E 440 
 
 5 FT MEflDE 
 
 P22 DoNolSepve 
 
 Copy 1 Mi 
 
 
 V" 
 
 ,7^-- h^:'^^^-^' 
 i^^ 
 
 
 :^j 
 
 ■■V M -^^Va 
 
 ■ /f' 
 
 &^H« 
 
 ShIBI 
 
 
 PPH 
 
 mM^" '"^ 
 
 ^ 
 
^ 
 
 ' # IJBHAIIY OF CONdKESS. I' 
 
 
 /i' 
 
 7 •■ ^ 
 
 ^UNITED kSTATKS dF AMERICA. J 
 
 <*..'-■»> -ss* 13 
 
A 
 
The Secession of the Whole South an Existing 
 Fact. A Peaceable Separation the True 
 Oourse. Its Effect on Peace and Trade Be- 
 tween the Sections. 
 
 

The ^following articles were published in the Cincinnati Daily 
 Press, at the dates stated. At the request of some of our most sub- 
 stantial business men, and because the calls upon us show a large 
 demand from our citizens, for circulation, we have reproduced them 
 in this form without revision, trusting to the circumstances to excuse 
 any abruptness of style in articles written for a daily paper, and any 
 repetitions growing out of reference to each other : 
 
 IFrom the Daily Press of January 23.] 
 Coercion and Compromise. 
 
 The Secession question is argued as if the 
 only alternative were coercion or concession. 
 Not that ihe South propose to concede, but 
 that they have seceded ; and they must either 
 be coerced back into the Union, or be per- 
 suaded to come back by concessions from the 
 North. We need not repeat that the Press 
 has never taken any such ground, but has 
 from the first argued against the contempla- 
 tion of coercion of the South by the North 
 in any event. We have argued from the 
 first that it is a Southern question, and 
 should be settled by the South, without any 
 outside pressure, and that the North should 
 abide their decision. 
 
 The Government should die decently, of 
 coursp. It should not permit itself to be 
 robbed of its property, driven out of its forts 
 by force, and bullied and disgraced by rebels. 
 It has received insult and injury enough at 
 Charleston alone to justify it in laying that 
 town level veith the ground; and if it had 
 been done when the Star of the West was 
 fired on, the majority of the people of the 
 whole nation would have applauded. But 
 this is another question. It is whether the 
 Government shall be coerced, before neeotia- 
 tion has been even offered. 
 
 Nor have we tolerated the loose terms 
 which Secession has introduced, by which a 
 Government of the people, as solid and 
 whole as any Government on earth, is 
 changed into a confederation of independent 
 States, which make our Constitution a rope 
 of sand, and give any turbulent division out 
 of the thirty- three, the right to dictate new 
 terms to the whole, and destroy their peace 
 and prosperity. 
 
 This is no such Government, At least, 
 that is not the Government which the au- 
 thors of the Constitution made. If it has 
 become so now, it shows the delusive char- 
 acter and total unreliability of written con- 
 stitutions. But whatever the political na- 
 ture of the Union maybe, it is worth nothing 
 if not founded in the unity, affinity and fra- 
 ternity of the people. 
 
 A Union which must be preserved by 
 force, is not fit to be preserved. It would 
 destroy the foundation of human rights. We 
 are not questioning the rights of Govern- 
 ment to enforce its laws. This Govern- 
 ment has that right as much as any Gov- 
 ernment. But we are considering a move- 
 ment against the Government, large enough 
 to take a popular form, and to make preten- 
 sions to a separate national existence. The 
 people of a Territory larger than that of 
 some of the great European Powers, have 
 declared that the hostility of sentiment and 
 interests, of social and domestic relatione, 
 and even of religion, between them and the 
 people of the free States, is such that the 
 Union is odious to them, and they will not 
 endure it. There is every indication thai 
 they will be joined by every slave State. 
 There seems to be no organized opposition to 
 the movement in the whole South, and such 
 opposition as there is, only proposes pallia 
 fives which will but continue the disease, to 
 break out again. 
 
 Certainly the movement has assumed pro- 
 portions sufficient to give it national pre- 
 tensions. We are bound by the principles of 
 our Government to consider it as such. It 
 is elevated from a question of the enforce- 
 ment of the law, to one of conquering an 
 united people to a Union which they have 
 thrown off. 
 
The Secession Question. 
 
 We hold this truth to be self-evident : that 
 no Government has a right to exist which is 
 not founded in the affections of the people. 
 The South— we speak of the whole South, 
 believing that every Southern State will 
 wheel into the Secession line — have declared 
 that a Government in which the North ex- 
 ercise that control which is allowed the 
 majority by our Constitution, is odious to 
 them, and they will not endure it. Nobody 
 can seriously talk of coercion under such 
 circumstances. It would be a monstrosity 
 which the history of despotic Governments 
 oould not parallel; and for a Government 
 which pretends to exist only by the consent 
 of the governed, it would be mocking at the 
 principles on which it established its exist 
 eace.. 
 
 Will force form a more perfect Union ? 
 Will concessions? What concessions will 
 change the sentiments of the people of the 
 two sections, which, under a Union which 
 has been regarded as perfect, have grown so 
 hostile that it must now be broken ? Are 
 tbft sentiments of the people of the South 
 toward those of the North going to be 
 changed by concessions to their demands ? 
 They do not promise any such thing, and 
 nobody expects it. We may profess our 
 friendship; but they declare their hostility 
 for us to be such, that for us to exercise our 
 constitutional rights in the Government, 
 makes it unendurable to them. 
 
 Are there any concessions that will obviate 
 the growing preponderance of our numbers, 
 and prevent the free States from having any 
 control in the Government? None. How- 
 ever jnuch we may concede now, time will 
 bring round the time when the preponder- 
 ance of i)opulation in the free States will 
 again assert its constitutional rights. Can 
 we promise the South that the sentiments of 
 the people of the North toward slavery will 
 br> changed? They are the same now that 
 rhey ever were; no more anti- slavery and 
 no less. To promise the South any such 
 change, is merely to betray them. Yet they 
 declare that their hostility to the Union is 
 on account of the sentiments of the people 
 of the North, and that until these are totally 
 changed or subdued, no Union with them 
 can exist. What political missionary is 
 poing to promise to the South the day of 
 Pentecost, which shall convert the people of 
 the North from sentiments which are in- 
 
 herent in their nature ; which they have 
 always entertained, and, with few exceptions, 
 do so still, without distinction of party, and 
 which are held by the whole world? 
 
 The objections of the South to the Union 
 are radical, going to the whole character of 
 our people. They declare that if this is not 
 eradicated they will net submit to a union 
 with the North, unless they can control the 
 Government. Concessions will not change 
 the character of our people ; and it is diffi- 
 cult to imagine any that will permanently 
 destroy their political power. Coercion of a 
 united South would be folly, whether suc- 
 cessful or not. It is out of the question. 
 The only radical and permanent cure for the 
 difficulties is peaceable division, allowing 
 each section to work out its destiny accord- 
 ing to the genius and institutions of its peo- 
 ple. This will restore peace, harmony, and 
 mutual respect, and allow the laws of trade 
 to resume their sway, all of which are now 
 destroyed or endangered by a political 
 Union, which, on one side at least, has re- 
 sulted in such intense hostility. The effect 
 of this division we propose to consider far- 
 ther in other articles. 
 
 iFromthe Dally Presa, of January 30 J 
 Sece^Hion the Only War to Peaceful Rela- 
 tions between the Sections. 
 
