing out of common

evils

Experience has taught, that

immoralities. unsafe,

XI

it

is

means

calculating the results of the

of elevation employed, to reason from a civilized to

a half civilized race of men.

The that the

last point that

Author

needs attention,

To break

mercenary motives.

thus created, the veil is

The

and

lifted,

is

placed upon the facts

the charge

the force of

objection to the work, and relieve

name

is

a slaveholder, and governed by

is

title

statistics

were brought down

it

any such

from prejudices

and the Author's

page.

used in the

first

edition,

to the close of 1854, mainly,

and the arguments founded upon the then existing state of things.

The year 1853 was taken

as best

indicating the relations of our Planters and Farmers to the

manufactures and commerce of the country

and the world

;

because the exports and imports of

that year were nearer an average of the commercial

operations of

the

country than the extraordinary

year which followed

;

and because the Author had

nearly finished his labors before the results of 1854

had been ascertained. edition for the press,

In

many

preparing the

second

additional facts, of a

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Xll

more recent

which tend Author's

date,

to

have been introduced

:

all

of

prove the general accuracy of the

conclusions,

expressed in

as

the

first

edition.

Tables

IV and V, added

to the present edition,

embrace some very curious and instructive in relation to the increase

statistics,

and decrease of the

free

colored people, in certain sections, and the influence

they appear to exert on public sentiment.

PREFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION.

In the preparation of the following pages, the

Author has aimed

at clearness of statement, rather

than elegance of diction. literary distinction;

He

and even

sets

up no claim

he did, every

if

to

man

of classical taste knows, that a work, aboundingf in facts

and

statistics, affords little

opportunity for any

display of literary ability.

The

greatest care has been taken,

to secure perfect

tion supplied,

The

accuracy in the

and in

all

by

the Author,

statistical

informa-

the facts stated.

authorities consulted are Brande's Diction-

ary of Science, Literature and Art; Porter's Progress of the British Nation; cial

McCullough's Commer-

Dictionary; Encyclopoedia Americana;

Economist;

De Bow's Review;

Congressional Reports on

London

Patent OflBce Reports;

Commerce and Navigation;

Abstract of the Census Reports, 1850; and

pendium of the Census Reports.

The

Com-

extracts from xiii

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

XIV

the Debates in Congress, on the Tariff Question, are

copied from the National Intelligencer.

The tabular statements appended, bring together the principal facts, belonging to the questions ex-

amined, in such a manner that their relations to each other can be seen at a glance.

The

first

of these Tables, shows the date of the

origin of Cotton Manufactories in England,

and the

amount of Cotton annually consumed, down

to

the origin

1853;

and amount of the exports of Cotton from

Eng-

the United States to Europe; the sources of

land's supplies of Cotton, from countries other than

the United States; the dates of the discoveries

which

have promoted the production and manufacture of Cotton; the

commencement

of the

movements made

to meliorate the condition of the African race;

and

the occurrence of events that have increased the

value of slavery, and led to

The second and exports

its

extension.

third of the Tables, relate to the

and imports of

the

United States;

illustrate the relations sustained

other industrial interests and the country.

by

and

slavery, to the

commerce of the

—

CONTENTS CHAPTER

I.

— Character of the Slavery controversy in —In Great Britain— influence in modifying the policy of Anti-Slavery men in America— Course of the Churches — Political parties — Result, Cotton King— Necessity of reviewing the policy in relation the African race— Topics embraced in the discussion, Page 25 Introduction

the United States

Its

is

to

-

CHAPTER

-

II.

— — — —

Emancipation in the United States begun First Abolition Progress of Emancipation First Cotton mill Exclusion of Slavery from IS". W. Temtory Elements Cotton Gin invented Suppression of of Slavery expansion the Slave Trade Cotton Manufactures commenced in Boston Franklin's Appeal Condition of the Free Colored People Boston Prison-Discipline Society Darkening Prospects of the Colored People Southern view of Emancipation Dismal condition of Africa, 30 Society organized

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

CHAPTER

III.

—Its — Public sentiment in —Wm. Loyd Garrison,

Organization of the American Colonization Society necessity,

favor

objects,

—Opposition

and policy developes

its

itself

XV

—

——

—

—

>

CONTENTS.

XVI James

G. Birney, Gerritt

Smith—Effects

of opposition

—Exports of Cotton—England sustaining American Slavery — Failure of the Niger Expefailure dition— Strength of Slaveiy —Political action— Stimulants to Slavery

Its

48

Its fruits,

CHAPTER

lY.

—Not an isolated system relations other industrial interests — To manufactures, benevolent aspect commerce, trade, human comfort— The reverse picture —England's attempted monopoly of Manufactures —Her dependence on American Planters — CotPresent condition of Slavery

Its

to

Its

ton Planters attempt to monopolize Cotton markets

Fusion

—Free Trade essential their success—Influence on agriculture, mechanics—Exports of Cotton, Tobacco, —Increased production of Provisions— Their extent— of these parties

to

-_.--.

etc.

New

markets needed,

CHAPTER

62

Y.

—Hon. George Thompson's predictions— Their —England's dependence on Slave labor— Blackwood's Magazine— London Economist—McCullough —Her exports of cotton goods —Neglect improve the proper moment Emancipation— Admission of Gerritt Foresight of Great Britain failure

to

for

Smith

Cotton, its exports, its value, extent of crop,

of our Cotton fabrics their

of

consumption

Groceries, source of their supplies, cost

—Our indebtedness —^How far Free labor sustains Slave labor,

amount consumed

labor

and cost

Provisions, their value, their export,

total

-

CHAPTER

Slave

to -

71

YI.

—

Economical relations of Slavery further considered System unprofitable in grain growing, but profitable in culture

——

— CONTENTS.

XVll

—

—

of Cotton Antagonism of Farmer and Planter " Protection" and " Free Trade " controversy Congressional Debates

—

—

—

on the subject Mr. Clay Position of the South Trade," considered indispensable to its prosperity,

CHAPTER

—

* '

Free 82

-

VII.

Hayne —Mr. Carter —Mr. Martindale—Mr. Buchanan — Sugar Planters invoked aid Free Trade— The "West also invoked — pecuniary embarrassments want of markets —Henry Baldwin— Remarks on the views of the parties — State of the world — Dread of the Protective policy by the Planters Tariff controversy continued

—Mr.

Mr. Govan

Its

to

for

Their schemes to avert

its

consequences, and promote Free

96

Trade,

CHAPTER Yin. Character of the Tariff controversy of the people

—Efforts

—Pecuniary condition

to enlist the West in the interest of the

South—Mr. McDuffie—Mr. Hamilton—Mr. Rankin—Mr. GarMr. Cuthbert The West still shut out from market Mr. Wickliffe—Mr. Benton— Tariff of 1828 obnoxious to the South Georgia Resolutious Mr. Hamilton Argument to

— —

—

nett

—

—

Sugar Planters,

Ill

CHAPTER

IX.

—Tariff of 1832—The Secession threatened— Compromise adopted—Debates —Mr. Hayne —Mr. McDuffie— Mr. Clay— Adjustment of Tariff controversy continued

cri-

finally

sis

the subject,

.-.-^... CHAPTER

125

X.

Results of the contest on Protection and Free Trade

More or

less favorable

2

to

all

—Increased

consumption of

—

——

— CONTENTS.

XVlll

home— Capital invested in Cotton and Woollen —Markets thus afforded the Fai-mer— South suc-

Cotton at factories

to

monopoly of the Cotton markets Failure of Cotton cultivation in other countries Diminished prices destroyed Household Manufacturing Increasing decessful in securing the

—

—

—Strange Providences—First extend —Indian lands acquired l^o danger of over-production—Abolition movements served to unite the South —Anexation of temtory thought essential security—Increase of Provisions necessary success— Temperance cause favorable this result— The West ready supply the Planters— greatly stimulated by Southern mand for Cotton

efforts to

Slavery

to its

to

its

to

^It

markets

to

to

is

effort

Tripartite Alliance of Western Farmers, Southeni and English Manufacturers The East compet-

— —The West has a choice of markets—Slavery extension necessary Western progress —Increased price of Provisions—More grain growing needed —]S'ebraska and Kansas needed food —The Planters stimulated by increasing demand Cotton—Aspect the Provision question — fornia gold changed the expected of Reciprocity Treaty favorable Planters —Extended cultivaPlanters,

ing

to

to raise

of

for

Cali-

results

legislation

to

tion of Provisions in the

Far West essential

to Planters

Present aspect of the Cotton question favorable to Planters

—

London Economist's statistics and remarks Our Planters must extend the culture of Cotton to prevent its increased growth elsewhere,

136

CHAPTER

XI.

—Western —Diy goods and grolabor origin —^Value of Imports

Rationale of the Kansas-I^ebraska movement agriculturists merely feeders of Slaves ceries nearly all of Slave

How

paid

for

—Planters

pay

for

more than three-fourths

Slavery intermediate between Commerce and Agriculture Slavery not self-sustaining

—Supplies from the North essential

—

— CONTENTS. to its success

XIX

—Proximate exteut of these supplies—Slavery

the central power of

all

the industrial interests depending on

—Abolitionists contributing —Protection prostrate —Free Trade dominant The South triumpliant— Country ambitious of aggrandisement— The world's peace disturbed —our needs modifying meet contingencies —Defeat Mr. Clay War with Mexico— Results unfavorable renewal of Propolicy—Dominant party gives the adhesion Free Trade— Leading Abolition paper does the same—Ditches on the wrong side of breastworks — consistency—Free Trade the main element in extending Slavery—Abolition United States Senators' voting with the South — Xorth thus shorn of power Home Market supplied by Slavery —People acquiesce— Despotism and Freedom —Pi-eseiwation of the Union paramount— Colored people must wait a — Slavery triumphant— People large powerless—Necessity severing the Slavery question from — Colonization the only hope—Abolitionism pros—Admissions on point, by Parker, Sumner, Camp— Other dangers be averted—Election of Speaker Banks a Free Trade triumph—Xeutrality necessary —Liberia Manufactures and Commerce this

to

result

ten-itorial

policy-

to

of

to

tective

political

at

;N"orth

to

its

^In-

its

at

little

of

politics trate

this

bell

to

the colored man's hope,

------

CHAPTER Effects of

XII.

opposition to Colonization

—Their

156

on Liberia

—

^Its

and moral condiAbolition testimony on the subject American Mistion sionary Association Its failure in Canada Degradation of West India free colored people American and Foreign effects

on free colored people

social

— — — — testimony on the dismal conditiou Anti-Slavery Society— negroes—London Times on same subof West India — Bigelow on same subject—Effect of results in —

Its

free

ject

^Mr.

—

— CONTENTS.

XX

—

West Indies on Emancipation Opinion of Southern PlantEconomical failure of West India Emancipation Ruiners ous to British Commerce Similar results in Hayti Extent of diminution of exports from West Indies resulting from Emancipation Results favorable to American Planter

—

— —

—

—

Moral condition of Hayti

—

—Necessity of education render — Colonizato

freedom of value Franklin's opinion confirmed tion essential to promote Emancipation,

CHAPTER

-

176

XIII.

Moral condition of the free colored people in United What have they gained by refusing to accept Colo-

—

States

— Abolition testimony on the subject — Gerritt —New York Tribune—Their moral condition as indicated by proportions in Penitentiaries— Census Reports foreign born, and free colored, in PenitenNative improvement in Massachusetts in seventy —But years— Contrasts of Ohio with New England—Antagonism nization?

Smith

-wliites,

tiaries

little

200

of Abolitionism to free negroes,

CHAPTER

Xiy.

Disappointment of English and American Abolitionists Their failure attributed to the inherent evils of Slaveiy

—

Their want of discrimination The difi^erences in the system in the British Colonies and in the United States Free colored people of United States vastly in advance of all oihere Democratic Review on African civilization Vexa-

—

—

—

—Their apology not

tion of Abolitionists at their failure

be accepted

—Liberia

attests its falsity

— The

colored man's elevation removable only

Colored

men begin

to see

it

to

barrier to the

by Colonization

Chambers, of Edinburgh

—His

—

——— CONTENTS.

testimony on the crushing effects of

ment cerity

of colored people

— Charges

—Approves Colonization,

XXI

Xew

England's

treat-

Abolitionists with insin-

210

CHAPTER

XV.

Failure of free colored people in attaining an equality with the whites Their failure also in checking Slavery

—

Have they not aided tired of

—

beria

in its extension?

—Abolitionists bad their policy—Jfo

view

of this

Yes

—Facts in proof — Colored men

philosophers

but Li227

field for their elevation

^Its

means

of education

and moral improvement,

CHAPTER

XYI.

—Relations of the consumer of Slave labor products the system — Grand error of AntiSlaveiy —Law oi pariiceps criminis—Daniel O'Counell Malum doctrine—Inconsistency of those who hold English Emancipationists — Their commercial argument Moral relations of Slavery to

all

effort

in se

it

Differences between the position of Great Britain

—

and the

United States Preaching versus practice by Abolitionists Cause of tlieir want of influence over the Slaveholder N'ecessity of examining the question Each man to be judged

—

—

— Classification of opinions in the United —Three views —Apology of per men using products —Law relating " con-

by his own standard

States, in regard to the morality of Slaveiy

A

case in illustration

Slave grown

fusion of goods "

S'.rd

for

Per

men

to

with SlaveTaking Slave grown products under protest ab-

— —"World's

holders

se

insufficient

se

particeps criminis

Christian Evangelical Alliance

Slave labor Cotton in England at that

— —

—Amount of —Pharisaical

moment

The Scotchman taking his wife under protest Anecdote American Cotton more acceptable to Englishmen than Republican principles Secret of England's policy conduct

—

—

—

—

—

—

CONTENTS.

XXll

—

toward American Slavery The case of robbery again cited, and the English Satirized— A Contrast Causes of the want of moral power of Abolitionists Slaveholders no cause to cringe

—Other

doctrine

by

results

— — —Effect the adoption bodies — Slaves thus of

men Inconsistency of per —"What the—Bible says of similar conduct,

moral destitution others

of the per se

left in all their

ecclesiastical

se

CHAPTER

denouncing -

-

235

XVII.

— —

Conclusion Causes checking Emancipation, and promoting Slavery Remedies left to be devised by others Monopoly of Cotton markets renders Slaveiy impregnable

Ko

change practicable until free blacks equal whites in King Cotton compelled to sustain his throne by Slavery Efforts of Great Britain to break allegiance to him Her free negroes not reliable Those of the United fruitless States equally unproductive King Cotton a profound statesentei-prise

— —

—

man —-Able

to rule all classes into his service

Quadruple

between Agriculturists, Planters, Manufacturers, Dubious position of Free Trade Abolition Abolitionists They are the true " doughfaces " Slavery sole politicians

Alliance

—

reliance of politicians

—

—

—

King Cotton His policy is to keep Free Trade in office Kansas and N"ebraska important as

— —Political

ascendency necessaiy to the its system Slaveiy dominant, and can only be removed with assent of Slaveholders Statesmen of broad views needed Abolitionists at Provision grounds

—

South, to prevent interference with

—

large deceived

Slavery

men

—

—

—

by political strategy Sincerity of early AntiRepugance of the doctrine of Didne right of

—

Slavery and of Kings Per se doctrine on Slavery plausible, but impracticable Slavery a great, civil and social evil the

—

more populai- and practical doctrine l!^ecessity of civil government Despotism the necessaiy consequence of ignorance Free governments from necessity must acknowledge

—

—

— CONTENTS.

XXlll

—Elevated examples— The banishment of igno—Slavery and Despotism identical principle— The fate of the one volved in that of the other— Moral elevation must precede privileges—Education should precede enfranchisement— The Bible— True American feeling— The work begun — The Bible among the Slaves —Measures essential the redemption of despotic ones

rance necessary to the overthrow of despotism in

in-

civil

to

the African race,

-

-

261

APPENDIX. Statistics.

— Tahle

I.

Cotton,

its

influence on

Commerce,

from

its earliest

Manufactures, Slaveiy, Emancipation,

—

use in England to present date

etc.,

Sources of its supplies Dates of inventions increasing its use Dates of movements designed to favor the blacks Dates of occurrences antagonistic to their hopes. Tahle II. Tabular statement of Agri-

—

—

cultural products

and products

of

Animals exported

— Total

value of products of Animals and Agriculture raised in the

United States

—

use

left

^^^alue of

for

—

^\^alue of

amount

left for

consumption and

Cotton exported, of total crop, and of amount

consumption

—Do. Tobacco, and products. —Proportion from Slave labor counof

its

Table III. Total impoi'ts of more important Groceries for

—Re-exports Table IV. Free colored and Slave population of United States —Diminution colored population in "New EngTable V. Influence of land— Rapid increase in Ohio, colored population on public sentiment in Ohio—Vote 1853

of do.

tries.

of free

etc.

for

and against Abolition candidate ties.

for

Governor,

by coun281

NOTE. The author labored under great embarrassment, often, in his researches, in relation to the relative extent of the production, export, and consumption of Cotton, in the several countries of Christendom. The statistics were attainable only through a

To the reader desirous of verifying the accuracy of the statistics in this work, great variety of channels, not readily accessible.

the task is now rendered easy, by the recent action of Congress. In compliance with a resolution of the House, the Secretary of State has furnished a Report which embraces all the facts necessary to a clear comprehension of the whole question. The dominant position held by the Cotton Planters of the United States, in relation to the Manufactures and Commerce of the world, is clearly seen from this Report. It was published in the National Intelligencer, June 11,1856, and will doubtless be issued in pamphlet form. It is a very valuable document, to those desirous of studying the econamical relations of American Slavery to the other Industrial Interests of the world. The stereotyping of this work was completed before the appearance of the Report of the Secretary.

COTTOJ( IS KING.

CHAPTEK

I.

INTRODUCTION. The controversy on Slavery, States, has

in the United

been one of an exciting and com-

plicated character.

The power

to

emancipate

existing, in fact, in the States separately

and

not in the General Government, the efforts to abolish

been

it,

by appeals

fruitless except

to public opinion,

when

have

confined to single

States.

In Great Britain the question was

simple.

The power

West Indian To a

colonies

to abolish slavery in

was vested

in Parliament.

agitate the people of England,

fall

her

and

call

out

expression of sentiment, was to control

Parliament and secure 3

its

abolition.

The 25

suc-

;

COTTON

26

KING.

IS

cess of the English Abolitionists, in the employ-

ment

of moral force, had a powerful influence

American Anti-

in modifying the policy of

Slavery men. in

the

Failing to discern the difference

condition of the two

countries, they

attempted to create a public sentiment throughout the United States adverse to slavery, in the

confident

expectation

The

throwing the institution. that slavery

is

malum

was prosecuted with per

in se

—a

issue taken, sin in itself—

the zeal and eloquence

all

they could command.

of speedily over-

Churches adopting the

se docti-ine, inquired of their converts, not

whether they supported slavery by the use of its

products, but whether they believed the

Could public

institution itself sinfal.

ment be brought

to

senti-

assume the proper ground

could the slaveholder be convinced that the

world denounced him as equally criminal with the robber and murderer

;

then,

he would abandon the system. ties,

it

was believed, Political par-

subsequently organized, taught, that to

vote for a slaveholder, or a pro-slavery man,

was

sinful,

and could not be done without

COTTON violence

to

conscience;

made no

they

time,

—the

27 the

at

same

using the

of

exhorbitant de-

which was the great bulwark of the

for

This was a radical error.

institution.

who adopted

all

while,

scruples

products of slave labor

mand

KING.

IS

it

tical inconsistency,

open

and

to the left

It laid

charge of prac-

them without any

moral power over the consciences of others.

As

long as

all

used their products, so long the

slaveholders found the jper se doctrine working

them no harm

made

as long as

no provision was

supplying the demand for tropical

for

products by risk

;

fi'ee

extending

in

was no

labor, so long there

the

of

field

operations.

Thus, the very things necessary to the over-

throw of American slavery, were while those essential to

continued in the most active operation

now,

after nearly a thirty years'

say,

emphatically,

Cotton

undone,

left

prosperity,

its

is

war,

;

were

so that,

we may

King, and his

enemies are vanquished.

Under age

—

these circumstances,

to the friends of

of liberty

—

it is

—

humanity

to the safety of the

due

^to

Union

to the

the cause

—

that

we

:

COTTON

28

KING.

IS

should review the movements

made

in behalf

of the African race, in our country; so that

may

errors of principle

takes in policy corrected

discharged

world

;

to the industrial inter-

the rights of the slave, as

it

;

and the principles

Constitution established and revered.

We propose, as

mis-

incompetent leaders

;

well as the master secured of our

;

the free colored people induced to

;

change their relations ests of the

be abandoned

therefore, to

examine

this subject,

stands connected with the history of our

country

and especially

;

the free colored

sustains to African slavery, tion of his race.

propose to

some

to afford

man, on the true

The

offer, will

facts

and

light to

relations

to the

ho

redemp-

and arguments we

be embraced under the

following heads 1.

ican

The circumstances under which the AmerColonization Society took

relations

it

its

for its abolition; the origin

of the elements which have given to its

the

sustained to slavery and to the

schemes projected

slavery

rise;

American

commercial value and consequent

powers of expansion

;

and the

futility of

the

;

COTTON means used

to

IS

KING.

29

prevent the extension of the

institution. 2.

The present

relations of American slavery

to the Industrial interests of to

present Political 3.

The

own

our

demands of Commerce

the

;

country

and

to

the

crisis.

industrial, social,

and moral condi-

tion of the free colored people in the British

Colonies and in the United States

new

field

opening in Liberia

;

and the

for the display of

their powers. 4.

the

The moral

per

to the

relations of persons holding

se doctrine,

on the subject of slavery,

purchase and consumption of slave labor

products.

CHAPTER

II.

Topic I.—The circumstances under which the Colonization Society took its rise; The relations it sustained to Slavery, and to the schemes projected for its abolition The origin of the elements which have given to American Slavery its commercial value and ;

consequent power of expansion; and the futility of the means used to prevent the extension of the Institution.

Four

years after the Declaration of Ameri-

can Independence, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts

had emancipated

and,

their slaves;

eight years thereafter, Connecticut and

Rhode

Island followed their example.

Three years

after the last

named

event, an

Abolition Society was organized by the zens of the State of [N'ew York, with at

its

head.

Two

citi-

John Jay

years subsequently, the

Pennsylvanians did the same thing, electing

Benjamin Feanbxin association.

to the presidency of their

The same

forever excluded,

by

Northwest Tenitory.

year, too, slavery

act of Congi-ess,

This year

is

was

from the

also

mem-

orable as having witnessed the erection of the 30

;

COTTON first

IS

KING.

31

Cotton Mill in the United States, at Bev-

erley, Massachusetts.

During the year tion Society

had so it

that the

J^ew York Aboli-

was formed. Watts, of England,

far perfected the

steam engine as

to use

in propelling machinery for spinning cotton

and the year the Pennsylvania Society was organized witnessed the invention of the

Loom.

Power

The Carding MacJiine and the Spin-

ning Jenny having been years before, the

invented twenty

Power Loom completed

machinery necessary

the

to the indefinite extension

of the manufacture of cotton.

The work of emancipation, begun by the four States

named, continued

to progress,

so

that in seventeen years fi-om the adoption of

the Constitution, ]^ew Hampshire,

Kew

York, and

laws to

fi'ee

Xew

Jersey,

had

Vermont,

also enacted

themselves from the burden of

slavery.

As

the

work of manumission proceeded,

the elements of slavery expansion were multiplied.

"WTien

the four States

liberated their .4aves,

first

named

no regular exports of

COTTON

32

Europe had yet commenced

cotton to

New

year

KING.

IS

Hampshire

lbs. of that article

138,328

hers

set

;

and the only

free,

were shipped from

Simultaneously with the action

the country.

of Vermont, in the year following, the Cotton

Gin was

invented, and an unparalleled im-

At

pulse given to the cultivation of cotton.

same

the

tenitory,

time, Louisiana, with her

was added

immense

Union, and room

to the

for the extension of slavery vastly increased.

York lagged behind Vermont

ISTew

six

for

years, before taking her first step to free her slaves,

when she found

the exports of cotton to

England had reached 9,500,000 Jersey,

still

New York

;

more

and

Xew

tardy, fell five years behind

which time the exports of that

at

— so rapidly had gressed —were augmented staple

Four years

lbs.;

its

cultivation

pro-

to 38,900,000 lbs.

after the emancipations

by States

had ceased, the slave trade was prohibited; but, as if each

have that

its

movement

counter-movement

same year

for

freedom must

to stimulate slavery,

the manufacture of cotton goods

was commenced

in Boston.

Two

years after

COTTON

KING.

IS

33 amounted

that event, the exports of cotton

93,900,000

lbs.

War

to

with Great Britain, soon

afterward, checked both our exports and her

manufacture of the

memorable

article

;

but the year 1817,

in this connection, from its being

the date of the organization of the Coloniza-

augmented

tion Society, found our exports

95,660,000

lbs.,

126,240,000

to

to

and her consumption enlarged Carding and spinning

lbs.

machinery had now reached a good degree of perfection,

and the power loom was brought

into general use in

England, and was also

troduced into the United States. too,

and

in-

Steamboats,

were coming into use, in both countries; great

prevailed

activity

in

commerce,

manufactm-es, and the cultivation of cotton.

But how fared people during

answer

with the free colored

it

all this

time ?

to this question

To obtain a

we must

true

revert to the

days of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. "With freedom to the slave,

came

anxieties

amons: the whites as to the results, years after

l^ine

Pennsylvania and Massachusetts

COTTONISKING.

34

had taken the lead

in the trial of emancipa-

Franklin issued an Appeal

tion,

for aid to

enable his Society to form a plan for the pro-

motion of industry, intelligence, and morality

among

the free blacks

;

and he zealously urged

the measure, on public attention, as essential to their well-being,

safety

that such

is

and indispensable

He

of society.

to the

expressed his belief,

the debasing influence of slavery

on human nature, that

its

very extirpation,

not performed with care,

may

a source of serious

;

evils

if

sometimes open

and that so

far as

emancipation should be promoted by the Society, it

was a duty incumbent on

its

members

to insti'uct, to advise, to quality those restored to freedom, for the exercise

and enjoyment of

civil liberty.

How

far Franklin's influence failed to pro-

mote the humane

object he

be inferred fr'om the after

had in view,

fact, that

may

forty-seven years

Pennsylvania passed her Act of Emanci-

pation,

and thirty-eight

after

he issued his

Appeal, one-third of the convicts in her penitentiary

were colored men; though the pre-

— COTTON

^

KING.

IS

ceding census showed that her slave population

had almost wholly disappeared

and

but two Tiundred

eleven of

while her free colored

ing,

number

creased in

Few

sand.

fortunate,

to

—there

being

them remain-

people had in-

more than

thirty thou-

of the other free States were

more

and some of them were even in a

worse condition

one-half of the convicts in

the penitentiary of

Kew

Jersey being colored

men.

But that

this is

Gloomy

must be recorded.

picture of crime

New

not the whole of the sad tale

among

as

was the

the colored people of

Jersey, that of Massachusetts

was vastly

For though the number of her colored

worse.

convicts, as

one to

compared with the whites, was as

six^ yet the proportion

of her colored

population in the penitentiary was one out of

one hundred and forty while the proportion ^

in

N'ew Jersey was but one out of eight hun-

dred and thirty-three. setts,

Thus, in Massachu-

where emancipation had, in 1780, been

immediate and unconditional, there was, in 1826,

among her

colored

people,

about six

COTTON

36 times as of

New

much crime

IS

KING.

as existed

among

those

Jersey, where gradual emancipation

had not been provided

for until 1804.

The moral condition of the colored people in the free States, generally, at the period are considering,

we

maybe understood more clearly

from the opinions expressed,

at the time,

Boston Prison Discipline Society,

by the

This be-

among its members. Rev. Fkancis Wayland, Eev. Justin Edwards, Rev. Leonard "Woods, Rev. William Jenks, Rev. B. B. Wisner, Rev. Edward Beecher, Lewis Tappan, Esq., John Tappan, nevolent Association included

Esq.,

Hon. George

Bliss,

and Hon. Samuel

M. Hopkins. Li the First Annual Report of the Society, dated June gation

2,

1826, they enter into an investi-

"of the progress of crime, with the

causes of

it,"

from which we make the follow-

ing extracts: " Degraded

"population.

character of the colored

— The

first

cause,

existing in

" society, of the frequency and increase of

" crime

is

the

degraded

character of

the

COTTON " colored population.

W

KING.

IS

The

which are

facts,

" gathered from the Penitentiaries, to show

"

how

great a proportion of the convicts are

" colored, even

" colored

those

in

population

is

where

States

small,

show,

the

most

" strikingly, the connection between ignorance " and vice."

The Report proceeds tions

by

chusetts,

to sustain its asser-

which prove,

statistics,

where the

that, in

Massa-

free colored people consti-

tuted one seventy-fourth part of the population,

they supplied one-sixth part of the convicts in her Penitentiary

;

that in

Kew York, where

free colored people constituted

the

one thirty-Jifth

part of the population, they supplied

one-fourth part of the convicts

;

more than

that, in

Con-

necticut and Pennsylvania, where the colored

people constituted one thirty-fourth part of the population, they supplied part of the convicts

;

and

more than one-third that, in

N^ew J ersey,

where the colored people constituted one-thirteenth part of the

population, they supplied

more than one-third part of the

convicts.

COTTON

38 "

It is

IS

KING.

not iiecessarj," continues the Report,

" to pursue these illustrations.

It is sufficiently

" apparent, that one great cause of the " quency and increase of crime,

fre-

neglecting to

is

" raise the character of the colored population. " We derive an argument in favor of edu" cation from these facts. It appears from the " above statement, that about one-fourth part " of

all

the

expense incun-ed by the States

" above mentioned, for the support of their

" criminal "

institutions, is for the colored con-

*

* Could these States have antici" pated these surprising results, and approprivicts.

" ated the money to raise the character of the

" colored population, how much better would " have been their prospects, and how much "

less

the

expense

of

the

" which they are dispersed, " their colored convicts

!

States

through

for the support of

*

*

If

,

however,

" their character can not be raised, where they "

are,

a powerftil argument

" from these

facts, in

may

be derived

favor of colonization, and

" civilized States ought surely

to

be as willing

COTTON "

IS

KING.

39

expend money on any given part of

to

" population, to prevent crime, as to punish "

"

We

it.

can not but indulge the hope that the

facts disclosed above, if

" an

its

they do not lead to

effort to raise the character of the colored

" population, will strengthen the hands and " encourage the hearts of

the friends of

all

" colonizing the free people of color in the

" United States."

The Second Annual Eeport of the dated June

1,

Society,

1827, gives the results of its con-

tinued investigations into the condition of the free colored people, in the following

and

language

figures:

" Chakacter of the colored population. " In the

last Eeport, this subject

" at considerable length. " viction of

its

" desire to keep "

till

the

From

importance, it

remedy

was exhibited a deep con-

and an earnest

ever before the public mind, is

applied,

we

present the

" following table, showing, in regard to several " States, the whole

population,

the

colored

" population, the whole number of convicts,

" the number of colored convicts, proportion of

COTTON

40 " convicts

to the

IS

KING.

whole population, proportion

" of colored convicts:

•S"" Sftn

«l

ll

II

II

li

Mass.,

523,000

7,000

314

50

1 to

74

1 to

Conn.,

275,000

8,000

117

39

1 to

34

1

1,372,000 N. York, N.Jersey,.... 277,000

39,000

637

154

1 to

35

1 to

20,000

74

24

1 to

13

1

,049,000

30,000

474

65

1 to

34

1 to

Penn.,

1

1

6

to 3

4

to 3

3

"Or, FropoHion

Proportion of

of

the Population sent to P}-ison.

tJie

Colored Popr-lat'n sent to Prison.

In Massachusetts,

1

out of 1665

1

out of 140

In Connecticut, In New York,

1

out of 2350

1

out of 205

In

New

Jersey,

In Pennsylvania,

1

out of 2153

1

out of 253

1

out of 3743

1

out of 833

1

out of 2191

1

out of 161

EXPEXSE FOR THE SuPPORT OF COLORED CoNVlCTS. In Massachusetts, In Connecticut In New York, Total,

in 10 years,

$17,734

in 15 years,

37,166

in 27 years,

109,166

$164 066

" Such is the abstract of the information " presented last year, concerning the degraded

COTTOXISKING.

41

" character of the colored population.

The

" returns from several prisons show, that the " white convicts are remaining nearly the " same, or are diminishing, while the colored " convicts are increasing.

At

" the white population

is

increasing,

" Northern States,

faster

much

same time,

the

in the

than the colored

" population." Whole Ko. of Convicts.

In Massachusetts,

In In

Xew Xew

York, Jersey,

Such

is

Colored Convicts.

Proportion.

6^

313

50

1

to

381

lOl

1

to

4

67

33

1

to

2

the testimony of

men

of unimpeach-

able veracity and undoubted philanthropy, as to

the

early results of emancipation

United States.

