Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN
#46,000,000 in favor of Ohio! This i« <
sometimes down South! And it la in th
duett 1
engeance, as we
the Ohio pro-
'oule-
pda-
now
other
ijr pocket, ae I believe
honorable gentle-
do to And I Intend to keep them-; not, however,
he kedt We plan of the war, but, to use another phrase
ndl 1 hrilrii tin kail l*irr *T kirrrn^-g * w — upon the “ parliamentary history
of the country.”
But I will not let the gentlemau off with this exposition, whiebjk vMtnv
enough to establish the accuracy and fairness of my tables. What be complains
IWTOjl ■ —yW WWIHU0 acwU-that hr, iring Georgia wheat at #1, and This gi ves a capital of.
; the estimation for both States should be
t f /I will meet him on that ground. 1 will
value' of\tb‘ products of both 8tatos, the very paper he
B4tb-fc»Ohia.-4 will bring ihs snals
down to the average which he put upon similar products in Ohio, but not in New
a Mr. CAMPBELL. 1 suppose the gentleman would not misstate my positions,
snd 1 beg leave to set him right.
EPHENS. Be very brief, fqir I have no time to spare.
Mr, CAMPBELL. Then f will not take up the gentleman’s time; I morel v say
does not state my position correctly.
Mr. STEPHENS. I understand the gentleman’s position, as he slated it to be,
that the products of Ohio, and those of Georgia, should be taken at New York
prions.
Mr, CAMPBELL. I said 1 considered it as the great market of the coqntry.
Ma. STEPHENS. Very well. Then I was not mistaken in his position. He
insists that the products of lioth States should be estimated at New York prices,
which, I say, is as erroneous as to estimate the value of the lands in each State at
New York prices. New York is not the market for Georgia sweet potatoes, or
Ohio com, or Ohio hay. The proper basis for the value of each is the average
values in eaoh State upon the plan on which my tables were framed. But for the
sake of the argument, ( say, I will adopt, as a basis, the Ohio prices, as the gentle
man gave them to me himself, and make the Georgia products square witn that
baaie, so for as we produce similar articles. I will bring Georgia corn from fifty
cents down to thirty five, and raise Georgia potatoes up to fifty cents, which is
just as absurd as it would be to estimate a town lot in the small village in which
I live at either Cincinnati or New York prices, for the same quantity of land.
And I will put cotton, which Ohio does not produce, at the commercial value fix
ed upon it for that year at the custom-houses, which is quite as fair as to put it at
the Cincinnati market price, inasmuch as it would cost quite as much to get it there
as to the sea-hoard. By House Doc. No. 136, 1st sess. 82d Cong., the price of
the cotton crop embraced in the census returns, was valued at 11} cents, and a
little over. Then, sir, estimating the values of the products of both States, not at
New York prices, but at Ohio prices, as given by the gentleman, and putting cot-
ton at the actual value placed upon it officially, by this official report which 1 hold
in my hand, how stands the result t I have made the calculation. I have the re
volt before me. Here are the figures :
Ohio Li*t.
Peas and beans.
Wine.
..14,487,351
bushels
at
80,
.. 638,000
44
at
40.
..59,078,695
at
35
.. 425,918
“
at
50.
354,358
“
at
50
“
at
25.
60,168
“
at
#i
00,
.. 5,057,769
“
ut
40.
.. 187,991
44
at
50.
. .10,454,449
pounds
at
7
... 103,197
bushels
at
*5
00.
, .. 446,932
**
at
10.
188,880
44
at
75.
.. 4,588,209
pounds
at
6.
... 197,308
gallons
at
35.
48,207
at
*1
00.
6
312,959
60,168
023,181
93,907
731,895
515,985
44,693
141,660
275,292
69,057
48,207
Garden products .jj4*004
Orchard products . 095*921
#41,204,870
Georgia Li.il.