 In a previous article on Secession, we 
 took the ground that any attempt to retain 
 the seceding States in the Union by force is 
 out of the question, as an alternative in any 
 event, whether it may be called enforcement 
 of the Constitution and laws, or coercion of 
 States : That the whole South is united 
 against the present, or late. Union and Con- 
 stitution ; therefore Secession has assumed 
 the proportions and pretensions of a popular 
 and national movement, and is entitled to 
 be treated as such ; and it would violate the 
 fundamental principle of our liberty to at- 
 tempt to put it down by force : That the 
 Union is odious to the people of the South, 
 and they have, with an appearance of una- 
 nimity, thrown it off: That their declared 
 hostility to it extends to the very sentiments 
 of the Northern people, which they pro- 
 nounce to be incompatible with their safety 
 in the Union: That thei sentiments of the 
 people in the North are the same that they 
 always entertained ; therefore it is hopeless 
 to expect a radical change in them : That no 
 concessions can touch what the South de- 
 clare to be the real cause of their hostility: 
 
The Secession Question. 
 
 That no concessions can prevent the grow- 
 ing preponderance of the non-slaveholding 
 people in this Government ; which will be 
 a constant source of disturbance and fear to 
 the South : That no matter how much the 
 North may be bound by new guarantees 
 now, it will eventually assert its right to its 
 constitutional share of the Government; 
 which the South declare incompatible with 
 their safety, and a tyranny which they will 
 not endure. 
 
 Few, either North or South, who think 
 with sincerity on this question, and who 
 divest it from narrow considerations of the 
 reconstruction of a political party out of the 
 destruction of the Constitution, and from 
 any regard for the peaceable control of the 
 Federal offices for a Presidential term, will 
 undertake seriously to dispute any of these 
 positions. They are merely a statement of 
 existing facts. From them the conclusion is 
 irresistible, that the only solution of this 
 question is by a peaceable 'separation, /-e- 
 lieving each section from the restraints, 
 burdens, influences and institutions of the 
 other, and permitting each to work out its 
 destiny in perfect freedom. 
 
 In considering the efiFects of separation, 
 the uppermost one in the minds of this ma- 
 terial generation, is its effect upon trade ; 
 and as peace is essential to trade, the first 
 branch of the question is what will be the 
 relations between the two sections, when 
 established as independent nations. They 
 will be like those of all independent na- 
 tions — "enemies in war ; in peace friends." 
 Before we go further, we had better look at 
 these relations in the Union ; because, if 
 there is any difficulty in the argument, we 
 may claim the advantage of the present 
 stand-point. What has been the operation 
 of the Union on our fraternal relations with 
 the South? Beginning with a friendship 
 established by mutual support through a 
 long foreign war for independence, and 
 with a mutual sympathy and friendship 
 which we are accustomed to refer to in the 
 most affecting terms, a hostility has grown 
 up between the sections, which has con- 
 stantly increased, until the intensity of 
 hatred on one side is not paralleled by the 
 hostility between any separate nations or 
 tribes, either civilized or savage. Citizens 
 entitled to the protection of law throughout 
 the Union, are not allowed even the hu- 
 
 manity which the laws of civilized warfare 
 concede to prisoners of war. A citizen of 
 the free States would be safer traveling 
 alone and unprotected among the most sav- 
 age tribes of Africa, or of the Islands of the 
 South Sea, than within a portion of our 
 Union. Nowhere else on earth does the 
 mere calling of a stranger by an epithet, de- 
 liver him up to the cruelties of a savage mob. 
 
 This is what has resulted in the Union ; 
 and this we are entitled to take as our start- 
 ing-point in considering the effect of a sepa- 
 ration upon our peace. And starting from 
 this, there is no possibility in the future of 
 separate existence, so bad as the present. Of 
 all the nations of the earth, the citizens of 
 the free States are the only people who are 
 not respected and protected in the Southern 
 part of their Union. England is an abolition 
 nation. Nobody ever dreams that an En- 
 glishman is not opposed to slavery. But he 
 may travel throughout the South in safety. 
 The ajgis of an independent natien protects 
 him. Canada is the asylum for fugitive 
 slaves ; but a Canadian may travel through- 
 out the South, while a citizen of Ohio, which 
 faithfully delivers fugitives, is liable to every 
 personal outrage, solely on account of his 
 residence in the Union. 
 
 This is the way the Union operates. Are 
 we not justified in pronouncing it a failure? 
 Are not the South, who believe their hatred 
 and barbarity toward the people of the 
 North, to be well-founded and just, right in 
 throwing off a Union in which the Northern 
 people may, by any possibility, control the 
 Government? 
 
 Is there any hope of any thing better in 
 the Union? We can only judge of the future 
 by the past. Hostility to the people of the 
 North has become the sole political capital 
 of Southern politicians. He who can most 
 intensify and gratify the popular hatred of 
 the Northern people, will carry most votes. 
 It is political death to any public man to pro- 
 fess friendship for the people of the free 
 States, or to advocate a Union with them 
 which shall not be subject to Southern de- 
 mands. Does the present hostile attitude of 
 the South promise to ameliorate their senti 
 ments toward the North? Do they not 
 cherish every disgrace inflicted upon the na- 
 tional flag by their hostility, as a victory 
 over the North, just as we cherish the victo- 
 ries of the Revolution ? And do they not 
 
G 
 
 The Secession Question. 
 
 count upon the submission of the North to 
 their demands as a prospective Southern 
 triumph? 
 
 We are in a state of hostility of sentiment, 
 at least on one side, which an actual civil 
 war could hardly intensify; and if it existed 
 between two separate nations, a war could 
 only ameliorate it. The South Carolina 
 Senator said truly, when he described this 
 hostility between the sections,just before he 
 withdrew from the Senate, and declared a 
 Union of elements which, even in their social 
 relations, were hostile, to be unnatural. We 
 may declare our friendship ; but be at least 
 was entitled to epeak for the ?eutiment of 
 his section, and ho spoke truly. 
 
 They declare that their hostility to us is 
 founded in our opinions and convictions. 
 Can we promise a change? They are the 
 same that the people of the North have al- 
 ways had; and which are entertained by 
 the whole world, outside the circle of those 
 of the South whose interest governs their 
 convictions. They propose no interference 
 with the South; but when was it ever 
 heard of, that a free people gave up their 
 opinions and conscientious convictions, and 
 consented to hold none but such as were die 
 lated to them as the price of political re- 
 lations? 
 
 Any change from the present relations 
 would be toward peace. Tliis hostility and 
 hatred have been caused by a Union of dis- 
 cordant elements. So long as the Union ex- 
 ists, it will only increase. Independent 
 nations respect each other; and if the people 
 of the North, when released from a bond 
 which compels them to submit while their 
 citizens are sacrificed to the Southern Mo- 
 loch, have not the power and the disposition 
 to secure respect for the persons and prop 
 erty of their citizens in any civilized 
 country, they will be unfit for national ex- 
 istence, and then it will be time for them to 
 submit to the South on such terms as it may 
 grant. 
 