Had

the

in the

freedmen, in the

Xorthern States, improved their privileges;

had they established a reputation integrity,

would

and

have

for industry,

virtue, far other consequences

followed

their

emancipation.

Their advancement in moral character would

have put

to

shame the advocate

petuation of slavery.

for the per-

Indeed, there could have

been no plausible argument found 4

for its con-

COTTON

42 tinuance.

JSTo

IS

KING.

regular exports

of cotton, no

cultivation of cane sugar, to give a profitable

character to slave lavor, had anj existence

when Jay and Feanklin commenced their labors, and when Congress took its first step for the suppression of the slave trade.

Unfortunately, the free colored people per-

severed in their evil habits. served to

fix their

own

social

This not only

and

political con-

dition on the level of the slave, but

with fearful

efiect

ing in bondage.

upon

Their refusing to listen to

to forsake their

who urged

indolence and

their frequent violations of the laws, all

reacted

their brethren remain-

the counsel of the philanthropists,

them

it

vice,

and

more than

things else, put a check to the tendencies,

in public sentiment, toward general emancipa-

Fkanklin

tion.

The

means

of establishing institutions for the edu-

failure of

cation of the blacks, confirmed belief that such cable,

and the whole African

burden,

the popular

an undertaking was impracti-

as well as slaves,

ble

to obtain the

race,

were viewed as an

freedmen intolera-

such as the imports of foreign

— COTTON paupers are

now

IS

KING.

4$

Thus the

considered.

free

colored people themselves, ruthlessly threw the car of emancipation

up the

rails

j&,-om

upon which,

the track,

alone,

it

and

tore

could move.

The opinion that the African race would become a growing burden had before the Revolution,

origin long

its

and led the

oppose the introduction of slaves

colonists to

;

but failing

in this, through the opposition of England, as

soon as they threw off the foreign yoke of the States at once

among

the

by Yir-

acts of sovereignty

first

many

crushed the system

ginia, being the prohibition of the slave ti-ade.

In the determination to suppress this the States united policy differed.

—

^but

It

was found

easier^to

the slaves than the free blacks

claimed to be so

traffic all

in emancipation their

—and,

—

manage

at least

it

was

for this reason, the

Slave States, not long after the others had completed their to enact

work of manumission, proceeded

laws prohibiting emancipations, ex-

cept on condition that the persons

should be removed.

liberated

The newly organized

;

COTTON

44 Free States,

too,

IS

KING.

taking alarm at

this,

and

dreading the inllux of the free colored people, adopted measures to prevent the ingress of this proscribed and helpless race.

These movements, so distressing flecting colored

man, be

it

to the re-

remembered, were

not the effect of the action of Colonizationists,

but took place, mostly, long before the organization of the

and, at

American Colonization Society

its first

annual meeting, the importance

and humanit}^ of Colonization was strongly urged, on the very ground that the Slave States, as soon as they should find that the persons

would relax

liberated could be sent to Afirica, their laws against emancipation.

The slow progress made by the great body of the free blacks in the Korth, or the absence, rather, of

any evidences of improvement in

industry, intelligence,

and morality, gave

to the notion, that before they could to

rise

be elevated

an equality with the whites, slavery must be

wholly abolished throughout the Union.

The

constant ingress of liberated slaves from the

South,

to

commingle with

the

free

colored

COTTON

IS

KING.

45

people of the Xortli, tended to perpetuate the

low moral standard originally existing among the blacks

and universal emancipation was

;

believed to be indispensable to the elevation of the

seem

Those who adopted

race.

have overlooked the

to

this view,

fact,

that

the

Africans, of savage origin, could not be ele-

vated at once to an equality with the American people,

by the mere

force of legal enactments.

More than

this

as all are

now, reluctantly, compelled

knowledge. the

means

of but

is

for their elevation, to ac-

Emancipation, unaccompanied by

and moral

of intellectual

little

bondage,

was needed,

value.

a savage

The Slave

The savage,

culture, is

liberated from

still.

States adopted opinions, as to

the negro character, opposite to those of the

Free States, and would not risk the experi-

ment of emancipation. States

feel

They

Africans they have freed, and it

said, if the

whom

they find

impracticable to educate and elevate,

much

Free

themselves bm*dened by the few

o^reater

would be the

evil

the

how Slave

COTTON

46

KING.

IS

States

must bring upon themselves by

loose

a population

nearly twelve

Such an

numerous. be suicidal

—would

civilization

;

or, in

act,

letting

times

as

they argued, would

crush out

all

progress in

the effort to elevate the ne-

gro with the white man, allowing him equal

freedom of action, would make the more energetic

Anglo-Saxon the slave of the indolent Such a

African.

task, onerous in the highest

degree, they could not, and would not under-

take;

such

an

experiment,

on their

social

shall the

slave

system, they dared not hazard.

Another question, trade be

"How

suppressed?" began to be agitated

near the close of the last centuiy. desolation existing in Africa, parallel

among

The moral

was without a

the nations of the earth.

"When

the last of our Northern States had freed slaves, not a single Christian Buccessfrilly

slave trade

established

was

still

in

its

Church had been Africa,

and

the

leo-alized to the citizens

of every Christian nation.

Even

its

subse-

quent prohibition, by the United States and

COTTON

IS

Euglaud, had no tendency

KING. to

47

check the

traffic,

nor ameliorate the condition of the African.

The other European powers, having now the monopoly of the it

with a \dgor

trade, continued to prosecute

it

never

The

felt before.

insti-

tution of slavery, while lessened in the United States, ble,

where

it

had not yet been made

profita-

was rapidly acquiring an unprecedented

enlargement in Cuba and Brazil, where profitable alized.

hilated,

character had been

How

more

shall the slave trade

slavery

extension

its

fully re-

be anni-

prevented,

and

Africa receive a Christian civilization? were questions that agitated the philanthropist,

long

after

achieved his triumphs.

bosom

of

many

a

Wilbeefokce had

CIIAPTEE At the

III.

period in the history of Africa, and

of public sentiment on slavery, which

we have

been considering, the American Colonization Society was

when

the

thropist,

organized.

began

It

its

labors

eye of the statesman, the philan-

and the Christian, could discover no

other plan of overcoming the moral desolation, the universal oppression of the colored race,

than by restoring the most enlightened of their

number

to Afi-ica

itself.

Emancipation, by

an end

States,

had been

years.

The improvement of the

at

for a

people, in the presence of the slave,

sidered

come

impracticable.

dozen of

free colored

was con-

Slave labor had be-

so profitable, as to leave little

ground

expect general emancipation, even though other objections had been removed. ti-ade

had increased twenty-five per

the preceding ten years.

extending 48

The cent,

to all

slave

during

Slavery was rapidly

itself in the tropics,

and could not

COTTON

KING.

IS

49

be arrested but by the suppression of the slave

The foothold

trade.

of the Christian mission-

ary was yet so precarious leave

in Africa, as to

doubtful whether he could sustain his

it

position.

The Colonization of the

free colored people

in Africa, under the teachings of the Christian

men who were it

prepared to accompany them,

was believed, would

as fully

conditions of the race, as

was

meet

then existing state of the world. separate those further

who

contaminating influences;

it

the

would

It

should emigrate fi*om

with slavery, and

contact

all

possible in the

from

all its

would relax the

laws of the Slave States against emancipation,

more

and lead

to the

slaves

would stimulate and encourage the

;

it

fr-equeut liberation of

colored people remaining here, to engage in efforts for their

own

lish fr-ee republics

elevation

;

it

would

estab-

along the coast of Afr-ica,

and drive away the slave trader;

it

would

prevent the extension of slavery, by means of the slave trade, in tropical

America

;

it

introduce civilization and Christianity

would

among

;

COTTON

50

KING.

IS

the people of Africa, and overturn their bar-

barism and bloody superstitions cessful, it

;

and,

would react upon slavery

by pointing out

to

the States

if suc-

at

home,

and General

Government, a mode by which they might themselves fi-om

tlie

The Society had thus undertaken an amount of work as

hoped

to obtain

as great

The

could perform.

it

was broad enough,

field

__tion that

free

whole African race.

truly, for

an associa-

an income of but

five

thousand dollars a year, and realized

to ten

annually an average of only $3,276 during the six years of its existence.

first

therefore, include the destruction of

Slavery

among

plish.

That subject had been

the ablest its

men

the objects

it

did not,

It

American

labored to accom-

in the nation

ftdly discussed

had labored

for

overthrow; more than half the original of the

States

slaves

ored

;

Union had emancipated

their

the advantages of freedom to the col-

man had been

tested

;

the results had not

been as favorable as anticipated; the public sentiment of the countiy was adverse to an increase of the free colored population

;

the few

COTTON

number who had

of their bility

KING.

IS

and

affluence,

to act in concert in

general good

;

61

risen to respecta-

were too widely separated

promoting measures

for the

and, until better results should

follow the liberation of slaves, farther emancipations,

by the

The Mends fore,

were not

States,

to

be expected.

of the Colonization Society, there-

while affording every encouragement to

emancipation by individuals, reftised

to agitate

the question of the general abolition of slaveiy.

Nor did they

thrust aside

any other scheme of African race.

benevolence in behalf of the

Forty years had elapsed from the commence-

ment of emancipation thirty

country,

its

first

that date, no extended plans

promising

istence,

man.

and

from the date of Franklin's Appeal,

before the Society sent off

At

the

in

A

nevolent,

were in ex-

the free colored

relief to

period of lethargy,

among

the be-

had succeeded the State emancipa-

tions, as a

the free

emigrants.

consequence of the indifference of

colored people, as a class, to their

degraded condition.

The public sentiment of

the country, therefore,

was

frilly

prepared to

COTTONISKING.

52

best

the

adopt Colonization

as

rather, as the only

means

means,

or,

accomplishing

for

anything for them or for the African race.

In-

deed, so general was the sentiment in favor of Colonization,

the United Africa,

somewhere beyond the

limits of

who

disliked

that

States,

commenced

a scheme of emigration to

Hayti, and prosecuted free

colored

island

—a

those

it,

until eight thousand

persons were removed

to

that

number nearly equaling the whole

emigration to Liberia up to 1850.

Hayti en

emigration, however proved a most disastrous

experiment.

But the general acquiescence in the

objects

of the Colonization Society did not long continue.

The exports

of cotton from the South

were then rapidly on the increase.

had become

profitable,

cotton-growing States, sidered a burden.

and

Slave labor

slaves,

in

the

were no longer con-

Seven years

after the first

emigrants reached Liberia, the South exported 294,310,115 following,

lbs.

the

of total

cotton

;

cotton

and,

crop

the year

reached

COTTON 325,000,000

lbs.

KING.

IS

53

But a great depression in

had occurred,* and alarmed the plant-

prices

They had decided against

ers for their safety.

emancipation, and

now

rendered valueless, was

determined to avert.

have their slaves

to

evil

they were

The Report

of the Bos-

an

ton Prison Discipline Society, which appeared at this

moment, was well

disclosures

it

calculated,

by the

made", to increase the alarm in

the South, and to confirm slaveholders in their belief of the dangers of emancipation.

At zation

this juncture, a warfare against Coloni-

was commenced

at the South,

and

it

was

pronounced an Abolition scheme in disguise. In defending

itself,

the Society re-asserted

its

principles of neutrality in relation to slavery,

and that

it

of the free

had only in view the colonization colored

people.

In the heat of

the contest, the South were reminded of their

former sentiments in relation to colored

population,

and

that

the

whole

Colonization

merely proposed removing one division of

* See Table

I,

Appendix.

:

COTTON

64

IS

KING.

a people they had pronounced a public burden.*

The Emancipationists

the North had

at

only lent their aid to Colonization in the hope that

it

lition

;

would prove an able auxiliary

when

but

to

the Society declared

Abo-

its

un-

alterable purpose to adhere to its original position of neutrality, they

and commenced

*

withdrew

their support,

hostilities against

The sentiment

of the

it.

"The

Colonization Society, •was ex-

pressed in the following resolution, embraced in

its

Annual

Report of 1826: "Resolved, That the Society disclaims, terms, the design attributed to

it,

the most unqualified

in

of interfering,

on the one hand,

with the legal rights and obligations of slavery; and, on the other, of perpetuating its existence within the limits of the country."

On

another occasion Mr. Clay, on behalf of the Society,

defined

its

position thus

"It protested, from progress, and

own

it

now

authority, or by its

or general; that

it

the

commencement, and throughout

protests, that

own means,

knows

it

to attempt

the General

States,

its

emancipation, partial

Government has no

tional power to achieve such an object;

the

all its

entertains no purpose, on

that

it

constitu-

believes that the

and the States only, which tolerate slavery, can accomplish

work

of emancipation;

and that

it

ought to be

left

to

them

exclusively, absolutely, and voluntarily, to decide the question."—

Tenth .Annual Report,

p. 14, 1828.

;

COTTON

IS

KING.

Anti-Slavery Society," said a Abolitionist,

65 distinguished

"began with a declaration of war

against the Colonization Society." *

This

feel-

ing of hostility was greatly increased by the action of the Abolitionists of England.

The

doctrine of "Immediate, not Gradual Abolition,"

was announced by them

as their creed

and the Anti-Slavery men of the United States adopted

it

as the basis of their action.

Its suc-

cess in the English Parliament, in procuring

the passage of the

Act

for "West India

Emanci-

pation, in 1833, gave a great impulse to the

Abolition cause in the United States. In 1832, William Lloyd Garrison declared hostilities against the Colonization Society; in

1834, James G. Birney followed his example; and, in 1836, the cause.

GERRm

The

]N^orth

Smith also abandoned everywhere resounded

with the cry of "Immediate Abolition;" and, in 1837, the Abolitionists cieties

;

numbered 1,015

so-

had seventy agents under commission,

and an income,

for the year, of 836,000. f

• Geeeitt Smith, 1835.

f

Lundy's Life.

The

COTTON

56

KING.

IS

Colonization Society, on the other hand, was greatly embarrassed.

reduced to 810,900;

Its it

income, in 1838, was

was deeply

in debt

;

the

parent Society did not send a single emigrant, that year, to Liberia;

nounced

it

and

its

enemies pro-

bankrupt and dead.*

But did the Abolitionists succeed

in forcing

Emancipation upon the South, when they had thus rendered the fetters

Did

fire

fall

Colonization powerless?

from the slave

at their

They had not touched

!

its

power

locks remained unshorn,

The

bated.

institution

;

On

!N'o

its

such

dis-

and, therefore, strength una-

advanced as triumph-

antly as if no opposition existed.

*

?

the true cause

They had not

of the extension of slavery.

covered the secret of its

bidding ?

from heaven descend, and consume

the slaveholder at their invocation

thing

Did

The

planters

the floor of an Ecclesiastical Assembly, one minister

pronounced Colonization a "dead horse;" while another claimed that his " old mai-e was giving freedom to more slaves,

by

trotting off with

nization Society

them

was sending

to

Canada, than the Colo-

of emigrants to Liberia."

COTTON were progressing

IS

KING.

57

steadily, in securing to

them-

monopoly of the cotton markets of

selves the

Europe, and in extending the area of slavery at

In the same year that Gekritt

home.

Smtth declared Indians to

for Abolition, the title of the

fifty-five

millions of acres of land,

in the Slave States,

was extinguished, and the

tribes

The year

removed.

was depressed

that Colonization

to the lowest point, the exports

amounted

of cotton, from the United States,

595,952,297 article in

and the consumption of the

England,

When tion,

lbs.,

to

477,206,108

hope, that

West India

fr*ee

allies

labor

our slave labor less profitable,

How

lbs.

Mr. Birney seceded from Coloniza-

he encouraged his new

tion, as a

to

with the

would render

and emancipa-

consequence, be more easily efiected.

stood this matter six years afterward?

This wiU be best understood by contrast. 1800, the

West

Indies exported 17,000,000

In lbs.

of cotton, and the United States, 17,789,803 lbs.

in

They were then about equally productive In 1840, the West India that article.

exports had dwindled

down

to

427,529

lbs.,

!

COTTON

68

KING.

IS

while those of the United States had increased to 743,941,061 lbs.

And what was England Having

while ?

Indies, she

doing

all

this

her supplies from the West

lost

was quietly spinning away

ican slave labor cotton

and

;

at

Amer-

to ease the public

conscience of the kingdom, was loudly talking of a free labor supply of the commodity from the banks of the Niger Tip that river failed,

But the expedition

!

and 1845 found her manu-

facturing 626,496,000 lbs. of cotton, mostly the

product of American slaves

American slavery

moment may be inwe exported that year

at that

ferred from the fact, that

872,905,996

lbs. of cotton,

of cane sugar had reached lbs.;

while,

tension,

to

we were

The strength of

!

and our production over 200,000,000

make room

for

slavery ex-

buised in the annexation of

Texas and in preparations

for the

consequent

war with Mexico But Abolitionists themselves, some time before this, had, mostly,

become convinced of

the feeble character of

their

slavery,

and allowed

efforts

against

politicians to enlist

them

;

COTTON

KING.

IS

59

in a political crusade, as the last hope of ar-

The cry

resting the progi-ess of the system.

of

"Immediate Abolition" died away;

reli-

ance upon moral means was mainly abandoned

and the limitation of the

became the chief

cally,

results of

institution, geographi-

more than a dozen years of

!

the inquiry of

We how

are not

it

now concerned

in

far the strategy of politi-

making

cians succeeded in

political

and what has

action are before the pubKc,

accomplished

the votes of Aboli-

tionists subservient to slavery extension.

they did

so, in

at least

will never be denied

we

intend to say,

The

object of effort.

is,

That

one prominent case,

by any candid man.

All

that the cotton planters,

instead of being crippled in their operations,

were

able, in the year

1853, beside

supplying over

ending

consumed 817,998,048 1854,

last of

June,

to export 1,111,570,370 lbs. of cotton,

home consumption; year

ending the

the

lbs.

of

lbs.

for

and that England, the last

of

January,

unprecedented

the

instead

400,000,000

quantity

of that staple. finding

1853,

slavery

of

The year perishing

:

COTTON

60

nnder the

blows

KING.

IS

had received, has wit-

it

nessed the destruction of to

extension,

its

widely enough

!

and

the old barriers

all

beholds

for the profitable

employment

of the slave population, with all

hundred years

increase, for a

^

come

to

natural

its !

political action against slavery has been

thus disastrously unfortunate,

Anti- Slavery action^ at this

mony

On

moment ?

how

is

it

with

at large, as to its efficiency this point,

hear the

of a correspondent of Frederick

Paper January

lass'

expanded

it

^

26,

testi-

Doug-

1855

" How gloriously did the Anti-Slavery cause *

arise

*

in

in our agency

!

1833-4 *

*

And now what

!

What

is it,

is it,

through the

errors or crimes of its advocates variously

probably quite as

much

—

as through the brazen,

gross,

and licentious wickedness of its enemies.

Alas

what

!

cordant,

is

it

but a mutilated, feeble, dis-

and half-expiring instrument,

Satan and his children, legally and scofi*!

Of it

which

I despair."

Such are the crowning litical

at

illegally,

and Anti-Slavery

results of both po-

action,

for the

over-

;

COTTON throw of slavery

IS

KING.

Sucli are the demonstrations

!

of their ntter impotency as a the

bond and

01

fi'ee

Surely, then,

means

of relief to

of the colored people

!

time that some other

is

it

measures should be devised, than those hitherto adopted, for the melioration of the African

race

Surely, too,

!

it is

time for the American

people to rebuke that class of politicians, Korth

and South, whose only

capital consists in keep-

ing up a fruitless warfare upon the subject of

—nay!

slavery

colored

abundant in

man; but

to

fruits to the

him, "their vine

is

poor

of the

vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters

are bitter

;

their

wine

is

the poison of dragons,

and the cruel venom of asps."*

The application of this language, under consideration, will be

frilly

to the case

justified

when

the facts, in the remaining pages of this work, are carefully studied.

* Deuteronomy xxxii, 32, 33.

CHAPTER Topic

2.

— The relations

terests of our

of

country;

lY.

American Slavery to the demands

to the of

Industrial in-

Commerce; and

to

the present Political crisis.

The

institution of slavery, at this

moment,

gives indications of a vitality that was never anticipated

by

often supposed

the it

friends or foes.

its it

enemies

about ready to expire, from

wounds they had

had taken two

Its

inflicted,

when

in truth

steps in advance, while they

had taken twice the number in an opposite direction.

In each successive

conflict, its as-

sailants have been weakened, while

its

do-

minion has been extended. This has arisen from causes too generally Slavery

overlooked.

but

is

is

not an isolated system,

so mingled with the business of the

world, that

it

derives facilities from the most

innocent transactions.

Capital and labor, in

Europe and America, are largely employed in the manufacture of cotton. 62

These goods,

to

a

COTTON may

extent,

gi'eat

IS

KING.

63

be seen freighting every

from Christian nations, that

vessel,

ti-averses

the seas of the globe; and filling the ware-

houses and shelves of the merchants over two-

world/ By the

thirds of the

industry, skill,

and enterprise employed in the manufacture of cotton,

mankind

fort better

are better clothed

highly stimulated

tended

and

;

;

their

com-

promoted; general industry more ;

commerce more widely

ex-

more rapidly advanced

civilization

than in any preceding age.

To

the superficial observer, all the agencies,

based upon the sale and manufacture of cotton,

seem

be legitimately engaged in promoting

to

human happiness

;

invoking Heaven's them.

When

and

he, doubtless, feels like

choicest

blessings

upon

he sees the stockholders in the

cotton corporations receiving their dividends,

the operatives their wages, the merchants their profits,

and

civilized people

everywhere clothed

comfortably in cottons, he can not

exclaiming:

"The

lines

have

in pleasant places; yea, they

heritage

!"

refi-ain fr-om

fallen unto

them

have a goodly

!

COTTON

64

But turn a moment the

raw

to the soiu'ce

whence

cotton, the basis of these operations, is

and observe the aspect of things in

obtained, that

KING.

IS

When

direction.

subject are examined,

statistics

on the

appears that nearly

all

in the Christian world is

consumed

the cotton

it

the

the product of the slave labor of the United States.*

slavery

monopoly

It is this

commercial value

its

monopoly

is

and, while this

;

retained, the institution will con-

tinue to extend itself wherever to spread.

that has given

He who

it

can find room

looks for any other result,

must expect that nations, which, have waged war

now abandon

to

for centuries,

extend their commerce, will

means

of aggrandizement,

and bankrupt themselves

to force the abolition

of

that

American slavery This

is

slavery, as

not

all.

an agency

The economical value of for

suppling the means

of extending manufactm-es and commerce, has

long been understood by statesmen.

The

dis-

covery of the power of steam, and the inven-

*See Appendix, Table

I.

COTTON

KING.

IS

65

tions in machinery, for preparing

important

factui'ing cotton, revealed the

conld

itself,

se-

supply the world with

Great Britain attemjpted

clothing.

fact,

monopoly

that a single island, having the

cm-ed to

and manu-

gain

to

this monoj^oly; and, to prevent other countries

from rivaling her, she long prohibited

well as

exports

all

emi-

mechanics from the kingdom,

gi-ation of sHllfiil

as

all

As

machinery.

of

country after country was opened to her com-

merce, the markets for her manufactures were extended, and the increased.

The

demand

for the

benefits of this

raw material

enlarged com-

merce of the world, were not confined single

As

but mutually enjoyed by

nation,

each had products to

sell,

the advantages often gained deti'iment to the others.

demanded by been

cofiee,

tion of

by one were no

The principal

this increasing

all.

itself,

articles

commerce have

sugar, and cotton, in the produc-

Since the enlargement of manu-

factures, cotton

has entered more extensively

commerce than 6

peculiar to

which slave labor has greatly pre-

dominated.

into

to a

cofiee

and sugar, though

COTTON

^6 the

demand

KING.

IS

for all three

has advanced with the

England could only become

greatest rapidity.

a great commercial nation, through the agency

She was the best sup-

of her manufactures. plied,

of all the nations, with the necessary

capital,

skill,

commerce by

labor,

and

extend her

to

fuel,

But, for the raw

means.

this

was

material, to supply her manufactories, she

The

dependent upon other countries.

planters

of the United States wero- the most favorably situated for the

cultivation

of

cotton;

and,

while Great Britain was aiming at monopo-

mo-

lizing its manufacture, they attempted to

nopolize the marhets for that staple. led to a

fusion of

interests

the British manufacturers

;

This

between them and

and

to the adoption

of principles in political economy, which, if

rendered

effective,

,of this coalition.

would promote the

With

interests

the advantages pos-

sessed by the English manufacturers,

Trade " would render

all

vient to their interests

operations

;

other nations subser-

and, so far as their

should be increased,

would the demand

for

"Free

so

far

cotton

be

just

American

COTTON The

extended.

IS

KING.

details of the success of the

and the opposition

parties to this combination,

they have had to encounter, noticed

more

67

are

To

fully hereafter.

left

to

be

the cotton

been eminently

planters, the copartnership has

advantageous.

How far

the other agricultural interests of

the United States are promoted, the cultivation of cotton,

may

by extending

be inferred from

the Census returns of 1850, and the Congressional Reports for

largely

on Commerce and l^avigation,

Cotton

1854:.*

exported.

and

tobacco,

only,

are

The production of sugar

does not yet equal our consumption of the article,

and we import,

countries,

445,445,680

deficiency.!

export

from slave labor

make up

to

the

But of cotton and tobacco, we

;

while of other products of the ag-

riculturists, less

exported.

grow

lbs.

more than two-thirds of the amount

produced

is

chiefly

than the one forty-sixth part

Foreign nations, generally, can

their provisions, but can not

* See Appendix, Table

II.

t

grow

Table

III.

their

COTTON

68

KING.

IS

Our

tobacco and cotton.

surplus provisions,

not exported, go to the villages, towns, and to feed the

cities,

mechanics, manufacturers,

merchants, professional

men, and others

or to

;

the cotton and sugar districts of the South, to

The

feed the planters and their slaves.

in-

crease of mechanics and manufactm'ers at the

North, and the expansion of slavery at the

augment the

South, therefore, provisions,

creases, the ticles

for

and promote the prosperity of the

As

farmer.

markets

mechanical

the

population in-

implements of industiy and

ar-

of furniture are multiplied, so that both

farmer and planter can be supplied with them

As

on easier terms.

markets to cotton for

the

foreign nations open their

fabrics, increased

raw material

are

demands

As new

made.

grazing and grain-growing States are developed, and teem with their surplus productions, the

mechanic

relieved from

benefited,

food-raising,

and the can

more extensively upon

slaves

thus

is

that

foreign

our

exports

are

j)lanter,

employ

cotton.

increased;

his

It is

our

commerce advanced; the home mar-

;

!

COTTON kets of the meclianic

IS

KING.

69

and farmer extended, and

the wealth of the nation promoted. also, that

the—feee labor of i^e country finds

remunerating markets at ihe

It is thus,

for its

products^though

expense of serving as an

efficient auxil-

iary in the extension of slavery

But more:

So speedily are new grain-

growing States springing up; so vast territory

owned by

settlement

;

and so enormous

mar-

profitable

government has been

kets, that the national

new

the

will soon be the

amount of p]?4)duets demanding

seeking

is

the United States, ready for

outlets for

them, upon

oui-

own

continent, to which, alone, they can be advan-

tageously ti'anspoi*ted.

That such

outlets,

when

our vast possessions Westward are brought

under cultivation, will be an imperious necessity, is

known

ers of these

The farm-

to every Statesman.

new

States, after the

example of

those of the older sections of the country, will

demand a market

for their products.

This can

be furnished, only, by the extension of slavery

by the acquisition of more

ti'opical territory

by opening the ports of Brazil, and other South

/

/

COTTON

70

American provisions

IS

KING.

countries, to the admission of our ;

by

Eu-

their free importation into

ropean countries

;

or

by a vast enlargement of

domestic manufactures, to the

exclusion of

foreign goods from the country.

Look

question as

what

it

it

now

must be twenty years hence.

class of products

whole

at this

and then judge of

stands,

country,

The

under consideration, in the in

were

1853,

valued

at

81,551,176,490; of which there were exported to

foreign

countries,

833,809,126.*

The

to

the value

of

only

planter will not assent to

any check upon the foreign imports of the country, for the benefit of the farmer.

demands the adoption

of vigorous measures to

secure a market for his j)roducts by other

modes

stated.

This

some

of the

Hence, the orders of our

Executive, in 1851, for the exploration of the valley of the

Amazon

;

the efibrts, in 1854, to

obtain a treaty with Brazil, for the

gation of that for

immense

river

a military foothold in

;

St.

*See Appendix, Table

fi*ee

navi-

the negotiations

Domingo; and

II.

;

COTTON

IS

KING.

71

the determination to acquire Cuba.

must not anticipate

But we

topics to be considered at

a later period in our discussion.

CHAPTER y Antecedent

to all the

movements noticed

in

the preceding chapter, Great Britain had fore-

seen the coming increased products.

demand

for tropical

Indeed, her "West Indian policy, of

a few years previous, had hastened the crisis and, to repair her injuries, and meet the general

outcry for cotton,

vigorous her

own

efforts

to

ti'opical

prompting her

made

she

promote

its

possessions.

to this policy,

the

most

cultivation in

The motives need not be

re-

ferred to here, as they will be noticed hereafter.

The Hon. George Thompson,

it

wiU be

re-

membered, when urging the increase of cotton cultivation in the East Indies, declared that

the scheme must succeed, and that, soon, all

slave labor cotton would be repudiated by the

!

COTTON

72

British manufacturers.

the measure, and

with

KING.

Mr. Garrison indorsed

expressed his belief that,

American

success, the

its

IS

slave system

But

must inevitably perish from starvation! England's

and the golden

efforts signally failed,

apple, fully ripened, dropped into the lap of

The year

our cotton planters.*

that heard

Thompson's pompous predictions, f witnessed the consumption

later,

of but 445,744,000

by England;

cotton,

she

700,000,000

while,

of

lbs.

fourteen

years

used

817,998,048

lbs. of

which were obtained from

nearly

lbs.,

America That

we have

not

overstated

pendence upon our slave labor a fact of world-wide notoriety.

her

de-

for cotton

is

Blackwood's

Magazine, January, 1853, in referring to the cultivation of the article,

by the United

States,

says:

Paganism

has, long since, attained

Agricultural industry,

civilization, into India, can, alone, lead to

productions for export. f 1839.

its

maximum

in

and the introduction of Christian an increase of

its

—

:

COTTON "With up

its

and

=73

increased growth has

that mercantile navy,

stripes

KING.

IS

stars

sprung

which now waves

over every sea, and

its

that

foreign influence, which has placed the internal

—we may say the subsistence

peace

in every manufacturing country in

of millions

Europe

within the power of an oligarchy of planters."

In reference to the same subject, the Lon-

don Economist quotes

"Let any great sion

visit

would

feel

as follows

social or physical convul-

the United

End

the shock from Land's

O'Groats.

The

England

and

States,

to

John

two millions of

lives of nearly

our counti-ymen are dependent upon the cotton crops of

America

;

their destiny

may

be said,

without any kind of hyperbole, to hang upon a thread.

Should any dire calamity

befall the

land of cotton, a thousand of our merchant ships

would

mills

must stop

rot idly in

their

dock

;

ten thousand

busy looms

;

two thou-

sand thousand mouths would starve,

for lack

of food to feed them."

A

more

definite

statement of England's

indebtedness to cotton, 7

is

given by McCul-

COTTON

74

IS

KING.

lough; wlio shows that as

far

back as 1832,

her exports of cotton fabrics

were equal in

value to about tioo-tJiirds of

all

fabrics expoi*ted

woven

the

The same

from the empire.

when

state of things, nearly, existed in 1849,

the cotton fabrics exported, according to the

London Economist^ were valued f 140,000,000, while rics

all

the other

at

about

woven

fab-

exported did not quite reach to the value

of ^68,000,000.

On

consulting the

thority, of still later dates, last four years

it

same au-

appears, that the

has produced no material change

in the relations

which the

different classes of

British fabrics, exported, bear to each other.

The present condition of the demand and supplies

of

cotton,

throughout Europe, and

the extent to which the increasing consumption of that staple

ican planters to

its

must stimulate the Amerincreased production, will

be noticed in the proper place.

There was a time when American slave labor sustained no such relations to the factures

and commerce of the world as

manuit

now

COTTON SO firmly holds

;

KING.

18

75

and when, by the adoption of

proper measures, on the part of the free

col-

ored people and their friends, the emancipation of the slaves, in all the States,

been

But

efiected.

that period

might have has passed

come

forever away, and causes, unforeseen, have into operation,

which are too powerful

to

be

overcome by any agencies that have since been employed.*

have in at

"What Divine

store for the future,

may

Providence

we know

not

;

present, the institution of slavery is

but,

sus-

tained by numberless pillars, too massive for

human power and wisdom Take another view of

now

nothing

to overthrow.

this subject.

To say

of the tobacco, rice, and sugar,

which are the products of our slave

labor,

we

exported raw cotton to the value of 8109,456,404 in 1853.

