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March, 1861.    Douglass' Monthly.    423.
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found in Hayti, though all the other varieties can be easily raised there. The fibre is remarkable for its length, strength, silkiness, and yellowish tinge.  The seeds are black. -- But all varieties of the cotton plant can be raised in Hayti, with much greater success than that attending the puny annual of the Gulf States. The Sea Island variety--on the production of which South Carolina prides itself, and the plant of which in that State rises only to the height of two feet, and is killed each winter by the frosts, yielding only about 320 lbs. per acre, from which 50 or 60 per cent. must be deducted for the weight of seed--is proven to yield, in Jamaica, two crops of 500 lbs. each per acre, or 1000 lbs. per year.  The soil of Hayti is superior to that of Jamaica, and the yield will be proportionally greater.  The statistics of the two islands at the close of the last century, when both were at the height of their prosperity, prove this conclusively.  The Sea Island cotton plant in Hayti becomes perennial, and grows to from four to six feet in height and spread.

A comparison may be easily made as to the relative productiveness of this staple in Hayti and the cotton States.  A bale of average weight of marketable cotton to the acre is a large yield.  The census returns for 1850 give the following as the average product per acre of cotton and seed in the States named, the seed constituting 50 to 60 per cent. of the whole weight:

---|Pounds.
South Carolina................. |320
Georgia........................ |500
Florida........................ |250
Tennessee........ ............. |300
Alabama.... ........ .......... |525
Louisiana...................... |550
Mississippi.................... |650
Arkansas................ ...... |750
Texas.................... ..... |750

Hayti will yield as much as experiments show Jamaica and Honduras to produce, viz: 500 lbs. each crop, or 1000 per year.

The Hon. E. G. Squier, formerly U.S. Charges d' Affaires at Nicaragua, and author of a work on Central America, in a late letter to Senator Anthony of Rhode Island, suggests Central America as a source from which to obtain a supply of cotton.  As what he therein says will apply with equal and even greater force to Hayti, extracts are here appended:

'The seceding States of this Union are perfectly well aware that, rightly or wrongly, the spirit and principles of the age are hostile to slavery, and will be openly or covertly antagonistic to any system of government which recognizes human bondage as an element in its organization.  But they believe, at the same time, that the material interests of nations will compel from them a compromise with their consciences, and that they can wring from the necessities of Europe and the Northern States a toleration if not an open support, of a system of labor abhorrent to their sentiments and civilization.  In other words, they believe that their great staple, cotton, can bind down the intellect, paralyze the moral sense, restrain the spirit, and disarm the physical power of the age and the world. This belief, and their reliance for their future, have been formulized in the phrase, "Cotton is King."  And they, no doubt, really believe that the fibre of a plant, which they only produce imperfectly, and in spite of natural laws, by a system of forced labor, can never be supplied from other sources, or the industrial and commercial world relieved from its present dependence on them for this important, not to say vital, staple.

'But they forget that cotton is indigenous over more than one-third of the globe, and that it is produced over more than one-half of South America, the larger part of Mexico, and throughout all Central America and the islands of the 

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Antilles, in greater perfection, at less cost of labor and capital, and in more than double the quantity, acre for acre, than in the most favored portions of the Southern States.  And they assume, with a dogmatism by no means justified by facts of experience, that free, and more especially white labor, in incapable of cotton cultivation, and that it can under no circumstances be relied on to supply any important part of the world's consumption.

'I am sorry to concede that the sordid instincts and apparent material interests of men and nations do, too often, control their conduct and policy to the sacrifice of their judgement and principles; but as yet we have seen no evidence that either Manchester or Lowell is ready to admit the right or beneficence of slavery, or agree to its perpetuation as part of the price which they are to pay for their cotton.  They may, perhaps, believe that this staple can be amply supplied elsewhere than in the  Southern States, and under a system of labor repugnant neither to their consciences or notions of a wise economy.

'However this may be, it is nevertheless certain that the sources of cotton-supply are various and abundant, and that whenever the exigency shall arise, whether from a mistaken policy on the part of the South, or from servile insurrection, British and Northern capital and enterprise will speedily open up new fields of production, sufficient to supply the demand of manufactures and fill the channels of commerce.'

Again ; the writer says, after describing the physical advantages of the country he recommends, (which will apply equally as well to Hayti,) that --

'it will be objected that these natural advantages are overborne by the deficiency of labor, or that cotton cannot be produced under any circumstances, however favorable, by free labor.  I shall not stop to discuss the accuracy of the latter conclusion, or rather assumption,for the reason that the burthen of proof belongs to those making it.'

