*
a
Edited Jd. BvadEoïd.-—Txintedand Published hy U. ïovteT &Son, No 9"l, Mavlcet-Street, Wilmington.
ï'fKmir, J!f« y î, 1827.
JVo. S.
roi. i.
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——
TUE DELAWARE JOURNAL will be pub
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additional lines and insertions.
cobtottions
The Agiucditure of tueUnited States.
•Concluded.
From Niles' Weekly Register.
We shall now present some facts and opinions
bearing upon the present great staple of our rountrv.
cotton ; whatever belongs to it is full of interest and
highly important to every see* ion of our country and
all descriptions of persons. Andonthisoccasion.it
may be proper to express our serious belief, t. at if
the doctrines which we have supported for so many
years, have been beneficial to an v one class of the
people more than another, that class is the cultiva
tors of cotton. Tt is with much satisfaction, indeed,
we observe that many of the planters begin to dis
cover this, and that a radical change of opinion may
be speedily hoped for. A little while ago, or three
or four years since, the people of the eastern states,
devoted to commerce and navigation,' were as much
opposed to a tariff for the encouragement and pro
tection of domestic manufactures, as those of the
southern states now are. Tt has been demonstrated ,
tuet success in manufactures has increased the com
merce and navigation of the east, and was, also, ad
ding powerfully to the wealth and population of
diese states. But with how much more reason may
it be expected that they will assist the southern
states, seeing that they even now and already con
onc-fourth of the whole crop of cotton raised
sume
in them.
We have been lately honoured with many letters
Énnfaining sentiments similar
wÂù|re about, to introduce, vm
n^Hhieidv honoured aadrffl
i extract
bAufthe
ui.ne
e savs—
m
pWmriridence of opinion w
set of protecting home man is;
factures. Bad as the times are for cotton planters,
'(of whom T am on" in a small way.) they would be
much worse, but for the demand of our manufacto
ries for the raw article. I should like to see more
effectual protection extended to the growth and ma
ri*: fiot-i re of iront. These and such like measures
will in time make us independent.
The preceding is a literal extract, and the parti
cular words are marked as bv the writer himself :
and such, we repeat it. is a rapidly growing opinion
among the people of the south. The time will come.
when cotton planters shall he many times more
anxious for a protective tariff than the cotton spin
! To the last, indeed, it is now of little im
portance. except to maintain steadiness in the home
market : foi*the.v meet the British in fair and manly
comnetition abroad, and undersell them in evarv
market which is equally free to our fabricks and
theirs.* This is " confirmation strong as proof of
holy writ" that, while they consume so large a por
tion of the products of our planters, they neither de
mand or receive anv advance from the said planters
the manufactured article, over and above what
Id be paid to foreigners, whether the cotton
s of American product or pot : hut furnish them
with cotton goods at murh reduced prices.
The progress of the cultivation of cotton in the
fruited Slates is. everv wav. wonderful. Tf any per
had predicted, thirtv-fivc venrs ago, that the
of 1826 would have amounted to 720,000 bales.
tween (is on
ners
on
won
wn
son
cron
or about 250 millions of pounds, we should have put
him down for a madman or a fool—sayina;, "go to
the hospital, go :" if anv one had asserted only fif
fonn years ago. that North Carolina, Tennessee,
Alabama. should now produce what they do,
to could not have believed him ; if it had been said
ontv five years ago, that Virginia would cultivate
and send into market nearlv 40,000 bales in 1826,
should have laughed at the proposition ; and if it
had been suggested, that a crop of cotton should be
made in Maryland in the last vear, manv would
have smiled at the " notion.
north the cultivation will go—no one can venture
to assert : but Maryland. Delaware, New Jersey,
1 Illinois and Missouri, and perhaps other states,
we
How much further
>5
an* # # .
mav, vervpossibly, furnish ro"siderable supplies ot
cotton : and Arkansas and Florida will certainly
cultivate the plant as extensively as it is ruUivated
anv where, if profitable. The cotton producing re
gion of the United States thus embraces a large tract
of land—capable, in itself, if cultivated as it easily
be. sufficient to supply the whole world with
Of this, and of the pro
mav
that valuable commodity.