Its destination

was, to Great Britain,

* See the speech of Hox. Gerritt Smith, on the " Kansas-

Nebraska

Bill," in

which he

asserts, that the invention of

the Cotton Gin fastened slavery upon the countiy; and that,

but for

its

appeared.

invention, slavery

would long

since hav^e dis-

COTTON

76 768,596,498

335,271,434 tinent,

KING.

IS

the Continent of Europe,

lbs.; to

to countries

lbs.;

7,702,438

on our own Con-

making

lbs.;

The

ports, 1,111,570,370 lbs.

the total

ex-

entire crop of

that year being 1,600,000,000 lbs., gives, for

home consumption, 488,429,630 there

was manufactm-ed

lbs.

Of

the value of ^61,869,274 ;* of which there retained, for

^53,100,290.

from

home markets, to Om* imports of

Em-ope,

amounted

in

1853,

value

in

making our

cottons,

this,

into cotton fabrics to

for

cotton

fabrics

consumption, thus

$26,477,950:

to

foreign

was

the value of

and domestic,

for that year, cost us $79,578,240.

This, now, this is the

is

way

what becomes of our cotton;

in

tutes the basis of this

is

which

so largely consti-

it

commerce and trade

the nature of

the relations

;

and

existing

between the slavery of the United States and the material interests of the world.

* This estimate the census of 1850. 14,734,424;

is

probably too low, being taken from

The

exports of cottons for 1850 were

and for 1853, $8,768,894

in four years.

;

having nearly doubled

COTTON

KING.

IS

States no other great

But have the United leading

interests,

77

which

those

except

involved in the production of cotton? tainly, they have.

Here

a great field for the

is

growth of provisions.

are

Cer-

In

ordinary

years,

exclusive of tobacco and cotton, our agricultural

property,

when added

the domestic

to

animals and their products, amounts in value

Of

to 81,551,176,490.

this,

there

only to the value of 833,809,126 for

home consumption and

;

is

exported

which leaves

use, a remainder to

the value of 81,517,367,364.*

The portions

of the property represented by this

immense

sum

of money, which pass from the hands of

the

agriculturists, are distributed

throughout

the Union, for the support of the day laborers, sailors,

chants,

mechanics, manufacturers, traders, merprofessional

slave population.

men,

This

planters,

is

and the

what becomes of

our provisions. [

Besides this annual consumption of provisions,

most of which

* See Table

is

II,

the product oi free

Appendix.

COTTON

78

IS

KING.

labm\ the people of the United States use a |vast

amount of

groceries^

which are mainly of

Boundless as

slave labor origin.

is

the influ-

ence of cotton, in stimulating slavery extension, that of the cultivation of groceries falls but little

short of it;

the chief difference being,

not receive such an

that they do

increased

value under the hand of manufacturers.

The

cultivation of coffee, in Brazil, employs as great

a number of slaves as that of cotton in the

United States. But, to comprehend

fiilly

our indebtedness

to slave labor for groceries,

we must descend

Our imports

of coffee, tobacco,

to particulars.

sugar, and molasses, for

1853, amounted in

value to $38,479,000; of which the hand of the slave, in Brazil

and Cuba, mainly, supplied

to the value of 834,451,000.*

extent to which slavery^

products.

by the

But

we

are

This shows the

sustaining foreign

consumption of these four

this is not

our whole indebted-

ness to slavery for groceries.

*See Table

III,

Of

Appendix.

the domestic

;

COTTON grown

we

KING.

IS

79

tobacco, valued at ^19,975,000, of

retain nearly

produce

one-half,

to the value

of ^16,787,000

mestic rice, the product of the South,

sume

to the value of

slave

grown sugar and molasses, we

home consumption, slavery^ foot

Our whole

up

87,092,000

;

to the value of

making our grocery

sum

indebtedness,

;

of do-

we

con-

of domestic take, for

83^,779,000

account, with

to the

which

Slave States

the

domestio

of 850,4-19,000. to

slavery,

foreign and domestic, for these fom*

commod-

deducting two millions of re-ex-

ities,

after

ports,

amounts

By

then,

to 882,607,000.

adding the value of the foreign and

domestic cotton fabrics, consumed annually in the United States, to the yearly cost of the groceries

which the countiy uses, our

total

indebtedness, for articles of slave labor origin,

wiU be found swelHng up

to the

enormous sum

of 8162,185,24:0.

We

have now seen the channels through

which our cotton passes

off into the great sea

of commerce, to furnish the world

its

clothing.

COTTON

80

We

KING.

IS

have seen the origin and value of our

provisions^ and to

whom

We

they are sold.

have seen the sources whence om* groceries are derived, and the millions of

To

ascertain

how

money they

cost.

far these several interests are

sustained by one another, will be to determine

how

far

any one of them becomes an element

of expansion to the others.

To decide a ques-

tion of this nature with precision is impracticable.

may

The

statistics are

not attainable.

It

be illustrated, however, in various ways,

so as to obtain a conclusion proximately accurate.

Suppose,

for

example, that the supplies

of food from the l^orth were cut

the

off,

factories left in their present condition,

planters forced to raise

manuand the

their provisions

and

draught animals: in such circumstances, the export of cotton must cease, as the lands of these States could not be

than would subsist their

made to yield more own population, and

supply the cotton demanded by the J^orthern States.

Now,

if this

be true of the agricul-

tural resources of the cotton States

believed to be nearly the

full

—and

it

is

extent of their

COTTON capacity

—then

the

IS

KING.

81

surplus of cotton, to the

value of more than a hundred millions of dollars,

now

annually sent abroad, stands as the

representative of the yearly supplies which the cotton planters receive from the farmers north

of the cotton line.

This, therefore,

afterward more fully appear,

may

as will

be taken as

the probable extent to which the supplies from the ]!Torth serve as an element of slavery ex-

pansion, in the article of cotton alone.

CHAPTER Bdt the

YI.

subject of the relations of American

slavery to the economical interests of the world,

demands a

still

the causes

of the failure of Abolitionism to

closer scrutiny, in order that

arrest its progress, as well as the present relations of the institution to the politics of the

country,

may

fully appear.

Slave labor has seldom been

where

it

made

profitable

has been wholly employed in grazing

and grain-growing; but

it

becomes remuner-

ative in proportion as the planters can devote their attention to cotton, sugar, rice, or tobacco.

To render Southern

slavery profitable in the

highest degree, therefore, the slaves must be

employed upon some one of these

articles,

and

be sustained by a supply of food and draught animals

from

Northern agriculturists;

and,

before the planter's supplies are complete, to

these

must be added cotton

gins,

implements

COTTON

IS

KING.

SS

of husbandly, farnitiire, and tools, from N'orth-

ern mechanics.

This

is

moment, and must be

a point of the utmost considered

more

at

length. It

has long been a vital question to the

know how he

success of the slaveholder, to

could render the labor of his slaves the most

The

profitable.

gi-ain-gr owing States

emancipate their slaves,

The cotton-growing

a profitless system.

had

to

themselves of

to rid

States,

ever after the invention of the cotton gin, had

found the production of that staple

The

remunerative.

logical

highly

conclusion,

from

these different results, was, that the less provisions,

and the more cotton grown by the

planter, the greater

would be

must be noted with

special care.

the

surplus

his profits.

This

Markets

for

products of the farmer of the

Xorth, were equally as important to him as the supply of Provisions

But the

planter, to

must purchase sible prices;

prosperity,

was

to the planter.

be eminently

successftil,

his supplies, at the lowest j)os-

while the farmer, to secure his

must

sell his

products at the highest

•

COTTON

84 possible

Few, indeed, can be so

rates.

informed, as not to for

topics,

KING.

IS

many

know, that these

ill

two

were involved in the

years,

"Free Trade" and "Protective Tariff" doctrines,

and afforded the materiel of the

contests between the

between

free labor

political

North and the South

and slave

A

labor.

—

very

brief notice of the history of that conti'oversy, will demonstrate the ti'uth of this assertion.

The

attempt of the

agricultural

States,

thirty years since, to establish the protective policy,

and promote " Domestic Manufactures,"

was a struggle labor, as

would

their products,

The

first

to create such

afford a

a division of

"Home Market"

decisive action on the question,

Congress, was in 1824 these States, and the their relief,

for

no longer in demand abroad.

;

when

measures proposed

by national

by

the distress in

legislation,

were

for dis-

cussed on the passage of the " Tariff Bill " of that year.

The

ablest

men

in the nation were

engaged in the controversy.

As

Provisions

are the most important item on the one hand,

and Cotton on the

other,

we shaU

use these

:;

COTTON

KING.

IS

8i

two terms as the representatives of the two classes of products, belonging, respectively, to

labor

fi-ee

and

to slave labor.

Mr. Clay, in the course of the debate, said

"What,

again, I would ask,

unhappy condition of

the

I have

faii'ly

depicted?

oui'

is

the cause of

country, which

It is to

be found in

the fact that, during almost the whole existence of this government,

we have shaped

our in-

dustiy, our navigation, and our commerce, in

reference to an extraordinary

and

to

war

in Europe,

foreign markets which no longer

in the fact that

we have depended

foreign som-ces of supply,

the native

;

too

exist

much on

and excited too

in the fact that, while

little

we have

cultivated, with assiduous care, our foreign re-

sources,

we have

suffered those

wither, in a state of neglect

The consequence

at

home

to

and abandonment.

of the termination of the

war

of Europe, has been the resumption of Eu-

ropean commerce, European navigation, and the extension of its

branches.

European

agricultm-e, in all

Europe, therefore, has no longer

occasion for anything like the same extent as

COTTON

86 that

KING.

IS

which she had during her wars,

American

commerce,

ican

produce of American industry.

is

now,

ti-anquil,

The

state of

Europe upon

her

all

regard

without

interests,

operation on us.

scribe

her

and watching

with the most vigilant attention, peculiar

all

America no longer the same

is to

Em-ope as she

the

Europe in

commotion, and convulsed throughout

members,

Amer-

for

navigation,

to

effect of this

been

us, has

own their

altered

to circum-

employment of our marine, and

the

greatly to reduce the value of the produce of

our ten-itorial labor.

*

of civilized society

a market for the sale and

is

*

The

greatest

want

exchange of the surplus of the products of the labor of at

home

its

somewhere, it

members.

if society

does exist,

it

prospers

;

it

exist

exist

and, wherever

should be competent to the

absorption of the entire It is

may

must

This market

or abroad, or both, but

surplus production.

most desirable that there should be both a

home and

a foreign market.

But with respect

to their relative superiority, I can not entertain

a doubt.

The home market

is first

in order,

COTTONISKING.

Bt

and paramount in importance.

The

the bill under consideration,

to create this

home market, and

object of

to lay the foundations of

genuine American policy. it is

is

opposed

It is

;

a

and

incumbent on the partisans of the foreign

policy (terms which I shall use without

any

invidious intent) to demonsti-ate that the for-

eign market

is

an adequate vent

produce of our labor.

But

is

for the surplus

so?

it

1.

For-

eign nations can not, if they would, take our produce.

*

they would not.

*

surplus

*

*

K

2.

We

they could,

have seen, I

think, the causes of the distress of the country.

"We have seen that an exclusive dependence

upon the foreign market must lead

to a still

severer distress, to impoverishment, to ruin.

"We must, then, change somewhat our course. "We must give a new direction of our industry.

genuine American policy. foreign

market,

to

some portion

"We must speedily adopt a

let

Still

us create

cherishing a also

a

home

market, to give further scope to the consumption

of

the produce

of

American

industry.

Let us counteract the policy of foreigners, and

COTTON

88

IS

KING.

withdraw the support which we now give their industry,

country.

ket

The

*

*

creation of a

home mar-

not only necessary to procure for our

is

agriculture a just reward of is

indispensable

to

necessary wants.

we have

If

its

labors, but it

obtain a supply of

we can

not

sell,

our

we can

That portion of our population (and

not buy.

seen that

it is

not less than four-fifths)

which makes comparatively nothing that eigners will buy, has nothing to

chases with from foreigners.

we

by the

make

It is in

for-

pur-

vain that

amount of om-

exports, sup-

planting interest.

They may

are told of the

plied

enable the planting interest to supply aU

wants; terests

its

but they bring no ability to the innot planting,

be pretended,

unless,

which can not

the planting interest

was an

adequate vent for the surplus produce of the labor of all this

to

and stimulate that of our own

other interests.

home market, highly desirable

* as

all

*

But

it is,

can

only be created and cherished by the protection of our

own

legislation against the inevi-

table prosti'ation of our industry,

which must

COTTON

KING.

IS

89

ensue from the action of foreign policy and *

legislation.

*

tariff is to tax the

The

sole

object

of the

produce of foreign industry,

with the view of promoting American *

dustiy.

*

But

said

is

it

in-

by the honora-

ble gentleman from Yirginia, that the South,

owing its

to the character of

*

of manufacturing. its

a certain portion of

population, can not engage in the business

degradation unfits

* it

The well-being of the

The circumstances of for

manufacturing

arts.

and the larger

other,

part of our population, requires the introduction of those arts.

"What

is to

be done in this conflict?

The

gentleman would have us abstain from adopting a policy called for by the interests of the greater and freer part of the population. is

that reasonable?

Can

it

But

be expected that

the interests of the greater part should be

made

to bend to the condition of the servile part of

our population?

make

That, in

effect,

us the slaves of slaves.

*

that the patriotism of the South

clusively relied

8

upon

would be

to

am sure may be ex-

*

I

to reject a policy

which

COTTON

90

IS

KING.

should be dictated by considerations altogether

connected with that degraded class, to the pre-

But

judice of the residue of our population.

does not a perseverance in the foreign policy, as

now

it

exists, in fact,

make

Union, not planting, tributary

What

parts?

must continue

is

all parts

of the

to the planting

the argument?

It is, that

we

freely to receive the produce of

foreign industry, without regard to the protection of

American

be retained

industry, that a market

for the sale

of the planting portion of the country; that, if

we

may

abroad of the produce

and

lessen the consumption, in all parts

of America, those which are not planting, as

well as the planting sections, of foreign factures,

market

we diminish

manu-

to that extent the foreign

for the planting produce.

The

existing

state of things, indeed, presents a sort of tacit

compact between the cotton-grower and the British manufacturer, the stipulations of which are,

on the part of the cotton-grower, that the

whole of the United

States, the other portions

as well as the cotton-growing, shall opeil

remain

and unrestricted in the consumption of

;

COTTON British manufactures

KING.

IS

and, on the part of the

;

British

manufacturer, that, in

thereof,

he will continue

of the South.

0t

Thus, then,

consideration

purchase the cotton

to

we

perceive that the

proposed measure, instead of sacrificing the

South

to the other parts of the

only to preserve them sacrificed

Union, seeks

from being actually

under the operation of the

tacit

com-

pact which I have described."

The opposition

to the Protective Tarifi",

the South, arose from

two causes: the

by

first

openly avowed at the time, and the second clearly deducible fr-om the policy

it

pursued

the one to secure the foreign market for

its

cotton, the other to obtain a bountiful supply

Cotton was ad-

of provisions at cheap rates.

mitted free of duty into foreign counti-ies, and

Southern Statesmen feared

exclusion, if our

its

government increased the duties on foreign fabrics.

The South exported about twice

as

much

of that staple as

by

other countries, and there were indica-

all

tions

favoring

the

was supplied

desire

it

to

Europe

entertained of

COTTON

92

IS

KING.

monopolizing the foreign markets.

The West

India planters could not import food, but at

such high rates as to

grow

make

it

impracticable to

prices low enough

cotton at

English

manufacturer.

cheaply,

was

essential

scheme of monopolizing

to suit the

To purchase

cotton

to the success

of his

manufacture, and

its

supplying the world with clothing.

The

close

proximity of the provision and cotton-growing districts in the

United

advantages over

all

States,

gave

its

planters

other portions of the world.

But they could not monopolize the markets, unless

they could obtain a cheap supply of food and

clothing for their negroes, and raise their cotton at

such reduced prices as to undersell their

rivals.

A

manufacturing population, with

its

mechanical coadjutors, in the midst of the provision-gi'owers,

on a

scale such as the protective

policy contemplated, create a

it

was conceived, would

permanent market

and enhance the price

;

for their products,

whereas,

if this

manu-

facturing could be prevented, and a system of free trade adopted, the

South would constitute

the principal provision market of the country,

— COTTON and the

fertile

IS

KING.

do

lands of the North supply the

cheap food demanded

As

for its slaves.

the

policy, in the outset, contemplated the

tarifl"

encouragement of the production of iron, hemp, whisky, and the establishment of woollen manufactories, principally, the

South found

terests but slightly identified

its

in-

with the system

coarser qualities of cottons, only, being

the

manufactured in the country, and, even these,

on a diminished

scale, as

cotton crops of the South.

date

when

compared with the Cotton,

up

to the

controversy had farely com-

this

menced, had been worth, in the English market,

an average price of from

But

cents per lb.*

at this

29t^o

to

48 o

period, a wide-

spread and ruinous depression, both in the culture

curred

and manufacture of the

—

cotton,

in

England, as low as

The home market, to

1826, llj^o to

then,

having 18,V

article,

fallen,

oc-

in

cents per lb.

was too inconsiderable

be of much importance, and there existed

»This includes

the period from 1806 to 1826, though

the decline began a few years before the latter date.

COTTON

94:

little

hope of

demanded by

enlargement to the extent

its its

KING.

IS

The

increasing cultivation.

planters, therefore, looked abroad to the exist-

ing markets, rather than to wait for tardily creating one at home.

For success in the

markets, they relied,

foreign

mainly, upon

preparing themselves to produce cotton at the

reduced prices then prevailing in Europe.

All

agricultural products, except cotton, being ex-

cluded from foreign markets, the planters found

themselves almost the sole exporters of the country

;

and

it

was

to

them a source

of cha-

grin, that the IsTorth did not, at once, co-operate

with them in

augmenting the commerce of

the nation.

At

this point in the history of the contro-

versy, politicians found

it

an easy matter

to

produce feelings of the deepest hostility be-

tween the opposing

parties.

The

planters were

led to believe that the millions of revenue collected off the goods imported,

was

so

much

deducted from the value of the cotton that paid for

them, either in the diminished price they

received abroad, or in the increased price which

COTTON

KING.

95

theJ paid for the imported articles.

To enhance

IS

the duties, for the protection of our manufac-

they were persuaded, would be so

tui*es,

upon themselves,

of an additional tax benefit of the

Korth

for the

and, beside, to give the

;

manufacturer such a monopoly of the

market

much

for his fabrics,

home

would enable him

to

charge purchasers an excess over the true value of his

By

stufis, to

the whole

amount of the duty.

the protective policy, the planters expected

to have the cost of both provisions

increased,

and

and clothing

their ability to monopolize the

foreign markets diminished in a corresponding If they could establish free trade,

degi'ee.

would insure the American market manufacturers

;

it

to foreign

secure the foreign markets for

their leading staple;

repress

home manufac-

force a larger

number

of the Northern

tures

;

men

into agricultm^e; multiply the growth,

and diminish the price of provisions their

clothe their

cotton

slaves for

at

;

lower rates;

feed and

produce

a third or fourth of former other countries in

its

prices;

rival

vation;

monopolize the trade in the

all

culti-

article

:

COTTON

96

KING.

IS

throughout the whole of Europe

;

and build up

a commerce and a navy that would

make ua

the ruler of the seas.

CHAPTER To understand

yil.

the sentiments of the South,

on the Protective Policy, as expressed by statesmen,

we must

its

again quote from the Con-

gressional Debates of 1824

Mr.

Hayne, of South

"But how,

I

sible for the

home market

Carolina,

would seriously

ask, is

said: it

pos-

to supply the place

of the foreign market, for our cotton?

We

supply Great Britain with the raw material, out of which she furnishes the Continent of Europe,

Now, make every

nay, the whole world, with cotton goods.

suppose our manufactories could

we consume, that would furnish home market for no more than 20,000,000

yard of cloth a

COTTON lbs.

KING.

IS

97

now

out of the 180,000,000 lbs. of cotton

shipped to Great Britain

;

leaving on our hands

160,000,000lbs., equal to two-thirds of ourwhole

produce.

*

*

Considering this scheme of

promoting certain employments,

at the

expense

of others, as unequal, oppressive, and unjust

—

viewing prohibition as the means^ and the destruction of all foreign of this policy that

we

—

as the

end em-

shall feel om-selves justified in

bracing the very all

commerce

I take this occasion to declare,

such laws as

opportunity of repealing

first

may be

passed for the promo-

tion of these objects."

Mr. Cahter, of South Carolina, said: " Another danger to which the present measure

would expose

this country,

and one in which

the Southern States have a deep and interest,

would be the

risk

we

incm*,

vital

by

this

system of exclusion, of driving Great Britain to countervailing

measures, and inducing

other countries, with

whom

all

the United States

have any considerable trading connections, to resort to

countries 9

measm-es of

retaliation.

possessing vast

There are

capacities

for the

COTTON

98

IS

KING.

production of rice, of cotton, and of tobacco, to

which England might resort

She might apply herself

to supply herself.

to Brazil,

Bengal, and

Egypt, for her cotton; to South America, as well as to her colonies, for her tobacco ; and to

China and Tm-key Mr.

Go VAN,

effect of this

for

her rice."

of South Carolina, said;

measure on the

"The

cotton, rice,

and

tobacco-growing States, will be pernicious in the extreme

:

—

^it

will exclude

them

fi-om those

markets where they depended almost entirely for

a sale of those articles, and force Great

Britain to encourage the cottons, (Brazil, Eio Janeiro, and

Buenos Ap-es,) which,

in a short

time, can be brought in competition with us.

Kothing but the consumption of British goods in this country, received in exchange, can sup-

port a

command

of the cotton market to the

Southern planter.

It is

one thing very certain,

she will not come here with her gold and silver to trade with us.

And

should Great

Britain, pursuing the principles of her reciprocal duty act, of last June, lay three or four

cents on our cotton,

where would,

I ask, be our

COTTON surplus of cotton?

KING.

IS

It is

well

99

known

that the

United States can not manufacture one-fourth of the cotton that

is

in

it

;

and should we, by

our imprudent legislative enactments, in pursuing to such an extent this restrictive system, force Great Britain to shut her ports against u8, it

will paralyze the

whole trade of the Southern

This export

country.

ti'ade,

which composes

of the export ti-ade of the United

five-sixths States, will

be swept entirely from the ocean,

and leave but a melancholy wi-eck behind." necessary, also, to add a few additional

It is

exti-acts,

from the speeches of Northern

men, during

states-

this discussion.

of Kew York, said

Mr. Martindale,

:

" Does

not the agriculture of the country languish, and the laborer stand stiU, because, beyond the

supply of food for his

own

family, his produce

perishes on his hands, or his fields lie waste

and faUow; and market *

*

drew

is

A

this

because his accustomed

closed against

him

?

It

does

sir.

twenty years' war in Europe, which

into its vortex all its various nations,

made our merchants

the carriers of a large

COTTON

100

IS

and our farmers

portion of the world,

immense

of

feeders

unexampled

grew and

and increase

An

com-

in our

—our agriculture extended

flourished.

mand gave

the

An

belligerent armies.

activity

merce followed

KING.

itself,

unprecedented de-

the farmer an exti-aordinary price *

*

Imports kept pace with exports, and consumption with both. * * produce.

his

for

Peace came into Europe, and shut out our

and found us in war with England,

exports,

which

almost cut off our

Now we

felt

how

coinfortable

it

we

felt

and

saw the imperfect

classification of labor.

*

Here

all,

that

we

are

all

the

is

It is

em-

in search

of.

a market for our labor and our produce,

which we

all

want, and aU contend

foreign goods, that

merchants tions,

Buy

!N'ow

distribution

*

explanation of our opposite views.

ployment, after It is

have

to

*

the imperfect organization of our sys-

Now we

tem.

was *

plenty of food, but no clothing.

*

*

imports.

and

:

it

employment

manufactures,

'

Buy

import,' say the

wiU make a market

find

English

we may

for.

for

for importa-

our ships.

say the

cotton

COTTON planters;

England

exchange.

KING.

IS

101

take onr cotton

will

in

Thus the merchant and the cotton

planter fully appreciate the value of a market

when

own

they find their

encroached upon.

The farmer and manufacturer claim market

ticipate in the benefits of a

labor and produce

and hence

;

par-

to

for their

this protracted

debate and struggle of contending interests. It is

a contest for a market between the cotton-

groxoer

and

the mercliant on the one side,

farmer and

the

other. this

That the manufacturer would

market

to

is

reciprocate the favor

now

market accessible

upon

called

to

foreign

mutual benefit of both. the

remedy we propose,

we

sufier.

*

*

sir, for

hemp,

farmers' provisons.

our

and

fabrics

for

the

This, then, is

the evils

which

Place the mechanic by the side of

our cloth, should flax,

;

to render this

the farmer, that the manufacturer

wool,

fui-nish

the farmer, admits no doubt.

The farmer should government

and

manufacturer on the

the

make etc.,

it

who makes

from our farmers'

and be fed by om^

Draw

forth our iron fi'om

own mountains, and we

shall

not drain

;

COTTON

102

IS

KING.

our country in the purchase of the foreign. * *

We propose,

own wants from our own resources, by the means which God and sir,

to supply our

Natm'e have placed in our hands. here

is

But

and

determined

The

cotton, rice,

feelings

*

hostility to the bill.

*

and indigo-growers of the Southern

tobacco,

States, claim to

by

*

a question of sectional interest, which unfriendly

elicits

*

be deeply affected and injured *

this system.

*

Let us inquire

if

the

Southern planter does not demand what, in

he denies

fact,

others.

to

etc., for

—what?

that

now, what

That the Korth and West

does he request?

should buy

And

Not

we do

their cotton, tobacco,

already, to the utmost of

our ability to consume, or pay, or vend to others;

and that

greatly exceeding

But they

is

an immense amount,

to

what they pm'chase of

insist that

we

should buy Enghsh

wool, wi'ought into cloth, that they for it

with their cotton; that

Russia iron, that they that

we

that they

us.

may

we

may pay

should buy

sell their

cotton

should buy Holland gin and linen,

may

sell their

tobacco.

In

fine, that

COTTON

KING

IS

103

should not grow wool, and dig and smelt the

we

iron of the country

not

sell

[On another They

bill.

we have done it

occasion,

will, therefore,

to strike out every part of

we

every such motion,

that

did, they could

"Gentlemen say they will oppose

every part of the

will

we

for, if

their cotton."

he said:]

move

;

And, on

it.

shall hear repeated, as

same

already, the

objections:

and commerce

will ruin trade

that

;

it

destroy the revenue, and prostrate the

navy; that

it

will enhance the prices of arti-

cles of the first necessity,

the poor; and that

market,

and stop

it

and thus be taxing

will destroy the cotton

the future

Mk. Buchanan,

growth of cotton.

of Pennsylvania, said

:

'^'^

" iS'o

nation can be perfectly independent which de-

pends upon foreign countries iron.

It

is

an

peace and in war.

article

for its

supply of

equally necessary in

Without a

plentiful supply

we can not provide for the common fense. Can we so soon have forgotton of

it,

de-

the

lesson which experience taught us during the late

war with Great Britain?

supply was then cut

ofi",

Our

foreign

and we could not

COTTON

104:

manufacture in

IS

KING. quantities

sufficient

increased domestic demand. article

The

the

for

price of the

became extravagant, and both the Gov-

ernment and the agriculturist were compelled to

pay double the sum

have purchased

it,

had

for its

which they might

manufacture, before

by proper pro-

that period, been encouraged tecting duties."

Sugar cane,

made

had become an

at that period,

article of culture in Louisiana,

and

efforts

were

to persuade her planters into the adop-

tion of the Free Trade system.

more

that they could

It

was m-ged

effectually resist foreign

competition, and extend their business, by a

cheap supply of food, than by protective duties.

But the Louisianians were that though they

too wise not to

know,

would certainly obtain cheap

provisions by the destruction of Northern ufactures,

still,

this

man-

would not enable them

to

compete with the cheaper labor supplied by the slave trade to the Cubans.

The West,

for

many

years,

gave

its

undi-

vided support to the manufacturing interests, thereby obtaining a heavy duty on hemp, wool,

COTTON and foreign

distilled spirits

to

The

whisky.

under

:

105

thus securing en-

hemp and wool-growers, monopoly of the home market for its

couragement

and the

KING.

IS

this

its

distiller

and the manufacturer,

system, were equally ranked as

public benefactors, as each increased the con-

sumption of the surplus products of the farmer.

The grain

of the

West could

find no remunera-

tive market, except as fed to domestic animals for

droving East and South, or

distilled into

whisky which would bear transportation. a

fact in

proof of this assertion.

Baldwin, of Pittsburgh,

Take

Hon. Henry

a public dinner

at

given him by the friends of General Jackson, in Cincinnati,

May, 1828, in

want of markets, said, "

He was

for the

referring to the

farmers of the West,

certain, the aggregate of their

agricultural produce, finding a

rope,

would not pay

for the

market in Eu-

pins and needles

they imported."

The markets

in the

Southwest,

important, were then quite limited. protective

now so As the

system, coupled with the contem-

plated internal improvements, if successfully

;

COTTON

106

IS

accomplished, would

KING.

inevitably tend to en-

hance the price of agricultural products

;

while

the free trade and anti-internal improvement as certainly reduce their value

would

policy,

the two systems were long considered so antagonistic, that the success

sound the knell of the other.

must

of the one

Indeed, so fully

was Ohio impressed with the necessity of promoting manufactures, that ployed,

was

for

many

all capital

thus em-

years entirely exempt

fr'om taxation. It

was

appealed

in vain that the friends of protection to the fact, that the duties levied

on

foreign goods did not necessarily enhance their to

cost

the

among home and

consumer; that the competition manufacturers, and between them

foreigners,

had greatly reduced the price

of nearly every article properly protected

;

that

foreign manufacturers always had, and alwaj^s

would advance

their prices according to om*

dependence upon them tition

was the only

;

that domestic compe-

safety

against foreign imposition

sary

we

should become our

the country had that

;

own

it

was neces-

manufacturerg,

COTTON

KING.

IS

107

in a fair degree, to render ourselves independ-

ent of other nations in times of war, as well as to

guard against the yascillations in foreign

legislation

;

that the South

would be vastly the

gainer by having the market for its

own

its

products at

doors, to avoid the cost of their transit

across the Atlantic

;

that, in the

event of the

repression or want of proper extension of our

manufactures, by the adoj)tion of the

fi-ee ti-ade

system, the imports of foreign goods, to meet the public wants, would soon exceed the ability of the people to pay, and, inevitably, involve

the countiy in bankruptcy.

Southern

and refused ti'ade,

politicians to accept

to the utter

ciple of protection.

remained

inflexible,

any policy except

abandonment of the

Whether they were

of the greater prosperity of the Xorth,

free

prin-

jealous

and de-

sirous to cripple its energies, or whether they

were truly

fearful of

bankrupting the South,

shall not wait to inquire.

however, that

was

we should

we

Justice demands,

state that the

South

suffering from the stagnation in the cot-

ton trade existing throughout Europe.

The

COTTON

108 planters

KING.

IS

had been unused

low

to the

they were compelled

that staple,

prices, for to

accept.

They had no prospect of an adequate home market for many years to come, and there were might

indications that they

abeady possessed.

lose the one they

The West

Indies

was

still

slave territory, and attempting to recover early position in the English market.

had

to

do, or be

its

This

it

emancipation.

forced into

The powerful Yiceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, was endeavoring to compel cotton

on

organized

assuming

an

enlarged

South

an

The

American

aspect

quence, and might

his subjects to scale.

were

republics

of commercial

commence

grow

The newly

conse-

its cultivation.

East Indies and Brazil were supplying to

Great Britain from one-third to one-half of the cotton she

was annually manufacturing.

The

other half, or two-thirds, she might obtain from

other sources,

and repudiate

our planters.

Southern men, therefore, could

all

traffic

with

not conceive of anything but ruin to themselves,

by any considerable advance in duties

on foreign imports.

They understood the

pro-

;

COTTON

KING.

IS

109

tective policy as contemplating the supply of

om- country with cles

the

to

home manufactured

exclusion

of

those

arti-

of foreign

This would confine the planters,

coimtiies.

American

in the sale of their cotton, to the

market mainly, and leave them in the power of

moneyed corporations;

which possessing

the ability, might conti'ol the prices of their staple, to the irreparable injury of the South.

"With slave labor they could not become

manu-

remain

at the

facturers,

and must,

therefore,

mercy of the Korth, both clothing, unless the

be retained.

as

and

food

to

European markets should

Out of

this conviction

war upon Corporations; employment of foreign

grew the

the hostility to the in developing

capital

the mineral, agricultural, and manufacturing

resources of the country

;

the efforts to destroy

the banks and the credit system to reduce the currency to gold

system of collecting the coin;

from

;

the attempts

and

silver

the withdrawal of the public all

and the

;

public revenues

the in

moneys

banks as a basis of paper circulation sleepless vigilance

of the South in

;

COTTON

110

IS

KING.

resisting all systems of internal

improvements

by the General Government.

