501 The spirit displayed by the Northern States irrevocably pledged to the cause of the Union. of America in the vindication of the Federal The great states of the North-west ought, compact is far more respectable than the if they understood their own interest, to reboasted prosperity which has always been sist the grasping selfishness of the Atlantic used to excite the wonder of Europe. The cotton-spinners and iron-masters. The Govprudence and practicability of Mr. Lincoln's ernment must have already discovered that enterprise may be questioned, but the regi- the stoppage or discouragement of trade has ments which are marching to Virginia and little tendency to increase the pecuniary reMissouri from all the regions of the North are sources of the country. Sober politicians animated by a generous belief that it is their also perceive that a prohibitive tariff is a duty to preserve the unity of the great Repub- boon to the Southern States as long as the lic. In the meantime, the Confederate Gov- quarrel lasts, and that it may at any time ernment is preparing for the struggle in si- prove an obstacle to the desired compromise lence, and the few scattered accounts from the which no one has the courage publicly to South afford glimpses of a fierce determina- mention. The New York journals, and the tion to resent all attempts at coercion to the popular opinion which they reflect, seem to death. The army and wealth of the United feel a certain shame for their vulgar and unStates seem wholly irresistible as long as provoked onslaught on England. The mothe distant spectator is influenced by the nopolists of Pennsylvania will scarcely percontagious enthusiasm and confidence of the suade Congress that an iniquitous system of Northern population; but a more compre-taxation is justifiable and patriotic, merely hensive view of the conflict makes the con- because it is incidentally distasteful to the quest of the seceding states appear as for- hated foreigner. midable and as uncertain as the march to Moscow. It will be difficult to feed one hundred thousand men in a hostile country, and twice that force would be easily outnumbered in Georgia or in Mississippi. Having performed the constitutional duty of providing the supplies, the legislature will perhaps proceed to transcend the limits of its authority by passing an act of indemnity in favor of the Executive. Mr. Lincoln Congress will not fail to grant the vast may have been morally right in all the meassupplies in men and money which the Ad- ures which he has adopted, but he has found ministration has thought it necessary to de- it necessary to violate at every turn a conHe has enforced mand. Of the four hundred thousand men stitution which was never calculated for the two hundred and fifty thousand are already contingencies of civil war. levied, and a large portion of the $400,000,- martial law in Baltimore without ever pro000 has been expended by the Federal Gov- claiming it, and he has held intercourse with ernment or advanced by the states. A navy the revolutionary or bogus Virginian govhas still to be created, and a multitude of ernment which has been originated by the recruits to be formed into an army, and at Wheeling Convention. In his first proclapresent the whole country would resent any mation after the capture of Fort Sumter, the hesitation in the provision of ample means President paid the customary tribute to profor victory. Mr. Chase's plan for obtaining priety in his odd warning to the so-called inthe necessary funds seems to be well-consid-surgents to retire to the homes which they ered, practicable, and straightforward. A had never quitted. As soon as the North large loan is to be raised while patriotic zeal began to arm in earnest, the affectation of is still at its highest, and duties on coffee reading the Riot Act to nine or ten soverand other unprotected commodities are, for eign states became too flagrantly absurd. the first time, included in a tariff constructed From that time the President has carried A small on the war in the capacity of a dictator with not for protection but for revenue. direct tax is to form a further security to the a high-handed disregard for legal scruples national creditor, and it may be assumed and objections. In England, Parliament that it will be raised by the constitutional would retrospectively authorize any measure process of adding the necessary percentage which was proved to have been essential to to the municipal and state assessment. The impost will fall with undue weight on visible property, but it is necessary, in all questions of taxation, to follow the custom of the country. The Secretary of the Treasury and his colleagues have probably devised the most effective mode of raising money, and it is scarcely probable that Congress will suggest any alternative scheme. It is not known whether the Morrill tariff will be modified, now that Massachusetts and Philadelphia are the safety of the commonwealth. The Senate of indemnity in a future revision of the constitutional pact; nor, with the people at their back, is it necessary to reflect that the revival of the Union, if it were possible, would leave the most zealous advocates of the war once more in a minority. Republicans and Democrats, the influence With three or four hundred thousand men, and with the command of the sea, the Northern Government may threaten the The President's message is the oddest Gulf coasts of the Confederation without document which was ever issued by the Gov- weakening the main armies in Virginia and ernment of a great nation. Mr. Lincoln's on the Mississippi. Like Napoleon in 1812, admirers boast that the chief magistrate of the invader is stronger in numbers and in the Union once navigated a timber float; organization, but the Americans of the South and it is satisfactory to observe that an are strangely degenerate if they are easier to august bargeman from the Mississippi is, in subdue than the serf population of Russia. style and rhetoric, precisely on a level with If an unforeseen conquest is nevertheless an uncrowned bargeman on the Thames. achieved, the difficulty of administering a "The little disguise," says Mr. Lincoln, hostile province will be even more