The colored people of this country can easily supply whatever labor Hayti may need.  It is for them to decide whether they will aid in the overthrow of slavery by an attack upon so vital a point as this of the cotton supply, while [[missing]] themselves in the scale of progress, and compel the respect of other people in consequence thereof.      H.
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NEGOTIATING FOR THE SALE OF THE MARYLAND AND DELAWARE SLAVES.
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A correspondent writes from Washington that there is a project on foot to make Delaware and Maryland Free States, by having the General Government, with the consent of the owners, to purchase their slaves.  Several leading citizens of Baltimore had an interview on Saturday with certain Northern Members of Congress to ascertain their opinion -- a better opinion -- whether the new Administration would be willing to purchase the Slave in those States at a fair price, if the owners would consent to sell them and then colonize such of them as their masters refused to retain as hired servants.  The Congressmen gave an affirmative answer, and thought the people of the North would cheerfully acquiesce in the proposition.

The Baltimore gentleman stated that if the Union was to be dissolved, Maryland, as a Slave State, would go with the South, though her interests and geographical position placed her with the Free States.  But whether the Union continues or divides, Slavery is felt to be an incubus on the prosperity of Maryland.  Slavery is slowly dying out, having decreased 6,000 in the last decade  It was stated at the conference that there were only 80,000 slaves in the State, which, at $500 per head, old and young--a higher price than they will bring for years to come--would only be $40.000.000.  A duty of 10 per cent. on the $400,000,000 of annual imports would pay for them in a single year.  One percent. duty would pay the interest on the bonds, and create a sinking fund that would liquidate the principal in a few years.  The Baltimore gentlemen remarked that, once a Free State, Northern capital, skill, labor, and enterprise would flow in a broad stream

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into Maryland, property would enhance, business improve, and white population rapidly increase.  Baltimore would soon rival Philadelphia as a manufacturing city, and Maryland would be converted into a garden to supply the wants of Northern cities.

Delaware has only two thousand slaves.-- One million dollars would indemnify the owners and make her a Free State.  Missouri has but one hundred thousand slaves.  Fifty millions would pay for them, and make her rival Illinois in wealth, population and improvement.  Thus less than $100,000,000 would rid them all of an institution for which neither their climate nor products are suited, and bestow on them the advantages of free labor.  The Baltimoreans say that free trade and direct taxation will become the established policy of a Southern confederacy, and it will be ruled by the South Carolina and Cotton-States school of political economists.-- The federal expenses of a Southern confederacy would not be less than thirty millions a year, of which Maryland would have to pay two millions.  Her present State taxes are three hundred and sixty thousand per year ; hence her taxes would be increased six fold, while her manufacturing interests would be destroyed under the operation of free trade and direct taxation.  Virginia would have to pay over four millions, Kentucky and Missouri each three millions, and little Delaware one-quarter of a million dollars.  These border States could  not escape from this Juggernaut machine by seceding from the cotton confederacy and reuniting with the 'stars and stripes,' or setting up for themselves.  In either event, what would become of their slaves?  The Balimoreans thought the best thing for Maryland was to sell her slaves, employ the proceeds to build manufactories and improve farms, and place herself in the society of the great family of Free Labor States, partake of their prosperity, and enjoy their powerful protection and friendship.

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  FLAX COTTON. - The subject of discussion before the Massachusetts Legislative Agricultural Society, on the 5th ult., was the culture of flax, and its preparation for spinning.  There is reason to believe, incredible as it may seem, that the substitute has been found which, before another generation passes away, will take the place of cotton in so large a degree as not only to drive 'King Cotton' from his throne and reduce him to the ranks, but to relieve the world from dependence on him altogether-enable it, in fact, to have plenty of shirts, if need be, without being helplessly dependent upon him and his worshipers. In the adjoining city of Roxbury a manufactory is now established which imports rough flax from Iowa, converts it into various conditions suitable for mixing with cotton, wool, or silk, or to be made into cloth by itself, and it is doing a profitable business.  A substance equal in value to middling cotton, can be produced at ten cents a pound, and leave ample profit.  As the process goes on, new machinery or new inventions, will be brought in to facilitate the movement and make it a regular, important and permanent business.

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  KANSAS ADMITTED. -- After five years of bitter persecution, and the endurance of a greater degree of malevolence than has been inflected upon any other free commonwealth, Kansas, at last, take her station among the States of the confederacy-the thirty-fourth in order of succession, but always to be the first in right of her narrow escape from martyrdom. The President has already announced to Congress his approval of the bill providing for her admission ; and immediately afterwards her representative (Mr. Conway, a Republican) was sworn in.  So one more star gleams upon the field of the national ensign, and the new State in the West assumes the rank which should long ago have been hers.  The incoming of Kansas is a fair offset to the outgoing of South Carolina.  The perturbed territory becomes a peaceful state, while the seceding state is drifting upon the shoals, and will be lucky if she escapes total wreck.  The comparison is suggestive.

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