Wheat.,., 1,088,534 bushels at 80 #870 827
Indian com., 30,080,079 “ at 35 10 528034
Cotton—bales 499,091 400 lbs. at 11} 22 625 458
Bioa 38,950,691 pounds at 4 l'558027
Peas and Beans 1,142,011 bushels at #1 00 1 142 011
Sweet potatoes 6,980,428 “ at 50 3,493,214
Irish potatoes 227,378 I' at 40 90 951
3,820,044 “ at 25 955*011
1L501
98,520
75,652
29,644
26,875
92,766
76,500
Barley f. 11(601 “ at #1 00.,
Omesugar—hhds... l,6421,0001bsat 6.
Molasses 216,150 gallons at 35..
Tobacco 423,924 pounds at 7.,
Rye....„/.. 63,750 bushels at 50..
Orchard products
Garden products
#41,675,021
And on this basis of calculation the Ohio products amount to #41,204 870 and
the Georgia product# to *41,676,021; making a balance in favor of Georgia
of #470,151—near half a million—and larger, by #193,678, than the balanoe in
her fovor upon the system, which was the correct one adopted by me at first. So I
meet the gentleman upon his own ground, and results similarly favorable to Geor-
gia are arrived at.
But the gentleman insists that hay should not be left out of the Ohio list of pro
ducts. My reasons for leaving it out wore given before. It is because there is no
return in the census for fodder or shucks, that apecies of forage that we use for
stock in Georgia. We produce at least 600,000,000 pounds of fodder, esti mating
1,000 pounds to every 60 bushels of corn; besides immense quantities of corn
shucks, which oonatitute the food for our stock, just as hav does in Ohio. For
this lsrge and valuable product there la no return.
Bnt the gentleman says that in Ohio they make more com than we do, and hence
more fodder. Not so, air. In Ohio they do not save their fodder; at leust it is
not usual with them to do it They put their labor ujion saving hay. We grow
an immense amount of grass in Georgia, but we do not out it or save it. We put
our labor in saving corn blades and shucks; and we might as well claim our uncut
gram m our cornfields, as a product to go into the estimate, as for the gentleman
to claim the unsaved corn blades which grow 011 their com stalks. And besides
this, sir, thore is no return in the census for cotton seeds, which, in Georgia, amount
in value, annually, at a moderate estimate, at not less than *1,000,060. 80 for
thess reasons I did omit the article of hay, as I stated, and did so properly, ’as I
eonemye; und with its omission, and the omission of corresponding products of
Georgia, upon the gentleman's own basis of calculation-not his last <Jne, of New
Tork prices, but the burns he gave me two years aud upwards ago—Georgia, with
a population ot less than half that of Ohio, and with l.ud a littfoover two-thirds in
quantity, and something under one-third in value, produced, in 1849 according to
♦TtMkOOO* ret,lrn *- agricultural products exceeding thoee of Ohio in amount neirly
Btft, «r, I do not intcud to atop hero with the gentleman and his statistics 1
will *veu follow him to New York, and his prices there. I have his tallies of e»-
r the annual products of Ohio amount to $145 838 232
61, and those of Georgia to only *65,488,267 18. These tables are not riven in
namphfot speech, though they appeared with the speech as published in the
Uofw, But I intend to preserve Uiein whether he does or not. I shall preserve
teT T J T Ut fife i0 m r V otr *- For th “ P ur P°*« l have brought
T #ai tr UU ‘>,* 0 * h,bi 1 t t° **• *<1 4* country jand, in the faceof
itie sectWn, the House and the country, to nail them to tbc counter aa spurious
“ SS r - composition. Upon whet principU can ha estimate Ohio bay
6 iKL r t 0 * UCW “ ^ *°* “ »“•*>. »hen, perhaps, a bun
dle of Ohio ha* never went there for sals it the world 1 Upon what priaeinle can
ha put OVfo wheat at *2 per bushel because wheat sells in New York city at that
M r /“'.7 k 2P’ b >'^ °Z n * CO * UO ‘ of ^ •*“ furnished me, he put its price in
Uhio at i*0 cents ? Nay more, upon what principle is it that ha now puts Oaoi^
giapotatoes at 69 neats P*rbu*hel, whan they are notoriously selling in New York
a half peek, or *2 abuahell I have a daily New York paper before me,
FEDERACY.