Its

statesmen

foresaw that a paper currency would keep up the

price

of Northern products

hundred per

cent,

one or two

above the specie standard

that combinations of capitalists, whether en-

gaged in manufacturing wool,

would draw off labor from the soil,

cotton, or iron,

cultivation of the

and cause large bodies of the producers

become consumers

;

connecting the "West with the East, were tual

to

and that roads and canals,

means of bringing the

effec-

agricultural

and

manufacturing classes into closer proximity, to the serious limitation of the foreign

commerce

of the country, the checking of the growth of

the

navy, and

planters.

the

manifest

injury

of

the

^

CHAPTER

YIII.

The PKOTECTm: Tariff and Free Trade controversy, at ress,

was very

and during

its

prog-

different in its character

from

its origin,

what many now imagine

it

have been.

to

People, on both sides, were oflen in great straits to to

know how

unmeaning phrase that a

much

to obtain a livelihood,

amass fortunes.

bank has

less

The word ruin was no

at that day.

The news, now,

failed, carries

depositors and holders of

its

with

notes,

it,

to the

no stronger

feelings of consternation, than did the report

of the. passage or repeal of tariff laws, then, affect the

minds of the opposing

parties.

We

have spoken of the peculiar condition of the South in

this respect.

In the West, for

years, the farmers often received tvjenty-five cents ^

many

no more than

and rarely over forty cents

per pushel for their wheat, after conveying

it,

on horseback, or in wagons, not unfrequently, 111

COTTON

112

a distance of

Other price

;

fifty

KING.

IS

miles, to find

a market.

proportionally low in

products were

and such was the

difficulty in obtaining

money, that people could not pay

their taxes

So deeply

but with the greatest sacrifices.

were the people interested in these questions of national policy, that they became the basis of political action during several Presidential

legislation to

much

This led to

elections.

on the

subject,

vacillation

and gave

in

alternately,

one and then to the other section of the

Union, the benefits of

its

favorite policy.

The vote of the West, during was of the

first

importance, as

it

this struggle,

possessed the

balance of power, and could turn the scale at will.

It

was not

left

without inducements to

co-operate with the South, in

extending slavery, that ket

among the

it

its

measures

for

might create a mar-

planters for

appears from the particular

its

products.

eflbrts

This

made by the

Southern members of Congress, during the debate of 1824, to win over the doctrines of free trade.

West

to the

COTTON

IS

KING.

113

Mr. McDuFFiE, of South Carolina, said: " I admit that the "Western people are emhar-

deny that they are

rassed^ but I

distressed^ in

*

*

any other sense of the word.

am

I

well assured that the permanent prosperity of the "West depends of the

means of

more upon the improvement

ti-ansporting their produce to

market, and of receiving the returns, than upon every other subject to which the legislation of this

tlemen (from

the West)

very profitable trade constituents

with

is

the

extensive character,

ti-ade,

more

which,

country,

sell for cash.

fi-om

be put in jeop-

for the conjectural benefits of this

I say this trade is about to

convinced that, effect of

10

measure.

be put in jeop-

ardy, I do not speak unadvisedly.

have the

This

pecuhar

its

than any that can be sub-

stituted in its place, is about to

fectly

in

which they drive

easily overcomes the difficul-

ties of transportation

"When

Gen-

on by their

Southern

over the mountains and

*

aware that a

are

carried

live stock of all descriptions,

ardy

*

government can be directed.

I

am

per-

if this bill passes, it will

inducing the people of the

COTTON

114:

KING.

IS

South, partly from the feeling and partly from the necessity growing out of

themselves,

the

to raise

it,

within

now

stock which they

live

*

pm-chase fi-om the West. to take the manufactures of

*

If

we

cease

Great Britain, she

will assuredly cease to take our cotton to the

same

extent.

policy

a settled principle of her

It is

—a principle not only wise, but — purchase from those nations

essential

to her existence

to

that receive her manufactures, in preference to

those

who do

We

not.

have, heretofore, been

her best customers, and, therefore,

it

has been

her policy to purchase our cotton to the extent of our

demand

for

frill

her manufactures.

But, say gentlemen, Great Britain does not

purchase your cotton fi-om affection, but from interest.

reason of

I grant

my

it,

sir

;

and that

the very

decided hostility to a system

which wiU make

it

her interest to purchase

from other countries in preference It ie

is

to our

own.

her interest to purchase cotton, even at a

higher price, from those countries which receive her manufactm-es in exchange. her to give a

little

more

It is better for

for cotton,

than to

COTTON

KING.

IS

115

obtain nothing for her manufactures.

It will

be remarked that the situation of Great Britain is,

in this respect, widely diflferent from that

The powers of her

of the United States.

have been already pushed very nearly

maximum

of their productiveness.

soil

to the

The pro-

ductiveness of her manufactui'es on the con-

demand

trary, is as unlimited as the

*

whole world. Great Britain

is

*

In

not, as

suppose, to secure the

market

for

that all her

effort.

of the

the poHcy of

gentlemen seem to

Jioyne^

but the foreign

The former she

her manufactures.

has without an

into

fact, sir,

It is to attain

the latter

poKcy and enterprise are brought

requisition.

country are the

The manufactures 'basis

of

of that

commerce; our

tier

manufactures, on the conti-ary, are to be the destruction of our commerce.

*

*

It

can

not be doubted that, in pursuance of the policy of forcing her manufacturers into foreign markets, she will, if deprived of a large portion of

our custom, direct aU

America.

her

efforts

to

South

That country abounds in a

soil

admirably adapted to the production of cotton,

COTTON

116

and

will, for

IS

KING.

a century to come, import her

manufactm-es from foreign countries."

Mr. EUmilton, "That

Carolina,

of South.

said;

the planters in his section shared in

that depression which

is

common

in every de-

partment of the industry of the Union, except-

ing

tliose

from

Glamor for

when

it

wliich

relief.

was known

we have heard

the most

This would be understood

had

that sea-island cotton

fallen fi*om 50 or 60 cents, to

25 cents

—a

fall

even greater than that which has attended wheat, of which

we had heard

so

much

—as

if

the grain-growing section was the only agri* * cultural interest which had suffered.

While the planters of

this region

do not dread

competition in the foreign markets on equal terms, fi-om the superiority of their cotton, they entertain a well-founded apprehension, that the restrictions

contemplated will lead to

iatory duties

retal-

on the part of Great Britain,

which must end in

ruin.

*

*

In relation to

our upland cottons. Great Britain may, without difficulty, in the

course of a very short period,

supply her wants from Brazil.

*

*

How

COTTON long

tlie

KING.

IS

117

exclusive production, even of the sea-

island cotton, will remain to

oui*

countiy,

yet a doubtful and interesting problem.

is

The

experiments that are making on the Delta of the

Mle,

if

pushed

to the

Ocean,

may

result in

the production of this beautiful staple, in an to other produc-

abundance which, in reference

has long blest and consecrated Egyptian

tions,

fertility.

*

We

*

by the honorable

are told

Speaker (Mr. Clay,) that our manufacturing establishments will,

in

a very short period,

supply the place of the foreign demand. futility, I will

not say mockery of this hope,

may

be measured by one or two

the

present consumption of

manufactories,

The

is

facts.

cotton,

First,

by our

about equal to one-sixth of *

our whole production.

*

How

long

it

will take to increase these manufactories to a scale equal to the tion,

that

consumption of

he could not venture it

will be

some years

to

this

produc-

determine; but

after the epitaph will

have been written on the fortunes of the South, there can be but

little

doubt."

*

*

[After

speaking of the tendency of increased mann-

COTTON

118

IS

KING.

factures in the East, to check emigration to the

"West,

and thus

to diminish the value of the

public lands and prevent the growth of the

Western

States,

portion of the part of the

bill,

Mr. H. proceeded thus

Union could except in

:]

" That

participate in

no

burdens, in spite

its

of the fallacious hopes that were cherished, in reference to cotton-bagging for Kentucky,

and

the woolen duty for Steubenville, Ohio.

He

feared that to the entire region of the West,

no cordial drops of comfort would come, even '

'

To a

in the duty on foreign spirits. tion of our people,

who

large por-

are in the habit of

solacing themselves with Hollands, Antigua,

and Cogniac, whisky, would villainous twang.'

The

still

have a most '

cup, he feared, would

be refused, though tendered by the hand of patriotism

as well as conviviality.

West has but one its

interest,

and that

No, the is,

that

best customer, the South, should be pros-

perous."

Mr. Rankin, of Mississippi, said: the West, the

it

members

appears to

me

"With

like a rel^ellion of

against the body.

It is true,

we

COTTON

IS

KING.

export, but the aniount received

exports favor,

119 from those

only apparently, largely in

is

our

inasmuch as we are the consumers of

your produce, dependent on you for our imple-

ments of husbandry, the means of sustaining life,

and almost everything except our lands

and negroes;

all

of which draws

the apparent profits

much

and advantages.

fi'om

In pro-

portion as you diminish our exportations,

you

diminish om* means of purchasing fi*om yon,

and

desti'oy

You

your own market.

will

pel us to use those advantages of soil

climate which

God and

com-

and of

ITature have placed

within our reach, and to live, as to you, as you desire us to live

as to foreign nations

— de-

pendent on our own resources."

Mr. Gaknett, of Virginia, said:

"The

Western States can not manufacture.

The

want of

capital (of

which they, as well as the

Southern States, have been drained by the policy of government,) and other causes render it

impossible.

tined to sufier

other—

^the

The Southern more by

Western next

States are des-

this policy ;

but

it

than any

will not benefit

COTTON

120

IS

KING.

the aggregate population of any State.

it

will drive the

South

It is for

If persisted in,

the benefit of capitalists only.

and resistance."

to ruin

Mi\ CuTHBEKT, of Georgia, said:

"He

hoped

the market for the cotton of the South was not

about to be contracted within a sphere, [the

home

little

miserable

market,] instead of being

K

spread throughout the world.

they should

drive the cotton-growers from the only source

from whence their means were derived, [the they would be unable any

foreign market,]

longer to take their supplies from the

West—

they must contract their concerns within their

own

spheres,

for their

already

and begin

to raise flesh

own consumption. under

severe

a

measure went into

and grain

The South was pressure

eflect, its distress

—

if

this

would be

consummated."

In 1828, the

West found

still

means of communication with

New York

opening of the created a

means

very limited

the East. canal,

in

The 1825,

of traflic with the seaboard, to

the people of the

Lake region

;

but

all

of the

:

COTTON remaining

territorj,

IS

KING.

121

west of the Alleghanies,

had gained no advantages over those

it

had

enjoyed in IS^^t, except so far as steamboat navigation had

In the debate preceding the passage

rivers.

of

on the Western

progressed

the

in

tariff"

"Woolens'

1828,

usually termed

made to West, from which we

Bill," allusion is

dition of the

the

the con-

quote as

follows

Mr. WicKLiFFE, of Kentucky, said: constituents

They

people.

grain is

may

is

raise stock,

converted into

our market

?

*

and

*

surplus

their

Where,

spirits.

Our market

is

our sympathies should be, in the South. com'se of trade, for

for,

all

What

the Mississippi.

market

heavy

articles, is

breadstuff's

are principally

bama, and Florida. are

the

provisions.

11

*

where

Our

down find

a

South Ala-

Indeed, I

may

say, these

consumers, at miserable and

ruinous prices to the farmers of

our exports of

we

I ask,

consumed in the

States of Mississippi, Louisiana,

States

"My

be said to be a grain-growing

my

spirits, corn, flour,

*

We

State, of

and cured

have had a trade of

:

COTTON

122

some value

is

*

under great disadvantages.

it

money Are

*

—

may which we

a ready-money trade

only

We

South in our stock.

to the

continue

still

KING.

IS

trade in

say

^I

it

is

It

the

are engaged.

the gentlemen acquainted with the

extent of that trade ?

It

may be

fairly stated 'at

three millions per annum."

Benton urged

Ml'.

the Western

members

to unite with the South, "for the purpose of

enlarging the market, increasing the

demand

in the South,

and

horses, mules,

and provisions, which the West

could

sell

The

nowhere

tariff of

its

else."

1828, created great dissatisfac-

tion at the South.

sions

of

ability to purchase the

public

Examples of the expres-

sentiment,

on

the

subject,

adopted at conventions, and on other occasions,

might be multiplied

indefinitely.

a case or two, to illustrate the whole.

Take

At

a

public meeting in Georgia, held subsequently to the passage of the

"Woolens'

Bill," the fol-

lowing resolution was adopted Resolved,

That

to

our oppressors, our

retaliate

as far as

possible

upon

Legislature be requested to impose

:

COTTON taxes,

amounting

IS

KIXG.

to prohibition, on the hogs, horses, mules,

and cotton-bagging, whisky, pork,

hemp

123

cloth, of the

Western, and on

beef, bacon, flax, all the

and

productions and

manufactm-es of the Eastern and N'orthei-n States.

Mr. Hamilton, of South Carolina, in a Waterboroiigh Dinner, given

speech at the

subsequently to the passage of the tariff of 1828, said

"It becomes us to inquire what situation

under

conjunction

this

be our

unexpected and disastrous which, in

circumstances,

of

is to

its

progress, will deprive us of the benefits of a free trade

formed Union. ruin,

with the rest of the world, which

one

of

Why,

the

leading

tinues.

*

the

of

gentlemen, ruin, unmitigated

must be our portion, *

objects

if this

From 1816 down

system con-

to the present

time, the South has been drugged,

by the slow

poison of the miserable empiricism of the prohibitory system, the fatal effects of which

we

could not so long have resisted, but for the

stupendously valuable staples with which

God

has blessed us, and the agricultural skill and enterprise of our people."

COTTON

124 In

IS

KING.

ftirther illustration of the

nature of this

controversy, and of the arguments used during

the contest,

we must

give the substance of the

remarks of a prominent

aiming

detaching the sugar planters from

at

with the manufac-

their political connection turers.

as

who was

politician,

We have to rely on memory, however,

we can

not find the record of the language

used on the occasion. time, and

It

commented

papers at the Xorth.

was published

on, freely,

He

at the

by the news-

"We

said:

must

prevent the increase of manufactories, force the surplus labor into agriculture, promote the cultivation of our

unimproved western lands,

until provisions are so multiplied

and reduced

in price, that the slave can be fed so cheaply as

to enable us to

cents

a pound.

duties,

we can

that staple,

rival

grow our sugar Then,

Cuba

without

at three

protective

in the production of

and drive her from our markets."

:

CHAPTEK The opening parties

to

the

IX.

of the year 1832, found the

Tariff controversy

engaged in earnest debate, on the gress

;

Bill,

controversy,

South

including the principle of pro-

This Act produced a

tection.

and led

to

Carolina toward

the

fied, in

movements

in

and,

to

secession;

was modi-

the following year, so as to

acceptable to the South settle the policy

of the

succeeding nine years.

;

in the

crisis

avert the threatened evil, the Bill

make

it

and, so as, also, to

Government

A

'the sentiments of the

the

for

few extracts

the debates of 1832, will serve to

were

Con-

floor of

and midsummer witnessed the passage

new

of a

once more

fi'om

show what

members

of Con-

gress, as to the effects of the protective policy

on the different sections of the Union, up

to

that date

Mr.

"When

Hayne,

of

South

Carolina,

said:

the policy of '21 went into operation, 125

— COTTON

126 the South

IS

KING.

was supplied from the "West, through

a single avenue, (the Saluda Mountain Gap,)

with live stock, horses,

and hogs,

cattle,

to the

amount of considerably upward of a million of dollars a year.

Under

the pressure of the sys-

tem, this trade has been regularly diminishing. It

has already fallen more than one-half. * *

In consequence of the dire calamities which the system has inflicted on the South

—

^blasting

our commerce, and withering our prosperity

West has been very

the

best customer.

*

nearly deprived of her

And what was

*

found to

be the result of four years' experience at the

Not a hope

South ?

performed than

it

;

fulfilled

not one promise

;

and our condition

had been four years

infinitely

before.

worse

Sir, the

whole South rose up as one man, and protested against any further experiment with this sys-

tem.

*

*

Sir, I seize

the opportunity to

dispel forever the delusion that the South can find

any compensation, in a home market,

for

the injurious operation of the protective system.

*

*

What

a spectacle do you even

hibit to the world?

A

now

ex-

large portion of your

^

COTTON

KING.

IS

believing

fellow citizens,

127

themselves

be

to

grievously oppressed by an unwise and uncon-

clamoring at your doors

Btitutional system, are

for justice; while another portion,

supposing

that they are enjoying rich bounties under

it,

are treating their complaints with scorn and

contempt.

*

the South, but

* it

This system

will not

us, but

It

may

can not elevate them.

persevered in,

it

destroy

permanently advance

the prosperity of the IS^orth.

if

may

must annihilate

depress

Beside,

sir,

that portion

of the country from which the resources are to

be drawn. to reflect

And

it

may

be well for gentlemen

whether adhering

not be acting like the

to this policy

man who

would

'killed the

goose which laid the golden eggs.'

Kext

to

the Christian religion, I consider Free Trade in

its

largest

sense,

as

that can be conferred on

the greatest blessing

any people."

Mr. McD[jFFiE, of South Carolina, said:

"At

the

close

of the

late

war with Great

Britain^ everything in the political

and com-

mercial changes, resulting from the general peace, indicated unparalleled prosperity to the

COTTON

128

KING.

IS

Southern States, and great embarassment and

The nations of

distress to those of the North.

the Continent had all directed their efforts to the business of manufactui'ing

may be

;

and

all

Europe

said to have converted their swords into

machinery, creating unprecedented demand for cotton, the great staple of the Southern States.

There

is

nothing in the history of commerce

compared with the increased de-

that can be

mand

for

staple,

this

restrictions

by which

limited that demand. rice,

As

the

Government has

cotton, tobacco,

and

are produced only on a small portion of

the globe, while are

notwithstanding this

common

to

all

other agricultm*al staples

every region of the earth, this

circumstance gave the planting States very great advantages.

To cap

the climax of the

commercial advantages opened planters, England, their great

to

the cotton

and most valued

customer, received their cotton under a mere

nominal duty.

On

the other hand, the pros-

pects of the Northern States were as dismal as

those

of the Southern States were brilliant.

They had

lost the carrying trade of the world,

COTTON

IS

KIXG.

129

which the wars of Europe had thrown into

They had

their hands.

demand and

lost the

which our ow^n war had created

the high prices for their grain

and other productions

soon afterward, they also

;

and,

lost the foreign

mar-

ket for their grain, owing, partly, to foreign

corn laws, but

still

more

to other causes.

Such

were the prospects, and such the well founded hope of the Southern States

in

at the close of the

which they bore so glorious a part

late war, in

viudicatino^

the

freedom of trade.

But

where are now these cheering prospects and animating hopes? ed

—by

Blasted, sir

—

utterly blast-

the consuming and withering course

of a system of legislation which

terminating war

wages an ex-

against the blessings of com-

merce and the bounties of a merciful Providence

;

and which, by an impious perversion

of language, will

now

conviction,

cant

and

is

called

'

Protection.'

*

*

I

my

deep and deliberate

in the face

of all the miserable

add,

sir,

hypocrisy with which

abounds on the

subject,

that

the

world

any course of

measures which shall hasten the abolition of

COTTON

130 slavery,

IS

KING.

by destroying the value of slave

will bring

est political

calamity with which they can be

for I sincerely believe,

afflicted;

labor,

upon the Southern States the great-

that

when

the people of those States shall be compelled,

by such means,

to

emancipate their slaves,

they will be but a few degrees above the condiof

tion

what

Yes,

themselves.

slaves

when

I say:

sir,

mark

of the South

the people

cease to be masters, by the tampering influence

of this Government, direct or indirect, they will assuredly be slaves.

the clear and

It is

distinct perception of the irresistible tendency

of this protective system to precipitate us

moral and

this great

has animated that

my

me

to raise

fellow citizens

my

may

curious as see

*

them.

how

it

is

*

And

warning voice,

foresee, and, fore-

seeing, avoid the destiny that befall

upon

political catastrophe, that

would otherwise

here,

sir,

it

is

melancholy and distressing,

striking

is

as to

the analogy between the

Colonial vassalas^e to which the manufacturino; States have reduced the planting States,

that

and

which formerly bound the Anglo-American

;

COTTON

IS

KING.

131 *

Colonics to the British Empire.

land

said

to

*

her American Colonies,

shall not ti-ade with the rest of the

Eng-

'You

world

for

such manufactures as are produced in the

mother country!'

The manufacturing

saj to their Southern Colonies,

'

You

shall not

trade with the rest of the world for such factures as

States

manu-

we produce^ under a penalty

forty per cent,

of

upon the value of every cargo

detected in this

illicit

commerce

;

which pen-

alty, aforesaid, shall be levied, collected,

and

paid out of the products of your industry, to nourish and sustain ours.'"

Mr. Clay, in referring the

to the condition of

country at large, said:

"I have now

to

perform the more pleasing task of exhibiting

an imperfect sketch of the existing

state of the

unparalleled prosperity of the countiy.

general survey,

we

the arts flourishing;

improved

;

On

a

behold cultivation extended

our people

the face of the country fiilly

and profitably em-

ployed, and the public countenance exhibiting ti-anquility, if

contentment, and happiness.

we descend

into particulars,

And,

we have

the

;

COTTON

132

KING.

IS

agreeable contemplatiou of a people out of debt; land rising slowly in value, but in a secure and salutary degree; a ready, though

not an exti-avagant market for

productions of our industry

;

the surplus

all

innumerable flocks

and herds browsing and gamboling on ten thousand

hills

and

and verdant grasses

plains, ;

our

covered with rich

expanded, and

cities

whole villages springing up, as enchantment;

and

our exports

were, by

it

imports

in-

creased and increasing; our tonnage, foreign

and coastwise, swelled and rivers of our interior

fully

occupied

;

the

animated by the perpetual

thunder and lightning of countless steamboats the currency sound and abundant

debt of two wars

crown

all,

the

;

nearly redeemed

public

the public ;

and, to

treasury overflowing,

embarassing Congress, not to find subjects of taxation, but to select the objects

be liberated from the impost.

which

If the

shall

term of

seven years were to be selected, of the greatest prosperity which this people have enjoyed since the establishment of their present Constitution, it

would be exactly that period of seven years

COTTON

KING.

IS

133

which immediately followed the passage of the tariff of 1824:.

"This trausformation of the condition of the country from gloom and distress to brightness and prosperity, has been mainly the

of

American

fostering

legislation,

industry, instead of allowing

by foreign dustry. 1824:,

it

to

work

American

be controlled

legislation, cherishing foreign in-

The

foes of the

American system,

in

with great boldness and confidence, pre-

dicted,

first,

the ruin of the public revenue,

and the creation of a necessity direct taxation.

to resort to

The gentleman from South

Carolina, (General Hayne,) I believe, thought that the tariff of

1824 would operate a reduc-

amount of eight

tion of revenue to the large

millions of dollars

;

secondly, the destruction

of our navigation; thirdly, the desolation of

commercial

cities

;

and, fourthly, the augmen-

tation of the price of articles of consumption,

and further decline in that of the exports.

articles of

our

Every prediction which they made

has failed—utterly failed.

*

*

It is

now we

proposed to abolish the system to which

COTTON

184

owe

KING.

IS

*

so mucli of the public prosperity.

Why, sir,

there

scarcely an interest

is

a vocation in society

—which

by the beneficence of

—scarcely

not embraced

is

*

this system.

error of the opposite argument,

*

is

*

The

in assuming

one thing, which, being denied, the whole fails

of

;

that

assumes that the whole labor

is, it

United

the

would

States

be

Kow,

employed without manufactures. truth

is,

labor,

that the system excites

and

new wealth communicates consume; which

*

list

of articles

I could

other items

the

on

acts

human

*

—

^the

—

^for

the objects con-

hemp,

iron, lead, coal,

which a demand

;

market

is

the operation

of

Where^ where should

What would

home ?

the territory,

the

for all these articles, if it did

be the condi-

tion of the largest portion of our people,

of

and

created in

but I should exhaust the

patience of the Senate.

not exist at

all

comfort and enjoyment.

home market by

find a

additional ability to

extend and dwell on the long

American system

we

the

and creates

labor creates wealth, and this

this

tributing to

profitably

if

this

and

home market were

COTTON annihilated objects of

?

How

IS

KING.

135

could they be supplied with

prime necessity ?

What would

not

be the certain and inevitable decline in the price of all these

articles,

but for the

home

market V'

But we must not burden our pages with further exti-acts.

"What has been quoted affords

the principal arguments of the opposing parties,

on the points in which we are interested,

down

to

1832.

The adjustment,

the subject until 1842,

and

its

in 1833, of

subsequent agi-

tation, are too familiar, or of too easy access to the

general reader, to require a notice from

us here.

CHAP TEE The

X.

results of the contest,

iu relation to

Protection and Free Trade, have been more or

This has been an

less favorable to all parties.

in part, of the changeable character of

effect,

our legislation

;

and, in part, of the occurrence

of events in Europe, over which our legisla-

had

tors

no

The

control.

manufacturing

protection lasted, succeeded in

States, while

placing their establishments upon a comparatively

permanent

basis

;

and,

by eng'aging

largely in the manufacture of cottons, as well as woolens,

have rendered home manufactures,

practically,

very advantageous to the South.

Our cotton factories, much cotton as those 1831

;

thus

.

affording

in

1850, consumed as

of Great Britain did in indications,

that,

by

proper encouragement, they might, possibly, be multiplied so as to consume the whole crop of the country. tories, in 136

The

cotton

and woolen

fac-

1850, employed over 130,000 work

COTTON

IS

KING.

137

hands, and had $102,619,581 of capital in-

They thus

them.

vested in

an im-

afford

portant market to the farmer, and, at

same

tlie

become an equally important aux-

time, have

They may yet

iliary to the planter.

him

afford

the only market for his cotton.

The

cotton planting States, toward the close

of the contest, found themselves rapidly accu-

mulating strength, and approximating the ac-

complishment of the grand object they aimed

—the

kets of the world.

so

much

to

which

at

monopoly of the cotton marThis success was due, not

any triumph over the Korth

—

to

prostration of our manufacturing interests to the general

rivalry to the

the

West

tion

;

as,

policy of other nations.

American

Indies,

any

—as All

planters from those of

was removed by emancipa-

under freedom, the cultivation of cot-

ton was nearly abandoned.

Mehemet Ali had

become imbecile, and the indolent Egyptians culture.

The South Americans,

after achieving their

independence, were more

neglected

its

readily enlisted in military forays, than in the art of agriculture,

12

and they produced

little

cotton

138

COTTON

for export.

The emancipation

of

instead

IS

increasing

ducts of the Republics

,

KING. of their slaves,

abundance, the elements of promoting cal revolutions,

with

pro-

agricultural

the

only supplied, in ample

and keeping

politi-

their soil drenched

human blood. Such are the uses to which men may be applied by the ambi-

degraded tious

demagogue.

plied to

Brazil and India both sup-

Europe considerably

they had done in 1820

made no when her

;

less in

and the

material increase

1838 than

latter

country

afterward, except

chief customer, China,

was

at

war,

or prices were above the average rates in Eu-

While the

rope.

thus

stationary

cultivation

of

cotton

was

or retrograding, everywhere

outside of the United States,

England and the

Continent were rapidly increasing their con-

sumption of the

article,

which they nearly

doubled from 1835 to 1815; so that the de-

mand

for the

raw material

increased production.

called loudly for its

Our

planters gathered

a rich harvest of profits by these events.

But in

this is not

all

that

is

worthy of note,

this sti-ange chapter of Providences.

'No

COTTON

IS

KING.

139

prominent event occurred, but conspired to advance the prosperity of the cotton

American

the value of

ti*ade,

and

Even

the

slavery.

very depression suffered by the manufacturers

and

cultivators of cotton,

from 1825

to 1829,

served to place the manufacturing interests

upon the broad and firm cupy.

It forced

now

basis they

oc-

the planters into the produc-

tion of their cotton at

lower rates

;

and led

the manufacturers to improve their machineiy,

and reduce the price of their to

sweep away

and secure

all

low enough

houseJiold inanufacticring^

themselves the monopoly of

to

clothing the civilized object at

fabrics

world.

This was the

which the British manufacturers had

aimed, and in which they had been eminently

The growing manufactm-es of the

successful.

United

States,

and of the Continent of Europe,

had not yet sensibly

There

is

still

passing notice, as

affected their operations.

another point requiring a it

may serve

to explain

some

portions of the history of slavery, not so well

understood.

It

was not

until events diminish-

COTTON

140

KING.

IS

ing the foreign growth of cotton, and enlarging the

demand

for its fabrics,

had been extensively

developed, that the older cotton-growing States

became willing

to allow slavery extension in

the Southwest; and, even then, their assent

was

reluctantly given

—the

markets

for cotton,

doubtless, being considered sufficiently limited for the territory

Up to 1824,

under cultivation.

the Indians held over thirty-two millions of acres

of

land in Georgia,

and

Mississippi,

Alabama, and over twenty millions of

acres in

Florida, Missouri, and Arkansas; which

was

mostly retained by them as late as 1836.

Al-

though the States interested had repeatedly urged the matter upon Congress, and some of

them even resorted

to forcible

means

to

gain

possession of these Indian lands, the Govern-

ment did not

fulfill its

Indians until 1836

;

promise

remove the

and even then, the measure

met with such opposition, that but one vote

to

— Mr.

it

was saved by

Calhoun and

Southern Senators voting against

it.*

* Benton's Thirty Years' Yievr.

six

other

In jus-

COTTON tice to

KING.

IS

Mr, Calhoun, however,

that his opposition to the

it

141

must be stated

measure was based

on the conviction that the treaty had been fraudulently obtained.

The older

States,

however, had found, by

this time, that the foreign

and home demand

for cotton

was

was

danger of over-production

little

they had, in

so rapidly increasing that there

fact,

monopoly of the foreign markets. the Abolition

assumed

its

;

and that

secured to themselves the

movement

at that

Beside

this,

moment, had

most threatening aspect, and was

demanding the destruction dissolution of the Union.

of slavery or the

Here was a double

motive operating to produce harmony in the ranks of Southern politicians, and to awaken the fears of safety of the

many, l^orth and South, Government.

Here,

also,

for the

was the

origin of the determination, in the South, to

extend slavery, by the annexation of territory, so as to gain the political preponderance in the

N"ational Councils,

and

to protect its interests

against the interference of the iTorth.

COTTON

142 It

IS

KING.

was not the increased demand

for cotton,

alone, that served as a protection to the older States.

The extension

of

its

cultivation, in the

degree demanded by the wants of commerce, could only be effected by a corresponding in-

Without

creased supply of Provisions.

this, it

could not increase, except by enhancing their

This

price to the injury of the older States.

food did not it

fail to

was needed.

be in readiness, so soon as

Indeed,

much

of

it

had long

been awaiting an outlet to a profitable market. Its surplus, too,

had been somewhat increased

by the Temperance movement in the North, which had materially checked the

distillation

of grain.

The West, which had long looked

to the

now

turned

East for a market, had to the South, as the

ient

mart

for

the

its

attention

most certain and convensale

of

its

products

—

^the

planters affording to the farmers the markets

they had in vain sought fi-om the manufacturers.

tion

In the meantime, steamboat naviga-

was acquiring

perfection on the

Western

—

COTTON rivers

IS

KING.

143

the great natural outlets for "Western

products

—and became a means of communica-

tion between the IN^orthwest as well as with the trade

Atlantic

cities.

and the Southwest,

and commerce of the

This gave an impulse to in-

dustry and enterprise, west of the Alleghanies, of

unparalleled in the history

the country.

While, then, the bounds of slave labor were exteuding from Yirginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, Westward, over Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi,

labor

and Arkansas, the area of

was enlarging, with equal

IN'orthwest,

rapidity, in the

throughout Ohio, Indiana,

and Michigan.

free

Illinois,

Thus, within these provision

and cotton regions, were the

forests

cleared

away, or the prairies broken up, simultaneously by those old antagonistic forces, opponents no longer, but harmonized by the fusion of their interests

—

^the

connecting link between

them being the steamboat.

Thus, also, was a

tripartite alliance formed,

by which the West-

ern Farmer, the Southern Planter,

English

Manuiacturer, became

and the

united

in

a

;

COTTON

144:

common bond

IS

KING.

of interest:

the whole giving

Free Trade.

their support to the doctrine of

This active commerce between the West

and South, however, soon caused a rivalry in the East, that pushed forward improvements,

by States or Corporations,

to

These improvements, as

the Western trade.

completed, gave to the

West a

kets, so that its

Farmers could

feed the slave

who grows

operatives

But for

who

Western

more.

products

and stimulated

their

choice of mar-

elect

whether to

the cotton, or the

are engaged in

this rivalry did

gain a share in

its

manufacture.

The competition

enhanced their

more extended

price,

cultivation.

This required an enlargement of the markets

and the extension of slavery became to

essential

Western prosperity.

