Southern wealth and northern profits, as exhibited in statistical facts and official figures : showing the necessity of union to the future prosperity and welfare of the Republic

Front matter

SOITHER^ WKALTH

NORTHERN rROlIIS.

SOUTHERN WEALTH

Preface

The Emperor of the French has said, that "France is the only nation that goes to war for an idea." With more truth may it he said, that " the United States is the only nation that goes to destruction for an idea." This appears, however, to be the settled policy of a party at the North. The United States, at the age of seventy years, have exhibited a degree of success in working out the " experiment" of self-government, that has baffled the sagacity, while it has excited the admiration, of the most far-seeing statesmen of the Old World. This great success manifests itself in the international peace that the country enjoys, its rapid increase in numbers, the general wealth of the people, and the vast aggregate which that wealth presents.

At the close of the War of Independence, the country was composed of exhausted Colonies, having a population of 3, 172,404 whites. The government was heavily in debt and without credit, the channels of trade flooded with irredeemable and depreciated paper that had driven away specie, natiorpl bankruptcy and individual insolvency were the rule. The people were destitute of capital and manufactures ; the employment of the shipping apparently destroyed, and the future presenting but little hope. There were 751,363 black slaves, who were without employment that would earn their own support, and their fate and that of their masters gave ample cause of uneasiness, as well to statesmen as to owners. To abandon the blacks to their fate, under the plea of philanthropy, suggested itself to many. The employment of Northern ships was mostly the slave-trade, while the South, having daily less employment for the blacks, was determined to stop their arrival, — a measure which the North regarded as depriving it of its legitimate business. Thus growing jealousy was added to other evils. The lapse of seventy years has changed all that. The North has come to rival the mother country in manufactures — her shipping is the fust in the world— capital of every description has become redundant — the Federal debt is nominal, and local wealth superior in Massachusetts to that of any community of like numbers in the world. The condition of the South has changed to one of the most brilliant promise. From a desponding position, in the possession of 000,000 idle blacks, she has 4,000,000, whose labor is inadequate to the production of that staple which the civilized world demands from her fertile soil. The blacks themselves have been gradually elevated in material comforts and religious sentiment — not only far above those of any Other country, but greatly and progressively above their own former condition. And this is comprehended in the material fact, that their value, whieh was $200 hy assessment in 1790, is $550 in 1858. From a market value of $250, they have risen to $1500 and $2000. This simple fact alone would show not only the great value that their labor is to the Christian world, hut that their owners have thus, as it were, come under bonds in the sum of $1200 and $1800 each hand, to give them the best moral and material care. That rise in the value of the blacks

4 Preface.

is also the index to the rise in the aggregate property of the Union, which has become as follows, showing the official assessed valuation :

1850. 1858.

The valuation for 1850 is that of the census, and that of 1858 is from each State census. In 1800, the whole valuation for the levy of a Federal tax was G19 millions. There has then been an increase of property valuation of 6,447 millions up to 1850, and of 3,072 millions from 1850 to 1858. How strong a contrast does this present to the condition of affairs in 1790 ! This immense property has been developed under the harmonious working of the Federal Constitution, and the country has become the asylum and admiration of the Old World, from the political contests of which it has remained aloof.

We have endeavored, in the following pages, to trace the gradual development of this great wealth, to show its sources, the course of the resulting trade, and the great profits derived from sectional intercourse, harmony, and dependence. The mutual benefit will be found to be large ; and that, on the other hand, the disasters of disunion would be only the more terrible for the greatness of former success. In the midst of this prosperity, a wanton attack, by political and clerical agitators, is made upon sister States, a new idea of morality is conjured up as a means of stirring up domestic strife, and wantonly destroying the source of all this material good. Historians record with surprise the amazing folly of George the Third and his ministers, who drove the colonies into rebellion for a system ! But they wanted revenue. What will the future historian say of the North, which destroyed its source of profit for a more trivial pretence ! The monkey that persisted in sawing off the limb between himself and the tree, seems to be the model of modern sagacity. We are told that there is no intention of destroying the institutions of the States — that the design is only to exclude the institution from territory where it would have been long since had nature permitted. There is here, then, nothing practical — a mere pretence of agitating the popular mind and engendering animosities, for the mere sake of those animosities. The national prosperity, the domestic peace, the safety of life and property, the very existence of the nation, are jeopardized for an idea, admitted by the agitators to be fruitless. The agitation has at the North no one practical application whatever ; while at the South, it has in the background servile insurrection, bloodshed, and annihilation of person and property, involving ultimately the ruin of the North.