 We are accustomed to talk as if, when 
 disunited, the people of the two sections 
 would naturally fly at each others' throats; 
 and history is brought in to show that bor- 
 der nations must necessarily be at war. Men 
 never looked into history so far as the end 
 of their noses, who draw this conclusion 
 from it. Wars have always grown out of a 
 union of discordant people, not from their 
 
 contiguity as separate nations. To begin 
 the evidence at home: Under the Union our 
 relations with the South are constantly 
 growing more hostile. With the separate 
 people of Canada on our northern border, 
 with a frontier just as extensive, our rela- 
 tions, commercial and social, are constantly 
 growing more friendly and intimate. 
 
 Mexico is an illustration of a Union with- 
 out affinity; and is a faint type of what this 
 Union between hostile sections will be, if it 
 is continued, no matter whether by force, in 
 its present shape, or by patching it with com- 
 promises. 
 
 England has always been foremost among 
 nations in anti-slavery sentiment and move- 
 ments; and it now holds out an asylum 
 within reach of Southern slaves. The anti- 
 slavery sentiment of the people of the North 
 is far less active and radical than that of the 
 English. But England is a separate power; 
 therefore, South Carolina, which throws off 
 a Union with the people of the North, solely 
 on account of their anti-slavery sentiments, 
 flies to abolition England for a political and 
 commercial alliance; and even offers to de- 
 pend on her for protection. 
 
 We may see the undying hostility of a 
 Union of unfriendly elements in that of 
 Austrian and Magyar, of Austrian and Ital- 
 ian, of Turk and Christian, and of English 
 and Irish. Our own relations with England 
 have been enlargijg ever since our separa- 
 tion from her. We trust we need say noth- 
 ing more to dispose of the historical argu- 
 ment against the independence of Stales. 
 People refer back to a feudal age, when ware 
 were undertaken for plunder and profit, and 
 to furnish employment for bands of retain- 
 ers. But that has gone out with the growth 
 of industry and increase of wealth. The 
 South can not aflbrd to make war, except 
 for a cause vital to their safety. If they 
 were even so warlike as they profess, their 
 institutions are a pretty good guarantee of 
 their peacefulness, as to any war which two 
 could play at; and the industry and wealth 
 of the North are a sufficient bond for their 
 keeping the peace. 
 
 A swparation is the restoration of peace, 
 and will be the beginning of that mutual 
 respect for the rights of each, which exists 
 among all independent nations. It will 
 withdraw all obstacles to the laws of trade, 
 which are supreme over national bounda- 
 
The Secession Question. 
 
 ries, but which are now impeded by sec- 
 tional hostility ; and it will build up that 
 commercial honor and integrity which 
 usually exists among the merchants of differ- 
 ent nations in their mutual transactions; 
 but which now so readily finds a shelter for 
 mercantile dishonor in sectienal fanaticism ; 
 and makes its fraud a patriotic duty to its 
 section. We shall consider further the effect 
 of separation on trade in another article. 
 
 fFrom the Daily Press of February 1 ] 
 
 The Effect of a Peaceable Separation on 
 
 Trade. 
 
 We desire, in order to prevent misunder- 
 standing and misrepresentation, that our 
 readers will bear in mind the positions we 
 have taken in previous articles on a peace- 
 able separation of the sections, and the es- 
 tablishment of two independent nations, 
 based on the attachment and homogeneous- 
 ness of the people. We take the Secession 
 of the whole South as an existing fact, either 
 an accomplished fact, or a fact declared by 
 the position taken by those States which 
 have not formally seceded. We assume that 
 coercion is out of the question, and in viola- 
 tion of the principle on which our national 
 independence is founded. 
 
 We accept, also, the declarations of the 
 South, that their hostility to a Union with 
 the North goes to the very sentiments, opin- 
 ions, abstract principles and even religion of 
 the people ; which »they say make a Union 
 with the North incompatible with their 
 safety; therefore, that no concessions can 
 touch the real seat of the difficulty ; and that 
 the only alternative is a peaceable separation, 
 or a bloody civil war, which can have no 
 other end but in separation. We have dis- 
 cussed the effects of separation on the rela- 
 tions of the two sections, and have shown 
 that the Union has resulted in nothing but 
 constantly-increasing hostility, which has 
 reached a degree of intensity that must have 
 relief in some way ; and that separation is 
 the only way to peace, and will restore that 
 friendship and mutual respect for the citizens, 
 rights and power of each, which independ- 
 ent nations accord to each other. 
 
 We discussed this question in view of its 
 effect on trade, and showed by our own ex- 
 perience with the South and with other na- 
 tions, that the sectional hostility which the 
 Union creates, is the only hindrance to com- 
 mercial relations between the North and 
 
 South; and that separate independence would 
 remove all obstacles, and relieve commerce 
 from the burden of political questions and 
 sectional fanaticism. Separation and inde- 
 pendence being the only way to peace, we 
 propose to consider further the effect on 
 trade. 
 
 It is the custom of politicians to tell our 
 people that our trade with the South de- 
 pends on the Union. By this the people of 
 the South are supposed to buy our provisions, 
 machinery, clothes, furniture, etc., because 
 they are joined to us by a bond of Union. 
 Yet if our citizens go South they Lynch them 
 for their residence alone ; or in their mildest 
 moods, they give them an hour to leave. 
 Does this show a state of fraternal feeling 
 that drives them North to purchase goods 
 out of pure love for the people who are 
 bound to them by the same glorious Union ? 
 They don't serve the British so, who are not 
 protected by the fraternal bonds and the 
 star- spangled banner. 
 
 Is there not a slight discrepancy here ? 
 Will the Union trade-panic makers state 
 how it is that people, whom Union makes so 
 intensely hostile to us, come to us to trade, 
 out of pure love and natural sympathy ? If 
 to state the position did not show to every 
 one the utter absurdity of talking, of the 
 Union as a bond of trade, we should despair 
 for the Republic; a thing which Mr. Bu- 
 chanan very kindly consents not to do, so 
 long as Virginia will demand fresh conces- 
 sions from the North. 
 
 Is there a man who buys what he don't 
 want, because the glorious stripes and stars 
 cover the seller ? Will any man pay half a 
 dime extra on a barrel of pork or flour, be- 
 cause it is sold under the Palmetto and Rat 
 tlesnake, or the Pelican flag? Now any mer- 
 chant knows that it is nonsense to talk of any 
 such thing. There is not a merchant of our 
 city who does not know that the laws of 
 trade are the higher-law over political 
 boundaries; and that all which they need is 
 to be relieved from all political considera- 
 tions, to have their full sway. They over- 
 come even the present sectional fanaticism ; 
 and men who at home are compelled to sup- 
 port vigilance committees for driving off or 
 Lynching our citizens, for their residence 
 alone, come here and buy our commodities. 
 But politicians, who have a place hanging 
 on the Union, or on some party capital to be 
 made out of a pretended worship of the 
 
d 
 
 The Secession Question. 
 