We

have not reached the end of the

alli-

ance between the Western Farmer and Southern Planter. filling

The emigration which has been

Iowa and Minnesota, and

like a flood into

is

now

Kansas and Nebraska,

rolling is

but

COTTON

IS

KING.

145

a repetition of what has occurred in the other

Western States and

Territories.

Agricultural

pursuits are highly remunerative, and tens of

thousands of

men

of moderate means, or of no

means, are cheered along bids

them land

to

to

where none

For the

till.

last

public improvements have called

more than

the usual share of labor,

vastly

for

and aug-

The

mented the consumption of provisions. foreign

demand added

their price

has increased

to this,

beyond what the planter can afibrd

For many years

to pay.

for-

few years,

free labor

and slave

labor maintained an even race in their Western progress.

Of

lag behind,

late the

freemen have begun to

while slavery has advanced by

several degrees of longitude.

be made to keep pace with urgent necessity for this. ton

is

Free labor must

There

it.

The demand

is

an

for cot-

increasing in a ratio greater that can be

supplied by the American planters, unless by

a corresponding increased production. increasing tion

will

demand must be met, be

facilitated

monopoly of the planter 13

elsewhere, in

This

or its cultiva-

the

and the European

COTTON

146

IS

markets be interrupted.

KING. This can only be

effected

by concentrating the greatest possible

number

of slaves

upon the cotton

plantations.

Hence they must be supplied with

provisions.

This

is

question,

the present aspect of the Provision as

it

regards

slavery

Prices are approximating the

extension.

maximum

point,

beyond which our provisions can not be fed

to

slaves, unless there is a corresponding increase

Such a

in the price of cotton. anticipated

result

was not

by Southern statesmen, when they

had succeeded in overthrowing the Protective policy, destroying the

United States Bank, and

And

establishing the Sub-Treasury system.

why

has this occurred?

The mines

of Cali-

fornia prevented both the Free-Trade Tariff,*

and the Sub-Treasury scheme from exhausting the country of the precious metals, extinguish-

ing the circulation of

Bank

Kotes,

and

re-

ducing the prices of agricultural products to

*The

Tariff of 1846, under

which our imports are now

made, approximates the Free Trade principles very

closely.

COTTON

IS

At

the specie value.

vation,

bj

147

the date of the passage

of the !N"ebraska Bill, provisions,

KING.

the

multiplication

more

their

extended

was the only measure

of

culti-

that could

left

produce a reduction of prices, and meet the

wants of the planters. procity Treaty, since

The Canadian Reci-

secured,

bring the

will

products of the British I^orth American Colonies, free of duty, into competition

of the United rule

States,

when

with those

prices, with us,

high, and tend to diminish their cost;

but in the event of scarcity in Europe, or of foreign wars, the opposite results

may

occur,

as our products, in such times, will pass, free

of duty, through these Colonies, into the foreign

market.

It

is

apparent,

short of extended

free

then, that

nothing

labor cultivation, far

distant from the seaboard,

where the products

will bear transportation to

none but Southern

markets, can

frilly

secure the cotton interests

from the contingencies

.that so

often threaten

them with ruinous embarrassments.

In

fact,

such a depression of our cotton interests has only been averted by the advanced prices which

:

:

COTTON

148 cotton has

KING.

IS

commanded,

for the last

in consequence of the increased

mand, and

On June

its

diminished cultivation abroad.

London Economist^

this subject, the

9,

few years,

European de-

of

1855, in remarking on the aspects of

the cotton question, at that

moment

says

"Another somewhat remarkable circumstance, considering

we

are at war, and con-

sidering the predictions

present high price

the

cotton.

being lbs.,

The crop only

of

is

and consumption of

in the United States is short,

1,120,000,000

or

1,160,000,000

but not so short as to have a very great

effect

on the markets had consumption not

increased.

Our mercantile

well aware of this fact, but that the total consumption 1st

some persons,

and the

last

week

in

readers will be let

May was

CONSUMPTION OF COTTON.

t853.

.

us state here

between January

;

COTTON

IS

KING.

149

" Though the crop in the United States

up

short

ceived

time, Great Britain has

to this

12,400,000

1854 than she received

and in

re-

more of the crop of

lbs.

the crop of 1853.

is

to the

same period of

Thus, in spite of the war,

spite of a short crop of cotton, in spite

of dear corn and failing trade to Australia and the United States, the consumption of cotton

has been one-fourth in excess of the flourishing year of in

excess

1853,

and more than a third

of 1854.

These

facts

are

worth

consideration.

"It

is

reasonably expected that the present

high prices will bring cotton forward rapidly but as yet this

Thus,

it

effect

has not ensued.

*

*

will be seen that, notwithstanding the

short crop in the States, (at present, they have sent us

more in 1855 than

much

as

sources,

in 1853,) the

except Egypt,

in 1854, but not so

supply from

other

has been smaller in

1855 than in either of the preceding years, and the supply from Egypt, though greater than in

1854,

is less

than in 1^53."

[From India, the

principal hope of increased supplies, the im-

:

COTTON

150 ports

for

1855, in the

year, were less

the

in 1854, and

1853.*]

IS

less

KING.

iirst

by 47,960,000

by 64,004,000

"We may

months of

four

infer,

lbs.

lbs.

than

than in

therefore, that the

rise in price hitherto, has not been sufficient to

bring increased supplies from India and other places is

;

but these will, no doubt,

come when

it

seen that the rise will probably be perma-

nent in consequence of the enlarged consump-

and the comparative deficiency in the crop

tion,

of the United States."

After noticing the increasing exports of

raw

cotton from both

States to France

England and the United

and the other countries of the

Continent, from which

consumption

is

as well as in

it

is

inferi'ed that the

increasing in Europe, generally,

Great Britain, the Economist

proceeds to remark

"

A

rapidly increasing consumption of cot-

ton in Europe has not been met by an equally * These figures are taken from a part of the Economist's article not copied.

For the difference between the imports

from India, in the whole of the years 1850 Table

I.

to 1855, see

COTTON

IS

KING.

rapidly increasing supply,

151

and

the

present

relative condition of the supply to the

demand

seems

an advance of price, unless a

to justify

greatly diminished consumption can be brought

What

about.

may

supplies

yet be obtained

from India, the Brazils, Eg}^t, not

;

but, judging

etc.,

we know

from the imports of the three

they are not likely to supply the

last years,

A

great deficiency in the stocks just noticed.

decrease

in

consumption, which

is

recom-

mended, can only be accomplished by the

state

of the market, not by the will of individual spinners

;

for if

some

lessen their consumption

raw material while the demand

of the

market

is for

more

cloth,

it

will be supplied

others, either here or abroad

real solution of the difiiculty or

ing the price,

is

of the

by

and the only

;

means

of lower-

an increased supply.

This

points to other exertions than those which have

been

latterly

directed

to

the

production of

fibrous materials to be converted directly into

paper.

Exertions ought rather to be directed

to the production of fibrous materials

shall be used for textile fabrics,

which

and so much

COTTON

152

larger supplies of rags

material for

But

IS

KING.

—the cheapest

making paper

theoretical production,

who propose

and best

will be

obtained.

and the schemers

not guided by the market

it,

demands, are generally erroneous, and wliat

we now

require

more and cheaper material

is

means

for clothing as the

to

make

of getting

more rags

paper.

may be

"Another important deduction

made from

the state of the cotton market.

It

has not been affected, at least the production of cotton with the importation into Europe has

not been disturbed by the war, and yet

it

seems

not to have kept pace with the consumption.

From on

this

ti-affic,

we

infer that legislative restrictions

permanently affecting the habits of

the people submissive to them,

customers, have a

much more

and of

all their

pernicious effect

on production and trade than national outpourings in

war of indignation and anger

—which,

if terrible in their effects, are of short duration.

These are in the order of nature, except as they are slowly corrected and improved by

knowledge;

while

the

restrictions

—the

off-

—

:

COTTON

KING.

IS

,

163

spring of ignorance and misplaced ambition are

at

times opposed

all

to her

beneficent

ordinances."

The Economist of June Tables,

sums up the

month

of the

pears,

that

imports for

Trade

the

from which

year 1855;

instead

30, in its

it

5th ap-

any increase of the

of

imports of cotton having occurred, they had fallen

off

the

to

extent

of

43,772,176

lbs.

below the quantity imported in the corresponding month of 1854.

The Economist of September continuing

and its

its

1,

1855, in

notices of the cotton

markets,

stating that there

is

still

a falling off in

supplies, says

" The decline in the quantity of cotton imported

is

notoriously the consequence of the

smallness of last year's crops in the United States.

*

*

tional supply

It is

which has made up partly

shortness of the the

Brazils,

remarkable that the addifor the

American crop comes from

Egypt, and other parts.

British India the supply

is

than from the United States.

From

relatively shorter It fails

us more

COTTON

154

IS

KING.

than that of the States, and the

fact is rather

who

unfavorable to the speculations of those

wish

make

to

The high

us independent of the States, chiefly

on our own possessions.

freights that

have prevailed, and are

and dependent

likely to prevail with a profitable trade,

obviously

make

it

would

extremely dangerous for our

manufactm-ers to increase their dependence on India for a supply of cotton.

we have

when

In 1855,

a short supply fi-om other quarters,

India has sent us one-third less than in 1853."

The Economist of February tains

the

Annual Statement

1855, ending December

23, 1856, con-

of

Imports for

31, from which

it

appears that the supplies of cotton from India, fur the

or

whole year, were only 145,218,976

35,212,520

1853.

Of

lbs.

less

lbs.,

than the imports for

these imports 66,210,701 lbs. were

re-exported;

thus leaving the

British

manu-

facturers but 79,008,272 lbs. of the free labor

cotton of India,

upon which

to

employ

their

looms.* *The commercial year in

former years.

is five

days shorter

for

1855 than

COTTON This increasing

IS

KING.

demand

the present supplies,

if

155

for cotton

beyond

not met by the cotton

growers of the United States, must encourage its

cultivation in

but

little to

and

countries which

market.

to retain in their

now send

To prevent such a

own hands

the

result,

monopoly

of the cotton market, will require the utmost vigilance on the part of our planters. vigilance will not be wanting.

That

CHAPTEK Fkom what can not

lect

XI.

has been said, the dullest intel-

fail,

now,

to perceive the

of the Kansas-iSTebraska movement. litical

influence which these

give to the South, first

if

rationale

The po-

Territories will

secured, will be of the

importance to perfect

future slavery extension

its

arrangements

for

—whether by divisions now

se-

extension into

ter-

of the larger States and Territories,

cured to the institution,

its

ritory hitherto considered free, or the acquisi-

tion

new

of

territory

to

be devoted to the

system, so as to preserve the balance of power in Congress.

When

this is done,

Kansas and

Nebraska, like Kentucky and Missouri, will be of

little

consequence

to

slaveholders,

com-

pared with the cheap and constant supply of provisions they can yield.

Nothing, therefore,

will so exactly coincide with Southern interests,

as a rapid emigration of freemen into 156

these

COTTON new

KING.

IS

White

Territories.

157

labor,

free

doublj

productive over slave labor in grain-growing,

must be multiplied within cost of provisions

may

their limits, that the

be reduced and the

extension of slavery and the growth of cotton suffer

no interruption.

plant

them with

produce

The present

efforts to

slavery, are indispensable to

sufficient

excitement

to

speedily with a free population

;

fill

and

them if this

whole movement has been a Southern scheme to

cheapen provisions, and increase the ratio

of the production of sugar and cotton, as

most unquestionably

will do,

it

surpasses the

it

statesman-like strategy which forced the people into

an acquiescence in

the

annexation of

Texas.

And

should the Anti-Slavery voters suc-

ceed in gaining the political ascendency in these Territories,

and bring

them

triumphantly into the Union do, but turn in, as all States

those

;

free

who manufacture

or

to feed

who

the labor of slaves.

States

what can they

the rest of the

have done, and help

ducts of

as

sell

Western slaves, or

the pro-

There

is

no

COTTON

158

other resource

left,

KING.

IS

either

to

them or

to the

older free States, without an entire change in

almost every branch of business and of do-

Reader, look at your

mestic economy.

bills

of dry goods for the year, and what do they

At least

contain ? are

three-fourths of the

amount

American

cotton

slave labor cotton.

Look

English,

French,

fabrics,

woven from

at your

bills

or

for groceries,

and what do they

Coffee, sugar, molasses, rice

contain?

Brazil, Cuba, Louisiana, Carolina

a mere

fr-action

countries.

;

them are from

of

As now

—

fr'om

while only free labor

employed, our dry goods'

merchants and grocers constitute an immense

army

of agents for the sale of fabrics and pro-

ducts,

coming

directly or indirectly, from the

hand of the slave tion of the

white,

are

;

and

the remaining por-

all

people, free colored,

as

exerting themselves, according to

their various capacities, to gain the

purchasing the

greatest

these commodities. present,

well as

by any

ISTor

possible

means

of

amount of

can the country, at

possibility,

pay the amount of

foreign goods consumed, but

by the labor of

;

COTTON

IS

KING.

159 This can

the slaves of the planting States.

not be doubted for a moment.

Here

is

the

with

for-

proof:

Commerce supplied

us, in 1853,

eign articles, for consumption, to the value of

^250,420,187, and accepted, in exchange, of our provisions, to the value of but 833,809,126 while the products of our slave labor, manufactured

amount

and

unmaimfactured,

paid

to

the

of $133,648,603, on the balance of this

the measure of the

foreign debt.

This, then,

ability of the

Farmers and Planters, respect-

ively, to

meet the payment of the necessaries

and comforts of its

is

foreign

seems only

life,

supplied to the country by

The farmer pays, or

commerce. to

pay,

$33,800,000^ while the

planter has a broad credit, on the account, of

8133,600,000.

But

is this

real, or is it

such

seeming productiveness of slavery

only imaginary ?

capacities,

interests

wealth,

of as

over

the

the nation, these

figures

in

Has

the system

other

the

industrial

creation

indicate?

Or,

of are

—

:

COTTON

160

these results clue to

KING.

18

intermediate position

its

between the agriculture of the country and

commerce?

foreign

Were

thy of consideration. to

grow

their

own

its

These are questions worthe planters

left

provisions, they would, as

already intimated, be unable to produce any cotton for export.

That

their present ability

to export so extensively, is in

consequence of

the aid they receive from the Korth,

by

facts

is

proved

such as these

In 1820, the cotton-gin had been a quarter of a century in operation, and the culture of cotton

was then nearly

as well understood as

The Xorth, though furnishing the

at present.

South with some live stock, had scarcely begun to

supply

had

to

it

with provisions, and the planters

grow the

food,

and manufacture much

of the clothing for their slaves.

In that year

the cotton crop equaled 109 lbs. to each slave in the Union, of

exported.

had

which 83

per slave were

lbs.

In 1830 the exports of the article

risen to 143 lbs., in

1810

in 1853 to 337 lbs. per slave.

crop of 1853 equaled

185

to

295

The lbs.

lbs.,

and

total cotton

per slave

COTTON making both

KING.

IS

101

production and

the

export of

more than four times

that staple, in 1853,

as

large, in proportion to the slave population,

as

they were in 1820.*

in

1853,

been

Had

the planters,

no

more

cotton, per slave, than in 1820, they

would

able

to

produce

have gi-own but 359,308,472 the

crop of

actual

would not for

lbs.,

but

have

supply any of

short

fallen

home demand, by nearly 130,000,000 and been minus the total crop of that by 1,240,690,000

and

1,600,000,000 lbs.;

only have failed to

export,

instead of

the lbs.,

year,

lbs.

In this estimate, some allowance, perhaps, should be made, for the greater

new lands, more vation

fertility

of the

recently brought under culti-

but the difference, on this account, can

;

not be equal to the difference in the crops of the several periods, as the lands, in the older

*

The

figures

progressive increase

is

indicated

by the following

:

1820. Total slaTes in U. States.

Cotton exported,

Av'ge export

to

14

lbs.,

1830.

1840.

1853.

1,538,098

2,009.043

2,487,356

3.2%,408

127,800,000

298,459.102

743.941,061

1.111.570.370

143

295

337

each slave, lbs.,

83

:

COTTON

162

States, in 1820,

KING.

IS

were yet comparatively

fi-esh

and productive. Again, the dependence of the South upon the IS'orth, for

its

from such additional stract of the

may

provisions,

facts as these

be inferred

The " Ab-

:

Census," for 1850, shows, that

Alabama,

the production of wheat, in Florida,

and Texas,

Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas,

averaged, the year preceding, very

than a peck,

(it

was iVo of a

person within their limits.

little

more

bushel,) to each

These States must

purchase flour largely, but to what amount

The shipments of pro-

can not determine.

visions from Cincinnati to [N'ew Orleans

other

down

river ports,

show

plies leave that city for the

proportion of them

is

conjecture.

and

that large sup-

South

;

but what

taken for consumption

by the planters, must be

the

we

left,

at present, to

These shipments, as to a few of

prominent

articles,

for

the

four

years

ending August 31, 1851, averaged annually the following amounts

Wheat

flonr,

brls.

Pork and bacon,

lbs.

Whisky,

gals.

385.204 43,689,000 8,115,360

COTTON

IS

KING.

IISS

CinciDnati also exports eastward, by canal, river

and

railroad, large

The towns and

ductions.

more of

amounts of these procities

westward send

their products to the South, as their

distance increases the cost of transportation to the East.

But, in the absence of fuU

tics,

not necessary to

it

is

make

statis-

additional

statements.

From

this

view of the

that slavery is

subject, it appears

not a self-sustaining system,

independently remunerative its

;

but that

it

attains

importance to the nation and to the world,

by standing

as

an agency, intermediate, be-

tween the grain-growing States and our foreign

commerce.

As

the distillers of the

West

trans-

formed the surplus grain into whisky, that

might bear

transport, so slavery takes the pro-

ducts of the North, and metamorphoses into cotton, that they It

facts

seems, indeed,

may

aided, yet

them

bear export.

when

brought to view are

American

it

the whole of the

considered,

that

slavery, though of little force un-

properly sustained,

is

the

great

COTTON

164:

KING.

IS

central power, or energizing influence, not only

own

of nearly all the industrial interests of our

country, but also of those of Great Britain and

much

of the Continent; and that, if stricken

from existence, the whole of these

interests,

with the advancing civilization of the age,

would receive a shock that must retard

their

progress for years to come.

This present

no

is

exaggerated

picture

of

imposing power of slavery.

literally true.

the

It

is

Southern men, at an early day,

believed that the Protective Tariff would have

paralyzed

it

—would

have destroyed

the Abolitionists, led off

by

But

it.

their sympathies

with England, and influenced by American

and

politicians

Trade, were throw.

No

facturing,

editors,

made

Under

its friends,

its

over-

such extended mining and manu-

as the

Protective system

pected to create, has

Union.

who advocated Free

the instruments of

it,

now any

was

ex-

existence in the

according to the theory of

more than one hundred and

sixty

millions in value, of the foreign imports for

1853, would have been produced in our

own

:

COTTON

^Hf^

IS

But Free Trade

country.

South has triumphed in North:

KING.

the

is

165

dominant: the

warfare with the

its

power passed

political

into

its

hands with the defeat of the Father of the Protective Tariff, ten years since, in the last effort

of

his

friends

to

elevate

him

the

to

Presidency: the slaveholding and commercial interests then gained the ascendency,

and

se-

cured the power of annexing territory at will the nation has become rich in commerce, and

unbounded dizement

:

in ambition for territorial aggran-

the people acquiesce in the measures

of Government, and are proud of the influence it

has gained in the world

:

nay, more, the

peaceiul aspect of the nations has been changed,

and the policy of our own country must be modified to meet the exigencies that

may

arise.

One word more on the point we have been considering. With the defeat of Mr. Clay, came the immediate annexation of Texas, and, as he predicted, the

war with Mexico.

results of these events

let loose

from

The its

at-

tachments a mighty avalanche of emigration

and of

enterprise,

under

the. rule of the

Free

COTTON

166

Trade

it

KING.

Jjjjj^

adopted, which, by the

policy, then

golden treasures

IS

yields, renders that system,

move

thus far, self-sustaining, and able to as

its

forbids

any attempt

to return

tem of Protection. troversy is

we

the Tariff con-

settled, or not, is

shall not speculate.

Free Trade

many

adhesion

its

years since, and

Abolition paper, too, ever since

advocated the Southern

still

its

origin, has

system;

trade

free

con-

The leading

tinues to vote with the South.

and

a

be remarked, however, that one of the

leading parties in the l^orth gave to

that

again to the sys-

Whether

permanently

question about which It may

momentum

friends believe, with a

on,

thus, in defending the cause

it

has es-

poused, as was said of a certain General in the

Mexican war,

its

editor has been digging his

ditches on the wi'ong side of his breastworks.

To say

the least, his position

one, for a

man who

is

a very strange

professes to labor for the

subversion of American slavery. as rational to pour oil

It

would be

upon a burning

edifice,

to extinguish the fire, as to attempt to over-

throw that system under the mle of Free Trade.

!

COTTON

4mt:

IS

KING.

16T

may

For, whatever differences of opinion

on the question of Free Trade, as applied

exist

to the

nations at large, there can be no question that it

has been the main element in promoting the

value of slave labor in the United States consequently,

extending

of

beyond the bounds

slavery, vastly,

otherwise have reached.

But the

ferred to, does not stand alone.

United States Senator, riety

after

;

and,

system

the

it

of

would

editor re-

More than one acquiring noto-

and position by constant clamors against

slavery at home, has not hesitated to vote for

Free Trade

at

Washington, with as hearty a

good will as any friend of the extension of slavery in the country

All these things together have paralyzed the advocates of the protection of free labor, at present, as fully as the

power

Xorth has thereby been

to control the question of

shorn of

its

slavery.

Indeed, ft-om what has been said of

the present position of its

American

slavery, in

relation to the other industrial interests of

the country, and of the world, there

any doubt that

it

now

supplies the

is

no longer

complement

COTTON

168

home market^

of that

^^

KING.

IS

so zealously urged

as

essential to the prosperity of the agricultural

population of the country

and which,

:

supposed, could only be created

domestic

of

tiplication

by

was

it

the mul-

manufactm-es.

This

desideratum being gained, the great majority

more

to ask, but

foreign

commerce

of the people have nothing

seem

that

our

shall

be cherished;

that

cotton

and sugar

desirous

nation shall become progressive

spread

must

its

;

the

cultivation

shall be extended

that, as

;

of

that the

cumulative as well as

Despotism

is

striving to

raven wing over the earth. Freedom

sti'engthen itself for the protection of the

liberties of the

world

;

that while three millions

of Africans, only, are held to involuntary ser-

vitude for a time, to sustain the system of Free

Trade, the freedom of hundreds of millions

is

involved in the preservation of the American Constitution; and that, as African emancipation, in

every experiment made, has thrown a

dead weight upon Anglo-Saxon progress, the colored people

must wait a

little,

until

the

general battle for the liberties of the civilized

COTTON

-^ nations

is

KING.

IS

169

gained, before the universal eleva-

tion of the barbarous tribes can be achieved.

This work, at

various

is

it

true,

outposts

in

has been commenced

heathendom, by the

impeded by numberless

missionary,

but

hindrances

and these obstacles

;

is

to the progress

of Christian civilization, doubtless will continue, until the friends of civil

countries at

;

and religious

triumph in nominally Christian

liberty shall

and, with the wealth of the nations

command,

instead of applying

poses of war, shall devote the darkness

it

to

of superstition

it

to pur-

sweeping away

and

barbarism

from the earth, by extending the knowledge of Science and Eevelation to all the families of

man.

But we must

hasten.

There are none who will deny the truth of

what

is

said of the present strength and influ-

ence of slavery, however

deprecated are none

successfully,

where

its

who

it

15

is

acquisition

think

by

much

it

they

may have

of power.

There

practicable to assail

it,

political action, in the States

already established by law.

The

COTTON

170

KING.

IS

struggle against the system, therefore,

rowed down

•

to

an

is

prevent

effort to

now

free

limited to the people

who

sion into Territory

The question

tories.

hands of the people off

from

States

all

and

American

is

and

;

nar-

exten-

its

this contest

the Teni-

settle

thus taken out of the

at large,

and they are cut

control of slavery

Territories.

is

Hence

both in the it

that the

is,

people are considering the propriety

of banishing this

distracting

national

and

politics,

question

demanding

of

from their

statesmen that there shall no longer be any delay in the adoption of measures to sustain the

Constitution

Union, against

and

all

its

laws of om* glorious enemies, whether do-

mestic or foreign.

The policy of adopting liable to objection

arise from

;

but

it

any disposition

this course,

may

be

does not appear to to

prove recreant to

the cause of philanthropy, that the people of the Free States are resolving to divorce the

slavery question from all connection with political

movements.

It is

because they

now find

themselves wholly powerless, as did the Colo-

COTTON nizationists,

KING.

IS

years

fort}^

since,

I7l in

regard to

emancipation, and are thus forced into a position of neutrality

A

word on

on that

subject.

The

point.

this

friends

of

Colonization, in the outset of that enterprise,

found themselves shut up to the necessity of creating a Kepublic on the shores of Africa, as

—the

the only hope for the free colored people further action,

nearly

emancipation of the slaves, by State

having become impracticable. fort>^

free colored people,

by

others, Colonizationists

themselves circumscribed in

find

still

After

years of experimenting with the

their

operations, to their original design of building

np the Republic tional

—the

race

of Liberia,

as the only ra-

hope of the elevation of the African general emancipation

prospects of

being a thousand-fold more gloomy in 1855

than they were in 1817. Abolitionists, themselves,

slavery completely controls tion.

their

This

is

schemes

all

now admit

that

national legisla-

equivalent to admitting that for its

Theodore Parkee,

overthrow have

of Boston,

all

failed.

in a sermon

COTTON

172

KING.

IS

before hih congregation, recently, is

as having

made

the following declaration

have been preaching

you in

to

"I

:

this city for ten

and beside the multitudes addressed

years; here,

reported

I

have addressed a hundred thousand

annually in excursions through the country;

and in that time the area of slavery has

in-

Gekkett Smith, in

creased a hundred fold."

his late speech in Congress, said, that cotton is

now

the dominant interest of the country, and

sways Chm'ch, and compels

SuMNEE, in

and commerce, and

State,

them

of

all

to

go

his thrice repeated Lecture, in

York, in May, 1855, declared, standing

Mr.

for slavery.

that,

Kew

"nothwith-

excess of numbers, wealth, and

all its

intelligence, the

North

is

now

the vassal of an

oligarchy,

whose single inspiration comes from

slavery."

*

*

It

"now

dominates over the

[Republic, determines its national policy, dis-

poses of

its

offices,

*

absolute will."

and *

sways

all

to

"In maintaining

its its

power, the Slave Oligarchy has applied a new test

for

slavery?"

office" *

*

—*

*

"With

"Is

he

faithful

to

arrogant ostracism,

COTTON it

KING.

IS

173

excludes from every national office

can not respond to this

Campbell, in a

letter

"I regard

who Con-

to the Cincinnati

vention of Colored Freemen, January said:

all

Hon. L. D.

test."

5,

1852,

the jpresent position of your

race in this country as infinitely worse than

was ten years ago. tJieii

The

it

which were

States

preparing for gradual emancipation, are

now endeavoring

to

strengthen slavery

!

of territory which

extend, perpetuate, and *

A

*

was then

free is

now

*

lastingly dedicated to slavery.

amount

vast

ever-

From

*

the lights of the past, I confess, I see nothing to justify a

promise of much to

'^oviY

future

prospects P

That these gentlemen

state a great truth, as

to the present position of the slavery question,

and the darkening prospects of emancipation, will be denied

candor. ticians,

by no man of

Doubtless,

intelligence

and

a certain class of poli-

because of the present dearth of

politi-

cal capital, of any other kind, will continue to

agitate this

subject.

But, sooner or

must take the form we have

stated,

later, it

and become

COTTON

174

KING.

IS

a question of minor importance in

This result

is

politics.

inevitable, because the people at

large are beginning not only to realize their

want of power over the and

the

futility

of

institution of slavery,

any

measures

hitherto

its

progress, and elevate the

free colored people;

but they have also dis-

adopted to arrest

covered agencies at work, hitherto overlooked, except by few, which are tending to sap the foundations of our Free Institutions, and to subject us to influences that have crushed the liberties of

Europe, and which,

become dominant Republic,

and,

if

permitted to

happy

here, will blot out our

with

it,

the liberties

of the

world.

am

But, I

told that the

Xorth has recently

achieved a great victory over the South, in the

Time was

election of

Mr. Banks, as Speaker.

when such

a result would have been considered

far otherwise

Banks

is

than a I^orthern triumph.

Mr.

an ultra Free Trade man, and his

sentiments will assuredly work no

ill

commercial interests of the South.

His

tion provoked no threats of secession.

to the elec-

What,

!

COTTON

IS

KING.

175

then, has been gained to the Xorth, in the wild

excitement consequent upon the controversy relative to the Speakership

?

The opponents

of

slavery are fiirther than ever from accomplish-

ing anything practicable in checking the de-

mand is

for the great staple of the South.

King

In such a the

crisis as this, shall the friends of

Union be rebuked,

if

they determine to take

a position of neutrality, in ject of slavery offer to

Cotton

still.

;

politics,

while, at the

on the sub-

same time, they

guarantee the free colored people a

Republic of their own, where they

may

equal

other races, and aid in redeeming a Continent

from the woes years

it

has suffered for thousands of

CHAPTEK

XII.

—

Topic 3. The industrial, social, and moral condition of the Free People of Color in the British Colonies, in Hayti, and in the and the new field opening in Liberia for the United States display of their powers. ;

We have

noticed the social and moral con-

dition of the free colored people, fr-om the days

of Franklin, to the projection of Colonization.

We have

also glanced at the

tion to the Abolition warfare

and

its

main

facts in rela-

upon Colonization,

success in paralyzing the enterprise.

This subject demands a more extended notice.

The most

serious

injury from this

hostility,

sustained by the cause of Colonization, was the prejudice created, in the minds of the intelligent free colored

tion to Liberia.

expressed

its

men, against emigra-

The Colonization Society had

belief in the

the blacks and whites sufficient

number

;

natural equality of

and that there were a

of educated,

colored men, in the United 176

more

upright,

free

States, to establish

COTTON

IS

KING.

17T

and sustain a Republic on the coast of Africa, ''"whose citizens, rising rapidly in the scale of existence,

under the stimulants

to noble effort

by which they would be surrounded, might soon become equal to the people of Europe, or of

European origin

oppressors." first

—so long

their masters

These were the sentiments of the

Repoi-t of the Colonization Society,

often repeated since. to the

and

Its

made

appeals were

moral and intelligent of the

fr'ee

and

colored

people; and, with their co-operation, the sucof

cess

its

scheme was

considered

But the very persons needed prise,

cute

its

consequence of this

its

was

left to

prose-

plans with such materials as offered.

greatly embarrassed, in

to lead the enter-

were, mostly, persuaded to reject the

proffered aid, and the Society

In

certain.

work

opposition,

and made

less

of Afr-ican redemption,

it

was

progress

than

it

must have done under other circumstances.

Had

three-fourths

of

its

enlightened, free colored

a dozen Liberias might

emigrants been the

men of the country, now gird the coast of

Africa, where but one exists; and the slave

COTTON

178

IS

KING. from

entirely excluded

trader be

shores.

its

Doubtless, a wise Providence has governed

human

here, as in other

afiairs,

and may have

how

permitted this result, to show

even semi-civilized

men

speedily

can be elevated under

American Protestant Free

The

Institutions.

great body of emigrants to Liberia, and nearly

leading

all the

men who have sprung up

in

the Colony, and contributed most to the formation of the Republic,

went out

results

It

!

fi*om the veiy

what encouraging

midst of slavery; and yet,

has been a sad mistake to oppose

Colonization, and thus to retard Africa's re-

demption

!

But how has

it

people elsewhere?

fared with the

The answer

fr^ee

colored

to this ques-

tion will be the solution of the inquiry,

has Abolitionism accomplished by to Colonization,

and what

the free colored people,

is

What

its hostility

the condition of

whose

interests

it

vol-

unteered to promote, and whose destinies

it

attempted to control?

The this

Abolitionists themselves shall answer

question.

The

colored

people shall see

:

COTTON

KING.

IS

what kind of commendations them, and what the world

on the testimony of

is

their

pel untainted, slavery.

think of them,

is to

a colored population

work of American Aboli-

The American Missionary

tionists.

ation^

the

is

their tutors give

their particular friends.

The concentration of in Canada,

179

organ it

is

for the

Associ-

spread of a Gos-

claimed, by contact with

Out of four

stations

under

its

care

in Canada, at the opening of 1853, but one school, close.

that

of Miss

Lyon, remained

at

its

All the others were abandoned, and

all

the missionaries had asked to be released,* as

we

are informed

by its Seventh Annual Report,

chiefly for the reasons stated in the following extract,

page 49

" The number of missionaries and teachers in Canada, with which the year commenced,

has been greatly reduced.

Mr. KiRKLAXD wrote the

opposition to

Early in the year,

to the

Committee, that

white missionaries, mani-

*Mr. WiLsox, the Missionary

at

St.