insuper"that the supposed right is to be exercised able than the dangers of the war. Whatever only for a just cause, themselves to be the may be the issue of the conflict, it will leave sole judges of its justice, is too thin to merit hundreds of thousands of armed men to be any notice. Thus sugar-coated, they have disbanded, and some of them will have acbeen drugging the public mind of their sec- quired that exclusive taste for their profestion for more than thirty years, and until at sion which is common to veterans. The next length they have brought many good men candidates for the Presidency will assuredly to a willingness to take up arms against the be military leaders, and it is by no means Government the day after some assemblage certain that the supporters of a defeated of men have enacted the farcical pretence of general will acquiesce in the triumph of taking their state out of the Union, who some unknown Polk or Pierce. It will be could have been brought to no such thing necessary to find employment for the army, the day before." The honest President and Mexico will probably be the first victim seems, in his process of self-education, to of the new American institutions. The athave learned to write imperfectly, and it is tack on Canada which has so often been strange that an educated country should be threatened will perhaps follow in due course, governed by an utterly illiterate ruler. But and the fleet will undervalue and tempt the in substance the people and the Government overwhelming naval force of England. Acunderstand one another, and the sugar-cording to the latest accounts, a collision coated druggists, though they may smile at was said to be imminent on the right bank the ungrammatical denunciation of their of the Potomac. Northern enthusiasts, who farcical pretences, will not the less under- are wholly ignorant of General Beauregard's stand that they have to deal with an inex-intentions, forget that a battle, before it is haustible store of money and of soldiers. The comic effect of the President's message will only be fully appreciated by those who are safe from the consequences of his curiously expressed conclusions. The most interesting question to be determined in the debates of Congress relates to the conformity or independence of individual opinions. A few senators and several representatives, if not friendly to the cause of the South, heartily disapprove of a war of coercion and conquest. If they have the courage to resist the popular clamor of the moment, a nucleus of opposition will soon attract waverers and hasty converts who have been overborne by the sudden display of apparent unanimity. It would be idle to oppose the general sentiment, which is right and patriotic as well as universally popular. Judicious dissentients will confine themselves to protests against violent measures, and they will wait for opportunities of pacification and compromise. With the inevitable reappearance of the obliterated distinction between fought, must be accepted as well as offered. From The Economist, 20 July. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. have not, by the Constitution of the United is the object of the war ;-it says as distinctly States, a right to secede, and he wins in an as words can say it, that Mr. Lincoln is fighteasy argument a useless victory. George ing to bring back the South-the South as it the Third, by similar arguments and with stands, with its angry population and with its analogous facility, proved that the "North slaves into a union with the North; it says American Colonies" of England had no right that Mr. Lincoln is desirous of conquering to secede from the mother country. And certain seceding communities; it implies that what then? Mr. Burke replied that you having conquered them, he is willing to concould not draw "a bill of indictment against tinue the old Federal Union with them, but a whole nation." The philosopher perceived it does not say that he intends to set free what the king of his day and the people of their slaves. Unquestionably he does not his day could not perceive, that if a whole intend it. The war is a war of conquest, community of armed and civilized men wish not a war of philanthropy. to separate from the nation which governs For England, it is even more material to them, they will separate. National pride, observe that this message is so clearly and military power, financial strength are useless strongly warlike as to bring the speculations as against the united resources of a whole peo-to the prospective supply of cotton, with which ple. George the Third failed, not because we have favored our readers this week and England was not strong enough or rich last, still more within the domain of pressing enough to conquer an American army or ten and practical questions. The chances of a American armies, but because England would complete and systematic interruption to the not have been strong enough to retain, and transmission of the American crop to Europe was too wise even to wish to retain, in per- increase with every fresh demonstration of petuity, a compulsory authority over a seat-vigor and determination on the part of the tered, a hostile, and a martial people. Mr. North. And this is the interpretation put Lincoln will fail for a like reason: the North upon the tidings by merchants both here and is strong and rich, but it is neither so strong at Liverpool. As to the latter place, it has nor so rich as the England of George the led to large sales of cotton and a decided adThird; the South is neither so weak nor so vance in price. If there is to be a war, no poor as the "United States" of Jefferson doubt the Northerners are right in straining and Washington. every nerve to end the conflict at once. they succeed, the affair is ended: if they fail, the very magnitude of the scale of their operations may serve to convince them that success is impossible, and thus equally contribute to a settlement. As far as this country and its commercial interests are concerned, any thing which shortens the strife by enhancing its dimensions will be a gain. The more earnest the North is, and the more vigorous and extensive are its preparations, the more certain it becomes