University of South Carolina Libraries
* I . ^ : ADDRESS Of the Contrition, to the People of tie Southern and Soethweetem States Fellow Citizens: Of the numerous subject* deeply end intimately connected with your permanent prosperity and happiness, which have, daring the l.ul fifteen years, demanded of you all the consideration which your intelligence could bestow, and all exertions your patriotism could contribute none have co ne more directly **home to your business and your bosoms," than that upon which.wo now propose to address you* * The struggle u which you were so long engaged, in relieving your commerce from il.a I I : * 1 1 uic WUIUL'119 IIIIJ>U9?U U|>VU ? ?/ partial legislation, litis been terminated by a compromise, which, if finally carried out in the liberal and magnanimous spirit in which it was conceived, cannot fail to perpetuate the political harmony which ft was the means of restoring. But it is not to be disguised, that the system of high-protecting duties, falling mainly upon the productions of the exporting Status combined with the system of federal disbursement, which expsnded the revenue resulting from thoBe duties, almost exclu% sively in the Northern States, has converted the slight superiority originally possessed by the Northern cities, in the business of foreign importations, tnto an overwhelming preponderance, and diverted almost the whole of the immense -i< -1 ^ * luiiiiucrce 01 inc oouinern ana southwestern States into artificial, circuitous and unnatural channels. In the commercial relations of extensive and wealthy communities, it wss to have been expected that effects would for some time survive their causes. And accordingly that portion of the commerce of the United States, which is appropriately aur own, consisting of an exchange of our agricultural productions for the manufactures of foreign countries, is still carried on principally through Northern cities, by the agency of Northern merchants, who levy u transit duty?voluntarily paid to be sure?but utterly incompatible with a just and enlightened view of our own interests. Now that the system of compulsory tribute is greatly reduced, and rapidly coming to a close, we are called upon, by eyery consideration of enlightened selfinterest, to signalize our complete commercial emancipation, by throwing off this system of voluntary tribute, which can continue only by our consent and pooperation. A candid and dispassionate survey of the actual condition of our furcign commerce, as compared with our great natural advantages, will demonstrate that to i>ring about this consummation, so "devoutly to be wished," by every patriotic citizen of the Southern and Southwestern States, nothing more is necessary than a resolution on our part to accomplish it.? To will is to do it. A brief analysis of our foreign commerce will be now presented. Taking the imports and exports of the United States for the fiscal year 1836, as a criterion, we have the following extraordinary stutistical phenomena: The imports of the whole of the United States, amounted, in round numbers to $190,000,000. Those of New York aloue amounted to 8118,000,000, while those of all the Atlantic States south of the Potomac, and the States on the Gulf of Mexico, amounted to only 820,<000,000 and those of South Carolina ami tliuimial to only 83,400,000. During the same year, the domestic exports of the United States amounted to 8107,000,000, of which New York exported only 819,800000, against an "import of 118 millions, whilst the States South and South-west of the Potomac exported 878,000,000 against an import of only 820,000,000, and S. Carolina and -Georgia, each having a commercial seaport, with a safe harbor on the Atlantic, exported 824,000,000 against an import of only 83,400,000!?j The contrasts here exhibited arc abso-: lutely astounding, and it is confidently believed they are without any parallel in the history of independent States. N. York, it will be perceived, imported six times the amount of her ernnrta- whilp the Southern and South-western States imported little more than one fourth of the amount of theirs, and South Carolina and Georgia imported less than one seventh part of the value of theirs. The case of these two States furnishes the fairest criterion for delerming the degree of that ruinous disparity, which exists between the exports and imports of the States which produce the great agricultural staples, which are almost the sole foundation of the foreign commerce of the whole Union. New Orleans, from l>? rronrrrn r\li!/.11 r.? * -- sition, iinports West India productions for the Valley of Mississippi, and specie from Mexico for the United States generally? articles which aro not obtained in change for the staples of the Southwestern States, and form no part of ihe conime.cc by which those staples arc exchanged for foreigh productions. If only that part of the imports ol New Orleans, which is obtained from abroad in exchange for cotton were taken into the estimate the Aggregate imports of all staple growing States, like those of South Carolina and Georgia, would no doubt sink down to lese than one seventh part of their exports. Such being the actual state of our foreign commerce, it deeply concerns our welfare to inquire, in the first place, whc< \tp( it }? a ^jqnd and natural condition of ' i this great interest! end if it It v not, tfhal re our availiable metes of piecing itin a natural end healthful condition! Thai it is neither a.natural nor a salutary condition, will be apparent from a few obvious