If we look back to the
history of the commerce of this country in the early years of this
government, what were our exports? Cotton was hardly, or but to a very
limited extent, known. In 1791 the first parcel of cotton of the growth
of the United States was exported, and amounted only to 19,200 pounds.
It has gone on increasing rapidly, until the whole crop may now,
perhaps, in a season of great product and high prices, amount to a
hundred millions of dollars. In the years I have mentioned, there was
more of wax, more of indigo, more of rice, more of almost every article
of export from the South, than of cotton. When Mr. Jay negotiated the
treaty of 1794 with England, it is evident from the Twelfth Article of
the Treaty, which was suspended by the Senate, that he did not know that
cotton was exported at all from the United States.
* * * * *
Sir, there is not so remarkable a chapter in our history of political
events, political parties, and political men as is afforded by this
admission of a new slave-holding territory, so vast that a bird cannot
fly over it in a week.
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