 Union, talk as if the trade of Cincinnati were 
 dependent on it; and this is allowed to go 
 as the sentiment of the mercantile and indus- 
 trial oomnmnity here. But it is not the sen- 
 timent. There is not a man of them, who 
 would not regard one who bought goods 
 which he did not want, on account of the 
 nationality of the seller, as an unsafe cus- 
 tomer to trust ; and who does not know that 
 supply and demand are supreme oyer na- 
 tionalities ; and that one per cent, on the 
 price of goods will overcome the strongest 
 national boundary that was ever erected. 
 
 England once regarded our union with 
 her as necessary to the relations of trade ; 
 but they have been constantly increasing 
 since the separation. The commercial rela- 
 tions between New York and England are 
 more friendly and reliable, and better estab- 
 lished on mutual integrity and honor, than 
 between New York and the South. So are 
 the relations of the North with Canada. It 
 is because they are relieved from political 
 considerations. We have referred in a for- 
 mer article to the disposition of South 
 Carolina to make an alliance with England, 
 the foremost anti-slavery nation in the 
 world. But the South respect anti slavery 
 sentiment in a separate nation ; while they 
 can not endure a Union with it. 
 
 Politicians say that the South can produce 
 every thing that it consumes. So can the 
 North. It can produce silk, wine, sugar, 
 brandy, wool, cloths, laces, shawls, calicoes, 
 dye-stuffs, iron, hardware, and almost every 
 thing which it imports. Yet its imports are 
 constantly increasing. Why does not the 
 South produce that which it buys of the 
 North? Simply because it can do better. 
 F^r precisely the same reason that the North 
 imports a hundred and fifty millions of dol- 
 lars' worth of articles every year, which its 
 own soil and labor can produce. Who is 
 going to stop this, North or South ? The 
 South talk of introducing manufactories. 
 Even creative power can not establish 
 manufactories where they are not drawn by 
 the lawg^f profit and loss. 
 
 Skilled labor requires intelligence, and in- 
 telligence has opinions. IIow is skillful in- 
 dustry to grow up in a country where opin- 
 ions are held to be dangerous to the social 
 relation, and are incompatible with personal 
 safety ? It would be like introducing 
 Christianity among a people who regard 
 baked missionary as one of the necessaries of 
 
 life. To educate labor in the South, would 
 be as safe as to run a locomotive into a pow- 
 der magazine. 
 
 But it is unnecessary to take these consid- 
 erations into the account. Things are as 
 they arc, because the laws of trade have so 
 settled them. So, also, in regard to produce 
 which does not require skilled labor. Does 
 any-body suppose that a Mississippi planter 
 buys Cincinnati pork for his negroes, instead 
 of raising it, for love of the Union. Our 
 merchants would call such a man a fool; yet 
 our fancy political philosophers are accus- 
 tomed to talk so. Suppose the Ohio River 
 were the boundary between two nations, 
 and even suppose the South should resolve 
 to purchase no more Northern produce in 
 any market where the star-spangled banner 
 flies — that wonderful piece of bunting on 
 which our trade is now supposed to hang. 
 Would the price oi a barrel of pork or flour 
 vary one cent between Louisville and Evans 
 ville, or Cincinnati? Would not one market 
 govern the other, and every sale, in either 
 place, be so much reduction from the gen- 
 eral stock? And generally the price at Liv- 
 erpool, 3,000 miles off, would govern them 
 all. So much for political boundaries gov- 
 erning markets. 
 
 Would it not be well to know something 
 of the present dimensions of this Southern 
 trade. It has been made such a night mare 
 of, in this city, that many well-meaning peo- 
 ple believe it to be vital to our existence as a 
 city. But outside of those articles of pro- 
 visions which the South buys here because 
 she must buy them in the North, the South- 
 ern trade is not more than one- fifth of the 
 trade of Cincinnati. The trade of Southern 
 Indiana is three times as great as that of the 
 whole South. Yet our politicians never 
 allude to the Indiana trade as worthy o 
 notice. This Southern trade is not equally 
 distributed among our manufactures, there- 
 fore a few kinds are much more interested 
 in it than the rest. 
 
 Our trade has suffered some this winter 
 on account of the crisis; therefore trifling 
 politicians say the Union must be recon- 
 structed at any cost, so as to restore our 
 trade, even by exposing it to the same crisis 
 periodically. Bat it is not because Southern 
 trade has stopped ; for exports to the South 
 have fallen off but little, if any, in the aggre- 
 gate. Secession is the occasion of our com- 
 mercial difficulties; but the elements of 
 
The Secession Question. 
 
 9 
 
 which they are composed are no longer 
 under the control of Secession, and are re- 
 acting in spite of it; and trade is improTing. 
 Secession stopped Southern payment of 
 debts. That was a dead loss of a large 
 amount to Cincinnati. But Secession can 
 not do that again, for it also stopped their 
 credit, and now they have to pay cash. The 
 change to the Secession basis of trade neces- 
 sarily causes some curtailment; but the 
 trade is all the more healthy. Before, the 
 Southern credit business was regarded as 
 extra hazardous. Our merchants will be 
 well satisfied with the change, and time will 
 assuage the loss of the old score. 
 
 But the greatest loss inflicted on our peo- 
 ple was by the collapse of our paper money. 
 One hundred millions of dollars in the North- 
 west has been cut down ten per cent, on its 
 value. That is our fault and our shame. If 
 Secession will wipe the whole swindle out 
 of existence, then posterity should buy up 
 the bones of Yancey at $200,000, that being 
 the assessed value of bones of the fathers of 
 their country, in the Southern market, and 
 should make pilgrimages to his tomb. We 
 will even offer to go $50,000 better — to use a 
 Southern commercial phrase — for a delivery 
 so much greater. If relief from this ghastly 
 swindle could be purchased by Secession, it 
 would be dog-cheap. 
 
 Secession is no more responsible for this 
 than the Ohio Life and Trust Bank was for a 
 similar collapse in 1857 ; and reconstruction 
 of the Union is no more a cure, than the re- 
 construction of that bank would have been 
 a cure for that crisis. Here is where our 
 people may find the seat of their difficulties 
 and losses. Our currency might and should 
 be such that even the day of judgment could 
 not disturb it. But a fool, like Keitt, may 
 kick the currency of this great country into 
 convulsions. Until our working-men sweep 
 this swindle, which speculates upon their 
 bones and sinews, from our legislation, it is 
 a ghastly joke for them to talk of capacity 
 for self-government. 
 
 From this grew most of the other evils. 
 Great commercial relations suddenly found 
 the currency dropped from under them. 
 The currency-panic curtailed at once the 
 enterprises that depend on credit. The 
 change, North and South, from a credit and 
 spurious currency to a cash basis, caused a 
 temporary curtailment, until cash could 
 overtake the usual credit time. A large 
 
 portion of the Western banks seceded from 
 redemption, leaving the people to suffer 
 the depreciation on their notes. While we 
 give Secession its due in the South, let us 
 remember that it is honorable and noble, 
 compared with the meanness and robbery of 
 this Bank Secession. Southern Secession is 
 not responsible for this Bank swindle. The 
 Banks have only made Secession the occa- 
 sion, just as Southern traders have made it 
 the occasion, to repudiate their debts. 
 
