USA > Indiana > Early Indiana trials: and sketches. Reminiscences > Part 60
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JABEZ W. HUNTINGTON.
THE state of Connecticut has not, at any time, had a more promi- nent representative in the Senate of the United States, than the subject of this sketch. Being a member of the Committee on Public Lands, at the time I was chairman, I had full opportunity to know and appreciate him. Ile was of the class of Senators known in the body as workers. With a strong, clear, vigorous, discriminating mind, a finished education, and untiring industry, he came into the debates fully prepared, and was always very formidable. As a speaker, he was clear, emphatic, distinet, plain, marching directly to the question without any flourish, circumlocution, or embellishment of the argu- ment. He was listened to with interest by the Senate-the highest
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compliment that can be paid to a speaker in that body. Judge Hun- tington was under the common hight, large head, high retreating fore- head, Roman nose, wide mouth, projecting chin, dark brown hair, blue eyes, good chest, clear shrill voice. He was a sound Constitutional lawyer, and took part in most of the debates involving Constitutional, or legal questions. Judge Huntington deceased years since.
GEORGE EVANS.
THE subject of this sketeh, George Evans, of Maine, deservedly stood among the first in the Senate of the United States, during the term he served in that body. He had a ripe experience in the House of Representatives, before he took his seat in the Senate. Upon the ascendency of the Wbig party to power, Mr. Clay was placed at the head of the Finance Committee. Mr. Evans became his successor, when Mr. Clay voluntarily retired from the arduous duties of the posi- tion. It was not till then that the great powers of Mr. Evans were manifested in the body. As chairman of the Committee on Finance, he came fully up to his two great predecessors, Silas Wright and Mr. Clay. Ile was always cool, calm, prepared. As a speaker he was strong, clear, and able; he made himself thoroughly acquainted with the subject he was discussing by weight and measure ; there was no such thing as declamation about him, his business seemed to be with facts, and things ; and yet he used his imagination at times to good purpose. Mr. Evans was a well-set man, rather below the common hight, large head, light brown hair, good features, smiling countenance. I have selected from his speech, in reply to Mr. McDuffie on the subject of a Southern Confederacy, some valuable extracts, of high importance at this day, when our glorious Union would seem almost to be in danger :
" The Senator foresees, not only the desolations of that section, but he warms and brightens in beholding the glorious visions of bound- less felicity which awaits the Southern Confederacy. He seems to forget that all this is in prospect-yet to be realized. He speaks of ' the historical fidelity' which he has observed in drawing the picture. Now, sir, considering that history relates only to the past, I must think that the Senator, in his ardent zeal, has somewhat overleaped ' the bounds of time,' if not of space. He has 'stated nothing specu- lative-but results only which must take place.' Really, sir, if all this be not speculation, it seems to me exceedingly like it. He has described, in very glowing language, the happiness, prosperity, and
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wealth, which the Southern confederacy, of homogeneous interests, must experience if permitted to pursue its own policy under its own separate Government. The long-dreamed of Fortunate Islands are discovered at last. The favored regions of the South, smiling in eternal spring,
ยท Like those Hesperian gardens, famed of old, Fortunate fields and groves, and flowery meads, Thrice happy isles,'
are to be forever the abode of peace and happiness on carth. No obstacle lies in the way of the bright and glorious career which opens before them. The convulsions which shake other nations like an earthquake, shall never visit them. 'Grim-visaged war will smooth his wrinkled front,' and peace, eternal peace, hold her benignant reign, while human governments exist on carth. It is not a very agrecable office, I am aware, to disturb such happy visions, and to bring back these soaring thoughts to the dull realities of earth. But where does the honorable Senator find any warrant, in human history, for the confident anticipations in which he has indulged ? In the example of other nations broken up and dismembered ? In the annals of small States and confederacies ? In the history of any nation that ever lived upon earth, with but one single interest-one pursuit, one object of national importance ? No, sir : in none of these does he find any warrant for his expectations.