of its cultivation, the planters should take most
Egypt is pouring out new and large
supplies for the European market, and that country
and Greece, and the Greek islands, are capable, in
themselves, of »implying all Europe—and probably
will do it, should the latter be emancipated and
have peace. Labour is much cheaper ip those couo
tries than in our southern states. A freeman may
be hired for q little more than the annual interest nn
the mnnev vested in-the person of a slave in this
country; and it is the cost of labour and subsis'ence,
gross
serious notice.
reift! letter fmm Lima, dated October 1,1826,
c
savs—" Our unbleached 3-4 and 7-8 domestics are gaming
t daily, all cases preferred to English or
geno-lly command a living profit at
s-implesrof them sent to England
*e not
ground h*
India cottons.
lr>ast There have bee
for imitation, but whe'her they have succeeded we
able to sav."
Many like letters might be 4110 'ed from other parts. But
what a volume of instruction is obtained in the few lines we
have given ?
fl
witli tlie requisitions of government, that must for
ever establish the comparative prices of corn modi-1
tles ' not conhned to the production of peculiar ch- ;
1 y e immense island or continent ot New
SWtÄföM SrEïÂtsS
iana on mis gioue nxtea to tne growtn oi cotton, is
competent to furnish a thousand times more than its
people can consume ; and besides,, the cotton of ma
nycountnes except as to the small ipiantity ol-'sea-1
island which we raise.) is better than our own. It
** impossible. c ?' that we can have and preserve a
monopoly m the production or sale of this stable.
Our cultivation has already passed beyond the profit
able demand. I he crops of 1826,.compared with
Iliat of 182 j, shews an increase of 150,000 bales, or
more than one-fourth of the whole quantity produc
ed in * 825. I an this increase continue : No no
ns—indeed, no . ... , „ n „ (
Cotton fust began to be raised in 1/89 or 1790,
■"ft"? e . x P, 0 ^îÿ
189,31 is. 1,601,000 m 1794,20,911,000 in 1801,
a wni lonî'aî was ot foreign growth, lor it was
not till 0~, thatdiscrimination was made as to
its ougin. Andoutofthescsmallbegmnings wchave
F lse " "P * he production of 250 millions of pounds
m 1826. The quantity and value of cotton exported
lias exceedingly fluctuated, and the; remarks which
are applied above to tobacco are also applicable to
I'emXlnfereS^ PPJ - *
" ^
COTTON EXPORTED.
Pounds.
189,000
6 , 100,000
17.789,000
Years.
1791
1796
1800
1802
1807
1810
I 1815
I 1816
Value — g
27.501.000
66.212.000
93.874.000
82.998.000
81.747.000
87.997.000
127.860.000
173,723,00«
142.369.000
The years connected with a brace (
[ai other pairs of years that, might be offered from
that quantity and value have no ccr
; with the other: 87 millions of
|un 1819, were nearly as valuable
f and 173 millions in 1823,
ss than 142 millions
^g^ftakthat the fo
d^^^icr, that an
at reduced
5,250,000
14.332.000
15.108.000
17.529.000
24.106.000
21.031.000
22.308.000
20.445.000
21.947.000
) and se
1819
I
1820
1823
182*
as
ced Ja
in 1824.«
reign denraf __
excess quantify ciudtW
prices. ' •
The whole crop of 1826, is esti
bales.
lollar
pro
soldi
at 720,027
|y>60,243
1825
Increase in one year,ÆMmsB3f
Of the 720,000 hales, we
175,000 will be consumed in the vnM^K
that 185 millions of pounds may be left3Bjgj
tion, if the foreign market will receive
the annual commercial tables are published!
treasury department, we shall be able tospe
fully on this interesting point. Itiswellkno
our own manufacturers were the chief purchasers in
the early part of last season. We may expect that
they will require 400,000 bales, in from six to ten
years, unless destroyed by some suicided policy.