Catharines,

still

remained there, but not under the care of the Association.

COTTON

180 fested

IS

KING.

by the colored people of Canada, had so

greatly increased, by the interested misrepresentations of ignorant colored to

men, pretending

be ministers of the Gospel, that he thought

own and

his

his wife's labors,

and the funds

of the Association, could be better employed

elsewhere." It is

on

not our purpose to multiply testimony

this subject,

but simply to afford an index

to the condition of the colored people, as de-

scribed by Abolition pens, best public.

We

known

to the

turn, therefore, from the British

Colonies in the I^orth, to her possessions in the Tropics.

"West India Emancipation, under the guid-

ance of English Abolitionists, has always been

viewed as the grand experiment, which was

to

convince the world of the capacity of the colored

man

We

to rise, side

by

side,

with the white man.

shall let the friends of the system,

and the

public documents of the British Government, testify as

to its results, both

nomically.

nual Report

morally and eco-

Opening, again, the Seventh Anof

the

American Missionary

;

:

COTTON

KING.

IS

Association^ page ^0, where

moral

coiidition,

"One

we

find

it

it

181

speaks of their

written

our missionaries, in

of

giving a

description of the moral condition of the people

of Jamaica, after speaking of the licentiousness

which they received as a legacy from those

who

denied them the pure joys of holy wed-

lock,

and trampled upon and scourged

as if

it

were a fiend

among men mildew

be driven out from

—

that enduring legacy, which, with

its foul, pestilential

the

to

chastity,

influence,

still

blights, like

of death, everything in society that

should be lovely, virtuous, and of good report

and alluding

to their intemperance, in

which

they have followed the example set by the

Governor in his palace, the Bishop in his robes, statesmen and judges, lawyers and doctors, planters and overseers, and even professedly

Christian ministers

;

and the deceit and

false-

hood which oppression and wi'ong always engender, says: 'It must not be forgotton that

we

are following in the

—

system of slavery

wake

of the accursed

a system that unmalces

man^ by warring upon

his

conscience,

and

COTTON

182 crushing his

spirit,

KING.

leaving naught but the

humanity behind

shattered wrecks of

may

IS

K we

it.

but gather up some of these floating frag-

ments, from which the image of

God

is

well

nigh efiaced, and pilot them safely into that better land,

we

But we may

shall not

hoj^e to

of our labors

is

have labored in vain.

rather than in the present.'^

membered, there

is

too,

The

do more.

chief fruit

be sought in the future^

to

(continues

It

should be re-

the

Report,) that

but a small part of the population yet

brouo-ht within the reach of the influence of

enlightened Christian teachers, while the great

mass by little

whom

they are sm-rounded are but

removed from actual heathenism."

other missionary, page 33, says,

of

all intelligent

it is

An-

the opinion

Christian men, that "nothing

save the famishing of the people with ample

means of education and will save

religious instruction

them from relapsing

barbarism."

And

into a state of

another, page 36, in speak-

ing of certain cases of discipline, for the highest

form of crime, under the seventh command-

ment, says

:

" There

is

nothing in public sen-

:

:

COTTON

KING.

IS

183

timent to save the youth of Jamaica in this respect."

The missions of maica,

near

a shade from those

On

the actual heathen.

Association, in Ja-

this

difier scarcely

among

this point, the Keport,

says

its close,

" For most of the adult population of Ja-

maica, the unhappy victims of long years of oppression and degradation, our missionaries

have great

Yet

fear.

for

is

may

even these there

But

be hope, even though with trembling.

it

around the youth of the island that their

brightest hopes

and anticipations

them they expect

cluster

;

from

gather their principal

to

sheaves for the great Lord of the harvest."

The American

Missionary^ a

monthly

paper, and organ of this Association, for July,

1855, has the following quotation from the

let-

ters of the missionaries, recently received.

It

is

given, as

confirmation

Abolition testimony, in farther of

the

moral condition of the

colored people of Jamaica

"

From

the

in the island,

number

of churches and chapels

Jamaica ought certainly

to

be

COTTON

184

KING.

IS

The people may be

called a Christian land.

There are chap-

called a church-going people.

and places of worship enough,

els

at least in

this part of the island, to supply the people

if

every station of our mission were given up.

And

there

As

ers.

is

no lack of ministers and preach-

am

far as I

acquainted, almost the

entire adult population profess to

of eternal

life,

and

I think the larger part are

In view of such

connected with churches.

some have been led

facts

to say,

condition of the population tory.' is

But there

have a hope

is

is

'

The

spiritual

very satisfac-

another class of facts that

perfectly astounding.

With

all

this array

of the externals of religion, one broad, deep

wave

of moral death rolls over the land.

man may

be a drunkard, a

liar,

A

a Sabbath-

breaker, a profane man, a fornicator, an adulterer,

such

and such

—and go

there,

and

feel

like

—and

to chapel,

be known

and hold up

his

be

head

no disgrace from these things,

because they are so

common

public sentiment in his favor. the

to

communion

table,

as to create a

He may

go

to

and cherish a hope of

COTTON

IS

KING.

18'S

heaven, and not have his hope disturbed.

might

of persons guilty of some, if not

tell

I all,

these things, ministering in holy things."

What

motives can prompt the American

Missionary Association

to cast

such imputa-

upon the missions of the English and

tions

Scotch Churches, in Jamaica,

we

leave to be

determined by the parties interested.

Few,

indeed, will believe that the English and Scotch

Churches would,

for a

moment,

tolerate such

a

condition of things, in their mission stations, as is here represented.

Kext we turn

to the

American and

the

Society^ 1853,

own

language,

Annual

Foreign

which discourses

and in

Rejport of

Anti- Slavery thus,

quotations

in

which

its it

indorses:*

"Tlie friends of emancipation in the United States

have been disappointed in some respects

at the results in the

expected too much.

West

A

Indies, because they

nation of slaves can

not at once be converted into a nation of intel-

* Page 170.

16

COTTON

186

and moral freemen."

ligent, industi'ious,

"It

is

KING.

IS

*

*

not too mnch, even now, to say of the *

people of Jamaica,

*

their condition is

exceedingly degraded, their morals woefully corrupt.

But

this

must, by no means, be un-

With who have been brought under

derstood to be of universal application. respect to those

a heathful educational and religious influence, it is

not true.

But

as respects the great mass,

whose humanity has been ground out of them by cruel oppression

hand has wise?

—whom no good Samaritan —how could be

yet reached

TTe wish

other-

it

to turn the tables

;

to

supplant

oppression by righteousness, insult by compassion and brotherly kindness, hati-ed and con-

tempt by love and winning meekness, allure these wretched ones to the

religious

are better enjoyed, although but ciated

we

hope and en-

joyment of manhood and virtue."* *

means of education and

till

*

"The

instruction little

appre-

and improved by the great mass of the

* Extract from the report of a missionaiy, quoted in the Report, page 172.

:

COTTON

the people is *

KING.

becoming somewhat enlightened.

But while

condition to be.

*

moral

this is true, yet their

very far from being what

is

*

187

the moral sense of

It is also ti-ue, that

people.

*

IS

It is

ought

it

exceedingly dark and dis-

Licentiousness prevails to a most

tressing.

alarming extent among the people.

*

*

The

almost universal prevalence of intemperance

is

another prolific source of the moral darkness

and degradation of the people. mass,

among aU

classes

of

from the governor in his palace

—from the bishop in slaves beggar in rags — are

in his hut

This tionists,

to the

his

his

is

all

the language of

The great

the inhabitants,

peasant

gown

to the

to their cups.- '*

American Aboli-

going out under the sanction of their

Annual Reports.

Lest

as too highly colored,

may

be considered,

we add

the following

it

from the London Times, of near the same date. In speaking of the results of emancipation, in

Jamaica,

it

says

* Extract from the report of another missionaiy, page 171, of the Report.

COTTON

188

"The negro has

KING.

IS

with his

not acquired,

freedom, any habits of industry or morality.

His independence

is

but

little

of an uncaptm-ed brute.

better than that

Having accepted few

of the restraints of civilization, he ble to few of

its

necessities

amena-

is

and the wants of

;

his nature are so easily satisfied, that at the

cuiTent rate of wages, he

nothing but

fitful

called

is

upon

or desultory exertion.

becoming

blacks, therefore, instead of

for

The

intelli-

gent husbandmen, have become vagrants and squatters,

and

it is

now apprehended

the failure of cultivation

come

the failure of

or controlling

its

its

in

that with

the island

resources for instructing

population.

So imminent

does this consummation appear, that rials

will

have been signed by

memo-

classes of colonial

society hitherto standing aloof fi-om

and not only the bench and the

politics,

bar, but the

bishop, clergy, and ministers of all denominations

in the

island, without

exception, have

recorded their conviction, that, in the absence of timely relief, the religious and educational institutions of the island

must be abandoned,

:

COTTON

IS

KINGv

189

and the masses of the population retrogade

to

barbarism."

One

of the editors of the J^ew Yorlc Eve-

ning Post^ Mr. BiGELOw, a few years

since,

spent a winter in Jamaica, and continues to

watch, with anxious solicitude, as an AntiSlavery man, the developments taking place

among

its

colored population.

In reviewing

the returns published by the Jamaica House of Assembly, in 1853, in reference to the ru-

inous decline in the Agriculture of the Island,

and stating the enormous quantity of lands

thrown

out of

cultivation,

1818, the

since

Post says "This decline has been going on from year to year, daily

becoming more alarming,

at length the island has reached

until

what would

appear to be the last profound of distress and misery,

*

not know,

*

when thousands

when they

rise

in

of people do

the morning,

whence or in what manner they are

to procure

bread for the day."

We

must examine, more

closely, the eco-

nomical results of emancipation, in the West

COTTON

190 Indies, before

KING.

we can judge

of the effects,

upon

and commerce of the world, which

the trade

would

IS

result

from general emancipation in the

We

United States.

do

not to afford an

this,

argument in behalf of the perpetuation of slavery, because its abolition affect the interests of trade

might injuriously

and commerce

but

;

because the whole of these results have long

been well known serve

to the

conclusive

as

cultivation,

worthless

;

that the

planter,

arguments,

with

He

against emancipation. tropical

American

and him,

believes that, in

African liberation

fi-ee

labor

is

of the slaves

in this country, must, necessarily, be followed

with results similar to what has occurred in the "West Indies as

;

and, for this reason, as well

on account of the profitable character of give freedom to his

slavery,

he refuses

to

slaves.

We

we do

repeat,

not cite the fact of

the failure, economically, of free labor in Ja-

maica, as an argument for the perpetuation of slavery.

l!^ot at all.

We

allude to the fact,

only to show that emancipation has greatly

reduced the commerce of the Colonies, and that

:

COTTON

KING.

IS

191

the logic of this result militates against the colored man's prospects of advancement in the

and

scale of political

But

social equality.

to

the facts

The British

up

planters,

to

1806. had re-

ceived from the slave traders an uninterrupted

supply of laborers, and had rapidly extended their cultivation as

mands

for

results in

Jamaica

of the British

commerce increased

as

its

de-

Let us take the

products.

their

an example of the whole

West India

She had

Islands.

increased her exports of sugar from a yearly

average of 123,979,000 231,700,000

lbs. in

lbs.

1805-6.

1772-3, to

in

'No diminution

of exports had occurred, as has been asserted

by some anti-slavery

writers, before the prohi-

bition of the slave trade.

The increase was

progressive and undisturbed, except so far as

by seasons, more or

less

favorable.

But no sooner was her supply of

slaves cut

aifected

off,

by the

act of 1806,

which took

efiect in

1808, than the exports of Jamaica began to diminish, until her sugar had fallen off from

1822

to

1832,

to

an

annual

average

of

;

COTTON

192 131,129,000

had

been

or

lbs.,

nearly

years

sixty

KING.

IS

It

they

was not

1833 that the Emancipation Act was

until

passed

so that this decline in the exports of

;

Jamaica, took place under

coffee,

and

same

To

cotton,

the rigors of

all

The exports

"West India slavery.

the

what

to

before.

of

rum,

were diminished in nearly

ratio.

arrest this ruinous decline in the

com-

mercial prosperity of the Islands, emancipation

was adopted

in

1833 and perfected in 1838.

This policy was pursued under the plea, that free labor

is

doubly as productive as slave labor

and, that the negroes, liberated, would labor twice as well as the result

was

?

when

But what was

enslaved.

Ten years

after final

effected, the exports

emancipation

of sugar, from Ja-

macia were only 67,539,200

lbs.

a year, instead

of 234,700,000 lbs., as

in 1805-6.

ports of coffee, during

the

reduced to 5,684,921 lbs,

as

in 1805-6

;

lbs.,

same

The

ex-

year, were

instead of 23,625,377

and the extinction of the

cultivation of cotton, for export,

almost complete, though, in 1800,

had become it

had nearly

f

:

COTTON

KING.

IS

193

equalled that of the United States.

These are

no fancy sketches, drawn

but sober

attested

realities,

for efiect,

by the public documents of

The Jamaica negro,

the British government.*

ignorant and destitute of forethought, disappointed the English philanthropists.

In Hayti, emancipation had been productive of results, fully as disastrous to its

merce,

as

it

had been

There was an almost

total

com-

that of Jamaica.

to

abandonment of the

production of sugar, soon after freedom was

This took place in 1793.

declared.

*

The average

In 1Y90

exports from the island of Jamaica, omit-

—that of the —for periods

ting cotton, during the three epochs referred to

and

slave trade, of slavery alone,

of five years, during the first two,

of freedom

and

separately, in the last, will give a full Years of Exports.

Annual average,

Annual

1803 to 1807,*

average, 1829 to 1833.*

Annual average,

1839 to 1843.*

lbs. .

.

for the three years

view

Sugar.

of this point

P. Rum.

lbs. Coffee.

.

211,139,200

50.426

23,625,377

.

152,564,800

35,505

17,645,602

.

67,924,800

14,185

7,412,498

57,956,800

14,395

6,047,150

Annual

exports,

Annual

exports,

1847,t

.

77,686.400

18,077

6.421,122

Annual

exports,

1848 f

.

67,539,200

20,194

5,684,921

1846,

•Blackwood's Magazine.

.

1848, p. 225.

tLittel's Living Age, 1850, No. 309, p. 125.— £e«er of Mr. Bigelaw.

17

COTTON

194 the Island

But

gar.

18,534,112

KING.

IS

exported 163,318,810 iu 1801 lbs.,

of su-

lbs.

export was reduced to

its

in 1818 to 5,443,765 lbs.,

in 1825 to 2,020 lbs.;* since which time

Indeed,

export has nearly ceased. serted, that, " at this

moment

is

its

as-

there is not one

pound of sugar exported from the

aU

it

and

Island,

and

that is used is imported from the United

States.^'t

The exports of were 76,835,219

coffee,

lbs.;

But the exports of

lbs.

from Hayti, in 1790,

and of

cotton, 7,004,274

the former article, iu

1801, were reduced to 43,420,270 the latter to 474,118 Ibs.J coffee

lbs.,

and

The exports of

have varied, annually, since that period,

from thirty to forty million pounds cotton exported has rarely

million pounds.§

At

present,

ception of Gonaives, there cotton produced,

and the

is

"with the

ex-

not a pound of

and only a very limited quan-

* Macgregor, London ed., 1847. +

De Bow's Review, Aug.,

$

Macgregor, London ed., 1847,

§Ibid.

;

much exceeded one

1855.

a

:

COTTON tity there, barely

IS

KING.

sufficient

195 consumption;

for

and instead of exporting indigo, as formerly, they import

all

they use

from the United

States."*

According

to the authorities before cited,

the deficit of free-labor tropical cultivation, as

compared with that of slave

labor, while sus-

tained by the slave trade, including the British

"West Indies and Hayti, stands as follows startling result, ti'uly, to those

who

:

—

expected

emancipation to work well for commerce, and supercede the

necessity

of

employing slave

labor and Free Labor Exports from

Contrast of Slave Labor the

West Indies.

SLAVE LABOR. Tears.

British

Hayti,

West -

Total,

Sugar.

lbs. Coffee,

lbs.

Cotton.

-

636,025,643

31,610,764

17,000,000*

1790,

-

163,318,810

76,835,219

7,286,126

-

809,344,453

108,245,983

24,286,126

-

-

lbs.

Indies, 1807, -

-

-

*De Bow's

Review, 1855.

COTTON

196

KING.

IS

FREE LABOR. Tears.

British

West Indies,

Hayti,

-

-

-

Total,

-

-

Free Labor

Ihs.

Sugar.

lbs. Coffee,

lbs.

Cotton.

427,529*

1848,

-

313,306,112

1848,

-

very

-

313,306,112

40,885,509

2,018,983

-

496,038,341

67,360,474

22,267,143

-

Deficit,

» 1840.

To understand

little

6,770,792

34,114,717t

l,591,454t

t 1847.

the bearing whicli this de-

crease of production,

by Free Labor, has upon

must be

the interests of the African race, it

remembered, that the consumption of cotton

and sugar has not diminished, but increased, vastly;

and that

for

every bale of cotton, or

hogshead of sugar, that the

free labor produc-

tion is diminished, an equal

labor cotton and sugar its

place

;

is

amount of slave

demanded

to

supply

and, more than this, for every addi-

tional bale or

hogshead required by

their in-

creased consumption, an additional one

must

be furnished by slave labor, because the world will not dispense with their use. terial

change has occuiTed,

As no ma-

for several years, in

the commercial condition of the islands,

not necessary to bring the statements

it is

down

to

COTTON a to

later date

than

encourage the

IS

KING.

197

The causes operating American phmters, in extendIS-iS.

ing their cultivation of cotton and sugar, can

now

be understood.

In relation

we need

moral condition of Hajti,

to the

say but

little.

It is

known

that a

great majority of the children of the Island are

born out of wedlock, and that the Christian

Sabbath

is

the principal market day in the

The American and Foreign Christian

towns.

Union^ a missionary paper of

New

York,

after

quoting the report of one of the missionaries in Hayti,

who

represents his success as encour-

aging, thus remarks

some singular

:

" This

letter closes

with

incidents not suitable for publistate of

commu-

nity there, both morally and socially.

There

cation,

seems

showing the deplorable

to

be a mixture of African barbarism

with the sensuous civilization of France.

*

*

That dark land needs the light which begins to

dawn

thereon."

The West India emancipation experiments have demonstrated the truth of a few principles

COTTON

198

should fully understand.

that the world

must now be admitted liberty,

wages,

KING.

IS

that

is insufficient to

alone, that can be acted Intelligence, then,

And,

dustry. find

succeed

mere personal

even connected with the stimulus of secure the industry of

an ignorant population.

may

It

it

in

It

is

Intelligence,

upon by such motives.

must precede voluntary

hereafter, that

difficult to

man, or nation,

command

respect, or

who

esteemed wise,

being

not, along with exertions

to

In-

will

extend personal

freedom to man, intimately blend with their efibrts

adequate

means

moral improvement.

for

The

intellectual

results of

West

and In-

must be

farther noticed,

fully confirm the opinions of

Fkanklin, that

dia emancipation,

it

freedom, to unenlightened slaves, must be ac-

companied with the means of moral elevation, otherwise

it

intellectual

may be

and

productive

of serious evils to themselves and to society. It also sustains

the views entertained by South-

ern slaveholders, that emancipation, unaccom-

panied by the colonization of the slaves, could be of

little

value to the blacks, while

it

would

COTTON entail a niinous facts

IS

KING.

199

burden upon the whites.

These

must not be overlooked in the projection

of plans for emancipation, as none can receive the sanction of Southern men, which does not

embrace in

it

the removal of the colored people.

"With the example of before

West India emancipation

them, and the results of which have

been closely watched by them,

it

can not be

expected that Southern statesmen will risk the liberation

conditions.

of

their

slaves,

except

on these

CHAPTER

XIII.

In tiu'ning to the condition of our colored people,

we approach

who

rejected

homes in

own

free

Liberia,

They

a most important subject.

have been under the guardianship of their Abolition friends, ever since that period, and

have cherished feelings of determined to Colonization. this hostility? for

them by

hostility

What have they gained by What has been accomplished

their Abolition friends, or

have they done

for

themselves?

what

Those who

took reftige in Liberia have built up a Republic of their

own

and are recognized as an inde-

;

pendent nation, by five of the great govern-

ments of the

earth.

progress of those

But what has been the

who remained

behind, in the

vain hope of rising to an equality with the whites,

and of

assisting in abolishing

Ameri-

can slavery ?

We

ofier

no opinion, here, of our own, as

to the present social 200

and moral condition of

:

COTTON

IS

KING.

2G1

What

the free colored people in the I^orth.

was

at

it

the time of the founding of Liberia,

has already been shown.

On

this subject

we

might quote largely from the proceedings of the Conventions of the colored people, and the

writings of their editors, so as to produce a

dark picture indeed

;

but this would be cruel,

as their voices are but the wailings of noble, sensitive,

and benevolent

hearts, while

weeping

over the moral desolations that have over-

whelmed

their people.

Nor

ply testimony on the subject in the case of

we

shall ;

but in

multi-

this,

Canada and the West

own

allow the Abolitionists to speak of their

schemes. letter to

The Hon. Gerbitt Smith, Gov. Hunt, of 'New York,

while speaking of his ineffectual fifteen years past, to prevail

in

in

his

1S52,

efforts,

upon the

as

Indies,

for

free col-

ored people to betake themselves to mechanical

and agricultural pursuits, says "Suppose, moreover, that during fifteen years,

all

these

they had been quitting the

cities,

where the mass of them

and

rot^ loth

physically

morally^ and had gone into the countiy to

:

COTTON

202

IS

mechanics

become farmers and say, all this

—and

KING.

—suppose,

who would have

I

the hardi-

hood to affirm that the Colonization Society-

upon the malignity of the whites

lives is

true that

lives

it

upon

dation of the Hacks.

—

^but it

the voluntary degra-

I do not say that the

colored people are

more debased than white

people would be

persecuted, oppressed and

if

But

outraged as are the colored people.

I

do

say that they are debased, deeply debased;

and

that to recover themselves they

come

heroes,

be-

self-denying heroes, capable of

—a

achieving a great moral victory victory

must

—a victory over themselves

two-fold

and a

vic-

tory over their enemies."

The

New York

Tribune^ September 22,

1855, in noticing the movements of the colored people of !N'ew York, to secure to themselves equal

suffi-age,

thus gives utterance to

its

views

of their moral condition

"Most ment

earnestly desiring the enfranchise-

of the Afric-American race,

gladly

wean them,

tional ill-will,

at the cost of

from the

sterile

we would some addi^

path of political

COTTON

IS

KING.

They can help win

agitation.

203

their rights if

they will, but not by jawdng for them.

One

ne-

gro on a farm which he has cleared or bought, patiently

hewing out a modest, toilsome inde-

pendence,

is

worth more to the cause of Equal

Suffrage than three in an Ethiopian (or any other)

convention,

oppression with is

all

clamoring

against white

the fire of a Spartacus.

It

not logical conviction of the justice of their

claims that that they

is

needed, but a prevalent belief

would form a wholesome and

ble element of the

exposes them to

body

much

politic.

desira-

Their color

unjust and

damaging

prejudice; but if their degTadation were but skin-deep, they might easily overcome

Of

course,

template

is

we understand

that the evil

complex and retroactive

*

it.

*

we

con-

—that the

political degradation of the blacks is

a cause

as well as a consequence of their moral de-

basement.

Had

they would not

they never been enslaved,

now be

so abject in soul

;

had

they not been so abject, they could not have

been enslaved.

Our

aborigines

might have

been crushed into slavery by overwhelming

;

COTTON

204 force

IS

but they could never have been

;

live in

The black man who

it.

in that he

is

called a

does the blackguard at

negro

is

more

*

whom

forcibly than

no further a term of opprobrium

K

*

to

he takes offense

made

than the character of the blacks has so.

made

feels insulted

nigger,' therein attests

'

the degradation of his race

for

KING.

or mainly such

it

the blacks of to-day were all

men

as

Ward

Samuel K.

or

Feederick Douglass, nobody would consider '

negro

'

an invidious or reproachful desig-

nation.

" The blacks of om' State ought to enjoy the

common

rights of

man; but they stand

greatly in need of the spirit in which those rights

have been won by other

will never

win them

waiters, ostlers

the tardy

races.

as white men's barbers,

and boot blacks

;

that

will leave

the political as well as social infe-

riors of the whites

ble office,

say,

which they may ultimately

wrench from a reluctant community, still

is to

and ungracious concession of the

right of suffi-age,

them

They

—excluded

and admitted

from

to white

all

honora-

men's tables

COTTON

IS

KING.

only as waiters and plate-washers

meantime have wi'ought

shall toil,

privation and suflering,

and

essential

white

205

—

^unless

out,

an intellectual

At

enfranchisement.

men dread

to be

they

through

known

present,

as friendly to

the black, because of the never-ending,

still-

beginning importunities to help this or that negro object of charity or philanthrophy to

which such a reputation inevitably subjects them.

Nine-tenths of the free blacks have no

idea of setting themselves to work except as the hirelings and servitors of white

men

;

no

idea of building a church, or accomplishing

any other serious

enterprise,

beggary of the whites.

As

except through

a class, the blacks

and

are indolent, improvident, servile tious

;

and

licen-

their inveterate habit of appealing

to white benevolence or

compassion whenever

they realize a want or encounter a

difficulty, is

eminently banefal and enervating.

If they

could never more obtain a dollar until they shall suffer,

have earned

it,

many

of

them would

and some perhaps starve; but, on the

whole, they would

do better

and

improve

COTTON

206 faster

than

13

may now

KING. reasonably

be

ex-

pected."

In tracing the

causes which led to the

organization of the

American Colonization So-

ciety, the statistics of the Penitentiaries

to 1827,

to the

down

were given, as affording an index

moral condition of the

The

ple at that period. for 1850,

are

free colored peo-

facts of

added here,

present moral condition.

to

a similar kind, indicate

The

their

statistics

are

compiled from the Compendium of the Census of the United States, for 1850^ and published in 1854.

Tabular Statement of the number of the native and foreign white population, the colored population, the

number of

each class in the Penitentiaries, the proportion of the convicts to the whole

number of each

class, the

tion of colored convicts over the foreign

the

native

year 1850:

Classes, etc.

whites,

in the four

States

and

propoT'

also over

named, for the

COTTON Mass.

Classes, etc.

Foreign Whites,

-

-

York.

IT.

163,598

In the Penitentiary,

KING.

IS

655,224

2(^ Fenn.

Ohio.

303,105

218,099

125

545

123

71

-

1,308

1,202

2,464

3,077

Colored Population,

9,064

49,069

53,626

25,279

In the Penitentiary,

47

257

109

44

192

190

492

574

Being

Being

1

1

out of

-

out of

-

-

Colored convicts over foreign,

-

-

-

-

6.8

times

6.3

times

5 times

5.3

times

10.3

times

Colored convicts over native whites,

It

- 16.1

times

appears from

15 times

these

19.3

times

figures,

that the

amount of crime among the colored people of Massachusetts, in 1850, was 6rV times greater

than the amount

among

the foreign born pop-

ulation of that State, and that the amount, in the four States

named, among the

fi'ee

colored

people, averages five-and-three-qiiarteTS times

more, in proportion to their numbers, than does

among

it

the foreign population, and over

fifteen times more than

native whites.

It will

it

does

among

be instructive,

the

also, to

note the moral condition of the free colored

people in Massachusetts, the great center of Abolitionism, where they have enjoyed equal rights ever since 1780.

Strange to say, there

COTTON

208 is

nearly

thi-ee

much crime among exists among those

times as

them, in that State, as

More than

of Ohio! note, as

it

KING.

IS

be useful to

this will

regards the direction of the emi-

Massa-

gration of the free colored people. chusetts, in 1850,

had but 2,687 colored

per-

sons born out of the State, while Ohio had

Take another

12,662 born out of her limits.

per

the increase,

fact:

population, in the whole

of the colored

cent.^

New

England

States,

was, during the ten years, from 1840 to 1850, but ItoV, while in Ohio,

it

was, during that

time, 45rVo-.

There

Though have

man,

is

another point worthy of notice.

the N^ew

England Abolition States

offered equal political rights to the colored it

has afforded him

emigrate into their bounds.

temptation to

little

On

the contraiy,

several of these States have been diminishing their free colored population, for past,

many

years

and none of them can have had accessions

of colored emigrants

by the

;

as is abundantly proved

fact, that their additions,

of this class of

;

!

COTTON

KING.

IS

209

persons, have not exceeded the natm-al increase

of the resident colored population.* fact is equally as instructive.

be noted,

Ohio, the largest increase of the

that, in

colored population, counties

little,

fi-ee

in the Anti-Abolition

is

—the Abolition counties,

increased very

1850.

It will

Another

often,

having

indeed, between 1840 and

But the most

cui-ious fact is, that the

largest majorities for the Abolition candidate for

Governor, in 1855, were in the counties hav-

ing the fewest colored people, while the largest majorities against him, were in those having

the largest latoes.f

numbers of

From

New England may

free negroes

and mul-

these facts, both in regard to

and Ohio, one of two conclusions

be logically deduced

people find so

little

:

Either the colored

sympathy from the Abo-

litionists, that they will not live

or else their presence, in

among them

any community, in

large numbers, tends to cure the whites of

tendencies toward practical abolitionism

* See Table IV, Appendix, t See Table

18

V, Appendix.

aU

—

CHAPTEE The can

Xiy.

condition of the free colored people

now be

The

understood.

results, in their

from what was

case, are vastly different

antici-

when British philanthropists succeeded West India emancipation. They are very

pated, in

different,

from what was expected by

also,

American

Abolitionists:

so

that their disappointment

in the extracts

As an

ments. to

made from

different, indeed,

is fully

apology for the

failure, it

be their aim to create the

dreadful moral

West

depravation,

Indies, is wholly

owing

the system,

existing in to the

odium on 210

the

demoral-

They speak of

from laws inherent in

as active in the

as in the British colonies. cast

the

which have no exceptions, and

must be equally

for, if this

seems

belief, that

izing tendencies of slavery. this effect as resulting

manifested,

their published docu-

But

United States

in their zeal to

slavery, they prove too

be true,

it

much

follows, that the slave

COTTON

KING.

IS

211

population of the United States must be equally

much

debased with that of Jamaica, and as

disqualified to discharge the duties of freemen,

have been subjected

as both

of the

same system.

logic of the

all.

The

argument would extend even

to our

free colored people,

to the

to the operations

This

is

not

and include them, according

American Missionary Association^

the dire efiects

with

its foul, pestilential

like

the

influences,

still

Now, were

it

in so-

and of

believed, gener-

the colored

people of the United

are equally as

degraded as those of

ally, that

States

blights,

mildew of death, everything

ciety that should be lovely, virtuous,

good report."

in

of " that enduring legacy which,

Jamaica, upon what grounds could any one advocate the admission of the blacks to equal social

and

political privileges

with the whites ?

community

Certainly, no Christian family or

would willingly admit such men social or political equality is

the

!

to terms of

This,

we

repeat,

the logical conclusion from the Reports of

American Missionary Association and

the

American and Foreign Anti- Slavery Society-^

COTTON

212

KING.

IS

a conclusion, too, the more certain, as

it

makes

no exceptions between the condition of the

col-

ored people under the slavery of Jamaica and

under that of the United

But in

this,

much

in

as

States.

connected with

slavery. Abolitionists

have taken too limited a

view of the

They have not properly

subject.

discriminated between the effects of the original

barbarism of the negroes, and the

duced by the more or to

effects pro-

less favorable influences

which they were afterward subjected under This point deserves special notice.

slavery.

According

to the best authorities, the colored

people of Jamaica, for nearly three hundred years, it

were entirely without the Gospel; and

gained a permanent footing

among them,

only at a few points, at their emancipation,

twenty

ago

years

;

so

that,

when

liberty

reached them, the great mass of the Africans, in

the British

West

Indies,

were heathen.*

Let us understand the reason of

this.

Slavery

* Rev. Mr. Phillippo, for twenty years a missionary in

Jamaica, in dition."

liis

''Jamaica,

its

Past

and Present Con-

COTTON

IS

human

not an clement of

is

•which the

ened

;

mind

KING.