both that we shall not have any cotton at present, and that we shall have plenty a year hence. The double certainty may throw some light upon the probabilities, which are all we have to guide us in our mercantile transactions. If It is plain that Mr. Lincoln wishes to carry on the war earnestly. But for what is he fighting? For some months past this has been a topic of perpetual discussion in this country. Since Mr. Lincoln's inaugural address there has been no authentic exposition of the intentions of the American Government. Accordingly the large party in this country who are opposed, and rightly opposed, to the continuance of slavery, hoped that the war was more or less a war for the abolition of slavery. In the absence of official statements, it was not easy to confute them; it was impossible to say that they might not be right in a conjecture which had philanthropy, if not probability, on its side. We ventured, however, on several occasions to indicate our We give elsewhere a full account of the doubts. We did not believe that the North- financial proposals of the American Secretary ern community, where the doctrine of abo- of the Treasury in his own words. And we have lition was only a year since bitterly unpop-only to guard our readers against the erroneular, had in a few months become crusading ous notion which has been spread by the first abolitionists. Now we have an authentic telegraphie announcement, that the large loan exposition of the intentions of the American Government. And what does it say? It does not suggest or hint that the cessation of negro slavery may be a consequence of the war; it does not say that the abolition of that slavery which the American Government will require will be asked for at once. What is asked is only an authority to borrow, to be exercised from time to time, and which will doubtless be exercised reasonably and moderately. From The Economist, 20 July. THE COMMERCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE AMERICAN BLOCKADE. illustrations, though they do not fully bear out the conclusion in confirmation of which they are adduced. In 1812 we were ourselves the belligerents; we were by no means anxious so to blockade the enemy's ports as to deprive ourselves of cotton. We were willing enough often to allow vessels to sail, satisfied that if they escaped our cruisers their cargoes would find their way to us through neutral markets, and that if seized, they would reach us by a still cheaper and directer process. But notwithstanding this double operation of capture and connivance, the quantity we received both directly and through Brazil did fall off considerably. The total was as follows: 181C 1811 1812 lbs. 81,000,000 67,000,000 42,000,000 Records destroyed by fire 35,000,000 LAST week we earnestly endeavored to persuade our readers to consider, if only as an hypothesis neither fanciful nor remote, what would be the effect upon the cotton manufacture of Great Britain in case the blockade of the ports of the seceding states should be so strict and so long-continued as to deprive us of our whole annual supply of cotton from that quarter; and what steps it was desirable to take in anticipation of such a very possible contingency. We were the more anxious to call attention to this uncomfortable question because we found, even among those most immediately concerned, a rooted unwillingness, approaching to inability, to contemplate any such result as within the range of rational calculation. The merchants of Liverpool and the spinners of Manchester seemed alike to have made up their minds that because cotton was grown and The opium trade with China, though a was wanted, it would be sure to come; and, contraband one, is scarcely a case in point; having thus "spoken to themselves smooth for the Chinese government was one of the things, and prophesied 'peace, peace,' where weakest and corruptest in the world. Our there was no peace," to be little inclined to efforts to suppress the slave trade have been trouble themselves with any speculations as baffled fully as much by the recalcitrance of to the modus operandi by which their san- nations which we could not coerce, as by the guine hopes were to be realized. We wish skill of the Spanish and Portuguese traders. now to consider this part of the subject But this case, and that of the defeat of Nasomewhat more fully, with a view to ascer-poleon's Berlin and Milan decrees, are untain what prospect really exists of the Amer-questionably signal instances of the power ican cotton coming forward as imagined. of Profit when matched against armed force; Commercial men, with that sort of unrea- and we are prepared even here to hope much soning instinct which is so natural to them from its energizing motives. and which is usually so sound, have jumped But, though we are and must be anxious to the conclusion that where an article exists purchasers, is it by any means so sure that which one people are intensely eager to sell the Americans are anxious sellers? and another people are intensely eager to present, certainly, it would appear to be just buy, no power on earth can thoroughly or the reverse. The Government at leastfor long prevent the transfer from being ef- and in a democratic country like America fected. They say that all experience bears the people and the Government are onethem out in this anticipation. They point seem bent upon preventing the export of to the war of 1812, when we got the Amer- cotton. They are above all things anxious ican cotton as usual at the very moment that the Northern States shall not get any, when we were fighting tooth and nail with hoping by this means to distress and coerce the Americans. They point to the opium the manufacturers they hate; and next to trade with China, to the slave trade with this they are anxious that France and EngCuba, to smuggling trades generally all over land shall receive as little as possible, bethe world, to show that the most powerful lieving that by this means those countries governments and the most active efforts of will be induced to interfere in their behalf or fanatical philanthropists cannot prevent the with a high hand to put down the blockade. supply to any nation of any article that