The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 8, April, 1835Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 8, April, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
But one of the evils apprehended by some, is a dissolution of the
Union; and it is asked, if this has already been seriously threatened,
how will it be when the sources of collision and rivalship shall be
multiplied--when all fear of foreign aggression, which now operates as
a band to keep us together, shall be removed--when personal ambition
shall seek, by a separation, that field for its enterprises which the
Union does not afford--and the natural increase of an indigent and
ignorant class shall furnish him with ready tools for his selfish
projects?
But I do not see the probability that the proud hopes, which dictated
a perpetual league among the states, are to be disappointed. It seems
to me that the occasions in which their interests clash are few,
compared with those in which they coincide, and that one of the
strongest ligaments of union is the diversity of pursuits among the
states, by which they are all benefited by a free commercial
intercourse. Thus, some produce grain and cattle, others, fish, or
sugar, or rice and cotton: some are exclusively agricultural in their
pursuits, and are of course venders of raw produce, whilst others are
manufacturing states, and purchasers of raw produce: some are largely
concerned in navigation, whilst others are inland. Thus all are
gainers by an interchange of their respective commodities and species
of industry; and this mutual commerce, founded in mutual interests,
will less and less require aid from the government.
We may, moreover, reasonably expect, that these sources of mutual
benefit and intercourse will increase, and that new products of
agriculture and manufactures will arise under some propitious accident
or kindness of nature, will extend the mutual dependence of the
states, and proportionally multiply the bonds of union. Each state
will be important to the rest for its useful products, and they in
turn will be valuable to it, both for affording a market, and for the
products they give in exchange. The commerce, too, will be the more
profitable, and likely to be the more extensive, by its being free
from imposts or vexatious restrictions. Under the fostering care of
this freedom, we may expect that wine, and silk, and the olive may be
added to the products of the south--and that whenever labor shall fall
to the point of merely earning a subsistence, tea may be also
cultivated; as no doubt some part of our country is similar in climate
to China, since it is not only in a correspondent latitude, but on the
same side of its continent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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