2l3

progress, under

necessarily becomes enlight-

but Christianity

is

the

primary element

of progress, and can elevate the savage, whether in bondage or in freedom, if

taught him in his youth.

its

maica beojan with savas^e men. dred years, pel,

and

itself.

its

their

But

principles are

The slavery of JaFor three hun-

were destitute of the Gos-

slaves

barbarism was

left to

perpetuate

in the United States, the Africans

were brought under the influence of Christianity,

on their

first

introduction, over two hun-

dred and thirty years since, and have continued to enjoy its teachings, in a greater or less de-

gree, to the present

ance fi'om

among

The disappear-

moment. colored

oui'

savage condition of the

people, of the

human mind

—the —and in-

capacity to comprehend religious truths its

continued existence

can

now be

among those

understood.

of Jamaica,

The opportunities

en-

joyed by the former, for advancement, over the latter,

have been six

before the mind,

to one.

it is

TTlth these facts

not difficult to perceive

that the colored population of

Jamaica can not

COTTON

214 but

labor

still

IS

KING.

under the

Jiereditary harharism

disadvantages of

and involuntary

servi-

tude^ with the superadded misfortune of being

inadequately supplied with Christian instruc-

along with their recent acquisition of

tion,

But while

freedom.

all this

must be admitted,

of the colored people of Jamaica, of those of our

own

country;

it is

for,

not true

long since,

they have cast off the heathenism of their fathers,

and have become enlightened in a very

Hence

encouraging degree.

is,

it

that the

colored people of the United States, both bond

and

free,

have made vastly greater progress,

than those of the British West Indies, in their

knowledge of moral duties and the requirements of the Gospel

GERRriT Smfth

and hence,

;

is right,

too, it is, that

in asserting that the

demoralized condition of the great mass of the free colored people, in

our

cities, is

inexcusable,

and deserving of the utmost reprobation, because

it is

voluntary

—they knowing

their duty

but abandoning themselves to degrading habits.

This brings us to another point of great

moment.

It will

be denied by but few

—and

COTTON bj none of the

IS

maintaining

races

— that

the

the

of the United States ened, to be elevated

KING. natural

free

are

tue

from

vice,

A

prevail.

as readily

where equal

and encouragements

are

people

sufficiently enlight-

large portion,

slave population,

equality

colored

by education,

as the whites of similar ages, straints

213

even,

re-

to vir-

of the

similarly enlightened.*

speak not of the state of the morals of

^\^e

either class.

Our opinion free colored

*

As many

religious

as to the

advancement of the

people of the United States, in

are not awai-e of

the extent to wbicli the

training of the slaves at the South prevails,

append the following paragraphs in

of one denomination, alone, in South Carolina iana.

Similar

efforts,

more or

we

relation to the efforts

less extensive,

and Louis-

have been made

in the other States:

" Religious Instkcctios of Slaves.—The South Carolina Methodist Conference have a missionary committee devoted entirely to promoting the religious instruction of the slave population,

twenty-six years.

The report of the

tivity than is generally

known.

last

They have twenty-six missionary

which thirty-two missionaries are employed. opinion in South Carolina slaves,

and that

it

is

which has been in existence

year shows a greater degree of ac-

The report

stations in

afi&rms that puhlio

decidedly in favor of the religious instruction of

has become far

more general and systematic than formerly.

—

—

COTTON

216

!

KING.

IS

general intelligence, does not stand alone.

It

sustained by high authority, not of the Abo-

is

It also

The Democratic Review, of

school.

lition

claims a great degree of success to liave attended the labors of the

missionaries."

^. Y. Evangelist,

1855.

Methodist Missions to Slaves.

— The

following para-

graphs are taken from the report of the Missionary Board of the Louisiana Conference. "

It is stated

N. Y. Observer, March, 1856.

upon good authority, that the number of colored members in

membership of all the Protestant

the Church, South, exceeds that of the entire

What an

Missions in the world.

The

enterprise

id

committed

this

to

our care

position we, of the Methodist Church, South, have taken for the African,

has, to a great extent, cut us off

throughout the world

and

;

sight of God, of angels, of

it

from the S3mpathy of the Christian Church behooves us

to

make good

men, of churches, and

this position in the

our own consciences, by

to

presenting before the throne of His glory multitudes of the souls of these

benighted ones abandoned

Louisiana promises

to be

our care, as the

seals of

one vast plantation.

Let us

to

our ministry.

Already

—we must gird ourselves

for this Heaven-born enterprise of supplying the pure gospel to the slave.

The great question

is,

How

building roadside chapels

is

can the greatest number be preached to? as yet the best solution of

it.

planters build so as to accommodate adjoining plantations, and by this the preacher addresses three hundred or

or

less.

Economy

missionary

"

On

is

so

of this kind

is

more

—The

In some cases

slaves, instead of one

means

hundred

absolutely essential where the labor of the

much needed and demanded.

the Lafourche

and Bayou Black Missionwork, several chapels are in

process of erection, upon a plan which enables the slave, as his master, to

make an

offering towards building a house of God.

hands subscribe labor. Uirs.

Upon many

Timber

is

plenty;

many

Instead of money, the

of the servants are carpen-

of the plantations are saw mills.

Here

is

much material;

:

COTTON

KING.

IS

217

1852,* when discussing the question of their

conquer and

ability to

civilize Africa, says

" The negro race has, this country, fitted for

a mass of

among its freemen in men who are eminently They have generally

deeds of daring.

been engaged in employments which give a

good deal of

leisure,

and stimulus toward im-

provement of the mind.

much more

freely with the cultivated

telligent white

of the

than even with their

same humble

as to enable

them

station

;

to acquire

and knowledge, and

among

They have associated in-

color

and on such terms

much

of his spirit,

The

free blacks

valor.

us are not only confident and well in-

formed, but they have almost thing of the world.

all

and

hotels,

what hindereth

that

stages,

In railroads,

and steamers, they have

we should huild a church on every tenth

Let us maintain our policy steadily. effect suhstantial

seen some-

They are pre-eminently

locomotive and perambulating.

and

and

own

Time and

plantation?

diligence are required to

good, especially in this department of labor.

Let us con-

tinue to ask for buildings adapted to the worship of God, and set apart urge,

when

practicable, the preaching to blacks in the presence of their

ters, their overseers,

*

Page 102.

19

and the neighbors generally."

;

to

mas-

COTTON

218

IS

KING.

been placed incessantly in contact with the news, the views, the motives, and the ideas of the day.

Compare

men

nary white

the free black with ordi-

without advantages, and he

stands well.

Add

negro body

strong and healthy, and the negro

is

mind keen and philosophical,

to this cultivation, that the

bright,

though not profound nor

and you have

ble warrior, with a

little

There

ledge of weapons.

at once a formida-

discipline is

and know-

no doubt that the

picked American free blacks, would be five times, ten times as efficient in the field of battle

as the

same number of native Africans."

Why is

it

then, that the efibrts for the moral

elevation of the free colored people, have been so

unsuccessful it is

Before answering this question,

?

necessary to call attention to the

Abolitionists

seem

fact, that

to be sadly disappointed in

their expectations, as to the progress of the

colored people.

fi-ee

Their vexation at the stub-

bornness of the negroes, and the consequent failure of their measures, is very clearly

mani-

fested in the complaining language, used

by

Gekeitt Smith, toward the colored people of

COTTON the eastern

cities, as

expressed by the

IS

KING.

219

well as by the contempt

American Missionary Asso-

ciation^ for the colored preachers of Canada.

They had fonnd an apology,

for their

want of

success in the United States, in the presence

and influence of Colonizationists

made

excuse can be in

fain shelter themselves

now

they would

under the pretense, that

a people once subjected

eration;

Having

Lidies.

failed in their anticipations,

liberated,

want of success

for their

Canada and the West

but no such

;

to slavery,

even when

can not be elevated in a single genthe case

that

of

adults, raised

bondage, like heatlien of similar age, less,

and

their children, only, can

is

in

hope-

make such

progress as will repay the missionary for his

But they

toil.

will not be allowed to escape

the censure due to their want of discrimination

and

foresight,,

of the

by any such plea

as the success

Republic of Liberia, conducted from

infancy to independence, librated slaves,

raised

;

in the

falsity of their

almost

wholly by

and those who were born and midst of slavery,

assumption.

attests

the

COTTON

220

But

to return.

KING.

IS

Why

have the

for

efforts

the elevation of the free colored people, not

On

been more successful?

marks may be limited The

people.

to

barrier to

exists not in their

this point

our

own

their

want of

our re-

free colored

progress here,

capacity, but in the

absence of the incitements to virtuous action,

which are constantly stimulating the white to press

man

onward and upward in the formation

of character and the acquisition of knowledge.

There

is

no position in church or

state,

to

which the poorest white boy, in the common school,

may

not aspire.

There

is

no post of

honor, in the gift of his country, that

beyond his reach. to noble effort,

is

legally

But such encouragements

do not reach the colored man,

and he remains with us a depressed and heartened being.

Persuading him

to

dis-

remain

in this hopeless condition, has been the great error of the Abolitionists.

They overlooked

the teachings of history, that two races, differ-

ing so widely as to prevent their amalgamation

the

by marriage, can never

same community, but

live together, in

as superioi*s

and

in-

COTTON feriors

—the

inferior

KING.

IS

remaining subordinate to

The encouraging hopes held out

the superior.

to the colored people, that this

inoperative

pointment.

an end

upon them, has

own judgments.

led only to disap-

They

find

half a million of

men

nearly at

is

to act

on their

themselves

and peeled, that there

scattered

law would be

Happily, this delusion

and they are beginning

;

221

is

so

not another

in the world, so enlight-

ened,

who

social

and moral advancement.

are accomplishing so

little for

their

They perceive

that they are nothing but branches,

wrenched

from the great African hanyan^ not yet planted in genial soil,

and affording neither

shelter nor

food to the beasts of the forest or the fowls of the air their

—

^their

roots unfixed in the earth,

tender shoots

and

withering as they hang

pendent from their boughs.

That

this is

no exaggerated picture of the

discouragements surrounding our free colored people,

is

fiilly

confirmed by the testimony of

impartial witnesses.

Chambeks, of Edinburgh,

who

the tour of

recently

made

States, investigated this

the United

point very carefully.

:

COTTON

222

IS

KING.

His opinions on the subject have been published,

and are so discriminating and

truthful,

that we must quote the main portion of them.

In speaking of the agitation of the question of slavery, he says

" For a number of years, as there has been

much angry

subject between States

;

Northern and Southern

the

mutual threats of a dismem-

berment of the Union. difficulty in

A

stranger has no

how much and how much

of

*

I

understanding

war of words

this

well known,

and at times the contention has been so

great, as to lead to

little

is

discussion on the

is

real,

merely an explosion of hunkum. repeat,

it is difficult

to

understand what

genuine public feeling on tion

;

for

with

all

of freedom in the

^^

this

is

is

the

entangled ques-

the demonstrations in favor !N'orth,

there does not appear

in that quarter to be any practical relaxation

of the usages which

condemn persons of

can descent to an inferior social

status.

Afri-

There

seems, in short, to be a fixed notion throughout the whole of the States, whether slave or free, that the colored is

by nature a subordinate

COTTON race

;

and

KING.

IS

223

no circumstances, can

that, in

commercial views, of

to

be argued

;

less

and the question would on

and philan-

political

*

thropic than on physiological grounds. I

was not a

little

be

this opinion lies at the root

American slavery

need

it

Apart from

considered equal to the white.

surprised to find,

*

when speak-

ing a kind word for at least a very unfortunate, if

not brilliant race, that the people of the

ISTorthern States,

though repudiating slavery,

did not think more favorably of the negro

Through-

character than those farther South.

out Massachusetts, and other ISTew England States, likewise

Pennsylvania,

in the States of INTew York,

etc.,

tion of the white

people of England,

wandering

there

is

and black

who

a rigorous separa*

races.

*

The

see a negro only as a

aware of the

curiosity, are not at all

repugnance generally entertained toward persons of color in the United States to

amount

to

to

it

appeared

As for no matter how

an absolute monomania.

an alliance with one of the faint the

:

shade of color,

a loss of caste, as

it

race,

would inevitably lead

fatal to social position

and

COTTON

224 family

ties as

ical system.

IS

KING.

any that occurs in the Brahmin*

*

*

*

" Glad to have had an opportunity of calling

many

attention to

cheering and commendable

features in the social system of the I consider

it

not less

their general conduct

a wrong

is

my

Americans,

duty to say, that in

toward the colored race,

done which can not be alluded

to

except in terms of the deepest sorrow and reproach.

I can not think without

shame

of the

pious and polished I^ew England ers adding to their offences risy.

on

this score the guilt of

Affecting to

weep over the

hypoc-

sufferings of

imaginary dark-skinned heroes and heroines; denouncing, in well-studied platform oratory, the horrid sin of reducing

human

abject condition of chattels;

beings to the

bitterly scornful

of Southern planters for hard-hearted selfish-

ness and depravity

;

fanatical on the subject of

Abolition; wholly frantic at the spectacle of fugitive slaves seized

owners

— these

and carried back

very persons

are

to their

daily sur-

rounded by manumitted slaves, or their educated descendants, yet shrink from

them

as if

COTTON

KING.

IS

225

the touch were pollution, aud look as if they

would expire of them is

at the bare idea of inviting

house or

to their

Until

table.

one

all this

changed, the N'orthern Abolitionists place

themselves in a false position, and do to the cause they espouse.

negroes are Men,

K

damage

they think that

them give the world an

let

evidence of their sincerity, by moving reversal of all those social

and

ments which now, in the

free States, exclude

persons of color, not only from the courtesies of

life,

common

but fi'om the privileges and I say, until this is done,

honors of citizens.

the uproar about Abolition

is

*

*

snare.

the

political arrange-

"While lamenting

a delusion and a * *

the unsatisfactory con-

dition, present

and prospective, of the colored

population,

is

it

consider the

gratifying to

energetic measures that have been adopted

by

the African Colonization Society, to transplant,

with their

America as,

at

own

consent,

to Liberia.

all

events,

free

negroes

from

Viewing these endeavors a means

of

encouraging

emancipation, checking the slave trade, and, at

COTTON

226 the

IS

KING.

same time, of introducing Christianity and

civilized usages

into Africa, they appear to

have been deserving of more encouragement than they have had the good fortune to receive. Successful only in a moderate degree, the operations of this society are not likely to

make a

deep impression on the numbers of the colored population still

;

and the question of

remains unsettled."

their disposal

CHAPTER But

little

progress,

made, by the

it

XV.

will be seen, has been

toward an

free colored people,

approximation of equality with the whites.

Have

they succeeded better in aiding in the

abolition

They have

of slavery?

not, as

is

abundantly demonstrated by the triumph of This

the institution.

an important point

is

for consideration, as the principal object influ-

encing them to remain in the country, was, that they

might

assist in the liberation of their

brethren from bondage. the attempts

having

made

failed,

arises, as to

by refusing

a

emigrate,

is

their

agency in

the institution

important

question

free colored people,

may

not have con-

advancement of slaveiy?

affirmative answer

Kor

to abolish

more

whether the to

tributed, to the

quiry.

But

must be given

An

to this in-

a protracted discussion neces-

sary to prove the assertion.

COTTON

228

One

KING.

IS

of the objections urged with the greatest

force against Colonization, is

tendency, as

is, its

alleged, to increase the value of slaves

by

" Jaifs Inqxdry^'*

diminishing their numbers.

1835, presents this objection at length; and ^^

the Eeport of the

Anti- Slavery Society of

Canada^^ 1853, sums

it

up in a

single propo-

sition, thus:

" The

first effect

number of

slaves,

of beginning to reduce the

by Colonization, would be

increase the market value of those

and thereby increase the

them

left

to

behind,

difficulty of setting

free."

The

practical effect of this doctrine, is to

discourage

all

emancipations

;

to render eternal

the bondage of each individual slave, unless all

can be liberated

;

to prevent the benevolence

of one master from freeing his slaves, lest his

more

selfish

riched

;

and

neighbor should be thereby en-

whole system

intact,

until its total abolition can be effected.

Such

to leave the

philanthropy would leave every individual, of suffering

millions, to gi'oan

existence, because

it

out a miserable

could not at once effect

:

COTTON

IS

KING.

This objection

the deliverance of the whole.

can be founded only in preju-

to Colonization

designed to mislead the ignorant.

dice, or is

The advocates of it,

229

or they

fugitives to

this doctrine

do not practice

would not promote the escape of Canada.

But Abolitionists

object

not only to the

Colonization of liberated slaves, as tending to

perpetuate slavery

they are equally hostile to

;

the Colonization of the free colored people, for the

same reason.

The ^'•American Beform

and Booh

Society^^ the organ of the

Tract

Abolitionists,

for

the

publication

of

Anti-

Slavery works, has issued a Tract on " Colonization," in

which

this

objection is

stated as

follows

"The moving the

Society perpetuates Slavery,

by

re-

the free laborer, and thereby increasing

demand

for,

and the value

of,

slave labor."

The projectors and advocates of such views

may

be good philanthropists, but they are bad

philosophers.

of

We

have seen that the power

American slavery

lies in

the

demand

for its

products; and that the whole country, north

COTTON

230

IS

KING.

of the sugar and cotton States,

is

em-

actively

ployed in the production of provisions for the support of the planter and his slaves, and in

consuming the products of slave is

labor.

This

the constant vocation of the whites.

And

how

is it

with the blacks

?

Are they compet-

ing with the slaves, in the cultivation of sugar

and

cotton, or are they also supporting the sys-

tem, by consuming

its

products

?

The

latitudes

in which they reside, and the pursuits in which

they are engaged, will answer this question.

The census of 1850, shows but 40,900

free

colored persons in the nine sugar and cotton States, including Texas, Louisiana,

Tennessee,

Alabama,

Mississippi,

are living in the other States.

omitted, because

wool-growing,

Of named

Georgia,

and South Carolina, while 393,500

Florida,

is

Arkansas,

it is

than

larger towns siderable

;

more of a tobacco and

cotton-producing

the free colored States,

North Carolina

State.

persons in the

19,260 are in the

cities

first-

and

while, of the remainder, a con-

number may be

in the villages, or in

the families of the whites.

From

these facts

;

COTTON

IS

KING.

231

apparent, that less than 20,000 of the

it is

entire free colored population (omitting those

of North Corolina,) are in a position to compete with slave labor, while

all

the remainder,

numbering over 412,800, are engaged,

either

directly or indirectly, in supporting the institu-

Even

tion.

the fugitives escaping to Canada,

from ha^-ing been producers necessarily be-

come consumers and, worse

they must

brothers,

products

become growers of provisions

the planters

for

slave-grown

under the Reciprocity Treaty,

still,

also

of

sisters,

who

continue to hold their

wives

and

children,

in

bondage.

These are the practical results of the policy of the Abolitionists.

dug

their ditches

Yerily, they, also, have

on the wrong side of their

breastworks, and afforded the

entrance into their fortress. alone if the

;

enemy an easy But, "Let them

they be blind leaders of the blind. blind lead the blind, both shall

the ditch."*

* Matthew's Gospel, xv: 14.

fall

And into

COTTON

232

dawning

for tho free

They are wearied

in watching

But a brighter day colored people.

is

the "better time coming," promised by

for

their white friends,

a

KING.

IS

little

and are unwilling

to

"wait

longer" as runs one of their songs of

inaction.

To

collect their scattered fragments,

to consolidate their divided forces, to sink their

individual popularity into an honored nationality, is

ful

now

the

aim of some of

their thought-

men.

But where

made?

is this

great achievement to be

organization of a

in the

ITot

new

government, as no part of the earth remains unoccupied.

It

must be a fusion with one

already established.

But what one ?

l^ot with

one like the British Colonies, in subjection distant throne,

and

all

the

and nearly

means of

improvement.

It

intellectual

and moral

must be with one possessing

the elements of progi-ess

—which

offers peace,

security, prosperit}^, liberty, equality,

testant Christianity.

wants

;

to a

destitute of schools

Xo

and Pro-

other will meet their

nor should any other be adopted, as

worthy colored freemen, who have caught the

COTTON

IS

of the republican

spirit

United

KING.

233

institutions

of the

South America can afford no

States.

suitable asylum, as the diversity of language,

and the antagonism of with the fi'equency of insecurity of property

choosing a

home

Thus, Liberia

its

its

religion, together

civil

and

wars, and the

life,

forbid

their

in that region. is

the only nation with which

a fusion, by the free colored people, can be

made.

safely

"While

remaining here, they

continue to support Slavery, and suffer from

inadequate means of improvement. portion of their all

number who have escaped from

connection with slavery, are those

removed

The only

to Liberia.

who have

In that Republic, too,

all

the necessary stimulants to civil, social, intellectual,

and moral advancement, are within the

reach of the colored man.

IN'or

are they

left

to the contingencies of the var}^ng prosperity

or adversity of the Colonists for their perpetuation.

The

four great leading Churches in the

United States

—the

Episcopal, the Methodist,

the Presbyterian, and the Baptist to the support of its educational

20

—are pledged and

religious

COTTON

234 institutions

;

IS

KING.

and hence, while generations will

certainly be needed for the elevation of the free

colored

people here, strive as they may, a

single one, with right-hearted

work

there.

men

can do the

CHAFTEE XYI Topic 4.— The moral relations of persons holding the per se doctrine, on the subject of slavery, to the purchase and consumption of slave labor products.

Haying

noticed the political and economi-

cal relations of slavery,

we

shall say

it

may

something of

In attempting

this,

we

be expected that

moral

its

relations.

choose not to ti-averse

that interminable labyrinth, without a thread,

which includes the moral character of the tem, as

it

respects

The

sys-

relation hetween the

Master and the Slave.

The only aspect

which we care

it, is

relations

to consider

which

we

The moral

the consumers of Slave

products sustain this,

in

shall offer

to

in

Lahor

Slavery: and even on

no opinion, om* aim being

only to promote inquiry.

This view of the question portant one.

It

error in nearly

includes the

is

not an unim-

germ

aU Anti-Slavery

of the grand

effort

;

235

and

to

COTTON

236

which, chiefly,

to

is

KING.

IS

be attributed

want of

its

moral power over the conscience of the slave-

The recent Abolition movement, was

holder.

designed to create a public sentiment, in the

United States, that should be equally as potent in forcing emancipation, as

opinion of Great Britain.

was the public

But why have not

the Americans been as successful as the English

This

?

"WTien

the

is

an inquiry of great importance.

met, December clared, as

which

Anti-Slavery Convention, 6,

a part of

1833, in Philadelphia, deits

creed:

"That

there is

no difference in principle, between the African Slave Trade, and American slavery," to

it

meant

be understood as teaching, that the person

who purchased slaves imported from Africa, or who held their offspring as slaves, was^^^^r-

—partaker in the crime, with —on the principle that he who

ticeps C7'imi?i{s

the slave ti'ader

receives stolen property, is

knowing

equally guilty with the

On

this point

explicit,

this

it

to

be such,

thief.

Daniel O'Connell was very

when, in a public assembly, he used

language:

"When

an American comes

"

COTTON

IS

KING.

237

into society, he will be askecl, 'are

the thieves, or are yon an honest

you one of

man

K

?

you are an honest man, then yon have given liberty to

your slaves

thieves, the sooner

;

if

you are among the

you take the outside of the

house, the better.'

The

error just referred to

was

this: they

based their opposition to slavery on the principle, that

it

—a

was malum, in

se

like the slave trade, robbery, at the

same time, continued

—

sin in itself

and murder

;

and,

to use the products

of the labor of the slave as though they had

been obtained fi-om the labor of freemen. this seeming inconsistency

reason

why

But

was not the only

they failed to create such a public

sentiment as would procure the emancipation of our slaves.

began

their

The English Emancipationists

work like philosophers

—addressing

themselves respectfully, to the power that could grant their requests.

Beside the moral argu-

ment, which declared

English

philanthropists

Parliament,

that

slavery a crime,

the

labored to convince

emancipation would be ad-

vantageous to the commerce of the nation.

COTTON

238

KING.

IS

The commercial value of

had been

the Islands

reduced one-third, as a result of the abolition of

the

Emancipation,

slave trade.

was

it

argued, would more than restore their former

was twice

prosperity, as the labor of freemen

But American

as productive as that of slaves.

Abolitionists slavery,

commenced

their crusade against

by charging those who sustained

it,

and w^ho alone, held the power

to

with crimes of the blackest die.

This placed

manumit,

the parties in instant antagonism, causing all the arguments on

human

ness of slavery, to ears of angiy

fall

men.

rights,

without

The

error

and the effect

on

sinful-

upon the

this point,

consisted in failing to discriminate between the

sources

of

the

England and

power over emancipation in in

the

United States.

With

Great Britain, the power was in Parliament.

The masters,

in the

in the question.

alone

who

It

West

Indies,

had no voice

was the voters

in

England

controlled the elections, and, conse-

quently, controlled Parliament. dition of things in the United

reverse of what

it

was

But the conStates is

in England.

With

the us,

COTTON the

KING.

IS

power of emancipation

in the States, not

is

The slaveholders

in Congress.

bers to the State Legislatures

239

elect the

mem-

and they choose

;

none but such as agree with them in opinion. It

matters not, therefore, what public sentiment

may

be at the

ISTorth, as it

has no power over

the Legislatures of the South. the difference: trols

the

Here, then,

is

with us the slaveholder con-

question of emancipation while in

England the consent of the master was not necessary to the execution of that work.

Our Anti-Slavery men seem into their errors of policy,

of those of England,

to

have

fallen

by following the lead

who

manifested a total

ignorance of the relations existing between our

General Government and the State Governments. ers

On

the Abolition platform, slavehold-

found themselves placed on the same cate-

gory with slave traders and thieves.

were

told that all laws giving

They

them power over

the slave, were void in the sight of heaven;

and that

their appropriation of the fruits of the

labor of the

slave

was robbery.

Had

the

preaching of these principles produced convic-

COTTON

24:0

tion,

promoted emancipation.

must have

it

KING.

IS

But, unfortunately, while these doctrines were held up to the gaze of slaveholders, in the one

hand of the hand

exhorter, they beheld

stretched

of seeming

out,

Take a

!

from beneath his cloak

sanctity, to clutch the products of

the very robbery he

demn

his other

was professing

fact in

con-

to

proof of this view of the

subject.

At

Daniel

the date of the declarations of

O'CoNNELL, on behalf of the English, and by the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Convention, on

of

facturers

were

300,000,000

denounced traders

manu-

Americans, the British

the part

purchasing,

lbs. of cotton,

as

equally

and thieves

;

annually,

about

from the very

criminal with

men slave

and the people of the

United States were almost wholly dependent

upon slave labor and

groceries.

therefore,

It

for their supplies is

no matter

that slaveholders,

should

fiction, the doctrine that slave

of cotton

for

wonder, treat,

as

labor products

are the fruits of robbery, so long as they are

purchased without scruple, by

all

classes of

COTTON

KING.

IS

men, in Europe and America.

argmnent

more

241

The pecuniary

for emancipation, that free labor is

profitable

than

slave

labor,

was

also

urged here; but was treated as the greatest

The masters had,

absm-dity.

before their eyes,

the evidence of the falsity of the assertion, that, if

emancipated, the slaves would be doubly

The reverse was

profitable as free laborers.

admitted,

on

all

hands, to be

ti'ue

in rela-

tion to our colored people.

But

question, of the moral relations

this

which the consumers of slave labor products sustain to slavery,

nature to

be

examination

;

less obscurity

is

one of too important a

passed over without a closer and, beside,

it

is

involved in

than the morality of the relation

existing between the master and the slave. consideration, too, afibrds an

Its

opportunity of

discriminating between the different opinions entertained on the broad question of the rality of the institution,

of the

and enables us

consistency and

to

mo-

judge

conscientiousness

of

every man, by the standard which he himself adopts.

21

COTTON

243

The prevalent

IS

KING.

opinions, as to the morality

of the Institution of Slavery, in the United

may

States, 1.

That

be classified under three heads: •

social

evil,

by Scripture example

justified

is

it

and precept.

That

2.

it

is

a great civil and

from

resulting

ignorance

and

degradation, like despotic systems of Govern-

may

ment, and

be tolerated until

grant them equal rights.

in

se^ like

3.

That

subjects

its

are sufficiently enlightened to render

it

it is

safe to

malum

robbery and murder, and can not be

sustained, for a

moment, without

sin

;

and, like

should be immediately abandoned.

sin,

Those who consider slaveiy sanctioned by the Bible, conceive that they can, consistently

with their creed, not only hold slaves, and use the products of slave labor, without doing violence

to

measures

who

their

but

may

adopt

Those

consider slavery merely a great civil and

social

evil,

a despotism that

oppression, or

they

consciences,

perpetuate the system.

to

may

may

not, are

purchase and use

interchange their

own

may engender of opinion that its

products, or

for those of the slave-

COTTON

IS

M9

KING.

holder, as free governments hold

commercial

and diplomatic intercom'se with despotic ones, without being responsible for the moral evils

But the position

connected with the system.

who

of those

believe slavery

malum

in

the slave trade, robbery, and murder, different

one from either of the other

se^ like

is

a very

classes, as it

regards the pm-chase and use of slave labor pro-

Let us illustrate this by a case in point:

ducts.

A fellow

company of men hold a number

men

in

commonwealth

of their

bondage under the laws of the in

which they

live, so that

they

can compel them to work their plantations, and raise horses, cattle, hogs,

and

cotton.

These

products of the labor of the oppressed, are appropriated by the oppressors to their

and taken into the markets

company proceed

to a

for sale.

community

own

use,

Another

of freemen,

on the coast of Africa, who have labored voluntarily during the year, seize their persons,

bind them, convey away their horses, hogs,

and

market.

cotton,

The

slaveholders;

first

cattle,

and take the property association

to

represents the

the second a band of robbers.

COTTON

244:

KING.

IS

The commodities of both offered for sale,

parties, are openly

and every one knows how the Those who

property of each was obtained.

believe the jper se doctrine, place both these associations in the

same moral Judged by

call

them robbers.

first

band are the more criminal,

deprived

them

forced

poiled

their

them of

this rule, the

as they

victims of personal

into

servitude,

and

category,

have

Hberty,

and then "des-

The

the fruits of their labor."*

second band have only deprived their victims of liberty, while they robbed

them

;

and thus

have committed but two crimes, while the have perpetrated tempt

their

at-

to negotiate the sale of their cotton,

say

company dispose

of

The

first

cargo without difficulty

*This

is

—no

more

one mani-

the phrase, nearly verbatim, used

ner in his speech on the Fugitive Slave little

first

parties

London.

in

These

three.

to the point, is

Bill.

by Mr. SumLanguage, a

used in " The Friendly Remon-

strance of the People of Scotland, on the Subject of Slavery,"

published in the American Missionary, September, 1855. depicting slavery

it

speaks of

it

as a

Victims of the fniits of their toil."

system " •which robs

In its

COTTON

KING.

IS

245

festing the slightest scruple at purchasing the

But the second com-

products of slave labor.

pany are not so true character its

members

is

to

where they are sen-

Court,

In vain do these robbers

A nti -Slavery

quote the Philadelphia

and Daniel O'Connel,

cotton

soon as their

ascertained, the police drag

tenced to Bridewell.

tion,

As

fortunate.

to

Conven-

prove that their

was obtained by means no more criminal

than that of the slaveholders, and that, therefore,

judgment ought

to

The

be reversed.

Court will not entertain such a plea, and they

have

to

endure the penalty of the law.

why this

And

difference, if slavery be

if the receiver

malum

of stolen property

ticeps criminis with the thief,

the Englishman,

who

!N"ow,

why

in sef

is

is

parthat

it,

should receive and

sell

the cotton of the robbers, would run the risk

of being sent to prison with them, while if he acted as agent of the slaveholders, he would be treated as an honorable

man?

K

the master

has no moral right to hold his slaves, in what respect can the products of their labor differ

from the property acquired by robbery ?

And

COTTON

£4$ if the

KING.

IS

property be the fruits of robbery,

can any one use

how

without violating con-

it,

science ?

We

have met with the following sage ex-

position of the question, in justification of the

use of slave labor products, by those lieve the^^T' se doctrine:

lands, gives his skill

the labor, and

The

slaves,

who

and intelligence

to direct

and clothes the

feeds

are

therefore,

be-

The master owns the

slaves.

entitled only to a

part of the proceeds of their labor, while the also justly entitled to a part of the

master

is

crop.

"When brought

chaser can not

into the market, the pur-

know what

part belongs, right-

fully, to the

master and what

the whole

offered in bulk.

is

to his slaves, as

He may,

there-

fore, purchase the whole, innocently, and throw

the

sinfulness of

master, if

who

\heper

sells

the

what belongs

se doctrine

the purchaser

is

transaction

be true,

upon the

to others. this

not a justification.

But

apology for

Where

a

" confusion of goods " has been made by one of the owners, so that they can not be separated, he

who " confused " them can have no

COTTON

KING.

IS

advantage, in law, from his

goods are awarded

known

well

this

247

own wrong, but

the

On

to the innocent party.

principle of law, this most

equitable rule, the master forfeits his right in

the property, and the purchaser, facts,

becomes a party in his

from

this,

knowing the

guilt.

But aside

the "confusion of goods," by the

master, can give

him no moral

right to dispose

own

of the interest of his slaves therein for his benefit;

and

the

persons

purchasing

property, acquire no moral right to

its

such

posses-

sion and use.

These are sound, logical views.

The argument

offered, in justification of those

who

hold that slavery

is

malum

strongest that can be made.

It

in

se, is

is

apparent,

then, from a fair analysis of their ciples, that

own

the

prin-

they are parti oeps criminis with

slaveholders.

Again,

if

the laws regulating the institution

of slavery, be morally null and void, and not

binding on the conscience, then the slaves have

a moral right

to the

proceeds of their labor.