" But let us examine this matter a little more closely. The South- ern confederacy is to revel in unbounded wealth. Its commerce is to be forever unmolested-always prosperous-no storms shall scatter it-the policy of other nations shall never reach it, but it shall glide safely, as ' on the smooth surface of a summer sea.' The South is to produce for export at least one hundred millions of cotton, rice, and tobacco, and to receive in return one hundred and twenty millions of foreign manufactures-the twenty millions being the profit on the export. This large amount it is to have the exclusive privilege of consuming itself, or of exchanging with the Western confederacy for such articles of production as it can not raise at home. It must still retain some connection, some trade with its neighbors, on this side the ocean. If the Southern confederacy can not get on for a moment without some intercourse with the West, why not unite the two into one? What need of a Western confederacy? But that would at once destroy the homogeneousness of the Southern interest, and the same questions would be likely to grow up, as now exist between the South and the North. The Southern confederacy is to have but one interest-that of planting. Its productions are all to be exported,
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and by this operation twenty millions of profits are to be realized. By whom ? The South ? Not at all. The profits, be they large or small, go to the navigating interest, to the shippers and shipowners, to the exporting merchants. And who will conduct this business ? Not the planters, for all their capital and means are to be employed in growing the articles. The South is not to become also a commercial or navigating State, for that also would destroy the identity and siu- gleness of interest which is to prevail there. The exports must, therefore, inevitably be made in British ships, by British merchants, and agents of foreign manufacturers; and all the profit of such operations must go, not to the South, but abroad. Besides, it must be carried on by foreign hands, for another reason, and that is, the policy of enriching foreign labor, by giving it all the employment possible, in order to enable it to consume more largely of our produc- tions. But passing by this, and assuming that the South is to have one hundred and twenty millions of foreign imports, who is to con- sume them ? What is the South to do with them ? She will have a population of about six millions. The United States have now a population of twenty millions ; and we find one hundred millions of imports ample for our whole consumption.
" Is it probable, nay, is it possible, that the population of six mil- lions, in the Southern confederacy, will consume as much of foreign productions, of luxuries, as the whole Union does now ? A large portion of foreign manufactures are of costly fabrics, not suited for, nor wanted by, a considerable part of the Southern population. Undoubtedly the wealthy portion of Southern population consume as liberally, or more so, of luxuries and expensive commodities, as those of any other section ; but then a very large class of persons there con- sume far less than the laboring people of the North and West. How much, for instance, of silks, linens, fine woollens, glass, cutlery, car- peting, etc., and which go to make up the bulk of our imports, are consumed by the two and a half millions of Southern population, who are to be the laborers in the production of the one hundred mil- lions of exports ? How much of tea and coffee, of wines and sugar, and the thousand other things which our table of imports exhibit ? Making all the allowauces for the character of a portion of the popu- lation, does anybody deem it possible that the South could consume that enormous amount of foreign productions? No; she must trade with some other nation, and obtain some other articles of greater necessity, for the South can not subsist on manufactured products alone. She will not trade with the North, for that is wholly inter- dicted in the theory of the Senator, but she will trade with the West :
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she will sell to the West. But what will she buy in exchange ? What splendid inducements are held out to the West to cuter into this com- mercial league ? The Senator says, that the West will thus be ena- bled to buy all she wants at low rates, and to sell all her productions at high prices. Let us see if this be so. What will the South take of the West? I believe the only thing indicated by the Senator, as an article of much importance, was live animals, which are now chiefly obtained from that section. Of most other articles of agricultural production, necessary to the subsistence of Southern laborers, a suffi- cient supply is raised at home, and from some of them considerable quantities are exported to the North. But that export is then to cease. The West then, the boundless West, its spreading and fertile prairies, its millions upon millions of free, industrious people, are to have the mighty privilege of supplying the South with all the live stock it may require, and, in return, is to be wholly dependent upon Southern imports of foreign manufactures for every commodity of that description which it may need. Of the other products of the fertile West, the South is to take nothing. It will not require the cotton-bagging and bale-rope of Kentucky and Missouri ; for they are manufactures, and, if made at home, necessarily diminish the demand for the foreign imports received in return for Southern export, and, of course, diminishes the ability of Dundee and Glasgow to consume the cotton of the South. The hemp and wool of the West, for wool is yet to be a great staple there, can not be taken for the same reason, and for the additional one, that the South will have no occasion for them. But the Senator said, inadvertently I must think, that the West would export through the free ports of the South, all its surplus production. Why, sir, that breaks up the whole arrangement at once. If