When they shall reach that quantity, about 150,000
bales will be made in gouds for the foreign market ;
for it is just as certain to our mind as any almost
every other future event can be, that the British
manufacture of cotton must decline, and many peo
ple will depend upon this, instead of that country,
for their supplies of cotton goods. Some of the rea
sons for this belief we set forth in the article pub
lished in the Register of the 27th January, ult*
Let us, however, look to the present only. Can any
one fail to suppose that the domestic demand for
one-fourth of the whole quantity produced, has no
effect on the price f We think that every reflecting
calculating merchant or dealer, every one who has
thought of what belongs to scarcity and supply,
production and demand, would estimate this de
mand as equal to it), 15 or 20 percent, advance. In
deed, thç price of cotton exported in 1822, 1823
and 1824 shew this—for in these years our manu
factures were exceedingly depressed, and many of
them absolutely ruined. Stop their mills and looms
now, and cotton, if worth eight cents, would tumble
down to six ; and the price of cotton goods would as
suddenly rise, at the same or a greater ratio, and
thus make a double loss to the American people, and
a double gain to foreigners. No business-man will
contest the principle of this proposition—it rests
upon the natural and unavoidable rules of trade, and
is applicable to all sorts of commodities. But admit
that the present domestic demand has effect to raise
the price of cotton only half a cent per lb. or five per
cent, on its value, and this we think that the most
obstinate and resolutely blind opponent of the tariff
will be compelled to allow as being very reasonable:
then, ifthecropbe 250 millions of pounds, the gain
to the planters, because of this demand is g 1,250,000.
This item we wish especially recollected—for it will
be referred to below.
159,778
t about
Les, and
rta
These results, simple as thev are, will not fail to
excite surprise in many persons. " Who would have
* We have since met with the following from a London
paper, which is not less applicable to the relation in which
England stands to our country than to France.
Mr. Macchmnell, in his " Treatise on Free Trade,"
gives a comparative statement of the expenditure of a Lon
don mechanic, with a wife and four children, and that of a
Parisian mechanic, wifrh the same family. That of the one
he estimates at 78/. per annum, and of the latter at 45/ 10 . 9 .
Of the excess of expenditure in the case of the English la
bourer, (viz : 3-U 189 .) he attributes one-eighth, (or 4/ lit.
3U.) t the greater amount of taxation which is paid, direct^"
ly or indirectly, by the English mechanic, as compared with
the taxation borné by the French artisan.
thought it ?" But such is the resultof almostevery
investigation, or comparison, of things at home with
; things abroad. Let us usefully shew this, in a case
that is exactly in point. If the importations of the
ïitwhSma^ tT unt tü about 7 ' 5 ^ 8 r i, , liü " s r
, (which may be taken as an average official value of
; them,) the woollen, cotton, flaxen and Aetneengoods,
j including all manufactured articles of these, used
for the clothing of persons, and for all family or other
\ purposes in which such goods are required, will
• make up 21 or 22 millions of the amount. Now, if
I these cloths and cassimeres, worsted and stuffs,
blankets and rugs, cotton piece goods, printed, co
j loured or white, nankeens, woollen and cotton hose,
i flaxen and hempen goods—worth in the whole 22
millions of dollars, be divided among the people of
the United States, each person might receive almost
two dollars worth of such goods a year —some of
which, however, are not consumed, being exported,
W * 10 cannot "draw an inference" from this e —that
our people would be " clothed with nakedness if
they depended on the foreign supply ? The probe-
blc value of such goods consumed cannot be less in
the whole than 120 millions, which is about ten dol
lars only lor every person, including what is requir
ed for family and other purposes, never excepting
cotton bagging !!! But such is the effect of scarcf
tv and supply, as before several times alluded to,
T.*" "T«"', with the
whole quantity consumed and ten millions worth
thiown into the market over the amount of the
needful supply, will effect that supply more than
ten millions, extra, are worth m themselves, ami
paralize y> e whole business. '•'Every good rule
works both ways "—if this foreign excess in articles