This Eepublican hobby, so violently ridden, has at best but a feeble constitution. The idea of non-intervention where slavery exists, and of intervention where it cannot exist, is certainly but a thing of straw ; yet this is the yery head of the pretence, while the popular contempt for slavery is stimulated by such assertions as the following :

" The annual hay crop of the Free States is worth considerably more, in dollars and cents, than all the cotton, tobacco, rice, hay, hemp, and cane-sugar annually produced in the fifteen Slave States."

When we find that the South keeps 3,000,000 head of cattle more than the North, without this vast expense for haymaking, the absurdity of this proposition in a partisan tale becomes apparent, and we recognize the hobby of the nursery,

" His head was made of peas-straw, His tail was made of hay."

Preface. 5

Europe looks on in surprise, to see this " model Republic," this successful "exponent of self-government," this " eyesore to aristocrats," this " asylum of the oppressed," this "paradise of industry, and demonstration of human equality," voluntarily casting behind it all claim for human supremacy, all prospect of advancement, and seeking self -destruction, for the sake of wallowing in the kennel with an inferior race. The philosopher demands if the persons who commit this monstrous outrage upon human dignity are really entitled to those godlike qualities that are generally ascribed to the intellect of man. Is man, after all, no bitter than a brute, that he should libel his Creator for making distinctions between his creatures, and pretend to correct the errors of the Deity by voluntarily resigning his rank in the scale of creation? The statesman asks, if really the " most intelligent" people of the world are so besotted as to take seriously the political claptraps of Europe, to pretend that they are no better than negroes, and destroy thenisel ves for a sentiment ? That Europe, through her large interest in American States, has been alarmed lest this should really be so, is manifest in the London "Times," which, from a virulent assailant, has lately become the efficient defender of American institutions, which were capital staples for abuse while there was no danger of losing them, but they really cannot afford to have the thing taken seriously.

The South views the matter in the spirit of Patrick Henry. "The object is now, indeed, small, but the shadow is large enough to darken all this fair land." They can have no faith in men who profess what they think a great moral prineiple, and deny that they intend to act upon it. It was the principle of taxation without representation that the colonies resisted, and it is the principle of the •• irrepressible conflict," based avowedly on a " higher law," that the South resists. She is now in the position of the Colonies eighty-four years ago, and is adopting the same measures that they adopted, viz., non-intercourse. These are now derided as they were then, and this even while the effects of the preliminary movements are falling heavily upon the Northern workmen. A prompt retreat from this dangerous agitation within the shadow of the Constitution, is the only means of realizing the rich future, which will be the reward only of harmony, good faith, and loyalty to the Constitution.

T. P. K.

New Yokk, March 6, 18G0.

CO'NTENTS.

CHAPTER I.— Origin of CArrrAi 0

Labor the source of wealth— Accumulation is capital— Beginning of slavery— Capital mostly of slave origin— Disposition of whites to work— Last white .slaves of England— Queen Elizabeth —Henry VIII.— White emancipation— Negro enslavement— India— First English slave-ships —Jamaica— End of slave-trade— Abolition— Profits of "274 years of slave-trade— Failure of

the abolition scheme— London Times— Exeter Hall— New England schools— Crop of abolition--The New England supersedes the Old— New England slave-traders— Commerce of New England— Capital slave-earned— Forced into manufactures— Cotton employs shipping.

CHAPTER II. — Cotton Culture and Manufacture 19

Steam-engines— Cotton gin and jenny— Whitney— Judge Johnson— Condition of the South — Gloomy prospects for slaves— Sudden opening of the future— Product and export of cotton from 1S0O to 1SC0 — Inventions— Start to manufacture— Manufactures in Europe and the United States — Varieties of cotton— Supply to England— India a consumer— French duty— Dr. Livingstone— Cotton used per head— Manchester chamber of commerce— Lord Brougham — Bishop of Oxford— Lord Overstone— London Times.

