POSITION OF THE UNITED STATES. 236 



land and America have been dearest friends in cotton 

 matters ; unfortunately there seems to be, and actually 

 is, (for I have seen both sides of the subject,) an uneasi- 

 ness exhibited by both parties to be independent of each 

 other. This is discouraging, and it is melancholy. 

 Americans suppose that the Continent will be able to 

 give them better terms for their cotton. This is errone- 

 ous ; the Continent of Europe has not the same means 

 either in machinery, shipping, or foreign commerce. 

 Therefore it cannot, and it is not able to afford the 

 same advantages that England can, to the seller of the 

 raw material, or the purchasers of the manufactured 

 cloth. 



Americans are disposed to shake hands with the 

 weaker party and shake their heads at the stronger ; 

 while England, on the other hand, is straining every 

 nerve to render herself independent of America. This 

 may be well in its effect on the whole, but it will sever 

 that great tie that binds the two countries together. 



But America must turn her soul from cotton ; it can be 

 no farther a national staple ; its time has passed ; the 

 country has outgrown it, and henceforth it ceases to be 

 what it has been ; other staples must be called in. But 

 no one staple of itself ever can be to America what cot- 

 ton has been. It will require a multiplicity of them, and 

 from time to time she must add to them, with the growth 

 of her people. 



America could never have borne the decay of her prin- 

 cipal staple for the last ten years, of 125,000,000 dollars, 

 compared with the former five years, were it not for 

 California, and the impulse given to exports in bread- 

 stuffs by the failure of the potato crop, which, from 1825 

 to 1845, varied from 11,634,000 to $16,000,000. 