the West export any thing, she will import also; and she will then cease to be a purchaser of the South. She will import for herself, and who then is to consume the one hundred and twenty mil- lions of Southern imports ? If the products of the West are here- after to form considerable portions of American exports-I hope they may -- I see no reason why they may not be made through Northern ports in American ships, under our Government, as well as in a sepa- rate confederacy. But the whole theory of the Senator rests upon the ground that they are not to become exporters at all. The whole scope and policy, aim, end, and object of his measures, are to induce larger imports of foreign fabrics, with a view to create larger demands for Southern productions, not Western. If this enlarged import should occasion a demand for Western product instead of Southern, then the peculiar oppression and grievance of the South would be just
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as great as it is now. Nor can the West be allowed to become a manufacturing region either. If it manufacture for itself, it will not require the foreign fabries which the South proposes to furnish. The countless millions who are hereafter to inhabit these vast regions, spreading out toward the setting sun, are neither to produce for exportation, nor to manufacture for themselves, but are to find, in the markets of the South, of six or eight millions of consumers, full demand for all their surplus productions-productions, not one of which, be it remembered, must come in competition with the labor of foreign nations. This is the mighty boon held out to the West, in the new arrangement, which the Senator has supposed.
" The West, I doubt not is destined to become a great manufactur- ing region. It is so already to no inconsiderable extent, and its true interests lie in that direction. It is becoming a great producer of wool, and the next step must be, the manufacture of it; and this, almost of necessity. There are no markets for it abroad, and it must seek and have a home market. All nations are becoming growers of wool ; and even remote Australia is beginning to furnish it to Europe and America. In such a state of things, the wool of America must be manufactured in America; just as the iron of our hills must be manufactured here, or lie forever buried in the earth. So the wool of the West, and the iron of the West, must at no distant day be manu- factured in the West. But the Senator's partition does not look to that at all. It looks to keep the West always dependent for manu- factured articles, on the labor of others, not of itself; with no other means of payment but the raising of animal provisions, alive or cured, for a population far inferior to its own.
" It is to be borne in mind, that the North is to be no longer a con- sumer of Western production ; for that also would disturb the symme- try of the Senator's portraiture. The North is to be too impoverished to deal with any body. It will have nothing to sell, and of course, can buy nothing any where, so far as trade and commerce are con- cerned; and may be considered wholly obliterated from the map of American confederacies. But, sir, is there no danger of collision in the Southern confederacy itself; no jarring of different branches of the homogeneous interest ? The sole staples of export, are to be cot- ton, tobacco and rice ; and these are to furnish all the manufactured articles required for the whole confederacy. Virginia raises no cotton, I think ; or to a very inconsiderable amount, not worth mentioning. Its only production for export, is tobacco ; of which, it grows $3,500, 000 in value. It has a population of about 1,250,000. South Caro- lina, with about half the population of Virginia, produces nearly
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double the value of exportable commodities. Compared with Alabama, the disparity is greater still ; and with Mississippi, still greater. Ala- bama, with a population less than 600,000, produces over $8,000,000 of exports ; and Mississippi, with 375,000, over $15,000,000 of imports. She exports but $3,500,000, and of course, can import but that amount. She raises nothing which South Carolina, or Alabama, or Mississippi want; there can be no trade between them. Her consumption should be in proportion to her population ; double that of the two former, and quadruple that of the latter State. How is she to pay for her excess of consumption ? The result would be, that in a short time, Virginia would come to some reckoning with the other more favored States of the confederation, and demand some adjustment on a more equitable basis. She would say to her neighbors, 'Our good friends in Europe, which is our national market, impose a duty on my tobacco of several hundred ; in some instances, 2000 per cent., while your cot- ton is almost free. Something must be done to equalize this matter. You must pay me a draw-back on my tobacco, or we can not buy your imports ; you must buy more of us, or we ean not buy of you. We must manufacture for ourselves, and for you too ; or we have nothing to pay.' Then comes the question of taxation, of production, of home industry, the same which arises now. Virginia must insist and will insist that her coal and iron shall be consumed in preference to that of England - that her cotton manufactures shall be protected ; and soon she will have woolen manufactures too. Finding herself pos- sessed of every element of national wealth, she would insist, and justly insist, on developing her rich and exhaustless resources. She would enter largely into manufactures, into mining, salt-works, glass-works, navigation, foreign and internal commerce; and every other branch of human industry. She would, and will yet, and must, become what she has illimitable means of becoming ; a manufacturing and commer- cial, as well as an agricultural State. She ought long ago to have been such. In the new confederacy, she would be more deeply sensible of her true interests, with far less experience than she has already had.
