their boundless resources and exalted destiny, binds | merchandise in war? Is it because the North exour hearts and efforts to them. May they prosper clusively is the source of trade—the producer and forever! This they can only do, by cultivating the exporter of all the great staples of commerce ? their mind and their heart along with their soil, Far from it. We have explained the exposed sitand by taking the same care in the development of uation of the Gulf, und dwelt on the neglected demoral and intellectual riches, as of agricultural. fences of the South. We shall now endeavor to Let Education go hand in hand with Population: show, for we think we can, that at least two-thirds Let material progress be but an exponent of moral of this commerce takes its rise in these neglected and social Improvement: Let Religion plant her regions, and first tempts the dangers of the sea in temples and spread her benign influences through- this exposed quarter. out their extent, their prosperity will be permanent, and their inevitable and tremendous power be all exerted for the public weal. External, material prosperity ever bears with it the seeds of decay; but internal prosperity, founded on virtue, will be a tower of strength and a source of blessing for

ever.

The commerce of the United States is estimated, by the Secretary of the Navy, in his last annual report, at one hundred and fifty millions of dollars the year. This estimate includes only the value of those articles of American production, which are exposed to the perils of the sea on their way to market, whether in the coasting or the forWhilst the South and West have strong and im-eign trade. We include the coasting trade, beperative claims upon the country, they also owe it cause a vessel with a cargo from New-Orleans to many high duties, especially the West. In view New-York or Boston is just as much exposed to of her rapid and unparalleled increase, of the teem- dangers, and requires the same degree of protecing millions she will soon hold, and the prepon- tion, on her way out from the Gulf, as though she derance to which she must attain, she is under a were bound to Europe. Of what, let us ask, by fearful responsibility towards the rest of the coun- the way, does this yearly commerce of one huntry. Let her not prove recreant or unfaithful! dred and fifty millions of dollars consist? It conBut no man, no nation was ever yet prepared for a sists chiefly of cotton, of sugar and tobacco, of proper discharge of high trusts, who waited until corn, rice and flour, of pork, hemp, lard and beef. the time had arrived for their immediate perform- Where do these articles grow, and whence do they ance. Preparation must be made beforehand; come? They grow upon the savannahs of the measures must be taken immediately for the far- South, and come down from the plains of the West, thest future. Whether the West shall honora- through a thousand streams and channels to the bly acquit herself of this great responsibility, is Gulf of Mexico, that great ventricle of commerce; not a matter of indifference to the humblest of where, receiving a new impulse, they are sent out our citizens. Nor is her preparation for it to be through the exposed Straits of Florida, into those left to herself, or to the General Government. ramified veins of trade, which give life and health, Not only Statesmen and politicians; but patriots, vigor and animation to all parts of our great comphilanthropists, the friends of Missionary Enter-mercial system. prise, of Education and every other moral agency, in every part of the Union, should engage heartily in this great work. As brethren, as fellow freemen, whose "lives, fortunes and sacred honor" are involved in the same fate, we should in a comprehensive and patriotic, but no intermedling or officious spirit, "look not only upon our own affairs; but also upon the affairs of our neighbors."

[Ed. Mess.

MARITIME INTERESTS OF THE SOUTH AND WEST.

With these questions and explanations, we enter upon the proof of our proposition, by first taking a hasty glance at the cotton trade, the great staple of American commerce.

We have before us a memorandum, obtained from the private papers of our venerable consul, at Liverpool, the late Mr. James Maury. In it, the imports there of American cotton are stated

At 5 bales in 3 vessels for 1785.
6 66
66
"2
66 1786.
108 66
665 66
282 46 " 6 66

46 1787.

46 1788.

Of all sections of the Union, the States on the Gulf and South Atlantic are most open to aggresWhereas, during only one week in the month of sion and liable to attack. Here, national defences March, 1843, there arrived, in that port, not less are most needed, and should be the strongest; but than 177,515 bales, brought from the United States, here they have been most neglected, and are the by such a fleet of ships as never before had been weakest. Shall the North be defended and not seen to enter that harbor. This immense yield was also the South? Consider the commercial resour- all the product of the South, but not a tithe of the ces of the South and West-their kind soil and ge- last crop grown there. The entire crop of 1842 nial climates—their present wealth and future des- did not fall much short of two and a half millions* tiny-and say, why is it that so little has been done of bales, which, at the low average of five cents a to foster their interests in peace, to protect their

* It was about 2,350,000 bales.

pound, or twenty dollars a bale, give fifty millions, or one-third of the whole commerce of the country, in this one item alone. At least three-fourths of this passed through the Straits of Florida, a prey to whomsoever would spoil it.