CHAPTER III.— General Agriculture 42

New England navigation— Southern slave agriculture— Western free agriculture— Erroneous notions about tho South— Food per head at the South— West— North— Southern preponderance—Products per hand— Hay fallacy— Cattle kept— Sugar product per hand— Exchangeable value produced nt tho South— Exports to Northern cities— Northern expenses paid by the South— Railroads— Persons employed at the South on railroads— Farm products Sijnt to Northern cities— Sent from N. York to Jamaica— Southern capital improved by local employments.

CHAPTER IV. — Manufactures 54

New England naturally sterile— Shipping employments— Female employment— Change in navigation— Annexation of Louisiana — Erroneous views of Southern employments — Table of cotton manufactures in each section — Goods produced South and North — Advantages of the South General manufacturer's table— New England sales to the South — Protection— Female employment—Slavery driven out of tho North — South becoming an exporter — Relative increa«o —Factories in Georgia— Girls employed— Immigration— Mechanics — Largo capital brought by Immigrants— Manufactures sold South— Home manufactures In 17(14— General Lyman— England derided the colonies— New England derides the South— England could conquer the colonies—The North would conquer tho South— Defensive commercial measures at the South— Bnin for an idea.

CHAPTER V. — Imports and Exports 67

Growth of Industry— Exports follow production— Carrying trado of New England— Slaves adjusted the Southern balanco— Exports grow with Southern products — United States imports and exports— Nature of external trado — Annual trade-balance — Operation of duties— United Stat-'s exports— Early exports— Embargo- ■ Progress of cotton — Free trade in England— No surplus manufactured for export— Superior natural advantages of the South and West over the North— Exports mostly of Southern origin — Analysis — Breadstnflfs— Sales of goods to the South — Profits of whites at tho South— Number whf> come North— Trade account North and South — Various Interests concerned— North alone Injured by separation — South has materia',-, too.!, and markets— Clerical mischief-makers— Northern Slave States to supplant New England.

CHAPTER VI.— Tonnage and Railroads 77

Bhlp-bnJlding early engagea the North— Tonnage In 17th century— Sir Joanna child— Ships built

in 1769— Tonnage in 1 ■sin— Increasing size of ships— Fish-eating In New England— Ootton supplants fish — Bounties on fish— North has the ships but furnishes no freight— Broom*— Tonnage built— I '<■ ogn U In M years— One ton to a bale— Fluctuation in tonnage— Cotton tho regulator— Demand for tons by famine— Mexican war— California— cupper ships— Ownership of tonnage— Relative source of freights — New York profits— Ship-building per census — Comparative cost North and South— Railroads— North and South— Tabic of railroads.

8 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII.— Banking 89

Commercial charter of bankers— Course of produce— Cotton bills — Concentration of capital in New York — Capital supplied from all quarters— Planters' bills— Capital pours into New Tork for employment— Number and strength of banks— Bank balance— New York quarterly returns— Fluctuation of balances — Specie in Southern banks — New York and New Orleans — Current of specie South — Bills and specie in New Orleans — General exchange system — Effect on the accumulation of capital— South beginning to accumulate — Profits of li absenteeism " at the North— The aggregate would develop manufactures at the South.

CHAPTER VIII —Population 99

Influence of population — Greater increase of the South — Table of seven census returns — Sectional progress and immigration — Nativities of each section — Capital brought by immigrants — Irish and Germans perform domestic service — Domestic service degrading at the North — Migration East to West — Incendiary publications — More Northerners emigrate than Southerners— Effect of diminished trade— Shoe trade— Export of shoes from Boston South— Climate — Deaths — Attractions of the North — Employments of free people— Local industry at the South.

CHAPTER IX.— Black Race 108

Principle of individual contribution — Society requires all to produce — Criminals — Tho white race will work, the black will not — Fugitives in Canada — Black laws of the "West — Paupers required to work — Connecticut laws — Paupers sold — Dr. Channing — Illusion — Toussaint L'Ouverture — English error and disappointment — London Times on Jamaica — Mungo Park — Lewis — West Indies — Negroes never known to hire — Capt Hamilton — Memorial to the queen — Blacks liberated— Coolies — State of the blacks — Governor Barkley — Parliamentary debates — French Guiana — M. Vacherot — John Bigelow, Esq. — Blacks in United States per census 1790 to 1S50 — Aggregate sectional progress — At the North very slow — Northern climate too rigorous for blacks — Criminals — Black and white — Blacks more vicious at the North — Irish more oppressed — Exclusion of free blacks — The antipathies of races.