manufactured produces such imposing effects
ourselves, what would be the state of the European
market for our cotton, if we exported one-fourth
more than we now do ? Let cotton planters calc
late it! Again, and further to demonstrate this
operation, and shew the importance of activity in
the market—when the late news arrived as to the
transportation of British troops to Portugal, flour
momentarily advanced one dollar per barrel. Now,
we could not expect to send to Portugal more than
2 or 300,000 barrels, in the present year, under any
probable circumstances The dift'erence of value
would have been only 8300,000 ; but that difference
might have affected the whole value of all the bread
con
mi
u
stuffs in all the United States—the annual
sumption of which, we are morally certain, is equal
to 30,300,000 barrels of flour ; so there would have
been a generally increased value on every barrel of
flour or bushel of grain, which yet remained in the
United States for consumption, had the rise caused
by the expected demand in Portugal been maintain
ed, which was only in the sum of *300,000! " He
that runs may read" and understand this ; no pro
position in Euclid is more capable of unerring solu
tion. And who would regret this advance in price
to the farmers ? Supposing they consume one half
of all which they produce, it would have added se
veral millions ÿfcdollars to the active circulating me
lL[am ot the country, and every man, because of the
mightobtain money,
v .''.■„"'î'—'x'i ' 'pJMkifcAHJl ad'.nu e nil a ban el
___
|
c among ourselves
cFurour own part,
HttfejlH allinii to
■fS^Kbcing lli«'
lilt V
nota
we are perfectly utMnW :
pay ten dollars for ft barre
common
selling price,) bet
lb. for the cotton used t
cents per
we purchase better than ten, unless the^ppriijètated
prices shall grow out of actual scarcity in the do
mestic production. Either would make money plen
ty, and in the general stir of it, we should pick up
extra sums, and receive extra subscribers, the extra
profits on which would pay our own advances on
the articles named an hundred times over. And
thus it is with every person engaged in business.
Our draymen would be glad of it, and make a large
profit out of such a state of things.
But further—we assert, and appeal to the
documents,* that the whole value of all the woollen,
cotton, flaxen, or hempen goods imported, and of all
the mixtures of them, of all sorts, sizes, shapes, co
lors—from the dimensions of the finest thread to
carpets many yards wide, has an average annual
value of about twenty-two millions a year. Well—
by the census of 1820 there were, say 8,000,000 of
the people, and 10,000,000 persons in the U. States.
VVe shall, however, use the latter number to avoid
the shadow of offence on any account whatever.—
The whole population of the cotton growing states
and districts, (without reference to the amout of
persons employed in the cultivation of the plant,)
may be thus shewn :
One-eighth of Virginia,
One-fourth North Carolina,
All South Carolina,
All Georgia,
All Alabama,
All Louisiana, .
All Mississippi,
Half Tennessee,
iic
133.000
. 160,000
490.000
. 340,000
127.000
. 153,000
75,000
. 221,000
1,699,000
"All told," 1,700,000 persons, or 1,000,000 of
the people of the United States. Now let us sup
pose that the duties levied on tile goods above de
scribed are really [yes, realty ] paid to the amount
of thirty per cent, on the reported cost, an,d it will
appear that the whole revenue divided from them
may be 6,600,000 dollars; and then, if we admit
the 1,700,000 persons to pay their full and equitable
share of the whole, (which is admitted only for the
sake of argument, tor slaves are not made to con
tribute through their masters as freemen do,) we
have 1,122,000 dollars paid by the cotton grow
* Referring to those of 1823—the year preceding the
adoption of the present tariff - . |
ing states and districts, on all the' goods above de
cribed ! and if we allow that one fourth of the du
ties collected is more for the p-ofeefjon of our ma
nufactures than the general revenue of government,
î*rr ts te2 T, do,lars vt* one -
lourth only of the increased value on cotton because
of the tariff, at the exceedingly moderate rate sup
posed above, and one-filth only of what Louisiana
directly and certainly obtains in her sugar through
the tariff-*-"the accursed tariff"—or an eightji part
of the duties paid on that article imported and eon
sumed by the people of the United States, which is
about the sum of 2.280,000 dollars, and would be
3,600,000 dollars, were not the state dutyfree!