considerations. Viewing the *nbjcct as one strictly of political economy?and in that light only are we now considering it?New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts sre, for all such par poses, to be regarded by the staple Statei as foreign communities; not less so thai Great Britain and France. The bonds o our political Union, as confederated State however they may bear upon other aspecti of the subject, hare no bearing whatevei upon the question of national wealth, ai it relates to to the several States. Thi federal constitution, giving it the utmos amplitude of construction, cannot annihil iate the intervening distance of a thousam utiles; nor has it annihilialed the separat< and independent political organization o the States. We cannot, therefore regarc tbe wealth of New York or *Pennsylva nia, as the wealth of South Carolina 01 Georgia, or as contributing towards ii upon any other principle than that mutual dependence, happily existing between commercial communities, which maket the prosperity of the one conducive tc that of the other, in proportion to. the extehtof the exchanges of their respec< tivc productions. Every cotton plantei must have perceived, that the price of hie staple depends more upon a prosperous condition of the trade of Manchester, than upon that of all the cities of the United States, north of the Potomac.? And, however it may shock the nerves of that false and mistaken philanthropy, which sometimes assumes the guise oi patriotism, we must be excused for "confessing" the homely virtue of preferring the prosperity of our own respective communities, though derived from a direct trade with foreign -countries, to that of our Northern confederates, derived from the same sources, but at our expense. Applying these plain and obvious principles to the existing state of our commercial relations, it is apparent that the profit made by the merchants of New York and other Northern cities, . p -a he exchange of our staples for foreimi mer rhandizc, is as effectually abstracted ('mm the wealth of staple growing States, as if those cities belonged to a foreign jurisdiction. We are very far from coirplaining of our fellow citizens of the North, for reaping the golden harvest which circumstances presented to theii cntcrprize. They deserve commendation rather than complaint. Our purpose is to stimulate the enter prize of our own merchants; to recover, by a fair and equal com petition, the advantages they have lost; and to invoke the patronage of our fellow citizens generally, to sustain ihtm in such a competition, and suvh a competition only. We should ourselves furnish an example of that mock patriotism of which wc have spoke.i, and which is too often used to disguise a selfish purpose, if we were to advise our fellow citizens to purchase from our wu nnpoiting merchants* when i>t uer bargains c >tilu be obtained from the Northern competitor . We only ask a decided preference when the terms are equal, and shall endeavor 40 show, in due time, that such terms can be afforded, with a liberal profit to our importer*. We propose now to exhibit a rough estimate of the annual lass of the exporting Slates, by the indirect course of iheir foreign trade; or, more accurately speaking, of the annual addition thai would be made to their wealth, by the esUllishmetil of a direct export and import trade with foreign countries. The excess of the exports of the Southern and Southwestern States beyond their imports was, in 1830, sixty million* of dollars. As the value of our imports always exceeds that of our exports, even when our importations arc not excessive, by an amount equal to the increased value of our exports, in foreign markets beyond our custom house assessment, and the estimated cost of importing the tner cliautlize obtained in exchange for them, it may be safely assumed, that the North* cm cities imported in the year above stated, seventy-two millions of foreign merchandize, which was purchased by the staples of Southern and Southwestern States, and fairly constituted a part of their foreign commerce. Estimating at 15 per cent, the profits of the Northern merchants, and all the expenses and risks incident to the transhipments and transfers'of an iudirect instead of a direct route to thescapotls of the Southern and Southwestern States, it follows that the people of these Stales sustained a logs of ?10,800 000 in that year, by the indirect course of their foreign commerce. By the same process of reasoning, we reach the conclusion that Georgia and South Carolina, sustained a loss, in the same year, of ?3,000,000. In coming to this rcsuU, however, it is assumed that foreign merchandize can be imported as cheaply into our Southern. Atlantic cities,, as into the cities of the North* This assumption however, contrary to preconceived opinions is believed to rest upon the solid foundation of undeniable facts. A great deal is habitually said about the natural advantages of New York, as in importing city; and these are taken for granted, without reflection from the mere fact ol her great commercial prosperity. Bui what aic these natural advantages? She is, no doubt, from her position, the natural emporium of the foreign commerce of most of the New England and middle ?tales, and by her magnificent canal, she , V 4- ?' - * * * i wttl continue to eolnmand the trade ef the Northwestern States, until en equally or more magnificent channel of talesoel commerce shall supply the whole Valley i of the Mississippi with foreign merchan> disc, by a shorter and