its surplus. The countries of South America and Asia will be open to it, and if it there encounter British and New England competition, it will have the advantage of having, unprotected, developed its manufactures in face of the competition of Northern goods in the home market, and therefore become able to meet those goods in any market. If in a few years it does not become a seller of cotton goods to the North on a large scale, as it already is on a small scale, since Georgia, and Alabama cottons are favourites in New York, it will take none from them. The North will, however, still require food and materials, and the scale of dependence may vibrate. The sales of Northern manufactures to the South, as parts of the offset to the large receipts of Southern produce, may be placed at $150,000,000, and from the West at possibly $30,000,000; making $180,000,000 worth of domestic merchandise purchased by the South, in addition to the imported goods. It certainly is one of the most extraordinary spectacles of the age, to see a great, intelligent, and manufacturing people voluntarily permitting a few political aspirants to attack their best customer, and seek to destroy his means of purchase, and merely for a chimera. The French Emperor has proclaimed that France alone "goes to war for an idea." But America presents the spectacle of a people who go to destruction for an "idea." That political party which threatens with fire and sword every Southern hearth, with violent death every Southern man, and with dishonour every Southern female, amid a saturnalia of blood, receives countenance from merchants, whose trade depends upon the goodwill of their threatened neighbours, and yet vainly hope that they will continue to buy Northern wares, and make no effort to prepare for that hour which the tendency of that party, for the last thirty years, makes inevitable. A most remarkable evidence that the increase of Northern tonnage has depended on the increase of the cotton crop is shown in the two periods of 1830 and 1859: In 1830 the tonnage of the Northern States was In 1859 the tonnage was The cotton crop of 1859 was 4,500,000 bales. Other intermediate periods might be given to show that the increase of tonnage has kept pace with the increase of the cotton crop. The South therefore had fairly earned a right to the fair consideration of her constitutional position on the slavery question, and when the debate took place which first brought the present parties to a direct issue on it, such was the view taken. : At New Albany, May, 1850, Mr. Webster said: "The constitution of the United States consists in a series of mutual agreements or compromises; one thing yielded by the South, another by the North, the general mind having been brought together and the whole agreed to. Congress has protected the commerce of the North, first, by preference by way of tonnage duties, — that higher tonnage on foreign ships has never been surrendered but in consideration of a just equivalent: so that, in this respect, without grudging or complaint on the part of the South, but generously and fairly, not by way of concession, but in the true spirit of the constitution, they enjoy an exclusive right of coasting trade. They say, in Syracuse and Boston, you set up profit against conscience. But this is a flight of fanaticism. constitution, to keep us united, to keep flowing in our hearts a fraternal feeling, must be administered in the spirit in which it was framed." The Daniel Webster, at Buffalo, New York, May, 1851, in his speech, said :-"I hope these observations will satisfy you that I know where I am, under what L responsibility I speak, and before whom I appear, and I have no desire that any word I shall say this day shall be withholden from you, or your children, or your neighbours, or the whole world; for I speak before you and before my country, and, if it be not too solemn to say so, before the great Author of all things. Gentlemen, there is but one question in this country now; or if there be others, the others are but secondary, or so subordinate that they are all absorbed in the great and leading question, and that is neither more nor less than this: Can we preserve the union of these States?-not by coercion, not by military power, not by angry controversies; - but can we of this generation, you and I, your friends and my friends, can we so preserve the union of these States by such administration of the powers of the constitution as shall give content and satisfaction to all who live under it, and draw us together, not by military power, but by the silken cords of mutual, fraternal, patriotic affection? That is the question, and no other. Gentlemen, I believe in party distinctions. I am a party man. There are questions belonging to party in which I am concerned, and there are opinions entertained by other parties which I repudiate. But what of all that? If a house be divided against itself it will fall, and crush everybody in it. We must see that we maintain the government which is over us. We must see that we uphold the constitution, and we must do so without regard to party. The question, fellow-citizens (and I put it to you now as the real question), the question is, whether you and the rest of the people of the great State of New York, and of all the States, will so adhere to the constitution, will so enact and maintain laws to preserve that instrument, that you will not only remain in the Union yourselves, but permit your brethren to remain in it, and help to perpetuate it. That is the question. Will you carry on measures necessary to maintain the Union, or will you oppose such measures? That is the whole point in the case. You have thirty or forty members of Congress from New York; you have your proportion in the United States Senate. We have many members of Congress from New England: will they maintain the laws that are passed for the administration of the constitution, and respect the rights of the South, that the Union may be held together; and not only that we may not go out of it ourselves, which we are not inclined to do, but that by asserting and maintaining the rights of others, they may also remain in the Union? Now, gentlemen, permit me to say that I speak of no concessions. If the South wish any concessions from me they will |