CHAPTER X.— Accumulation 126

South produces — Northern profits — Customs — Bounties — Manufactures— Annual drafts upon the South — Fishing bounties — Helper's errors — Valuation of 179S — Progress to 1S50— Great increase of the South — Farm lands — West— Northern valuations — City growth— Loss upon Southern trade — All farms overvalued — Land tenaciously held in Europe — Not so in America — "Bonds" for the free — Southern State returns for 1S58 — Immense increase — Western State valuation for 1S5S — The Southern value sound — The Western value a wreck — Northern Stato valuation — Bank capital — Tonnago — Railroads — Manufactures — Recapitulation — Great progress of the South

CHAPTER XL— Apportionment 13V

Formation of government — Changed position of slaves — Struggle for power — Representation — South on the defence — Northern taunts — Constitutional provisions — Original States all Slave States — New England in favor of prolonged slave-trade — Disunion by Massachusetts — Renewal — Opposition to new territories — Abolition at the North — Decline of Southern power — Increase of Free States— Table of apportionments— Foreign element at the North— Concentration of blacks — Texas — Increase of free blacks — Rise in slave value prevents political expansion — Concentration of population promoies manufactures — New census — Western railroad interest — Immigration diminished— Union is peace — But our interest " the union."

CHAPTER XII.— Conclusion 143

Surprising progress — Original States— Resume of facts— Population — Production— Property — Northern profits — Federal loans and financial loans — Substitute of population at the North — Foreigners mostly servants and artisans— North concentrates wealth and cheap labor — Party motives — Attempts to stir passions — Hon. W. II. Seward — Blacks are property — Early understanding of the constitution — Congress acts upon tho idea of property — Mr. Jay — Federal act of 1807— The law determines property— Debate of 1799— Mr. Rntledge— II. G. Otis— John Adams— Constitution protects slaves—" Concessions " — Farewell Address— Leader of Republicans—Slaves in territories — Bald sham — System of irritation — Massachusetts — Black laws of the West — Mr. Hoar — " Ono policy " — Bales to blacks — Concentration of blacks — Blacks too valuable to migrate— Duties — Mr. Calhoun — Mr. Webster — Change attitudes — Black tariff compromise — Charles O'Conor, Esq.

SOUTHERN WEALTH

AND

NORTHERN PROFITS.

Chapter I. Origin Of Capital

Tife fact that labor is the source of all wealth, has long been demonstrated by all schools of economists ; so also have they shown that what is called capital, in whatever shape it exists, is the surplus of production over consumption. These are very plain propositions, but there is another quite as manifest : it is, that the unaided labor of a man can produce for him very little more than his own requirements. An individual in the occupation of a farm soon finds that unless he can procure other labor than his own, no matter how fruitful may be the earth, he will have very little surplus at the end of the year, after satisfying his own wants. In the early ages of the world, when, as is supposed, there were fewer labor-saving machines than now, this insufficiency of individual labor was the more marked. A man's wealth was then increased in proportion to the number of sons he possessed, and who were then, as they are to this day, legal slaves until the age of 21, Very soon the idea possessed a strong family to compel others to work for them. It was speedily discovered that numbers of persons had no disposition to labor at all if they could help it. It was equally obvious that if they did not produce they must still exist at the expense of those who did produce. As this could not in justice be permitted, the remedy was to force them to labor. The production was thus increased, and the surplus enhanced by taking care that those slaves should consume less than they earned. That system of slavery, with many modifications, has prevailed down to the present time ; and all the wealth or capital existing has been the result of slave-labor, or of the working of capital originally derived from slave-labor.