 The causes and elements of our commer- 
 cial disturbance are now beyond the reach of 
 Secession. Trade is reviving in spite of it ; 
 and if the two sections are not forced into a 
 war, the Spring will find all branches of in- 
 dustry revived and prosperous, subject to 
 such a diminution of the Southern trade as 
 was inevitable from the short crop of cotton. 
 What our city wants is peace — a permanent 
 peace. We do not want to have all our 
 losses go merely to heal up the sectional 
 hostility on paper, while it is preserved ia 
 the hearts of the people of the South, to 
 break out again on the first occasion. In- 
 dustry is king. The history of the world 
 shows that skilled industry has always made 
 agricultural peoples tributary to it. Cincin- 
 nati has the skilled industry. All she needs 
 is that it shall be relieved from political ele- 
 ments and sectional fanaticism, and from its 
 unnatural connection with sentiments, opin- 
 ions and religions. That can only be done 
 by a peaceful separation, which will annihi- 
 late at once all the questions on which sec- 
 tional hostility has grown up, and will leave 
 the laws of trade and of mutual interest to 
 have free course and be glorified. 
 
 [From the Daily Press of February l.J 
 
 l8 Reconstruction of a Stable TJnioii Jin- 
 tfveen the Hostile Sections Possible ? 
 
 It were well if politicians would look at 
 existing facts, and cease their impotent 
 drivel aboiit preserving a Union which is al- 
 ready destroyed. The Union has. ceased to 
 exist, by the action of fifteen States, which 
 are incomplete alliance, offensive and de- 
 fensive, against it; and which defy the Con- 
 stitution and laws with perfect impunity. 
 On the other hand, the North has ceased to 
 expect that the Union — <hat is the Constitu- 
 tion — can be preserved. It is too late to talk 
 ot the unconstitutionality of Secession, or of 
 the constitutional powers of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment to enforce its laws and maintain its 
 territorial integrity. Parchment powers ato 
 
10 
 
 The Secession Question. 
 
 annihilated by present facta. Whateyer 
 powers the Government had, it has vacated 
 by recognizing Secession as an existing fact, 
 which it has no right to resist. And now 
 the North has also recognized Secession as 
 an accomplished fact, and as having rights 
 superior to the Constitution, by sending 
 Commissioners to concede to it terms outside 
 the Constitution, in order to reconstruct a 
 Union. Thus by the overt acts of one sec- 
 tion, and their recognition as rights by the 
 other, and by the vacation of its consti- 
 tutional powers by the Federal Government, 
 the Union is dissolved, and has ceased to be 
 considered as a possibility. 
 
 Events move with such startling speed in 
 the rapid demoralization and destruction of 
 our Government, that theories and princi- 
 ples are left far behind. All questions about 
 the right of coercion and of the enforce- 
 ment of the Constitution and laws, and 
 about the principles of the Constitution, and 
 of compromises for the preservation of the 
 Union, are waived and set aside, both North 
 and South, by the general acceptance of the 
 actual division of the Union, as the status 
 from which a reconstruction of the Consti- 
 tution and a new Union are to be formed. 
 
 What kind of a Government must that be 
 which can now be formed by a union with 
 the South? It will be a Government with 
 the established right of Secession. A Gov- 
 ernment with the right of any turbulent 
 State of the thirty-four, or more, to destroy 
 it: the inauguration of anarchy with con- 
 stitutional forms and powers. The condi- 
 tion which Mexico hasarrived at, after many 
 years of revolution and decay, will be by us 
 elevated into a principle of Government, 
 and established ever our Constitution. 
 
 Secession will be established as a means 
 of controlling our elections. It will be the 
 political capital to which the politicians of 
 the South will ever appeal, both as a means 
 of exciting their own people, and of operat- 
 ing upon the North. Every recurrence of a 
 Presidential election will be a threatened 
 crisis, to throw the industrial and financial 
 interests of this great country into convul- 
 sions. A Southern demagogue, in an insig- 
 nificant State, which, perhaps, may owe its 
 whole existence to our bounty, can fire this 
 great Confederacy as easily as one of the 
 same sort fired the Temple of Ephesus, and 
 win greater notoriety without any of the 
 risk. 
 
 It will be a Union which recognizes the 
 demands of the South as the measure of the 
 submission of the North ; which the North 
 clings to on any terms that the South may 
 grant, and the South habitually spurns as 
 abjectly subject to its demands; which the 
 North is to make the supreme object of its 
 loyalty, and the South to hold as existing 
 only by its sufferance; which the North 
 accepts as vital to its prosperity and its very 
 existence ; and therefore, which the South 
 naturally must regard as a privilege which 
 it grants on its own terms, and which is to be 
 violated at convenience. 
 
 It will no longer be a Union of eqwkls; 
 but of arrogant superiority and peremptory 
 threats on one side, and of accepted vassalage 
 on the other ; a Union which one section 
 sets up as to be preserved at the sacrifice of 
 its natural and constitutional rights; and 
 the other holds subservient to its lightest 
 abstraction, and as only a means of coercing 
 the North into submission to its constantly 
 increasing demands. It will be a Union in 
 which the constantly increasing preponder- 
 ance of free population in the North, will 
 have to be counterbalanced by constant 
 surrenders of constitutional rights and 
 political power to the South. 
 
 Were arrogant demands ever satisfied by 
 submission, so long as one right remained to 
 be surrendered ? If they were, then might 
 we hope to satisfy the Sputh by concession ; 
 but until human nature is reversed, one sur- 
 render will be only the basis for fresh de- 
 mands. A reconstruction of the Union will 
 make all our industrial and commercial in- 
 terests, and the constantly-growing wealth 
 of the North, the sport of desperate politici- 
 ans in both sections. The power to throw 
 our financial relations into convulsions will 
 be a political resource constantly holding out 
 a temptation to reckless political adventurers 
 in the South. The savings, earnings and 
 very subsistence of the millions of free labor- 
 ers in the North, will be placed at the mercy 
 of political agitators like Keitt, Toombs and 
 Wigfall, who, when political quiet at home 
 haa left them without resource, can always 
 resort to the fanaticism against the North, 
 with a certainty that all the damage they 
 can do to the Union will result in conces- 
 sions to the South. Eebellion against the 
 Union will have before it constantly the 
 temptation of a reward ; and any future elec- 
 tion of a Northern President whom the South 
 
The Secession Question. 
 
 11 
 
 can not control, will always bring the worst 
 elements of their society to the surface, and 
 give them the control of their politics and 
 the peace of the country. 
 
 Will that be a Gevernment which will 
 "establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
 quility, provide for the common defense, 
 promote the general welfare, and secure the 
 blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
 terity ?" It will be organized anarchy ; per- 
 petual revolution ; the higher law of rebellion, 
 supreme over constitutions; and claiming 
 the destruction of the industry of the North 
 as me of its legitimate powers for control- 
 linPthe Government, Such a Government 
 would be unfit to exist. A Government 
 which makes the destAiction of the industry 
 of its people a tool for political agitation, 
 would be a political atrocity which would 
 deserve to be crushed out of existence. The 
 most absolute despotism which should recog- 
 nize the whole people as its subjects, would 
 be a relief from such a Government. 
 
