1857.] Cotton is King. • 303 



frequent reference in after time. Every proposition is so clearly 

 stated and sustained by such a logical array of reliable facts, and 

 the style so plain and manly ; it is altogether a readable book. 



Aside from its bearings on the all absorbing question of Slavery, 

 it is a noble contribution to that department of our literature, that 

 has to do with the subject of political Economy. It shows to the 

 common mind, the connections, dependencies, and inter-depend- 

 encies of Agriculture, Cotton-culture, Manufactures, and Commerce 

 throughout the civilized world. The agents and operators, in those 

 different callings, are after all, but members of a great co-partner- 

 ship ; and if Cotton has gained the Supremacy, it must have been 

 by the voluntary consent of the other members of the great firm. — 

 So long as England, France, and the free States at home will con- 

 sent to wear the Fabrics, drink the Coffee, eat the Rice, use the 

 Sugar, and smoke the Tobacco, all the fruits of slave labor ; and 

 to the tune of over $120,000,000 per annum, some other method 

 must be devised, than that of past memory, or we must consent to 

 abide that predicted golden age, when self-interest^ whether in cot- 

 ton, or whisky, or wheat, or western lands, or eastern shoes, 

 shall yield to the nobler principle of benevolence — when " holiness 

 shall be inscribed upon the bells of the horses " — and it may be 

 said, " the world converted." 



This book, to be read with profit, should be read without prej- 

 udice — if necessary, we should lay aside, for the time, all our pre- 

 conceived notions of the only scheme by which American Slavery 

 can be abolished ; though that scheme may have originated with 

 ourselves. Indeed, if the staple of the work is based upon testi- 

 mony that can not be impeached or set aside, it matters but little to 

 us what the author's private opinions on the subject may be. Af- 

 ter a heated controversy of more than one quarter of a century, in 

 which neighborhoods have been embroiled, churches rent asunder, 

 and the most bitter feelings of hostility engendered and fostered 

 among those having a common political Brotherhood, it is time we 

 should pause and review the ground already gone over — see where 

 we once stood — where we now stand — and from the mount of sec- 

 ond sober thought, take our bearings for the future. We presume 

 to sit in judgment upon a past generation, and may not, will not 

 posterity pass verdict upon the interest and follies of this, its illus- 

 trious predecessor — and will it not seem strange, that men of sense 

 in this generation, should have a ground to strengthen their predi- 