chea|>er route, through the seaports of the South. But r the question still recurs, where are her , natural advantages over the cities of the - South, or the Atlantic, or the Gnlf of s Mexico, for carrying on the foreign comi me roe of the staple growing States!? f Does the Atlantic present a smoother k surface or a safer navigation between Lii verpool and New York, than it does ber tween Liverpool and Charleston or Sai vantiah? Do merchant vessels enter the i harbor of New York under more propitut ous gales, or ride in it with more safety, > than in the harbor of Charleston? These' 1 questions are exclusively answered in the j negative, by the fact known to every tnerf chant who is practically acquainted with I the subject, that freights from Liverpool to Charleston and Savannah, are actually r lower than from Liverpool to New York t This is one of the natural incidents of a I direct trade. Vessels coming from Eui rope for cotton, would of course prefer s bringing merchandize to a great cotton l maiket. where a direct exchange* could he effected, than to a city a thousand miles distant from the market, involving the necessity of a coastwise voyage, in addition to that across the Atlantic.* II, then, merchandize can be transported from Liverpool to Charleston or Savannah, cheaper than to New York, what other element in the cost of importation, turns the scale in favor of New York? Are house rents and the general expenses of living, lower in New York than in Charleston or Savunnah? House rent is notoriously higher io New York than in any of our Southern seaports; and if the concurrent testimony of travellers is to be credited, the expenses of living there, and every species of common lahor, are greatly beyond what lliey are in Charleston or Savannah. It is thus that the allege d natural advantages of New York, so far as relates to the trade of the South, vanish, when exposed to the test of scrutiny, and resolve themselves into the mere beauties of a magnificent harbor But we not only deny the alleged natural advantages of the Northern over our Southern Atlantic cities, lor carrying on the exporting and importing business of the staple gro.iing Slates, but we assert that the natural advantages are ineontestibly on the side of our own sranorls.? What is the commerce in gnestiou, divested of the factitious appendages of an artificial system, but simply a" annual ex- < change of cotton and other staples, to I the amount of sorm eighty millions of ' dollars, for merchandize imported front ' England. France, and other foreign coun- < tries? It is perfectly plain, therefore, ' that 0 e. o .ore simple and nrcet the .onuru- 1 tion, the less com plicated, involved ntulj mystified,"the che .per will the foreign | ii.a .ulio Utter "l laiii th" co'ton, and the' American cotton n a itcr the merchandize i for vvhi'b it is ? vciinn .ed T!t foreign i 1 ' thi rs, ?nd tin Am? ricao j.|:ieict*>, ?p:a!ly in'en.-slcd mi establishing t!..;- >y-t< m of direct exchange and it can only be t Heeled hy bringing, the foreign manufactures directly to the cities of the cotton growing States, 1 and making these, instead of New York, the great marts for vending foreign manufactures on the one hand, and the raw material on the other. Considering the obvious economy of this direct system of exchanges, it serins strange that the foreign manufacturers have not established their agt ncics, both for selling goods and purchasing cotton, in those cities in pre lerencc to others. Cotton can certainly be obtained cheaper in New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah and Charleston, lhan in any Northern city, and manufactures can hs t ertainly be sold on better terms, for the consumption of the cotton growing States, if they will bear the expenses, charges and risks of an indirect importation through New York. Out no just estimate can be formed of the benefits of this proposed system, which does not embrace its tendency to supersede, not only the complex machinery of intermediate transfers and agencies, required in an indirect trade, but to a very great and salutary extent, the use and agency of money. Money is itself a very costly agent and wherever a direct exchange of commodities, or, in other words, barter, can be substitututcd for successive sales and sales and purchases, the use of the sum of money that would have been required to effect these sales and purchases, is su perseded by the direct exchange, and is just so much saved to the parties concern cd. In the extensive operation of foreign commerce, a very near approach can be I - A ? - t ' - W muue iu mis sysiem of Darter. Indeed our great agricultural staple, possesses a twofold attribute. This is an invnluable article of consumption, and at the same time, while passing from the producer to the consumer, without any additional cost to society, it performs the function of money, or bills of exchange. And in the disordered state of our foreign and domestic exchanges, and of our money cur. rency, u hich threatens a long continu> ance, this inappreciable production of our ; favored soil and climate, promises to bei come a still more important agent in the transactions of our commerce. Does this, i we confidently ask, give to the seaports of the cotton growing States, a most des cided advantage over their competitors at I- the North? The cotton of the South and Southwestern States, is the actual capital which sustains four-fifths oi onr foreign commerce. To lhal extent the credit* obtained in Europe, are obtained upon the fifth of