 Would such a Union ameliorate sectional 
 hostility, and restore such relations between 
 North and South as are necessary to peace? 
 A Union of equals has resulted in constantly 
 increasing hostility. It has been excited to 
 an intensity in the South which is unparal- 
 leled by the feeling between any independent 
 nations which are actually at war. A recon- 
 struction will establish this fanaticism as the 
 strongest and most available capital for their 
 politicians. 
 
 Will submission to those who hate us, win 
 their love ? If that were the policy, none of 
 the proposed concessions go half far enough. 
 They must be in some degree proportioned 
 to the intensity of the hatred. Will sub- 
 mission quiet sectional political agitation at 
 the North ? Every man knows that on any 
 of the proposed concessions from the Consti- 
 tution, the agitation in the North will break 
 out with four-fold intensity ; and that if the 
 South need new guarantees on account of 
 Northern sentiment and Northern agitation 
 now, they will need them vastly more in 
 six months from the time they are made. 
 
 We discuss this question chiefly in view 
 of its relation to our industrial interests, 
 which are in danger of being sacrificed to 
 organized anarchy under the name of Union. 
 Industry, which requires public peace, is in 
 danger cf being made the victim of perpetual 
 political agitation and of chronic war, for a 
 mere political bond, which in itself only 
 
 creates a thing for the South to agitate 
 against. And in the industrial, we include 
 all our material interests of trade and com- 
 merce, which are all founded on labor. A 
 reconstruction of a union of such elements, 
 and on such conditions, will place all these 
 interests at the mercy of the political agita- 
 tors of a people so hostile to us that they 
 now are longing openly for the time when, 
 on account of distress caused by their pres- 
 ent agitation. Northern laborers shall march 
 our streets with pikes and firebrands in their 
 hands, crying "bread or blood." 
 
 Is there any national power or honor to 
 be achieved by such a reconstruction. Our 
 nation is now demoralized and humiliated 
 in the eyes of the whole world. Even Mex- 
 ico, which our President has talked of pro- 
 tecting; and Cuba, which our President 
 talked of buying or seizing from poor effete 
 Spain; and Turkey, "the sick man," all 
 laugh us to scorn. We have exposed the 
 weakness of our national Government to 
 the whole world. And all can see that a 
 reconstruction would be merely covering up 
 the same rottenness, ready to fall into disso- 
 lution at any moment. What nation will 
 now respect our power, when it knows that 
 it may negotiate with any one of our thirty- 
 four States for separate terms, or for a 
 separation? and when the great Euro- 
 pean Powers have been approached by 
 different States of this Republic, seeking a 
 separate alliance. In the eyes of the world, 
 our Government is already more demor- 
 alized than that of Mexico, for no State of 
 that Republic has ever made advances to a 
 foreign power for an alliance against the 
 rest. Any foreign power may now defy 
 our threats, for it is known that we have an 
 internal hostility between the sections, far 
 greater than any which at least one section 
 can feel for any Foreign enemy ; and that 
 at any severe trial of onr resources, our Gov- 
 ernment will fall to pieces. A Government 
 without strength at home, can never com- 
 mand respect abroad. Mexico has shown 
 national fidelity in all her partisan warfare. 
 Our rank as a national power under any re- 
 construction of such elements, must be lower 
 than that of Mexico. The State of New 
 York alone, or those of New England, could 
 command more respect abroad as a national 
 power, than can any union of all of these 
 hostile elements ; and would have more real • 
 strength. 
 
12 
 
 The Secession Question. 
 
 A Government can not be reconstructed 
 ))y the sacrifice of the Constitution to armed 
 rebellion, that will have that consent of the 
 croverned which we proclaim to be the only 
 Just foundation for Governments. It would 
 be the inauguration of a fresh agritation that 
 would exceed any thing which has gone 
 Ijefore. But suppose the Union were re- 
 <onstructed on new guaranties to slavery. 
 Is that the only question that may dissolve 
 the Union ? Instead of that, any of the pol- 
 itical questions that are used for agitation 
 may threaten the Union. It was dissolved 
 ooce on the tariff question. Had that Se- 
 cession been encouraged by the abdication 
 of all its powers by the Government, as now, 
 and by promise of concessions in proportion 
 '0 its demands, that would have progressed 
 just as the present movement has under that 
 treatment. It was crushed by the firmness 
 of Gen. Jackson. Unfortunately, after it 
 was effectually broken, Mr. Clay preserved it 
 as a future resort, by a compromise, which 
 nullification claimed as a triumph. The judg- 
 ment of that eminent statesman gave way 
 10 the bitter hostility between himself and 
 Gen. Jackson, and he was willing to secure 
 to himself the good will of those whom Gen. 
 Jackson's firmness had made hostile, by a 
 compromise, which, after budding out on 
 various occasions, has now borne its full 
 fruit. 
 
 The question of revenue would at once 
 threaten the Union again, if it could be re- 
 lieved from the slavery agitation. It con- 
 fairis in the future, more elements to try the 
 strength of the Union, than it had in the 
 i^ast; and, demoralized as the Union now 
 must be, it would overthrow it. 
 
 A reconstruction of the Union would be 
 ',he inauguration of new schemes for forcing 
 the Government into a war for annexation, 
 to restore the power of the South in the Sen- 
 ate. Law can not restrain these enterprises ; 
 and any outbreak will drag our Government 
 into war; and then acquisitions of territory 
 must follow. Million? without limit will be 
 •irawn from the industry of the people of 
 the North to buy territory, which as soon as 
 v/e have lavished our money upon it, will 
 turn upon us and "resume the powers which 
 it granted to the Union," and will have the 
 power to destroy the Government. 
 
 Another dissolution would only be a ques- 
 
 .Tiou of time. It is not probable that any 
 
 honest man will dispute this position. And 
 
 the whole aim of the South would be to pre- 
 pare itself, at the expense of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment, for another and final separation. 
 
 What is it to which it is proposed to sacri- 
 fice the welfare of this great people of the 
 North? A political bond already broken 
 and trampled under foot at the South ; but 
 which at the North it is sought to make the 
 more sacred, the more it is violated. Recon- 
 struction is chronic anarchy, the supremacy 
 of rebellion, increasing sectional fanaticism, 
 civil war and another dissolution. A separ- 
 ation of the sections is peace, the creation of 
 that mutual respect which the people of in- 
 dependent nations secure from each o^er, 
 the banishment of the slavery question from 
 our politics, the emancipation of trade from 
 all connection with political opinions, and 
 the beginning of friendly relations between 
 the sections, which will vastly extend their 
 commercial relations with each other. And 
 instead of the trade of Cincinnati with the 
 South being but about one-fifth of its entire 
 trade — outside of those articles of provisions 
 which the South buys in the North for the 
 same reason that we buy tea in China — it 
 will grow to be the largest share. Nothing 
 but political hostility has prevented that 
 hitherto; and so long as our politics are 
 connected with theirs, this will continue a 
 weight upon the prosperity of this city. 
 
