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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 39 of 275
Words from 19534 to 20050
of 142339