" Hitherto, the North has furnished large markets for her flour and corn ; but in the new order of things this is to cease. The North is to be too poor to consume these products of Virginia ; and, besides it would disturb the harmony of the system. If the North should pre- sume to buy the corn and flour of Virginia they might pay for it in American manufactures ; and that again would destroy to that extent, the demand for the foreign-made fabrie which South Carolina imports. It is apparent that Virginia would very soon become a manufacturing State, and would insist upon paying South Carolina, for whatever of
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British productions she might want, in Virginia manufactures. She would say, 'We will take your raw cotton, and spin and weave it; but you must buy of us the cloth which you require, that is made from it. We will buy the silks and wines you get from France; but you must take our iron and iron manufactures in exchange - and our wool and woolens. Our ships must be protected and encouraged to carry your productions, and to return your imports.' And if South Carolina would not accede to all this, Virginia and South Carolina would be quite as much at variance as the South and North now are. The homogeneous- ness would be utterly broken up. But worse than this -how would South Carolina herself get along? How could she stand the compe- tition with Alabama and Mississippi? With a less population, they would make by far the largest portion of the imports. How is South Carolina to obtain her equal share for consumption ? What one single thing does South Carolina produce, which Mississippi wants ? For the same reason that would operate on Virginia, South Carolina also would inevitably be compelled to manufacture for her own consumption. In this new confederacy, with but one interest-the growth of raw mater- ial for exportation-she would be very far behind Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, in the relative proportions of her productions. She would have nothing which either of these States wanted, with which to purchase her just share of the imports, and would be compelled to enter upon some new field of industry, to save herself from utter ruin.
"South Carolina, with a population in round numbers of six hun- dred thousand, produces six millions for export ; while Mississippi, with three hundred and seventy-five thousand, produces fifteen mil- lions. Mississippi, therefore, as compared with South Carolina, imports as fifteen to six. Mississippi can import, and according to the Senator's argument, can consume at the rate of forty dollars a head for all her population ; while South Carolina can only import and consume at the rate of ten dollars, and Virginia less than three dollars. This would be a state of things which could not last. The inevitable result would be, that the northernmost States of the Con- federacy, utterly unable to obtain for all their labor, devoted to the growth of rude produce, sufficient for their wants in the manufactures of Europe, would, of absolute necessity, begin to supply themselves by home production ; and then the same questions of tariffs and pro- tection would grow up, and would finally be settled, just as they are now settled, in favor of home industry. There can be no other possi- ble result.