that capital alone. Shall |ha people of the South and Southwest, with j these palpable facts tftairing them in the face, any longer remain obnoxious to the reproach of owning and furnishing the capital of our foreign commerce, and yet permitting the people of distant communities to enjoy its golden profits! Every consideration, public and private, of .patriotism and of interest, decidedly forbids it: A field of honorable competition and profitable industry is opened to our enterprise, where the public benefactor, and the private trader, the patriot and the < merchant, will be united in the same person. if the Medici of modern Ital; while they acquired incalculable wealth, added a princely lustre to their house, by embarking on such a field of enterprize, 'what citizen of our republican States should hesitate to blend, in the ensigns armorial of his family, the titles of patriot and merchant, when he is animated,by the noble purpose of rescuing his country from a state of commercial dependence, as deflrradimr to her character as it is in jurious io her prosperity? Every political community should endeavor to unite within itself, and have under its own control, as far as circumstances will permit, all the elements of national wealth. The wealth of the staple growing States, is derived almost exclusively from agricultural productions, which find their market principally in foreign countries. It is the demand of that market chiefly which gives them their value, and from that market we obtain most of the various commodities required for our consumption. Foreign commerce, therefore, is an clement of our wealth, scarcely less csscn tial than agriculture itself. Is it, then, compatible witli that self-praised independence, which should belong to every free Stale, to entrust (he almost exclusive agency of conducting this great national interest, to the citizens of other and distant Slates, who do not reside among us, and who, so far from having any sympathies for us, constrain us to believe that many of them are deeply prejudiced against our civil institutions? We beg you, fellow citizens, to give to this view of the subject that grave and deliberate considcrati n which it so obviously demands. We speak more from the records of our own sad experience, than from the speculations of theory, when we express the opinion, that the commercial independence we are now seeking to establish, is indispensable to the preservation of our political independence. Can it be believed, ? . .1 * mai me enormous ana oppressive impost* | lions of the protective system would have, been so long and patiently borne, if our ' awn proper commerce had been carried i on through our own cities, and by our, own merchants? If ihese'had exported our 1 agricultural staples, and imported the] manufactures for which they were ex-1 changed, would a doubt ever have been] entertained that the high duties imposed I upon those manufactures, with an explicit view to their prohibition, was a burthen specifically laid upon the productions of our industry, taking just so much from their value, compared with the value of the similar and rival productions of other countries* Would the people of the Southern and South-western Stales have submitted, in 1832, to the levy of 2-1 millions of federal rcveuue from sixty millions of their imports, to be carried off and disbursed in distant communities, making 44 our barrenness an inventory to particularize their abundance?" Yet all this, and more, did we patiently endure for years; many of us, owing il? -r 1.1 1 - iu uri: ciMiiusaiuii ui lut'Hs resulting irom ihe disjointed condition of our foreign commerce, doubling whether the burthen was not a benefit conferred upon us by a parental government. Let this fatal separation of our agriculture and our commerce, and the unnatural alliance which has been productive of such pernicious fruits, exist no longer. "It cannot come to good.'* We ought never to forget, what we have too many painful proofs that others will not, that we arc distinguished from our Northern confederates, by peculiar domestic and civil institutions, which arc inseparably identified with our great staple productions, and which we hold to be ; absolutely exempt from all foreign scruli _ * r ? - - ny or interference wnntcver. And howe-) ver we may deprecate the event of a dismemberment of our confederacy, we cannot be blind to the existence of causes which make it one of the possible contingencies for which it is the part of wisdom to provide. In such an event, our foreign^ commerce, as now carried on, would be thrown into utter derangement. This commerce, as well as our agriculture, should be carried on by those who have an interest in the preservation of our institutions, and who, in case of a political convulsion, would seek no distant refuge or separate destiny. Having now briefly shown the extent of our loss by the indirect cauisc of our foreign trade, and the slrnnrr nmlioau Kit C7 > V"i~ & "J which we are invoked to enter upon the good work without faltering and without delay, we now propose to consider the obstacles, real or supposed, that stand in our way, and the means of overcoming them. The principal of these is the alleged want of capita). We have already shown that we have, in our great staples, the whole of the actual capital which sustained our foreign commerce. But this capital belongs to the planter, and the want of the capital alluded to, is the money capital necessary to purchase the cot toiif convert ittnto foreign good#, end distribute