1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



ao7 



importance of the duty assigned them, and have 

 bestowed npon it ail the attention iheir limited 

 lime would permit. 



They regard the present derangement of the 

 currency and exchanges of the country, however 

 we may depreciate its causes and deplore its imme- 

 diate eti'ecis, as (uriiishing an occasion, which, if 

 wisely improved, will relieve the staple growing 

 etates from a stale of commercial dependence, 

 scarcely less reproachJiil to their industry and en- 

 terprise, than it is incompatible with their sub- 

 staniial |)rosperity. 



The staple-growing states, while they produce 

 two-thirds ol' the domestic exports of the Uniled 

 States, import scarcely one-tenth of the foreign 

 merchandise which is received in exchange for it. 

 Almost the whole ol the ibreign commerce which 

 is founded upon ihe productions of our industry, is 

 carried on by the citizens of other states, causing 

 their ciiies to flourish, while our's have been sink- 

 ing into decay. 



In the opinion of the committee, the period has 

 arrived, when our citizens are invoked by the 

 united voice of interest and patriolism, to put an 

 end to this voluntary tribute, amounting annu- 

 ally to something like ten millions of dollars. Il 

 is believed that the quota of Georgia and South 

 Carolina alone, amount to noi less than three mil- 

 lions of dollars. It may not be disguised, howe- 

 ver, that this extraordinary and unequal state of 

 commercial relations, had its origin, more in the 

 fiscal operations of the government, than in any 

 supposed deficiency in the industry and enterprise 

 of our citizens. The high duties imposed by the 

 tarifl" of 1S16 upon the productions of southern 

 industr}', and the still more enormous duties im- 

 posed by those of 1S34 and 1828, combined with 

 the unequal system of depositing and disbursing 

 the revenue, thus collected, almost exclusively in 

 the northern cities, operated as a bounty to the 

 commerce of these cities, which the most perse- 

 vering industry and enterprise on our part, could 

 not have overcome. Great and obvious as were 

 the natural advantages of our southern cities, they 

 were more than counterbalanced by these opera- 

 tions of the government. And whilst we stood 

 amidst the ruins thus produced by mis-govern- 

 ment, many of our own citizens were utterly un- 

 able to account for the phenomenon; and some of 

 our charitable neighbors supposed it to be owing 

 to the curse of heaven upon our domestic institu- 

 tions. 



Every practical man, however, will at once per- 

 ceive, that the deposite of almost the whole of 

 the government funds, in the banks of the north- 

 ern ciiies, was equivalent to a loan of a like sum 

 without interest; and that the immense sums dis- 

 bursed by the government at the same points, op- 

 erated, even more decidedl}', to give those ciiies an 

 undue ascendency. One of the most obvious and 

 salutary consequences which we may confidently 

 anticipate from the reduction of the duties and the 

 withdrawal of the government deposites from the 

 banks, will be the restoration of the southern cities 

 to a condition of comparative equality, in the busi- 

 ness of foreign commerce. !n a fair and equal 

 competition, it cannot be doubted, that they will 

 be able to exchange our domestic productioris for 

 the manufactures of Europe, by a direct trade, 

 more advantageously, than the northern ciiies 

 can do it by a circuitous process, involving imme- 



diate transfers and agencies, all increasing the risk 

 and expense of the operation. 



There never was presented to the capitalists of 

 the south and soulh-wesf such an opening for prof- 

 itable enter|)rise, and they are invited by the most 

 powerful consideration to improve it. Now that 

 the fiscal operations of the federal government 

 have been so greatly reduced, and the field of 

 competition fairly opened, if they should still look 

 on with listless apathy, while the mighty current 

 of our own peculiar commerce is flowing literally 

 by them, to nourish distant cites and fertilize the 

 barren hills of distant communities, we must then 

 acquiesce in the judgment which the world will 

 pronounce, that we deserve our destiny. But the 

 committee indulge the confident belief that such 

 a reproach will no longer rest upon us. The pub- 

 lic spirit of our people has been roused into ac- 

 tion — they have been awakened to a sense of their 

 condition, and all are prepared to co-operate, in 

 their respective spheres, in the great work of 

 throwing ofl' the shackles of our present colonial 

 condition and establishing our commercial inde- 

 pendence upon a lasting foundation. 



The staple growing states never can be practi- 

 cally independent, and enjoy the full measure of 

 the bounties which providence has so abundantly 

 provided for them, until the commerce which is 

 ibunded upon their valuable productions shall be 

 carried on by our own merchants, permanently 

 resident amongst us, whether they be native or 

 adopted. The pursuits of commerce must be lib- 

 eralized; the commercial class must be elevated m 

 public opinion to the rank in society which prop- 

 erly belongs to it. The avocation of the mer- 

 chant requires as much character and talent, and 

 is of as nmch dignity and usefulness, as any other 

 pursuit or profession ; and the senseless prejudice 

 which would assign to it an inferior rank, has been 

 blindly borrowed from those ancient republics and 

 modern despotisms, whose policy it was to regard 

 war as the only honorable pursuit. As agricultural 

 productions, which find iheir market principally in 

 foreign countries, constitute the almost exclusive 

 source of our wealth, the mercantile class is as 

 indispensable to our prosperity, as the agricultural. 

 Their interests are inseparably identified, and 

 whatever afll=-cts the prosperity of the one, must 

 have a corresponding influence on the other. 

 How much, then, does the general wellijre of the 

 staple-growing states depend upon diverting into 

 the pursuits of commerce, a large portion of the 

 capital, the character and the talent, which have 

 been hitherto directed, too exclusively, to agricul- 

 ture and the learned professions 7 It is the delib- 

 erate opinion of the committee that no one change 

 could be made it", our pursuits, that would so large- 

 ly contribute to the public prosperity ; and that 

 those public spirited citizens who shall take the 

 lead in this new career of useful enterprire, will 

 deserve to be regarded as public benefactors. 



The prevailing habit ol investing almost the 

 whole proceeds of our cotton crops in land and 

 negroes, has produced a constant tendency to 

 over-production in this great staple ; and nothing 

 but the extraordinary increase oi" its consumption 

 in the great markets of the world, has prevented 

 us from experiencing the ruinous consequences of 

 our mistaken policy. In this view of the subject 

 every dollar that shall be diverted from the pro- 

 duction of cotton, or some other profitable pursuit, 



