* 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!