these to the retail merchants. We are strongly inclined to the^opinion, that it is principally hyhhe agency of credit, instead of money capital, and that credit resting upon our staples, that this branch of commerce has been hitherto carried on by Northern merchants. So far as credit is to be used as en agent in * conducting it?and we believe it is oae of the most legitimate purposes of a well re* Suited system of credit?it cannot be oubted that our own merchants have decided advantages evor those of the North. They ar^ neaier to the great fund by which that credit is to be ultimately redeemed, andean more easily avail themselves of I the U9e of it. But to prevent misapprci hension. wo deem thU the nmn#r to explain our views on the subject of credit, and the extent to which it can bo safely and legitimately used as a cheap substitute for money. Credit we regard as the legitimate offspring of commerce and free institutions, and a most active and salutary agent in the production of national and individual wealth.* Far from being demoralising in iis tendency, it is pre-eminently the reverse, as it essentially implies mutual and extended confidence, founded upon general, known and established habits of honesty and punctuality. It can exist only in an atmosphere composed of such elements. But though we deem thus highly of credit, paradoxical as it may 6ecm at the first view, we regard debt, in itself, as being very <far from a benefit, and in the extent to which it is habitually carried in our country, a very great, and sometimes a demoralizing evil. That credit which is merely the correlative of indebtedness, is not the credit of which we have spoken. To illustrate our meaning, wc would not select a case mere strikingly appropriate, than that of foreign commerce now under discussion. We annually export, for example, to Europe, agricultural staples to the amount of eighty millions,, and import merchandize -to the same or a corresponding amount. If this were a transaction between two individuals, or even between two governments, it is obvious that no money would be required to effect the exchange, however Jiumetous might l>c the separate sales nntl purchases into which it might be subdivided. If the European, for example, would purchase cotton to the amount of n million io-day, it would be certain that the American would have occasion to purchase that amount of merchandize to-morrow; and, instead of keeping a dead capital in money, to pay backwards and forwards through the extended operations of the whole year, they Vvould make use of mutual credits, cither in the form of conventional tokens, or entries upon their respective books. This would be an example of credit in its most safe and salutary form; at the same time performing the functions of money, and arotdiog the evils of debt. And even as this commerce is actually carried on by the separate operations of unconnected individuals, bills of exchange, under a well regulated system of mutual credits, might be made to perform the same function, to n much greater extent, than it has been hitherto done. This branch of credit rests upon the solid foundation "of property. and it can scarcely be doubted that importing merchants, residing in the staple growing States, could organize a much more perfect system with the manufacturers of Europe, than any that has heretofore existed. They have great advantages over the Northern merchants in this respect. They are nearer to the consumers, know better the extent ami nature of their wants, and can supply them by a more rapid operation, involving less delay, and requiring shorter credits from abroad. Short credits and quick returns, making a small capita), by frequent operations, and moderate profits," answer the purpose of a large one moving more slowly, will be the true policj of our importing merchants. For such a system, our means of internal communication. ???! ?_ structed at all seasons, and consisting, to a great and rapidly increasing extent, of rail roads, will afford facilities unknown to any other portion of the United States. But to enable our importing merchants to introduce this system of short credits ill their foreign transactions, the co-opcfcation of our planters and consumers is indispc? sable. A radical change must be made in their system of economy. Their habit of laying out their incomes before they get them, and requiring n credit, in' all their dealing for the year, till the close of it, or until they sell their crops, even if it be longer, is the root of the evil of our whole system of credit. It must bo eradicated if we would produce a great and salularj' reform in our commerce and credit. If the planters require a long credit, the merchants, wholesale and re tail, through whom they were supplied, would at least require an equally long credit, so far as they purchase upon credit. A lasge money capital becomes thus necessary for the importing merchants, that a long credit may be extended to the planters, who so far from really requiring credit, own the whole capital which pays far our entire annual importations! This is a complete inversion of tho natural order of things. Tho planters, producing and possessing that which constitutes almost the whole of our annual wealth, and baring the means of giving credit to every ether class, require credit of all others! How does this happen? The answer is easy. There is no myster about it. It results from starting at the wrong point, and Spending every year the proceeds of the coming .crop, instead of the crop a!