The history of the wealth and power of nations is but a record of slave products. The monuments of antiquity, the magnificence of the modern world, the power of states; the position of nobles and the fortunes of individuals, are the results of slave-labor — the accumulations from forced servitude. In a free state each individual enjoys as much as he produces, and it is only when men are compelled to work much, and enjoy comparatively but little of the proceeds of their labor, that the task-master of many accumulates wealth in proportion to the skill with which he directs their services. The possessor of many slaves must have a lucrative mode of employing them, or he will be ruined by the expense of maintaining them. The ancient world was maintained by slaves and enjoyed by patricians. In modern Europe, serf-labor, under the feudal system, was universal, and if the nobles have now ceased to have an ownership in the man, they do not the less surely exact from him his earnings through the credit system which has replaced feudality. The soil of Europe and of England was, however, unfitted to slave-labor. If it was everywhere owned by the nobles, it yielded but little under the unintelligent cultivation of the serfs, and capital was of very slow growth, notwithstanding that the condition of the mass of people was miserable in the extreme.

It was soon discovered, in the progress of civilization, that intelligent white men would produce more in a state of freedom than as serfs ; that the rewards of industry were a sufficient stimulus to them to labor ; while tithes, taxes, and rents were the ready means of exacting more of the proceeds of labor from the freeman than could be obtained from the serfs. The restraints upon individuals were then gradually relaxed, while the most severe means were taken to compel idlers to work. "Sturdy beggars" were not only visited with the severe penalties of the law, but those who harbored and relieved them were punished ; while " work-houses" were the recipients of those arrested and those who recpiircd alms.

The slave system gradually faded out, — the sovereigns, as they wanted money from time to time, selling freedom to the slaves. The last record of transactions of this nature was in 1574, by Queen Elizabeth. Sixty years previously, "Bluif King Hal," being short of funds, had " made a raise" on the

Southern Wealth and North* rn Profits. 11

freedom of some of his slaves. As this is a curious fact, but little known, we transcribe the law.

A manumission granted by Henry V1IL, to two persons, ran as follows:

"Whereas, originally, God created all men free; but afterward the laws and customs of nations subjected some under the yoke of servitude, we think it pious and meritorious with God,

to make certain persons absolutely free from servitude who are at present under vulenage to us ; wherefore we do now accordingly

manumit and free from yoke of servitude Henry Knight, a tailor, and John Erie, a husbandman, our slaves, as being born in our manor of Stoke ( 'lynnny Slande, in our county of Cornwall, together with all their issue born or hereafter to be born, bo as the said two persons, with their issue, shall henceforth be deemed by us and our heirs free and of free condition/' — Feed* /'«, V\, xiii., p. 470,

This wonderfully pious prince became suddenly "republican," it appears, when he found that Henry Knight would pay for such an exercise of piety. It is a pity that this devout mood should not have lasted 20 years later, to save the head of Anne Bolevn from forfeiture for too much alleged freedom. Sixty years later, the "Good Queen Bess," being sorely impecunious, bethought her of the profitable piety of old Hal, and directed a commission to her Lord Treasurer Burghley and Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of her Exchequer, for inquiring into the condition of all her bondmen and bondwomen in the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Gloucester, or such as were by " birth of slavish condition," by being born in any of her manors ; and to compound with such bondmen and bondwomen in those counties for their manumission, and to enjoy their chattels, &C., as freemen. By this exhibition of republicanism the respectable old spinster raised a considerable sum of money for her own enjoyment. Those bondmen, how- !•. tared worse than '"black brothers" 260 years later, sim e they had to pay for their freedom, and the "darkies*' were discharged and "hired over again at better wages."

