The above article is in exact accordance with the views held by those who framed the Federal Constitution-the Secessionists of 1787-who entertained no notion of protection, but wished to levy duties merely for the purposes of revenue, to meet the ordinary expenditure of the Government, which at that time only amounted to between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000 per annum, and to gradually sink the public debt.

Mr. Jefferson, as Secretary of State, said:-'Instead of embarrassing commerce under files of laws, duties, and prohibi❝tions, it should be relieved from all its shackles in all parts of the ' world. Would even a single nation begin with the United States 'this system of free intercourse it would be advisable to begin ' with that nation.'

Why should a Confederacy of States be burdened with a double set of tax-gatherers? The cost of maintaining the general government ought to be assessed among the States. The people would not feel the direct taxes any more than the indirect and more grievous charges imposed upon them by the present system. The expenses of the Union of latter years were about $65,000,000 per annum; those of the individual States were $40,000,000. As the citizens of those States paid both sets of taxes it would have been much better and less costly if the States as States had contributed their quota to the general government, and collected the same along with their internal revenues. The very fact of having so many United States' officeholders and they too nearly all residing in the importing States -prevented the harmonious working of the Federal machine, caused angry debates in Congress, and, with the aid of Abolitionism, has entailed disgrace and ruin upon the country. The people of the Confederate States should as soon as practicable establish unqualified free trade.

The true source of the wealth of the American States has been owing nearly altogether to the productions of the Souththe only section of the late Union that is almost free from an European indebtedness. Nor have the Southern States been, as is frequently charged, trading on the borrowed capital of the North. Mr. Kettell proves that the very reverse was the case; he likewise states that the annual earnings of the North out of their connection with the South were as follows:

is

Total Northern drain from Southern sources. $232,500,000

Yet, in spite of these advantages, which the North has possessed, the real and personal property of the Southern States very much greater per head than that owned by the Northern or Western States. The census of 1860 furnishes the subjoined information in reference to this point :

The property of the South, too, is of a character that, when relieved of Northern commercial shackles, it must necessarily increase in value, while that of the North, with the loss of its mercantile connection with the South, will beyond peradventure decline rapidly. History records how the prosperity of the Northern States ceased after the separation from Great Britain; and, by a slight taxing of memory, it will be recollected that the secession of the Southern States and the refusal of their people to make purchases to the ordinary amount from the North after the election of President Lincoln, created much distress in the Federal States. Manufacturers were unable to sell their goods, and merchants could not dispose of their wares. The

shares in the main lines of railway fell greatly in consequence of the absence of the customary travel, the hotels were almost without guests—many were actually closed, the colleges had but few students, and every evidence existed of the deprivement of what had not been before properly appreciated by the people of the North—the importance to them of their commercial relations with the South. And this decay occurred at the time when the Southerners had continued the exportation of their produce; they then had only ceased to be customers, in a lesser degree than formerly, for their supplies. It was not until after the enormous war expenditure of the Washington government that the mock prosperity-the 'Brummagem,' the camel's hair shawl era--appeared. With the cessation of hostilities it will be instantaneously demonstrated that all is not gold that glitters.' Mr. Chase's financial bubble would have burst many months ago, but for the large amount of specie funds thrown into the Federal States by reason of the extraordinary demand for breadstuffs that existed for three seasons, and which tended, in a measure, to fill up the vacuum created by the loss of the Southern trade. Mr. Chase, too, has had the advantage of monopolising the credits' of the North, directly in the matter of currency and indirectly through his contractors. The Southern Secretary of the Treasury has had no such advantages. The people of the Confederate States have ever done business on the cash principle. This is one reason why the quotations for gold in the South are higher than those in the North; another is, that the Confederate Secretary is an honest man, and does not attempt to deceive the people, as Mr. Chase has done, by 'bearing' the market; a third is, that the South is pent up by the blockade, and its transactions with other countries are therefore very limited. So soon, however, as their ports are opened the quantity and value of produce which they will have to spare will be so much greater than what their requirements of European manufactures will be, large as their wants are, that the precious metals will flow into their shores in settlement of the balances. The Southern debt is only one-fourth the amount of the Federal debt, and, with the quotations for bills on London, in the respective States, the figures of the former become inconsiderable when compared to those of the latter. It must not be

forgotten that the North, unlike the South, has hardly anything to export. Cheese, bacon, apples, wooden clocks, &c., will present but a sorry show in the future tables of the Federal States. The statesmen of the South merely desired to sever the political and commercial shackles that had bound them to the North; they were willing and anxious for a commercial treaty. Had Mr. Lincoln permitted the wayward sisters' to part in peace, very little change in the mercantile affairs of the States, except that unavoidably resulting from the annihilation of the protective tariff system, would, after the first blush of excitement and feeling, have ensued. All the commercial conventions' that could have held would have made no impression upon the course of business. The grooves of trade are so convenient to use that they are difficult to avoid. This cruel war has, however, completely severed all ties, broken up all connections, and established non-intercourse, at least to anything like its former extent. The South will start fresh in a career of prosperity, having all the elements of success possessed by an old country, combined with all the power, strength, and energy, of a newly established commercial empire.

189

CHAPTER XII.

THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. - FREE AND SLAVE NEGROES IN THE AMERICAN STATES.

In the year 1442 some Moorish prisoners captured by the Portuguese obtained their liberty by paying a ransom of ten negro slaves. It is believed that the African slave trade of modern times originated with this transaction. At all events Portugal soon afterwards engaged in the traffic, and was shortly followed by Spain. The Government of the latter country sent the first negroes to the New World, and landed them at Hispaniola in 1501. It conducted the trade until 1516, when the business was placed under control of a company of Genoese merchants. The English did not engage in this commerce until 1561, when Sir John Hawkins fitted out an expedition for the African coast. He, as was the case with the Portuguese and Spaniards, exchanged the manufactures of Europe for negro slaves, the property of barbarous chiefs. After discharging three cargoes at Hispaniola in 1562, he returned to England in the following year. His profits were so large that they were noised about, and a company was quickly formed for the purpose of supplying slaves to the Spanish American colonies, under a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth, who became its largest stockholder. The trade in the course of time grew to be very general, and was carried on by almost every class of speculators; but in 1618 James I. gave to Sir Robert Rich and others the exclusive privilege of conducting it. Through their operations the British American colonies were furnished with black labourers. The first negroes, however, twenty in number, that were received in the American States, unless the Spanish had previously landed them in Florida, were taken to Virginia in 1620 by a Dutch vessel. Another company was organised in 1631, by authority of Charles I. Its business