In the actual enjoyment of such a trade, and with such prospects of commercial grandeur and future wealth before them,-with the voice of the sea, and the noise of its waves continually to remind them of its defenceless borders, and the dangers to which their commerce is exposed upon it,—with the living picture of helpless and unprotected merchantmen reflected from the still waters of their harbors, for daily contemplation,—why should the people of the South and West longer hold their

Are Southern planters content with this? Be it so. They, of all others, have the deepest stake in hedge; to prop and uphold it, is becoming more and more important every day, and the inducements to pluck it, greater and greater every year. The growth of cotton in the South Atlantic States has peace? remained nearly stationary for the eighteen years,

That the means of coast defence and naval profrom 1824 to 1841 inclusive; but, during the same tection at the South, should have been considered period, in the Gulf States, it has regularly doubled of little or no importance to the nation at large, itself every six years. We quote from the Com-thirty years ago, is not surprising; for then, the mercial Circular, of March 30th, of Maury, quantity of Southern and Western produce that Brothers, New-York, whose statements are worthy of the utmost confidence.

1st 6 years.

Actual averages of the 18 cotton crops from 1824 to 1841.
2d 6 years.
3d 6 years.
522,000 bales
504,000

Atl. States, 433,000 bales
Gulf States, 253,000

46

66

529,000 bales
1,030,000"

For this, we have twice been at war; for this, harbors are fortified, and armed cruisers commissioned to roam the ocean; it was for this, that a Navy was created and is maintained; and under the spirit of this it is, that we claim for the South means sufficient for protection and defence, or at least equal to those afforded to the North.

was sent to sea for a market, was comparatively of but little value. The cultivation of cotton was then in its infancy, and the rewards of the country neither developed nor understood. But now, by remaining inactive upon this subject, Southern and Western statesmen would be neither loyal to their country, true to themselves, nor faithful over the important trusts handed down to them for their own According to the rate and ratio here involved, political well-being, and for the benefit of succeedthe Gulf crop of 1842—the last in market-should ing generations. One of the great objects of our not fall short of 1,600,000 bales;-its actual amount fathers in the federal compact, was mutual defence was over 1,700,000. If we attempt to calculate to the States,-protection in life, liberty and propthe resources of this region, or to estimate its grow-erty to those among us "who go down to the sea ing and future commercial importance, we shall in ships, and do business upon the great waters." not be able to assign any limits thereto, except those of demand and supply. When the first handful of cotton arrived in England, half a century ago, could it have entered into the mind of Adam Smith, or of the most gifted seer, that has ever indulged visions of political economy, to conceive that the fleecy cargo which was then seen coming over the sea, was destined to spread itself, in a little while, In 1830, there was no direct commercial interlike Ahab's cloud, over the realms of commerce, course between this country and the British possesand to make the broad ocean white with ships and sions in the West Indies. The proclamation of trade? So requisite and indispensable has this that year opened the ports of those islands to our article now become in our domestic economy, that agricultural produce, from which has sprung up a we, of the present day, cannot well conceive where- trade of four or five millions a year, chiefly with with man was clothed in comfort before he used cot- Southern and Western produce as the basis;-the ton as raiment. As its growth and consumption, corn trade from N. Orleans alone amounting annually in times past, have baffled all calculations, so they to two or three millions of bushels. Since then, the may, in times to come. To others, but not to us, crown duties upon Western pork and lard have it belongs to interpret and expound those laws of been remitted by Act of Parliament, and they may trade, by which its future increase is to be regula- now be imported into the English West Indies, ted, and the ultimate bounds set to its laws. But subject only to colonial duties. This has given a as for the resources of this cotton region, and its fresh impulse to the lard trade, which is a new bucapacities of supply,—there appear to be no limits, siness just started up within the last year or two, which fancy, in its widest range, may reach. If through New Orleans, and bids fair, in a short time, we take a bale, as the average yield of an acre of to rival the whale fishery in value:-armed cruiground, the statistics of the last census show, that sers are sent round the world to give protection to the whole quantity of land planted down and culti- this latter in every sea, for it is a Northern intervated in cotton, throughout all the Southern and est; and, as Southerners, it is our pride and boast Western States, would not, if brought near and * Rival the whale fishery! The receipts of lard at Newthrown altogether in one broad plantation, equal Orleans for the season up to 14th, June were 6,000,000 the twelfth part of the State of Mississippi alone. 'gallons.