It is a little remarkable that the preamble of the law of Henry VIII. begins with almost the identical phrase that heads the Declaration of American Independence. It is to be supposed that Mr. Jeffersoil had diligently followed the slow course of human emancipation in England, and was duly impressed with the fact announced by the king in respect of menj hut the idea does not seem to have occurred to either that before the emancipation of "men" should have become perfected, zealots would have descended a grade in the scale of creation to embrace an inferior race in a common right of freedom. As "Revolutions never go backward," race after race of animals may expect their turn of emancipation, since the same argument, that all are born free, applies to all. Naturally, all were born free ; but it was to serve the common end of creation that they are made useful to man by domestication. In his free state, amid the wilds of Africa, the negro, to this day, is no more useful to man than the gorilla, the gorilla than the orangoutang, the latter than the chimpanzee, and so down to the little ape, which obeys the law of creation in being domesticated to the service of the Savoyard organists. The discovery of the usefulness of the negro was made at about the date in which the respectable Elizabeth sold freedom to her white slaves. The use which England made of that discovery was to prosecute it during 274 years, in the course of which 5,000,000 negroes were caught and put to labor. Nearly all the commercial wealth of England at th is day -is due to those negroes. But that was not the only cause of the rapid increase of British wealth in the last century. During countless ages there had existed 200,000,000 laborious and frugal slaves to local despots in India, when Clive, with the vanguard of the English, burst in upon them, in 1756. Those people had accumulated fabulous wealth ; and -the instant the English took possession, the transfer of that wealth to England commenced. Numberless individuals were sent thither to be enriched, and they returned to England in great numbers, with vast fortunes. The property so transferred has been estimated, on data afforded by the India trade, at 2000 millions of dollars, from the battle of Plassy, 1757, to 1830. The mere operations of the India Company were as nothing compared with the wealth acquired by England in this transfer of private fortunes. This process was simultaneous with the vigorous prosecution of the slave-trade, which gave such vast capital to the British Islands.

In the year 1561, Sir John Hawkins fitted out three vessels, of 40, 60, and 120 tons, with English goods, for Guinea, where he exchanged the goods for negroes, sold the latter in Hispaniola, and brought home hides, sugar, and ginger. This was the origin of that immense trade which England prosecuted with such success during 274 years. The profits in 16S9 were

Southern Wraith and Northern Profits. 13

alrcadv so large, and the trade had so extended the English marine, that a convention was held in London, by which Kngland undertook to supply the Spanish West Indies with slav s. From that time the trade took large dimensions. In 1713 the South Sea Company contracted to supply 4800 negroes per annum, tor 30 years. The enormous development of the trade may he estimated from an official letter of General O'llara. Governor of Senegambia, in 1760. It states that for 50 years past there had been shipped from the country " 70,000 negroes per annum of its prime inhabitants," whence he concludes the great population of the continent. In the year 1768, a British report gives the number shipped for that year, from the west coast of Africa, between Cape Blanco and Kio Congo, at 97,100, of which 53,100 were by British, and 6,700 by American vessels.

Under the convention with Spain the Island of Jamaica became a great depot, and the island progressed as follows :

Negroes. Population.

Imported. Exported. White. Black.

1702 7)^44

These figures are from various British official reports. In 1710 a duty of 5s. per head was laid on the import into Jamaica; in 1720 it was raised to 10*., and 20s. on exportation. In 1771 the number of blacks in the island had become alarming!} Large, and there A\as imposed a duty of £2 10.?., and raised to £5 before the close of the year. This excited the opposition of the English slave-traders, and on their appeal to Parliament the duty was abrogated. That movement, however, caused an inquiry by Parliament into the slave-trade, and the movement, gathering force and strength by the example of tin; United States, in prohibiting the slave-trade after 1808, finally resulted in its prohibition by Parliament, in 1807. Thus ended the traffic that had been begun by the British in 1561. The results of this traffic upon British wealth are easily estimated. As seen above, there were imported into Jamaica, in the 18th century, 1,128,400 Macks, selling at an average, by official tahles, of £30 each. The number imported in the 140 years up to the 18th century is put at 600,000, ami into all other colonies at 1,000,000; making, together, 2,728,400 negroes; which, at £30 each, realized £81,852,000, or $450,000,000: but if each black produced, during his life, but 8 times his own cost, the amount of wealth sent to England was 3600 millions of dollars, or a sum exceeding the present national debt. In estimating the value of the island in 1T88, the commercial export value was put down at £5,400,000 ; and 12 years' purchase gave £64,600,000 as the value of the island. That rate, for 100 years, gives £540,000,000, and at half the rate for the previous 170 years, the aggregate would be £810,000,000, or 4000 millions dollars. We have, then, the following results of the India and slave operations of the 18th century :

Kealized from India §2.000,000,000

" " slaves and islands 3, 600,000, 000

This vast capital poured into the lap of England was the source of its greatness and of the sudden development of power and wealth which took date from the middle of the 18th century.