 We have discussed this question chiefly 
 from a local view, although the same reasons 
 apply to the whole North. We are satisfied 
 that political relations have been a burden 
 upon the growth of this city, by depriving it 
 of that trade with the South, which, if the 
 laws of trade were free from political con- 
 siderations, it would have. While the po- 
 litical bond continues, it will continue to 
 bind our progress. The temporary success 
 of one party or the other furnishes no relief, 
 and never will. ■ Now that the South has 
 broken this mere political bond, let us im- 
 prove the occasion to the emancipation of 
 our own industry and all our interests from 
 a burden upon their prosperity, and a danger 
 perpetually suspended over them. 
 
 We accept the separation which the South 
 has declared, out of no ill-will to the people 
 of the South, but believing that it is the 
 only way to that security of peace, property 
 and the public welfare, which it is the first 
 duty of Government to provide. We be- 
 lieve that it will be mutually advantageous 
 to the North and South ; and in another 
 
The Secession Question. 
 
 13 
 
 article shall give some considerations to 
 show that a separation, by enabling the 
 South to carry out in some way a policy on 
 which it is bent, will greatly promote its 
 prosperity, and bring a corresponding ben- 
 efit to the trade and industry of the North. 
 
 [From the Daily Press of February 5.1 
 The Future of a Southern Republic. 
 
 A peaceable separation of the Union im- 
 plies but two National Governments, to be 
 formed out of its materials ; at least on the 
 Atlantic side of the Continent. The people 
 of the Southern States have shown an affin- 
 ity for each other, as exemplified by their 
 readiness to take up arms for each other 
 against the Government, and have ties of in- 
 terest that will consolidate them into a strong 
 Central Government. The right of Secession 
 is purely a Southern right against the North ; 
 and a doctrine so destructive to all stability 
 and public safety, will be provided against, 
 as soon as the South is relieved from 
 an outside pressure which makes it regard 
 Secession as a Southern right. They will 
 take care at the start to guard against any 
 future tendency of the Border States to Se- 
 cession, which may grow out of the "irre- 
 pressible conflict," which separation will 
 transfer bodily to the south of Mason and 
 Dixon's line. Whatever form the Govern- 
 ment may take, it will be a strong Central 
 Government. And, with long Presidential 
 terms, no Government in the world would 
 have stronger central power than one under 
 our constitutional form, with the same scale 
 of official patronage. 
 
 The interests of slave labor will control 
 the Southern Republic. It is unnecessary 
 to argue that point. An interest which has 
 controlled a Government in which the in 
 terests of free labor comprised two-thirds oi 
 the numbers and wealth of the governing 
 class, will have unlimited sway at the begin- 
 ning of a Republic which is founded en- 
 tirely on the interests of slave labor. 
 
 The Southern Republic will be well and 
 wisely governed, according to their interest. 
 If there is any capacity for government in 
 the people of the North American States, 
 the South has it by prescription and practice 
 in this Union. 
 
 We do not agree with the current idea that 
 a Southern Republic will result in the Afri- 
 canization of the Gulf States. This seems 
 to be based on the theory that the Africans 
 
 in the South are restrained by the union 
 with the North. The slightest reflection will 
 show its absurdity. Besides, the slaves have 
 learned from the political harangues of their 
 own masters, that the people of the North 
 are Abolitionists. Cuba is not Africanized, 
 although the proportion of slaves and of free 
 blacks to the whites is larger than in any of 
 the Southern States, and it has no outlet for its 
 dangerous characters. Hayti is Africanized, 
 but the same circumstances can not exist 
 in the South ; and the Americans are a dif- 
 ferent people from the French colonists of 
 Hayti. The South has an outlet for its dan- 
 gerous characters in the North, which oper- 
 ates as a safety-valve. Desperation in the 
 Southern negro turns its energies to means 
 of escape. This carries off the element that 
 would form the leaders of insurrection. Al- 
 though the Southern people do not seem to 
 appreciate the advantages of the Northern 
 escape- valve, it really promotes their safety. 
 Besides, the necessary measures for their 
 own protection, will naturally make the 
 South a military people ; and their form of 
 society creates just the elements for this 
 purpose. This may be seen already in the 
 fact that the military spirit is much 
 stronger in the South than in the North, 
 as is shown by their fondness for mili- 
 tary titles. The low estimate in which 
 labor must necessarily be held in slave 
 society, would induce all of the whites who 
 are compelled to earn their own living, to 
 accept eagerly any employment which pub- 
 lic opinion made honorable. A regular 
 army would be a service which would be 
 sought for in the South. It would furnish 
 an honorable position for the large class of 
 poor relations of the aristocracy ; and thus 
 would have the same hold upon the wealthy 
 classes that the British army has; and the 
 condition of society will make service in all 
 grades to be regarded as more honorable 
 than labor. This will furnish the South a 
 guard for its own protection, and a strong 
 and ready force for enterprises for territorial 
 extension. 
 
 A Southern Republic will be the opening 
 of an unlimited market for African slaves. 
 Laws do not govern this matter. If they 
 did, then would the slave-ttade with Cuba 
 be stopped; for it is prohibited by all possible 
 legislation on the Islar^^d, and by solemn 
 treaties with all the Great Powers. The 
 laws of the Union against the slave-trade 
 
14 
 
 The Secession Question. 
 
 could not be enforced in any of the Gulf 
 States, while in the Union. The slave-trade 
 will hare in the Cotton States the protection 
 of all the pro- slavery fanaticism of the 
 people. A citizen who should now attempt 
 to interfere with a cargo of freshly-imported 
 Africans, in any of the Gulf States, would 
 be treated as an Abolitionist — a treatment 
 which would earry strong conviction to his 
 opinions on the subject. 
 
 In this section we are accustomed to think 
 that the Northern slave States will prevent 
 the opening of the slave-trade, because the 
 slaveholders there are opposed to it. Even 
 if they were, they can do nothing but legis- 
 late ; and the whole world knows that legis- 
 lation can not stop the slave-trade. But the 
 slaveholders of the slave-breeding States do 
 not comprise more than one-tenth of the 
 voters ; and probably not one-fifth of the 
 voters who represent the ultra pro-slavery 
 sentiment. The few slaveholders would not 
 control the matter; but the many who 
 would be slaveholders. It is notorious that 
 in South Carolina and in the other cotton 
 States, the non-slaveholders are the slave- 
 trade party. The slaveholders of the border 
 States would no more be able to control 
 this than they were the Secession move- 
 ment, to which they were generally opposed. 
 It is by no means certain that if a proposi- 
 tion to open the African slave-trade were 
 submitted to the popular vote even in Ken- 
 tucky, it would be defeated. 
 
 Would foreign Powers prevent? In the first 
 place, they can not. If, with the slave market 
 restricted to the narrow Island of Cuba, 
 30,000 slaves are landed in Cuba annually, 
 how can the trade be stopped when 2,000 
 miles of coast are open to it, comprising, 
 with its inlets and bays, several thousand 
 more, and, with its reefs and hundreds of 
 secluded inlets, furnishing places where 
 slaves would be safe from approach or even 
 discovery? 
 