This right can not be alienated by any act of the master, but attaches to the property where

COTTON

248 ever

may

it

may

KING.

IS

be taken, and to whomsoever This principle, in law,

be sold.

The

well established.

also

is

recent decision on the

" Gardiner fraud," confirms

it

money paid

serting, that the

it

;

the Court as-

out of the Treas-

ury of the United States, under such circumstances, continued its character as the

and property of the United

States,

be followed into the hands of those

money

and may

who cashed

the orders of Gardiner, and subsequently the money, but

who

of the said fund;

drew

are not the true owners

and

decreeing

that the

amount of funds, thus obtained, be

collected

and

off those

off the estate of said Gardiner,

who drew

fands from the Treasury, on his

orders.

These principles of law are so well understood,

by every man of

intelligence, that

we

can not conceive how those advocating the jper se doctrines,

the constant

if sincere,

use of

slave

can continue in

grown

products,

without a perpetual violation of conscience and of all moral law.

Taking them under protest^

against the slavery which produced them,

is

COTTON ridiculous.

KING.

IS

249

Reftising to fellowship the slave-

holder, while eagerly appropriatiDg the pro-

ducts of the labor of the slave, which he brings in his hand,

is

contemptible.

case of the kind, mittee,

for the

World's

ance.

One

The most noted

Com-

that of the British

who had charge

rangements the

is

of the preliminaiy ar-

admission of members to

Evangelical Alli-

Christian

of the rules

it

adopted, but which

the Alliance afterward modified, excluded all

American clergymen, suspected

of a

want of

orthodoxy on the jper se doctiine, from seats in that body.

Their language, to American

clergymen, was virtually, "Stand aside, I holier than thou ;" while, at the their

parishioners,

the

am

same moment,

manufacturers,

had

about completed the purchase of 62tl:,000,000 lbs.

of cotton,

mills,

for

consumption of their

the

during the year

;

the bales of which,

piled together, would have reached mountain-

high, displaying,

mostly, the brands,

"^ew

Orleans," " Mobile," " Charleston."

As

not a

word was

said,

against the Englishmen

by the Committee,

who were buying and

COTTON

250

KING.

IS

may

manufacturing American cotton, the case be viewed as one in which the

fruits of rob-

under protest against the

bery were taken

To

robbers themselves.

men,

all intelligent

the conduct of the people of Britain, in proas a system of rob-

testing against slavery,

bery, while continuing to purchase such enor-

mous

quantities

slaves, appears

produced by

of the cotton

as Pharisaical as the conduct

of the conscientious Scotchman, in early times,

Eastern

in

Pennsylvania,

who married

his

wife under protest against the Constitution and

laws of the Government, and especially, against the authority, power, and right of the magistrate

*

who had

An

just tied the knot.*

anecdote, illustrative of the pliability of some con-

sciences, of this apparently rigid class,

inclination

demands

it,

Governor Morrow, of Ohio. in Eastern Pennsylvania,

where

interest or

has often been told by the late

An

old Scotch " Cameronian,"

became a widower, shortly

the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

after

He

refused to acknowledge either the IS'ational or State Govern-

ments, but pronounced them both unlawful, unrighteous,

and ungodly.

Soon he began

to feel the

care for his motherless children.

want

The consent

of a wife, to

of a

woman

COTTON Such

pliable

KING.

IS

coDsciences,

251

doubtless,

are

very convenient in cases of emergency. as they relax

when

selfish

served, and

retain

their

But

ends are to be sub-

when

rigidity only

judging the conduct of others, the inference possessing them

that the persons

hypocritical, or else, as

in his

own Church was

would have been

like

the land of Canaan.

Israelite

marrying a daughter of

this point, as in refusing to

was

allegiance to Government, he

But now a practical

are either

was acknowledged by

gained, because to take any other

an

On

is,

controlled

by

There was

difficulty presented itself.

no minister of his church in the country

swear

conscience.

—and those

of other

denominations, in his judgment, had no Divine warrant for exercising the functions of the sacred the whole of them.

problem.

He

But how

He

office.

repudiated

to get married, that

was the

tried to persuade his intended to agree to a

marriage contract, before witnesses, which could be confirmed whenever a proper Scotland. plan. all

She must be married "

—because " people

want

minister

should

would

to the

like other folk," or not at

The Scotchman

talk so."

of a wife, like Great Britain for

very plainly that his children

from

airive

But his "lady-love" would not consent

want

must

of cotton,

suflfer;

resolved to get maiTied at all hazards, as cotton, but so as not to violate conscience.

for

saw

and so he

England buys her Proceeding with

COTTON

252

Parson D., in

have mistaken

KING.

IS

similar

circumstances,

they

their prejudices for their con-

sciences.

So festly,

far as Britain is concerned, she is,

much more

willing to receive

American

slave labor cotton for her factories, than

can republican principles

why

so?

The

for

mani-

Ameri-

And

her people.

by her, from the

profits derived

purchase and manufacture of slave labor cotton, constitute so large a portion of the

means of

her prosperity, that the Government could not sustain itself were the supplies of this article

his iutended to a magistrate's office, the ceremony

was soon

performed, and they twain pronounced " one flesh."

But

no sooner had he "kissed the bride," the sealing act of the contract of that day, than the good

written document from his pocket, before the officer

and witnesses

Cameronian drew a

which he read aloud

and in which he entered

;

his solemn protest against the authority of the Government of the United States, against that of the State of Pennsyl-

vania, and especially against the power, right,

ness of the acts of the magistrate

who had

and lawful-

just married him.

This done, he went his way, rejoicing that he had secured a wife without recognizing

the

lawfulness

governments, or violating his conscience.

of

ungodly

;

COTTON cut

It is

off.

KING.

IS

253

easy to divine, therefore,

why the

people of England are boundless in their denunciation of

American

slavery, while not a

remonstrance goes up to the throne,

single

against the importation of

Should she exclude unable

to

pay the

it,

American

the act would render her

interest

on her national debt

and many a declaimer against

would have

his income,

cotton.

slavery, losing

go supperless to

to

bed.

Let us

conti'ast

the

conduct of a pagan

government with that of Great Britain. the

Emperor of China became

fully

When

convinced

of his inability to resist the prowess of the British arms, in the famous " efforts

were made

traffic in

induce him to legalize the

opium, by levying a duty on

that

port,

to

Opium War,"

should yield

him a heavy

its

im-

profit.

This he refused to do, and recorded his decision in these

"

memorable words:

It is true, I

can not prevent the introduc-

tion of the flowing poison.

corrupt defeat

men

my

will, for

Gain-seeking and

profit

and sensuality,

wishes, but nothing will induce

me

COTTON

254 to derive a

of

my

IS

KING.

revcDuc from the vice and misery

people."*

Let us revert a

moment

to the case of rob-

bery, before cited, in further illustration of this

The

subject.

prisoners serve out their term in

Bridewell, and, after a year or two, again visit

Loudon with a cargo

The

of cotton.

police

recognize them, and they are a second time ar-

raigned before the court for

trial.

The judge de-

mands why they should have dared soil of

England, to

have neither outraged

sentiment of the laws.

on als

for

"While

to say,

products of

The prisoners assure

their robbery.

that they

to revisit the

offer for sale the

his honor

the

public

kingdom, nor violated

its

in your prison, sir," they go

" we became instructed in the mor-

of British economics.

our former

fault,

and

Anxious

to

atone

to restore ourselves to

the confidence and respect of the pious subjects

of your most gracious Queen, no sooner were

we the

released from prison, than

we hastened

to

African coast, from whence our former

• National Intelligencer, 1854.

COTTON

13

KING.

265

cargo was obtained, and seizing the self-same

men whom we had them

off,

We

They

but

we mastered fruits of their

previous labors. fields, to

we bore

touched none of the

resisted sturdily,

them.

formerly robbed,

bodily, to the soil of Texas. it

is true,

Their cotton

we

in the

left

be drenched by the rains or drifted

by the winds

because, to have brought

;

it

into

your markets would have subjected us, anew,

your dungeons.

to a place in

In Texas,

we

brought om- prisoners under the control of the laws, which give us

power

the overseer, they have produced cotton,

them

to hold

as

Stimulated to labor, under the lash of

slaves.

which

is

now

as a lawful article of commerce. subjects of your

a crop of

offered in your markets

We

Government, and,

are not

therefore,

not indictable under your laws against slavetrading.

Your honor,

will perceive, then, that

our moral relations are changed.

now

We

to your shores, not as dealers in

come stolen

property, but as slaveholders with the products

of slave labor.

We

are aware that huiikum,

speakers, at your public assemblies, denounce

COTTON

256

IS

KING.

the slaveholder as a thief, and his appropriation of the fruits of the labor of his slaves, as

We comprehend the motives promptWe come not to attend

robbery.

ing such utterances.

meetings of Ecclesiastical Conventions, representing the republican principles of America, to unsettle the doctrines

of your

kingdom

cotton planters, cotton,

that

is

upon which the throne

based.

But we come

as

supply your looms with

to

British

commerce may not be

abridged, and England, the great civilizer of the world,

may

not be forced to slack her pace

in the performance of her mission.

character and position; at once see that est of

it is

This

is

and your honor

your duty, and the

our will

inter-

your Government to treat us as gentle-

men and your most

The judge

faithful allies."

at once admits the justice of their plea, rebukes

the police, apologizes to the prisoners, assures

them

that they have violated no

realm; and that, though the

law of the

j)ublic

sentiment

of the nation denounces the slaveholder as a thief,

yet the public necessity

demands a

supply of cotton from the planter.

He

full

then

COTTON

IS

KING.

257

orders their inimediate discbarge, and invites

them

to partake of the hospitalities of his

house

during their stay in London. This

is

a

example of British

fair

consist-

ency, on the subject of slavery, so far as the

supply of cotton

concerned.

is

The reason can now be hended,

why

clearly compre-

Abolitionists have

had so

little

moral power over the conscience of the slaveTheir practice has been inconsistent

holder.

with their precepts

;

or, at least, their

has been liable to this construction,

we

percieve

how

conduct l^or do

they can exert a more potent

influence, in the future, unless their energies

are directed to efforts such as will relieve

them

from a position so inconsistent with their professions, as that of constantly

purchasing pro-

ducts which they, themselves, declare to be the fruits

of robbery.

remain as they

While, therefore, things

are, witli the

dependent upon slave labor,

world so largely

how can

it

be

otherwise, than that the system will continue to flourish?

by

And

all classes,

22

while

its

products are used

of every sentiment, and country,

;

COTTON

258 nearly,

how can

KING.

IS

the slaveholder be brought to

see anything, in the practice of the world, to

alarm his conscience, and make him cringe, before his fellow-men, as a guilty robber

?

But, has nothing worse occurred from the

advocacy of the jper

se doctrine,

than an exhi-

bition of inconsistency on the part of Abolitionists,

and the perpetuation of slavery

sulting from their conduct

?

re-

This has occurred.

Three highly respectable religious denominations,

now limited

to the I^orth,

had once many

flourishing congregations in the South.

On

by

their

the adoption of the

Synods,

respective

came

per

se doctrine,

their

congregations

be-

disturbed, were soon after broken up, or

the ministers in charge

had

to seek other fields

Their system of religious instruc-

of labor.

tion, for the family,

being quite thorough, the

slaves were deriving

much advantage from the bodies. But when they

influence

of

these

resolved to withhold the Gospel from the master,

unless

he would emancipate, they also

withdrew the means of grace from the slave and, so far as they were concerned,

left

him

to

COTTON

IS

KING.

perish eternally!

Whether

proper, or whether

it

to

259 course was

this

would have beeu

better

have passed by the morality of the legal

relation, in the creation of

which the master

had no agency, and considered him, under Providence, as the moral guardian of the slave,

bound

guardian's duty to an

to discharge a

immortal being, we shall Attention

determine.

is

not undertake to

called to

the facts,

merely, to show the practical effects of the action of these Churches

what the per

him of

upon the

se doctrine has

slave,

and

done in depriving

the Gospel.

Another remark, and we have done with Kothing

this topic.

is

more common,

in cer-

tain circles, than denunciations of the Christian

men and

ministers,

se principle.

who

"We leave others

these censures are merited. tain

:

those

and

civil

who

to

ftdly,

thing

believe that slavery

social evil, entailed

slave,

judge whether

One upon

and are extending the Gospel

and

ihQper

refuse to adopt

to

is

is cer-

a great

the country,

both master

with the hope of removing

it

peace-

can not be reproached with acting incon-

COTTON

260

IS

KING.

sistently

with their principles

declare

slavery

fellowship

malum

in

;

while those

and refuse

se^

may

fairly

be

on their own principles, with the

hypocritical people of Israel,

who were

thou to do to declare shouldst take

my

my

"What

hast

thou

covenant in thy mouth ?

thou sawest a

thief,

sentedst vTith him."*

* Psalm

1:

thus

statutes, or that

reproached by the Most High:

When

to

the Christian slaveholder, but yet

use the products of slave labor, classified,

who

16,18.

then thou

*

*

con-

CO]S"CLUSION. In concluding our labors, there

The work

of extended observation. cipation, in our country,

need

is little

of

Eman-

was checked, and the

extension of slavery promoted:

—

first,

by the

neglect of the free colored people to improve

the advantages afibrded

them

;

second, by the

increasing value imparted to slave labor

by the mistaken policy lish

into

;

third,

which the Eng-

and American Abolitionists have

Whatever reasons might now be

fallen.

oflfered

for

emancipation, from an improvement of our free colored people, is far

balanced by

its failure

more than counter-

in the

West

Indies,

and

the constantly increasing value of the labor of the slave.

K,

when

the planters had only a

moiety of the markets for cotton, the value of slavery

was such

how must the when they have

as

to arrest

obstacles be

the

emancipation,

increased,

now,

monopoly of the markets

of the world ? 261

COTTON

262

"We propose not

and

human wisdom. must have its

speak of remedies for

to

That we leave

slavery.

this great civil

KING.

IS

Thus

to others.

Either some radical defect

measm-es devised for

existed, in the

removal, or the time has not yet come for assailing

successfully

work

the

its

varied relations to om- agricultural,

and

commercial,

social

interests.

monopoly of the culture of slavery

its

the

cotton, imparts to

Slave labor products have

necessities of

human

life,

the Christian world.

is

main-

now become

to the extent of

than half the commercial

made

As

economical value, the system will

continue as long as this monopoly tained.

Our we have

institution.

completed, in the delineation

is

given of

is

far

social evil, has baffled all

articles

Even

more

supplied to

free labor, itself,

largely subservient to slavery,

vitally interested in its perpetuation

and

and ex-

tension.

Can It

may

this condition of things

be changed?

be reasonably doubted, whether any-

thing efficient can be speedily accomplished; not because there

is

lack of territory where

COTTON freemen

may

tion, as all is

KING.

IS

be employed in tropical cultiva-

Western and Central Africa, nearly,

adapted to this pm-pose

ligent less

263

;

not because intel-

under proper incentives,

free labor,

productive than slave labor

is

but because

;

freemen, whose constitutions are adapted to tropical climates, will not avail themselves of

commencing such

the opportunity offered for

an enterprise.

King Cotton

cares not whether he employs

slaves or freemen. slaves^

It

upon which

the cotton^ not the

is

Let

his throne is based.

freemen do his work as well, and he will not

The

object to the change.

powerful object,

ally,

cost

hundreds of millions of

reward

for

her

people

dollars,

her zeal.

many

with total

One-sixth of

the colored people of the United States free; but they

are

shun the cotton regions, and

have been instructed Liberia.

most

Great Britain, to promote that

have already

failure as a

efforts of his

to detest emigration to

Their improvement has not been

such as was anticipated

;

and their more rapid

advancement can not be expected, while they

!

COTTON

264

IS

KING.

The

remain in the country.

free colored peo-

ple of the British AYest Indies, can no longer

be relied on to furnish tropical products, for they are resting contented in a state of almost

savage indolence.

Hayti

promising condition

;

is

not in a

and even

if it

were,

population

and

enable

meet the increasing demand.

it

too

territory

toil, !

riding on,

is

He

His

forced to

is

continue the employment of his slaves

conquer

its

are too limited to

Majesty, King Cotton, therefore,

their

more

;

conquering

and, by

and

to

receives no check from the cries

of the oppressed, while the citizens of the world are dragging forward his chariot, and shouting

aloud his praise

King Cotton

is

a profound statesman, and

knows what measures throne.

He

is

will best

sustain

an acute mental philosopher,

acquainted with the secret springs of action,

He

men can grow

capacity of slaves.

made

human

and accurately perceives who can best

promote his aims. colored

his

has no evidence that

his cotton, except in the

Thus

far, all

experiments

to increase the production of cotton,

by

;

COTTON

IS

KING.

265

emancipating the slaves employed in vation,

have been a

total

policy,

therefore,

defeat

emancipation.

to

To do

all

he

this,

its culti-

is

his

schemes

of

failm-e.

It

stirs

up snch

agitations as lure his enemies into measures that will do tician is

him no

The venal

injury.

always at his

poli-

and assumes the

call,

may

form of saint or sinner, as the service

demand. siast,

Isor

does he overlook the enthu-

engaged in Quixotic endeavors

relief of suflering

to advocate

for the

humanity, but influences him

measures which tend

to tighten,

instead of loosing the bands of slavery.

Or,

if

he can not be seduced into the support of such schemes, he

is

his strength

on objects the most impracticable

beguiled into

so that slavery receives no

efforts that

waste

damage from

the

But should

exuberance of his philanthropy.

such a one, perceiving the futility of his labors,

and the

evils of his course,

avert the consequences

some new

mer

recruit

place, charges

;

make an attempt

while he

is

doing

to

this,

pushed forward into his

for-

him with lukewarmness,

or

pro-slavery sentiments, destroys his influence

23

;

COTTON

^06

KING.

IS

with the public, keeps alive the delusions, and sustains the supremacy of

King Cotton

in the

world.

In speaking of the economical connections of slavery, with the other material interests of the world,

ance. Its

we have

It is

structure includes

thus

:

it

a tri-partite alli-

this.

;

American

quadruple.

It is

four parties,

The "Western Agriculturists

ern Planters the

called

more than

;

arranged the South-

the English Manafacturers Abolitionists

By

!

;

and

this arrange-

ment, the Abolitionists do not stand in direct contact with slavery; they imagine, therefore, that they

have clean hands and pure hearts, so

far as sustaining the system

they,

no

less

than their

the interests of slavery.

is

allies,

concerned.

But

aid in promoting

Their sympathies are

with England on the slavery question, and they very naturally incline to agree with her on other points.

She advocates Free Trade^ as

essential to her manufactures

and commerce

and they do the same, not waiting into its bearings refer

now

to inquire

upon American Slavery.

We

to the people, not to their leaders,

COTTON whose

integrity

free trade

we

KING.

IS

26f

choose not to indorse.

and protective systems, in

The

their bear-

ings upon slavery, are so well understood, that

no

man

or

member

of general reading, especially an editor,

who

of Congress,

professes Anti-

Slavery sentiments, at the same time advo-

men

of

what he may, that he

is

cating free trade, will ever convince intelligence, pretend

not either woefully perverted in his judgment, or emphatically, a " dough-face " in disguise

England, we were about

to say, is in alliance

with the cotton planter,

to

free trade is indispensable.

in alliance with England. parties,

then

whose prosperity Abolitionism

Western farmer, to this principle.

It

the

needed but the aid of the

therefore, to give

permanency

His adhesion has been given,

the quadruple alliance has been perfected,

slavery and

is

All three of these

agree in their support of

free trade policy.

!

fr-ee ti'ade

and

nationalized I

Slavery, thus entrenched in the midst of

such powerful

allies,

and without competition

in tropical cultivation,

has become the sole

COTTON

268 reliance of

IS

KING.

King Cotton.

Lest the sources of

his aggrandisement should be assailed,

him

well imagine in

as being engaged, constantly,

new

devising

questions

of agitation,

divert the public from all attempts to free trade

He now

an ample source of

to

abandon

and restore the protective

finds

we can

policy.

security, in

this respect, in agitating the question of slavery

extension.

This exciting topic, as

said, serves to

keep

we have

politicians of the Abolition

school at the Korth in his constant employ.

But

for the agitation of this

men would

these

succeed

suflfrages of the people.

subject,

few of

in obtaining the

Wedded

to

England's

free trade policy, their votes in Congress, all questions affecting the tariff, are

perfect

harmony with Southern

work no mischief

to the

is

and

system of slavery.

If

as a slave State,

secure in the political power it will give

in Congress it

always in

interests,

Kansas comes into the Union he

will

still

but

;

him

received as a free State,

be ti-ibutary to him, as a source

from whence slaves.

if it is

on

to

draw provisions

'Nov does

it

matter

to feed

his

much which way

COTTON the controversy

is

KING.

IS

269

decided, so long as

all

agree

not to disturb slavery in the States where

abeady established by law. ton be assured that

this

position will not be

abandoned, he would care

about slavery

little

Kansas; but he knows

in

it ia

Could King Cot-

full

public sentiment in the Xorth

is

well that the

adverse to the

system, and that the present race of politicians

may

readily be displaced by others

pledge themselves to

its

States of the Union.

Hence he

the

power over the question in

The

crisis

now upon

who

overthrow in

all

will

the

wills to retain his

own hands.

the country, as a con-

sequence of slavery having become dominant,

demands

that the highest

wisdom should be

brought to the management of national

affairs.

now be managed It can now be consent of those who

Slavery, nationalized^ can

only as a national concern. abolished only with the sustain

it.

Their assent can be gained only

on employing other agents it

now

supplies.

if at all,

It

to

meet the wants

must be superseded, then,

by means that will not injuriously

affect the interests of

commerce and

agricul-

COTTON

270

ture, to -whicli it is

None

iliary.

IS

now

KING.

so important an aux-

accepted, for a

other will be

To supply

moment, by the slaveholder.

demand

existing

by the present mode, the change,

is

not the

is

the

except

for tropical products,

To make

impossible.

work of a day, nor

of a

Should the influx of foreigners

generation.

such a change may, one day, be

continue,

But

possible.

to

the

effect

transition

from

slavery to freedom, on principles that will be

acceptable to the parties tion; to devise

who

measures as will produce left

control the ques-

and successfully sustain such this result

;

must be

statesmen of broader views and

to

conceptions than are to be found at present

engaged in

loftier

among

those

this great controversy.

In noticing the strategy by which the Abolitionists

were rendered subservient

to slavery,

through the ignorance or duplicity of their leaders,

in

We

we

refer to the political action, only,

which they were induced yield to

early

to

participate.

none in our veneration

for the

Anti-Slavery men, whose zeal for the

overthrow of oppression, and the

relief of the

COTTON

KING.

IS

country from what they considered

was kindled

curse,

thropy ; and to

its

greatest

at the altar of a pui-e philan-

whom

ments had few

271

official

atti^actions.

honors and emolu-

We intend

not to

disparage such men.

Those who believe that slavery

is

a Divine

Institution^ which should be perpetuated; as

well as those

a

malum

in

who se^

hold the sentiment, that

must be

that

it is

instantly aban-

doned; entertain views so much

at variance

with the practical judgment of the world, that they can never hope to see their principles

The doctrine

become dominant. right of Slavery^ of the

age,

is

Divine

Divine right of Thej?er se doctrine, more

as that of the

Kings or of Pojpes. plausible at

of the

as repugnant to the spirit

first

view,

is

everywhere practically

repudiated in the business ti-ansactions of the

world

;

and involves Christians who profess

it,

not only in every-day inconsistencies, but bars their access to the master,

and dooms the slave

to perpetual ignorance.

These two extreme views can not become prevalent

;

but

must

remain

circumscribed

COTTON

272

IS

KING.

within the narrow limits to which they have

been

confined.

hitherto

country that

it

It

well for the

is

These parties are so

so.

is

antagonistic, that their policy has harmonized

in nothing but the triumph of slavery, and the

increase of the dangers of a dissolution of the

Union.

The view, Social

that slavery is a great Civil

evil^ identical

potism^

is

beset with fewer difficulties, meets

with less opposition, and

is likely to

maintains that slavery

on humanity,

like

is

an incubus, pressing

despotism

form ; and sinful^ ^^J-) so

is

increased under

many

in

far as

This liability to abuse,

fact, that

become

This view

the prevalent belief of the world.

power.

and

in jprincijple with Des-

American

it

any other abuses

it is

its

admitted,

slavery, from the

while a single despot often governs

millions of subjects, with us, three hun-

dred and

fifty

thousand masters rule over but

three millions two hundred and

fifty

thousand

slaves; subjecting them, not to uniform laws,

but to an endless diversity of treatment, as

benevolence or cupidity

may

dictate.

;

COTTON

How far mission of

IS

KING.

273

masters in general escape the comtreatment of their slaves,

sin, in the

or whether any are free from guilt,

is

not the

The

point at issue, in this view of slavery.

mere possession

of

power over the

the sanction of law, but, like despotism,

:

under

held not to be sinful

is

may

Here

of the governed.

importance

slave,

be used for the good a question of

arises

Can despotism be acknowlged by

Christians as a lawful form

of government?

Those who hold the view of slavery under consideration,

answer in

the

The

affirmative.

necessity of civil government, they say, is de-

nied by none. absence.

Society can not exist in

Republicanism can be sustained only

where the majority are

intelligent

In no other condition can free

be maintained. itself,

its

and moral. government

Hence, despotism establishes

of necessity,

more

or less absolutely, over

an ignorant or depraved people

obtaining the

;

acquiescence of the enlightened, by offering

them

security to person

and property.

nations, indeed, possess moral ficient to

elevation

maintain republicanism.

Few suf-

Many have

COTTON

274

KING.

IS

and relapsed

tried it;

have

potism.

Republican nations, therefore, must

forego

all

failed,

intercourse

with despotic govern-

ments, or acknowledge them This can be done,

it is

into des-

be

to

lawful.

claimed, without being

accountable for moral evils connected with their

Elevated examples of such

administration.

recognitions are on record. to Caesar

;

Christ paid tribute

and Paul, by appealing

to Caesar's

tribunal, admitted the validity of the despotic

government of Rome, with

To deny

slaves.

its

thirty millions of

the lawfulness of despotism,

and yet hold intercourse with such governments,

is

as inconsistent as to hold the jper se

doctrine, in regard to slavery, to

use

its

products.

and

still

continue

Slavery and despotism

being identical in principle,

it

follows that the

considerations which justify the recognition of the one, will apply equally to the other.

Another thought, in itself

ing.

upon the

this connection,

attention,

crowds

and demands a hear-

Despotism, though recognized as lawful,

from necessity,

moral men.

is

repugnant to enlightened and

The notions

of equity, everywhere

COTTON prevailing,

KING.

IS

makes them

275

revolt at the idea of

despotism contimiing perpetually. timie

will, in

it

norance

is

mankind

But con-

one form or another, until ig-

banished, and the moral elevation of effected.

Hence

it is

that Christian

philanthropists, clearly comprehending the truth

on

this point,

the days of

have labored, unremittingly, from

John Knox,

to the present

among

moment,

the Scotch Reformer, to

promote education

the people, and thus prepare

the enjoyment of civil liberty. eration, leading Christian

men

them

for

Every considto labor to super-

sede Despotism by Republicanism, demands,

with equal force, that Slavery shall be superseded by Freedom.

gained

it

is

Despotism as

There

is

an advantage

thought, in ranking Slavery and identical.

It links the fate of the

one with that of the other.

None

but fanatics,

however, will attempt to reap before they sow.

Xone who comprehend

the causes of the failure

of republicanism in France, and of emancipation in

Hayti and Jamaica, will desire

to wit-

ness a repetition of the ti'agedies there enacted.

The

benefits repaid not the treasure

and the

COTTON

276 blood they

cost.

IS

KING.

But these tragedies have

taught a lesson easily comprehended.

Moral

elevation must precede the enjoyment of

The advance

privileges.

be the measure by which of the latter

endangered.

;

in the former,

civil

must

to regulate the grant

otherwise the safety of society

Upon

is

these principles most of

the States have acted, in denying to the free

colored people an equality of political rights

;

and before any change of policy takes place in these States, there intellectual

must be an elevation of the

and moral condition of that people.

Efforts for their

education, therefore,

should

supersede the struggles for their political en-

who profess can be elevated among the

franchisement, by those

to believe

that they

whites.

The concessions everywhere made, by Abolitionists, as to the intellectual

the

and moral

debasement of the great majority of the

free

colored people, and the necessity of a radical

reform

among them, must make an impression

on the public mind.

Ignorant and degraded

men, in the possession of dangerous element in

free

political rights, are

governments.

a

It is

COTTON

KING.

IS

277

now

a conviction of this truth, that

agitates

the public mind, on the question of limiting

who may

the political privileges of foreigners, hereafter

begets

ask the rights of citizenship; and

the

hostility,

among Americans,

excluding the Bible from

But why Bible in

much

so

Common

Common

zeal, it is asked, for the

Schools

In the language

?

of another, we, in turn, would ask

''How comes

that that

it

to

Schools.

:

volume,

little

composed by humble men in a rude age, when art

and science were but in

their childhood,

has exerted more influence on the

human mind

and on the

all

system, than

social

Whence comes

books put together ?

the other it

that this

book has achieved such marvelous changes in the opinions of

worship

—has

mankind

abolished

down polygamy and dition of lic

thing, a

—has put —exalted the con-

^raised the

Christian

banished idol

infanticide

divorce

— —created

woman

morality

—has

standard of pub-

for families that blessed

home

—and

produced

its

other triumphs by causing benevolent institutions,

open and expansive, to spring up as with

— COTTON

278 the

wand

book

KING. "What sort of a

enchantment?

of

that even the winds and

is this,

human

IS

passion obey

What

it?

waves of

other engine

of social improvement has operated so long,

and yet

lost

peared,

many

have been

none of

virtues

its

?

Since

it

ap-

boasted plans of amelioration

and

tried

failed,

many

codes of

jurisprudence have arisen, and run their course,

Empire

and expired.

after

empire has been

launched upon the tide of time, and gone down, leaving no trace upon the waters.

book

But

this

going about doing good, leaving

is still

—cheering the consolation —strengthening sorrowful with the tempted —encouraging the patient—calming the troubled —and smoothing the with society

holy principles

its

its

spirit

Can such

pillow of death.

spring of ness of of the

human

its

effects

power

The

to

feeling

this question,

than have to

genius

my

may

Does not the

off-

vast-

demonstrate the excellency

be of of

?

a book be the

God

?"

every true American,

on

be thus expressed: "Eather

offspring deprived of free access

the fountain of all true morality

rather

COTTON than see the chiklren of the Bible

—

from

I

would

With

a calamity.

common

IS

KING.

my

country deprived of

sacrifice all to

schools, farewell to republican;

these sentiments, that the

amoDg

farewell to religion!"

matter of rejoicing, to

is

prevent such

the banishment of the Bible

ism; farewell to morality It

279

all

work of

the slaves, under the

who hold

insti'uction,

supervision of

several of the largest religious denominations

in the countiy,

is

progressing, slowly,

The Bible

be, but successfully.

slaves as well as the masters.

of the missionary, engaged

is

it

may

among

the

The presence

in his labor of love,

in the midst of the slave population,

is

an

ample demonstration, that the master recognizes his slave as an immortal being, with a

soul to be saved or instruction,

lost.

increased

and

With

this

work of

perpetuated,

the

slave will one day, reach that point of moral elevation,

when

his

bondage may be

safely

superseded by freedom.

But what

of

the

Free Colored People?

Their condition and prospects are before the reader.

Their agency in checking emancipa-

COTTON

280 tion,

when

become to

was

it

KING.

IS

in successful progress, has

Their submission, voluntarily,

history.

become "hewers of wood and drawers of

water,"

is

Whoever

a melancholy projects

a

fact,

visible

all.

scheme

practicable

abolition, that will again offer

to

of

inducements to

general emancipation, and hasten the redemp-

must include

tion of the colored race,

measures, as the

first

and radical

elevation of those already free this,

The

and more than half the work

not the field

tian

principle, the

Accomplish is

completed.

theater for such an achievement is not the

United States. is

!

in his

men

It is

—

^it

Africa

—Liberia.

must be abandoned.

at the South,

now

Utopia Chris-

hesitate to emanci-

pate their slaves, and cast them, helpless, upon the frigid charities of the North!

Africa be once redeemed,

But

let civilization

let

and

Christianity spread over a few millions of

its

population, and the moral effect would be irresistible.

Every rational objection

to

emancipa-

tion

would be

ter,

as his slaves attained sufficient moral ele-

vation,

at

an end.

Every Christian mas-

would say to them, "Brothers, go free!"

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX.

282 •(f

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STATISTICS.

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283

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284 II

APPENDIX

—TABLE

I

Continued.

2S5

STATISTICS |:l St.

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STATISTICS .23

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287

APPENDIX.

288

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289

APPENDIX.

290

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— APPENDIX

292

—TABLE

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Continued.

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— 294

APPENDIX

—TABLE

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STATISTICS. too

295

APPENDIX

296

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297

APPENDIX.

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