that it should be so protected; but as for the safe a year-are supplied from the South and West. conduct of the former, and all the commercial We have shown that one-third, or fifty millions, wealth of the regions whence it comes,-nothing has is furnished in the item of cotton alone. We been done to secure a safe passage for it in war, return now to the text, and proceed with the deeven as far as the ocean. The whaling interest is monstration, quoting official documents for proof. not more at the mercy of an enemy upon the shores We have been accustomed to consider Pennsylof Japan, than are the market ships of the South vania and New-York as great grain growing States, and West in the Straits of Florida. and to look upon the cotton growing States as conAlmost every year witnesses the introduction sumers, rather than producers of this article. But into the Crescent City, of some new article of trade the census of 1840 shows the true state of the case from the teeming valley of the West. There is to be far different from this. Including all the ceno city in the world with such a back country, and real grains, New-York averages but 21. bushels to so many undeveloped resources as this, and, as a the inhabitant,-Georgia, 35,-Pennsylvania but commercial emporium, none so much in its infan- 33, and Tennessee, 68.* Taking away the cotcy. Yet its friends have stood by and witnessed ton from the produce of those States which grow the unaided struggles of this young Hercules, with it, and viewing them in the light of grain growers the monsters sent down in the jealousy of a North- only, the census shows that they average a greater ern Juno to strangle it in its cradle. The public yield of bread stuffs, than their sister States at treasury has been taxed with heavy expenditures the North and East, who, for the last thirty years, for building sea-walls and breakwaters in the North; have been wringing from them the sinews of but what, in comparison, has been done to deepen war. The average quantity of wheat, corn, the bars at the Balize, or to keep open a navigable and other cereal grains produced in New England channel up to New Orleans? The first standard and the Atlantic States, as far down as Virginia that was unfurled in the cause of independence, had included, is twenty-two bushels for each person. for device, a disjointed snake, of which New England was represented by the head, Georgia by the tail, and each of the other States in order, by a joint. Over this was inscribed "unite or die." This was a favorite conceit at the North, and is If we bear in mind the fact, that wheat is the still to be seen on some of the early coats-of-arms great article of food for man at the North, and proposed for those States; and to this day, a part Indian corn at the South, and if we consider farof it is preserved on the seal of the War Depart-ther that the slaves and laboring classes of whites at ment. Was there not, in this device, something the South, consume no flour, but use corn bread exemblematical of the relations which the South has clusively, we shall find that Georgia is quite as since been made to hold to the North? Wiley and grasping, the North has enjoyed every thing like favor and protection, from the federal arms, while the South has been put off with a mere rattle. More money has been expended in fortifying and protecting the port of Norfolk, than for Pensacola, Mobile, New-Orleans, and all the Gulf coast and harbors put together, and yet, in a commercial point of view, Norfolk can scarce boast of more trade* than the quiet little town of Memphis, with its 100,000 bales of cotton, besides large quantities of other produce.

Whereas, the cotton growing States, viz:—the two Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee, yield a like average of forty-four bushels, or just double.

likely as New York to be an exporter of wheat. Dietetic writers agree, that there is more alimentary matter in corn bread, than in that of any other grain, and the plantation allowance of this to a slave is about ten bushels the year,―being at the rate of a peck of meal a week. The sailor's allowance for duff and bread in the Navy, is at the rate of nine bushels of wheat for each person a year; McCulloch allows an average of eight bushels of wheat a year for bread alone, to each person who uses it in England. And though we believe it is as common among all classes in New-York, as corn The interest of this subject, with its enticing bread is with us at the South, still, if we allow to corollaries, has led us off from the problem before each person in New-York but half the navy ration us. We set out with the proposition that at least of flour-and this appears to us to be scanty two-thirds of the commerce of the United States-enough-leaving the deficiency to me made up of oat taking it at one hundred and fifty millions of dollars meal, rye bread, &c., the people of this great grain

*We do not deny the importance of defending the Navy Yard, nor do we mean to imply that Norfolk is too strongly or unnecessarily fortified. But the establishing there of a Navy Yard, was made a reason for erecting three splendid forts. And, as one thing leads on to another, we would have a Navy Yard at Memphis: first, because it is required there for the public good, as that at Norfolk was, and next, on account of the sectional advantages that it would draw after it, and which need not be enumerated here.

growing State, will have for market only a peck of wheat apiece,-not enough to furnish the factory girls of Lowell with starch and sizing for their calicoes.