 Foreign Powers can not suppress the slave 
 trade, and it is unlikely that they would 
 continue the effort. The Southern Republic 
 would not aid it; and the Northern Repub- 
 lic would withdraw from all responsi- 
 bility for the slave-trade, abroad as 
 well as at home. The North will 
 not continue to pay eight millions a year to 
 maintain a fleet on the African coast, to keep 
 King Badahung supplied with cheap slaves 
 to sacrifice to his deceased father, instead of 
 
 selling them to the trader for Southern 
 plantations, where, instead of appeasing the 
 soul of the late King of Dahomey, they may 
 have a chance to work out the salvation of 
 their own souls ; and where they will in- 
 crease the products which the world needs, 
 and will add greatly to all the other branches 
 of trade and industry. When the North is 
 severed from all connection with slavery, 
 the slave-trade will be to them only a ques- 
 tion between slavery as it is in Africa, and as 
 it is in the Southern Republic; and few will 
 say that slavery in Dahomey and Ashantee, 
 is so much better than plantation life, that 
 the difference will be worth eight millions a 
 year to us ; especially when the latter makes 
 cheap cotton and sugar, and enlarges the 
 market for Northern products and manufac- 
 tures. If the Southern Republic wants the 
 effort to stop the trade continued, it will have 
 to coatinue it. It will cease to be our affair, 
 and we will have nothing in our policy to 
 connect us with the question of slavery in 
 the South. 
 
 With the opening of a market for African 
 slaves in the Cotton States, the alliance for 
 suppressing the trade will drop to pieces. 
 England, which is the bulwark of that al- 
 liance, has been hitherto sustained in her 
 philanthropy, by its restricting the competi- 
 tion between the products of slave labor and 
 those of her own West India Islands. But 
 when the slave-trade will increase the 
 product of cotton, her philanthropy will be 
 in direct conflict with her interest. This 
 would be reversing the usual order of these 
 motives in the British mind; and it is not 
 difficult to foresee which must succumb. The 
 British mind is eminently conservative ; and 
 distinguished as its philanthropy is, it is al- 
 ways subservient to its interest. 
 
 England and France are looking earnestly 
 for means to increase the supply of cotton, 
 and reduce its price. Both are seriously 
 entertaining projects for the importation of 
 Coolies into their tropical colonies, which 
 are but slightly, if any, preferable to what 
 the slave trade would be, if relieved from 
 hostile cruisers. The opening of the cotton 
 States to the African slave-trade, would 
 solve the problem of cheap cotton for them. 
 They would have no excuse for hostility to 
 a trade so much like their own imports of 
 labor ; and their interest would be directly 
 against it. No matter what course they 
 may pursue, a Southern Republic is the 
 
The Secession Question. 
 
 15 
 
 opening of a market as broad as a continent, 
 for slaves. But it requires only a little sagacity 
 to see that the opening of that market will 
 be the end of the anti-slave-trade alliance, 
 either by its own natural dissolution, or by 
 direct treaty witH' the Southern Republic. 
 
 The opening of the South to the import- 
 ation of laborers from teeming Africa, will 
 give the same impetus to Southern pros- 
 perity that the North derives from the emi- 
 gration of free laborers from Europe. South- 
 ern productions will be greatly increased, 
 and the Southern demand for the products 
 of other industry, increased in proportion. 
 And, with an unlimited supply of laborers to 
 draw on, it will be the manifest destiny of 
 the Southern Republic to overrun all the 
 neighboring territory that is adapted to their 
 great staples. The military spirit and or- 
 ganization, referred to in the beginning of 
 this article, which naturally grow out of the 
 relation of slavery to labor, will make them 
 a people well adapted to acquisitions by con- 
 quest from weaker nations, when they have 
 a supply of laborers to make their acquisi- 
 tions available, 
 
 , This increase in slave products will be felt 
 in all the channels of commerce, and in 
 all the branches of industry which are 
 affected by slave production, and by the 
 Southern demand for the commodities of 
 other industry. Trade and industry abroad 
 will receive vastly more benefit from slave- 
 laborers than from the same number of free 
 emigrants. A little reflection will show 
 this. The proceeds of a free laborer in agri- 
 culture, are chiefly devoted to improving his 
 own place and increasing his stock. In these 
 he puts his profits ; and this we in the North 
 regard as adding to the wealth of the coun- 
 try. But the laborer retains the wealth in 
 his own hands. 
 
 On the contrary, a slave laborer is em- 
 ployed in converting the wealth of the soil 
 into exportable commodities. These are 
 transferred abroad, to make materials of 
 wealth there. The habits of the master also 
 transfer much of the proceeds abroad in some 
 shape. Nothing stops with the laborer, and 
 the land becomes exhausted and abandoned. 
 This accounts for the abandonment of worn- 
 out lands in Virginia — a feature unknown in 
 the North, where lands increase in value in 
 spite of their deterioration. 
 
 Slavery is like gold mining. It takes the 
 natural wealth of the soil and transfers it 
 into the channels of trade. It transports the 
 richness of the soil to other countries, while 
 free labor keeps it at home, and accumulates 
 wealth upon it in other forms. This, briefly, 
 is the reason why the addition of a slave 
 laborer adds so much more to the trade and 
 commerce of other countries, having rela- 
 tions to slave products, than the accession of 
 a free laborer. 
 
 The increased production which the im- 
 portation of laborers will cause in the South, 
 will give a great impetus to commerce and 
 to all branches of industry connected with 
 it. Commercial relations will be greatly 
 extended between the South and all the 
 countries with which she has natural rela- 
 tions of trade. Skilled industry will ever 
 appropriate to itself the lion's share of the 
 profits of Southern production. Emanci- 
 pated from political questions, and from the 
 sectional hostility which grows out of a 
 yoking of discordant elements, the laws of 
 trade will resume their sway between the 
 South and the North ; and their commercial 
 relations will extend without limit. Then 
 the two forms of industry will have an op- 
 portunity to run their course untrammeled 
 by e&ch other; and the prosperity of each 
 will result to mutual benefit. 
 
THE CINCINNATI 
 
 A FAMILY NEWSPAPEE 
 
 INDEPENDENT ON ALL SUBJECTS; 
 
 Devoted to Foreign and Domestic Ifews, Literature, Science, the Arts, Com- 
 merce, Agriculture, Mechanics, Education ; 
 
 IS PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY, 
 
 FROM THE OFFICE OF THE DAILY PEESS, 
 
 VINE STREET, OPPOSITE THE CUSTOM HOUSE, 
 
 OITVOI]>r]X..^TI, OHIO, 
 
 HENRY REED & CO.. Proprietors, 
 
 To encourage the formation of Clubs, TWELVE PAPERS will be sent to one 
 address for NINE DOLLARS, and a greater number m that ratio. , . ^ 
 
 THE "WEEKLY PRESS is a complete Family Journal, second, m the merit 
 and variety of its contents, to no paper in the country. This, and the low price at 
 which it is offered, especially to Clubs, is expected to give it a large circulation, botn 
 North and South.