" Can any Senator point out in what way those States, which are to be the smallest producers of exportable articles, are to be the largest
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consumers of the imports? No, sir; there is no possible way in which it can be done. Then, as between the Southern and Western confederacies, difficulties of no small embarrassment must grow up. I have already shown that the West must not be an exporter, nor a manufacturer; for either of these destroys the whole foundation on which the prosperity of the South is to be built up. In such a state of things, how is the Western Confederacy to be supported ? Whence its revenne ? The honorable Senator says, that the Southern Confed- eracy, by imposing a duty of ten per cent. on the one hundred and twenty millions of imports, will obtain a revenue of twelve millions annually, fully sufficient for all its wants. But what is the West to do ? Supposing her comfederacy to need no more than twelve mil- lions also, how is she to obtain it? Admitting that she is able to consume half the imports, sixty millions, she will be compelled, if she raise her revenue on imports, to pay a duty, first, the ten per cent. already assessed in the South; and next, twenty per cent. more for her own purposes-that is, six millions to the revenue of the South, and twelve millions to her own treasury,-in all, eighteen millions on an import of sixty millions. This calculation supposes, of course, that all imports are dutiable. Nothing is to be free. Neither tea nor coffee, nor salt, nor even specie. Every thing is to be taxed ; and the Western Confederacy is to have the great privilege of paying one- half of all the revenue of the Southern Confederacy, and to pay, in the whole, fully as much on imports as was paid last year by all the United States together.
" It is not easy to conjecture what amount of revenue will be neces- sary for the support of the ultra-montane confederation. What are to be its limits ? If it is to stretch across the Rocky Mountains, and wave its scepter on the shores of the Pacific, how many mounted regiments, how many troops, how many fortifications, how many mili- tary roads and military posts will be required for its security, no one can foretell. That its expenditures will be great can not be doubted. If the revenue be derived from duties on the imports which it makes from the Southern Confederacy, the Southern, in return, will begin to impose duties on the provisions and live animals received from it. Then follow retaliatory regulations, counter legislation, border difficul- ties, and all the preliminary and incipient measures of animosity and strife. If, finally, from these, or from any causes, open war should break out between any two of these confederacies, or with any foreign nation, how is the prosperity and happiness of the Southern Confed- cracy to be affected ? She, under no circumstances whatever, could engage in hostilities with England, her 'natural market.' Deprived
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of her only customer, cut off from all her accustomed supplies, a sin- gle year would prove utterly ruinous to her. Remember, she is to have no intercourse with the impoverished North. She is not to be a navigating, and hence not a naval power. Her sole resource is in planting and in exchanging her rude produce with Europe. How long can she endure a total suspension of that intercourse, even though she should not be called upon to pay one dollar for defense, nor to have her coasts ravaged and her cities laid waste ?
" Suppose, for a single moment, that the manufactures of cotton in the Middle and Eastern States should now be annihilated, as they are to be in the new state of things which the Senator imagines, thus removing all demand for cotton for home consumption ; and suppose, further, that without the perils, and expenses, and dangers of a foreign war, Europe, or England alone, should refuse to take another pound of cotton from the United States, what would be the condition of the South ? If industry there is depressed now, if the profits of planting are small, if the South is becoming more and more impoverished, as the Senator asserts, what must it be in such a case ? And if thus brought to the verge of ruin, what would she be, if, superadded to all of this, she should be plunged into war with the most powerful nation of the world, and left alone, single-handed, to sustain the con- flict ? Let Senators consider for themselves.
"Again : if instead of a war with England, or some other power of Europe, the Southern Confederacy should be brought into collision with either of the others, deeply to be deplored certainly, but not impossible-perhaps not improbable-does the South see, in such a calamity, nothing to be apprehended disastrous to Southern interests? She can not, on a sudden emergency, become very strong as a naval power, though her citizens be ever so brave and chivalrous. She must have allies who command the ocean ; and who but her best cus- tomers, and her sole manufacturers, the English ? British fleets will ride in her harbors and upon her coasts, if not British bayonets defend her soil. Does the Senator see any security for Southern institutions in such an alliance ? Is British feeling, British policy, not to say philanthropy-is, ' the grasping ambition of England,' of which we hear so much, all to be calmed, allayed, soothed down, in favor of Southern peculiar institutions ? Is British policy to take a new direc- tion ? Is that proud boast, in the inflated language of one of her orators, abont ' the sacred soil of Great Britain,' where the altar and the god fall together, and the chains are unriveted before ' the genius of universal emancipation,' to be all unsaid and all unwritten ? But, independent of all interference or alliance in that quarter, are Southern
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