It Must, I Think, Be Conceded That The Gulf States Have Not Suffered
At All By Their Connection With The
Northern States; that in lieu of
any such suffering, they owe all their national greatness to the
Northern States; that
They have been lifted up, by the commercial
energy of the Atlantic States and by the agricultural prosperity of
the Western States, to a degree of national consideration and
respect through the world at large which never could have belonged
to them standing alone. I will not trouble my readers with
statistics which few would care to follow; but let any man of
ordinary every-day knowledge turn over in his own mind his present
existing ideas of the wealth and commerce of New York, Boston,
Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburg, and Cincinnati, and compare them
with his ideas as to New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile,
Richmond, and Memphis. I do not name such towns as Baltimore and
St. Louis, which stand in slave States, but which have raised
themselves to prosperity by Northern habits. If this be not
sufficient, let him refer to population tables and tables of
shipping and tonnage. And of those Southern towns which I have
named the commercial wealth is of Northern creation. The success of
New Orleans as a city can be no more attributed to Louisianians than
can that of the Havana to the men of Cuba, or of Calcutta to the
natives of India. It has been a repetition of the old story, told
over and over again through every century since commerce has
flourished in the world; the tropics can produce, but the men from
the North shall sow and reap, and garner and enjoy. As the
Creator's work has progressed, this privilege has extended itself to
regions farther removed and still farther from southern influences.
If we look to Europe, we see that this has been so in Greece, Italy,
Spain, France, and the Netherlands; in England and Scotland; in
Prussia and in Russia; and the Western World shows us the same
story. Where is now the glory of the Antilles? where the riches of
Mexico and the power of Peru? They still produce sugar, guano,
gold, cotton, coffee - almost whatever we may ask them - and will
continue to do so while held to labor under sufficient restraint;
but where are their men, where are their books, where is their
learning, their art, their enterprise? I say it with sad regret at
the decadence of so vast a population; but I do say that the
Southern States of America have not been able to keep pace with
their Northern brethren; that they have fallen behind in the race,
and, feeling that the struggle is too much for them, have therefore
resolved to part.
The reasons put forward by the South for secession have been
trifling almost beyond conception. Northern tariffs have been the
first, and perhaps foremost. Then there has been a plea that the
national exchequer has paid certain bounties to New England
fishermen, of which the South has paid its share, getting no part of
such bounty in return. There is also a complaint as to the
navigation laws - meaning, I believe, that the laws of the States
increase the cost of coast traffic by forbidding foreign vessels to
engage in the trade, thereby increasing also the price of goods and
confining the benefit to the North, which carries on the coasting
trade of the country, and doing only injury to the South, which has
none of it. Then last, but not least, comes that grievance as to
the Fugitive Slave Law. The law of the land as a whole - the law of
the nation - requires the rendition from free States of all fugitive
slaves. But the free States will not obey this law. They even pass
State laws in opposition to it, "Catch your own slaves," they say,
"and we will not hinder you; at any rate we will not hinder you
officially. Of non-official hinderance you must take your chance.
But we absolutely decline to employ our officers to catch your
slaves." That list comprises, as I take it, the amount of Southern
official grievances. Southern people will tell you privately of
others. They will say that they cannot sleep happy in their beds,
fearing lest insurrection should be roused among their slaves. They
will tell you of domestic comfort invaded by Northern falsehood.
They will explain to you how false has been Mrs. Beecher Stowe.
Ladies will fill your ears and your hearts too with tales of the
daily efforts they make for the comfort of their "people," and of
the ruin to those efforts which arises from the malice of the
abolitionists. To all this you make some answer with your tongue
that is hardly true - for in such a matter courtesy forbids the plain
truth. But your heart within answers truly, "Madam, dear madam,
your sorrow is great; but that sorrow is the necessary result of
your position."
As to those official reasons, in what fewest words I can use I will
endeavor to show that they come to nothing. The tariff - and a
monstrous tariff it then was - was the ground put forward by South
Carolina for secession when General Jackson was President and Mr.
Calhoun was the hero of the South. Calhoun bound himself and his
State to take certain steps toward secession at a certain day if
that tariff were not abolished. The tariff was so absurd that
Jackson and his government were forced to abandon it - would have
abandoned it without any threat from Calhoun; but under that threat
it was necessary that Calhoun should be defied. General Jackson
proposed a compromise tariff, which was odious to Calhoun - not on
its own behalf, for it yielded nearly all that was asked, but as
being subversive of his desire for secession. The President,
however, not only insisted on his compromise, but declared his
purpose of preventing its passage into law unless Calhoun himself,
as Senator, would vote for it.
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