Who is not surprised at these results f The subject
might be further pursued, and we shall probably
hereafter publish a statement to shew the opera! ii ;
of the new tarir', and (he extra amount apparently
paid underit on all sorts of articles. It will amount
to a small sum, indeed ; but the reality is, taku ■*
all the articles together, that those which have been
protected are cheaper because of that protection. Mo
much fur the law which an " honourable gentle
man" in his place in congress swore, " by Heaven,
Qcorsia would never submit to it
\Ve ^hal? now Lite,! to brin* this essay to a con
elusion n J
The cultivation of cotton is not now at all a pro
«table ÏÏness ", he! «Æ vested iX^aÄ
product in money comparatively small. A Hunts
ville paper of the 26th January savs, " the planters
(1 f North Alabama will readily agree that the pre
i sent price 0 t' cotton will not defray the expense, of
cultivation rent free." Another paper of the same
place, of the 29th, speaking of the prospects of the
cotton planters, says—
" These are gloomy beyond all former example,
and the price is depressed below the wishes or ex
pectations of our worst enemies. * No sensible mail
would have ventured five years ago, to predict, that
upland cotton of fair quality, would ever fall below
six cents per pound ; but this sad reverse we have
witnessed and felt to our astonishment and mortifi
cation. It is well understood, in cotton growing
countries, that the article cannot be grown and yield
a reasonable interest on the capita! employed, at
less than eight cents per pound, and that the actual
disbursements, independent of the interest on the
capital employed, nearly equal the present price of
cotton. "t
Then follow some excellent remarks on the flne
tuations in tbo price of cotton, and the. excess of
quantity raised, which, if much more augmented, it
is stated, will cause plantations and slaves to be a
tax on the proprietors, for that " the proceeds will
not defray the disbursements." all which is very
probable or very true, and we, indeed, exceedingly
regret it: but "bad as the business of growing cot
ton may be at the present time, it would he murh
worse" except for the home manufacture of it—it
would not vield so much by one per cent, per pound,
though we have only supposed half a rent in the pre
ceding speculations on this point of our subject. We
feel confident of this, and so the di fference to the
cotton growers wouU Apiount
year! Examine i;-*-*0 is so. The home mart!
is extending. - SMUdh boat arrived at Pitt*
few days since jKivIlàstiTille, laden with si
di ed and thirteen Dale* ! The home consumj
about 175,000 bales—or one-lourth of the
product. The whole amount of domestic i
sold .in Philadelphia, in the years 1804, '5 and V
were valued « Wily ®17,670 : those sold the las
year were worth four millions —we as sincere^
sympathise with our brethren, the cotton growers, as
with the grain growers and wool growers. Whate
ver depresses either, injures the whole country,
There is no incompatibility jin the prosperity of all
these interests, and of the manufacturing and com
mercial, for all operate to a comqion object. But I
repeat it—except the sugar plant ingVit^jest there is
no other interest in the country more beWnf
the tariff' than the cotton planting. The i
three cents per lb. which several times has,
future will be a. protection, notwithstanding the ex
port of that article, because of the very inferior
qualities that might be imported and interfere with
those grown by us. And, to terminate this long
essay, with observing, that the time is close at hand
when the cotton planters of the United States will
be no less the open and avowed friends of the
" American system" than are the manufacturers
of cotton, of wool, or iron : and expressing a hope,
that the three hundred subscribers in the south
which was lost, within a few years past, because of
perseverance in respect to that system, (though
list is still respectable and now on the increase
in that part of our country,) will produce the gain of
six hundred, because of the good that we honestly
[he
to>
r, a
[hun
Lnn is
ole
ed by
|y is
Ski in
mu
our
* Who are those ''enemies ?" They who predicted the
present state of things, and warned the planters against it 7
who exhorted a consumption at home, to prevent so grpat
aglut of the market abroad ?
f The following is from the same paper :
'fhe leading agriculturalists of South Carolina are awake
to the importance and necessity of adopting some new cul
ture in that state. The different agricultural societies have
formed a United Agricultural Society for the state, com
posed of delegates from the local societies At a recent
meeting the following resolutions were adopted :
" Resolved, That it be recommended to evt'iWThember
of this society, to use his best efforts for promoting, in his
respective district, the culture of some staple, suited to
our climate, and which may divert theattention of planters
from the culture of cotton, now produced in excess.
Resolved, That a premium of forty dollars be awarded to
any experimentalist who shall succeed in introducing such
new cultuie, on a space of ground not less than one acre."
The Iasi resolution is evidently intended to encourage
experiments with the vine and mulberry.
ft is stated, that superior specimens of domestic wine«
and of homespun usnabui gs, were presented to ttie society.
The planters of Alabama should follow this example, for
surely in no part of the union is cotton such a drug as in
this state*.
Dd. Rlg.