is Accordingly they have prohibited the export vehemently desired. They remind us that of their staple article by land or river, exthe eager desire of Napoleon at the height cept towards Mexico; and besides this of his power to exclude English manufac-strong and singular enactment they appear tures from the Continent was completely to have some queer scheme of purchasing baffled by the force of circumstances; and the crop from the planters and paying them that his own soldiers were clothed with the in treasury notes,-in order, no doubt, as produce of our looms, even by the conni- they fancy, to keep this cherished means of vance of his own marshals. There is great" coercion by starvation " more effectually weight, no doubt, in all these arguments and in their own hands. It may possibly be true At diation, they will not be far from a settlement of the quarrel without our interposition. But they seem months, if not years, distant yet from so desirable a temper. It remains to be seen what other chances that the cotton-growers are not particularly zealous for this indefinite suspension of their trade and its rich returns, but they make no sign, and appear to coincide both with the projects and the expectations of the authorities. It is even probable that as time goes there may be of some mitigation, by miscelon and the privation of accustomed luxuries laneous means, of that hermetical sealing-up begins to be seriously felt, both the plant- of the cotton crop with which, to all appearers and the Government may be desirous ance, we are threatened. These means are to relax their "self-denying ordinance;" neither numerous nor promising, but they but at present the seceding states present are worth something. In the first place, it the anomalous spectacle of forbidding the is considered that, though the large ports export of that article by land which their whence cotton is usually shipped are few and enemies forbid the exportation of by sea- easily blockaded, there are other smaller both parties in fact combining to prevent its ones where light craft might run in and out reaching the foreigners who are so anxious with great facility, each carrying a few bales, to procure it. which could be transshipped out at sea into larger vessels fitted for the Atlantic voyage. There can be no doubt that this process will be carried on to a great extent, and that a certain, perhaps a considerable, proportion of these cargoes may escape the vigilance of the United States cruisers, which are not as yet numerous. But it must be borne in mind that cotton is a very bulky article, not easily concealed or stowed away,-a bale worth £12 or £15, weighing 5 cwts. and measuring 5 feet by 3 and 4; and it is probable, therefore, that the quantities that could thus escape observation must be reckoned rather by tens than by hundreds of thousands of bales.-In the second place, it would seem that the Southerners themselves imagine that a good deal will find its way into Mexico and be shipped from Tampico and other ports in that republic. Of course some will come that way; but in a wild country like Texas and the adjacent provinces, roads are few and bad, and watercarriage is not handy, and the expense of transporting merchandise like cotton bales through such a district must be enormous. We are therefore not sanguine of any great relief from that quarter, though some driblets may come to mitigate the dearth.— Thirdly, when cotton reaches such a price as to leave enormous profits on a single cargo, adventurous merchants in both hemispheres will no doubt make every possible exertion to evade the blockading squadrons, and will calculate, as the slave traders do, that if one vessel out of two or three evades capture, they will be gainers by the enterprise. Some of our leading commercial houses connected with the American trade place, we are informed, considerable reliance on this source of supply. We dare say they are right: we have only to observe that the hypothesis supposes cotton to have reached a more than famine price.-Lastly—for we presume we must not venture to hint at the possibility of corrupt connivance on the part of officials so notoriously pure as the Ameri It may not be denied that there is a certain amount of rationality in the anticipations of Mr. Jefferson Davis and his colleagues as to the consequences both on their enemies and on neutrals of a dearth of cotton, though, as unquestionably, they much exaggerate its influence. The manufacturers of New England will no doubt suffer considerably by the loss of their usual supply of the raw material, though their stock must be unusually large and the markets for their produce must be much curtailed. But considering the exasperated passions of both parties, and how little they are accustomed to submit to either coercion or constraint, we no more expect the North to be brought to terms because they cannot buy cotton than the South because they cannot sell it. It is a fact well worth considering, that within the last few days the Boston spinners have been making inquiries in Liverpool as to the terms on which they can be supplied with the raw material from our markets, and some small lots have already been sent out to New York. We do not for a moment suppose that either the French or the nglish government will be induced by the distress of their respective manufacturing populations to attempt to raise or to prohibit the blockade any such step would be equivalent to a declaration of war against the Northbut it is certain that the distress which neither country can wholly escape will make the two governments most pressing in tendering their mediation to bring about a termination of the contest. As yet, however, nothing has transpired in the acts or the attitude of either of the belligerents to warrant the least hope that they would listen to any such proposals. We have just learned that the spinners of Rouen have been urging upon Louis Napoleon the desirability of some immediate steps to avert the threatened calamity, and have received for answer that he is as alive as they can be to the gravity and the pressing nature of the case. As soon as the Americans are in a frame of mind to listen to the notion of European me |