Was the South ever Dependent on the North?
--
The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. during the last year, delivered one of his characteristic tirades against the
South, from which we make the following extract:
‘
"
Is the South Dependent!--The little finger of a Northern man is worth more than the whole body of a master with whip in hand, and head on which he seems to use for little else than to hang his hat upon.
These threats of of the
South to secede are like the meeting of paupers in an alms-house, and resolving to quit the institution if the country does not feed them better.
The South sucks the
Northern bosom and we fill it with milk.
We work, and they reap the fruit of our toil.
We invented the means of their prosperity.
Whitney made the cotton gin that has done so much for the
South, and he died a poor man, as they cheated him out of the reward of his toil.
Chivalry! Chivalry!"
’
The persistent folly of men like
Beecher, who actually believed what he here asserts, that the
South was dependent for its very existence on the
North, and that she could be induced by no consideration of interest or self-respect to dissolve the bands that connected them, had a tendency to hasten the catastrophe, which was inevitable under any circumstances, more than anything else that occurred during the long war of recrimination that preceded it. In view of the actual facts, it seems strange to us how such infatuation could ever have fastened itself upon the minds of men who have been supposed, above all others, to act habitually from the promptings of interest.
While
Beecher was thus in flaming his Yankee audience against the
Southern people, and deluding them into the belief that separation was impossible, the train had already been laid, and the match lit. In a few weeks the
Union was blown sky-high, and his miserable dupes have only learned, when it was too late, the utter hollowness of his cause.
The
North has lost the trade of the
South forever, and we shall now have a fair opportunity to see which of the sections can best dispense with the assistance of the other.
It is not even necessary to wait the slow progress of time: we already know what the
North drew from the
South, and what she was able to supply from her own resources.
The entire exports of the whole Union amounted in value annually to about $325,000,000. Of these the
South exported in round numbers $250,000,000 in cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar, and naval stores.
Nearly the whole of this exportation went to
Europe, and was paid for, not in
gold and
silver, but in silks,
broad-cloths, wines, and other manufactures.
When these articles thus purchased arrived in port, they paid a duty of 25
per cent., amounting in round numbers, to $30,000,000. The South owning three-fourths of the importation, paid three fourths of the duty, or $60,000,000. In other words, since the
Government was supported almost entirely by duties upon imports, she contributed three-fourths of the money required.
The
North contributed but one-fourth--that is, $20,000,000. It can be seen at a glance by whom the
Government was chiefly supported.
The
North had a population of 20,000,000, the
South a population of 10,000,000.
If the
Government had depended for support on direct taxes equally and uniformly laid according to population, the
North would have paid twice as much as the
South; that is to say, she would have paid $54,000,000, while the
South paid $26,000,000. The system adopted made the
South pay $60,000,000, while it exacted from the
North only $20,000,000.--Which party was dependent upon the other?
The Black Republicans say that the
North paid the largest amount of duties, because it used the largest amount of imported goods.--The latter part of this proposition is true, the first false.
The
North certainly consumed two thirds of the imported goods, but those goods were the property of the
South when the duties were paid on them.
After the duties were paid, the
South, not having a use for more than one-third of them, the New York or other Northern merchants took the other two-thirds.
From the sale thus made, the
South paid broker's expenses, and received, in lieu of money or foreign goods thus sold, a portion of
New England manufactures.
Out of the value sent abroad--$250,000,000--the
South paid $60,000,000, or one-fourth of the whole in duties--$50,000,000 more (that is 20 per cent.,) in commissions to brokers and importers in New York and
Boston--$20,000,000 to the
Yankee manufacturer, in the shape of profit on his manufactures, sent to the
South in place of the imported goods — and $10,000,000 to the Yankee shipper, who carried these goods, foreign and domestic, to Southern ports.
After all this, the
Southern man generally spent his summers at the
North, and there got rid of at least $60,000,000 more of what was left him after these successive exactions.
A writer who is not often mistaken in matters of this sort, says that the
South annually paid to Northern manufacturers, merchants, importers, brokers, shippers, and hotel-keepers, sums amounting in the aggregate to $231,500,000.--It is easy to understand how their splendid cities, railroads, and canals were constructed.
Mr. Beecher is in a fair way to have the truth of his propositions thoroughly tested, as they have already been partially.
The South has separated herself from the
North, notwithstanding his prediction to the contrary.
She will try whether she can exist independently of the
North, and we shall see whether the
North can live independent of her. The $231,000,000 which she had annually from the
South will hereafter be spent in the
South.
We shall see whether it will not, in time, build cities, construct railroads, and dig canals, as magnificent as any of which the
North can boast.
We shall see, also, whether we cannot get our cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar to
Europe without the assistance of the
Yankees.
Let not
the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher fear that we will hereafter be a burthen to Yankeedom.
If we have been dependent on her heretofore, we never will be hereafter.