The general average of grain grown in the Uni

* In all of these averages of bread stuffs, we have first deducted one tenth for seed, which is too much for the Western, and not enough for the Eastern and Middle States.

ber.

ted States is thirty-two bushels to the inhabitant, the tillers of the ground reap, at each returning first deducting a tenth for seed. The average for harvest, and gather into their barns, forty millions the Northern States, Virginia and the District of of bushels of wheat, and three hundred millions of Columbia included among them, is twenty-two bushels of corn, besides sixty millions of other bushels; that of the Southern and Western States cereal grains, such as oats, barley, rye. They and Territories, forty-two bushels; and that of the also grow eighty millions of pounds of rice, one cotton growing States alone, forty-four bushels to hundred and thirty-five millions of sugar, and one each person, as before stated. These last have a hundred and twenty millions of tobacco, and feed, sea front on the Gulf of Mexico, quite equal in chiefly upon the wild mast of their woodextent to the Atlantic coast from Norfolk to the lands, vast herds of swine, twenty millions in numhighland ridge of Maine. Now, suppose that for the next thirty years, federal legislation should be These immense harvests cannot be consumed by as partial to this Gulf coast, as, for the last thirty the eight millions and a half of producers. The years, it has been to that of the North,-that the average consumption of cereal grains, as food for shores of the Gulf should be strengthened with man and beast, is quoted by McCulloch at fifteen forts and studded with castles, at the rate of eleven bushels for each person; Chas. Smith, the well thousand dollars a mile,-that national dock yards informed author of the Tracts on the Corn Trade, should be planted along them and the Mississippi, estimated it to be at the rate of about twelve and to match those at the North,—that all of our ships- a half bushels a year to the inhabitant. We see of-war should be built and launched, equipped and no reason why the laboring man in the West repaired here, that here, their crews should be or South, with rich pastures and wide ranges provisioned and clothed, paid off and discharged,— for his cattle-with his own bountiful board spread that all the public rope-walks, the timber sheds, thrice a day with meats, fruits and vegetables, the work-shops and ship-houses,-the magnificent should average, for himself and his cattle, as hospitals, and naval asylums of the North, should much bread and grain as the laboring man in Engbe transplanted here,-that the whole Navy should land, in whose scanty dietary, bread is the chief, be supplied with its every want at the South, as and often the only article of food. Nevertheless, let it now is at the North,-that the one hundred and us suppose that each inhabitant here requires, for sixty millions of money expended there upon it, himself and his live stock, from a third to a half should, in turn, be lavished upon it through the more grain and bread-stuffs, than is allowed to one industry of the South,-suppose that the Gulf man and his cattle in England. This estimate will States should be left in the uninterrupted enjoy- leave, after deducting one-tenth of the whole for ment of all these advantages for thirty years to seed, a surplus of at least one hundred and ninety come, what would be the condition and appearance millions of bushels in our favored region, to be disof the country? The whole land, from the Cal-posed of in some way. The earth grew it by the casiu to the Sarrybel, would present one vast ex-sweat of man's brow; and it was not gathered by tent of park and lawn-a succession of field, grove him with toil and labor, to be scattered to the winds, and garden, for which Ceres and her nymphs might forsake their haunts,-Pan, Faunus, and the whole train of Sylvan Deities, their orgies, there to dwell and make glad the heart of man. With such protection, the Gulf borders would beggar description, and vie with the most gorgeous scenes of fable and romance.

The population of the United States, according to the sixth census, may be stated at seventeen millions,* in round numbers, being nearly equally divided between Virginia and the Northern States on the one part, and North Carolina with the Southern and Western States on the other-the latter division numbering 8,470,658 souls, or within less than a hundred thousand of exactly one-half. The same returns show that all the cotton, more than

pose

or burned in the fire. It cannot be consumed by the producers, and is for sale,-therefore it must be sent abroad as merchandise to seek a market. Let us supthat one-fifth goes by the way of the Lakes, or is driven over into the neighboring States as live stock. The remainder is crowded into the channels of river trade, and sent down to New-Orleans, or some other sea-port of the South for exportation. Whether it enters into the foreign or the coasting trade, all that is shipped on the Gulf has to pass out through the Straits of Florida, and is exposed alike to any dangers or obstructions that an enemy may throw in that long and narrow pass.

It is immaterial to the proof of our proposition, whether the four-fifths of these one hundred and

half the wheat, nearly four-fifths of the corn, quite ninety millions of bushels of grain, are sent abroad as bread, wheat, corn, meal or flour; or whether three-fourths of the hogs, all the rice and the hemp, most of the tobacco, and, commercially speaking, they assume some other of the protean shapes of all the sugar, that are grown, raised or produced grain, and come down for export as live hogs and in the whole country, come from this section. Here, cattle, or in barrels of pork and beef, lard, bacon, oil or whiskey-they are the surplus produce of those regions, cvery bushel of which enters in some

*There were 17,063,353 of inhabitants.