ucts, In bis table on this
millions of dollar*against
I nail his table ta the at
them may no# mislead
>t, sir, 1 said 1 wi
_ tleman even on
cultural praspflty
political economy. And it Is upon such principles
a subject
amoants to more than
Other great er-
the results deduced
where or any-
.
iy wtrft awdjafret the
•gri-
01
ich
According to.his exhibit, the cash value of the Georgia farms is.. .#96,763,444
•Vidua of farming ini piemen ts and machinery is 6,994,160
at 25 cents a
SiSfci*
as.es. I
sa spa table of such a character
-to th* wrier* hat af Georgia
ha difawnar -la the Oaorgia
The aaah value of the Ohio forma is
Farming implements and machinery is........i
This gives a capital ofT.'...77........7. ....'77.77777!’: .7TT~.717".I8TI,909,IS8
The products of Georgia, upon the principle of his calculation, which
1 have exhibited, amount in vahie to. ##6,488,287
And those of Ohio to 145,888^*2
In this way the gentleman arrives at the conclusion, where he Isiastinglv nay*,
that Ohio was ahead of Georgia, annually, #80,849,965.
But let us see how such a conclusion can be drawn, even if the results were as
he haa figured them out, upon any aound principles of political economy. Accord
ing to these well settled principles, In comparing the relative prosperity of any
State, or business, with another, the amount of capital, as well as the product*, is
to lie taken into the account. All writers upon this science—for it is a science,
and one of the profoundest of the scienoes which real philosophers ever taught—lay
this down as or.c of the axioms, or the postulates, upon which they build their
systems. However they may disagree upon other matters, all agree upon this
fundamental truth. Mr. McCulloch, whose work I have before me, after stating
that the species of hilior, or kind of employment, is not to he looked at so much
as its resuits, says:
“It is not, therefore, by the absolute amount of its capital, but by its power of
employing that capital with advantage—a power which, in all ordinary rases, is
correctly measured by the common and averaged rate of profit—that the capacity
of a country to increase in wealth and population is to lie estimated.”
And, further on, he says :
“The average rate of profit would seem to be, on the whole, the liest barome
ter—the best criterion of national prosperity.”
Now, what is here stated of national prosperity, or the capacity to produce
wealth, is as true of States as of nations. And the main object of the gentleman
from Ohio seemed to be to show, that the capacity of Ohio, with her free labor,
was much greater in the production of wealth, or the development of her resources,
than that of Georgia,.with her slave labor. Then, sir, let the case stand as he
puts it. Ohio, with free labor, on an investment of #371,509,188 in capital, pro
duces, with her labor, #145,858,232. This is 39 per cent. That is, the Ohio
product towards capital, bears the ratio of 89 per cent., while Georgia, on an in
vestment of capital of #101,647,594, produces, with her labor, #65,488,267, which
is 64 per cent. And this is just 25 per oent. in favor of Georgia, upon the gen
tleman’s own extravagant and erroneous assumptions. The gentleman may say
that the value of the slaves should be added to the Georgia capital. Not so, sir;
for the purposes of this argument and the object of the gentleman, which was to
show the superiority of voluntary over involuntary, or free over slave labor, in
the amount of production, and in the development of a country’s resources. The
question he presents has but a single point, and that is, the productiveness of
labor. Here we have Ohio labor as it is, whether free or hired—which is a way
of buying at a high price—working her capital in land, and suitable implements
in husbandry, and producing, in gross, at the rates of 39 per cent, on capital; and
Georgia lalior as it is, whether free or bought, working her capital of the same
character in like business, throwing off like productions, iu gross, at the rates of
64 per cent, on capital.
But the gentleman says that the live stock iu each State should be taken into
the account of the annual products. This is a most singular idea. But let it be
done, and then how stands the result ? Still more favorable to Georgia. Every
step he takes plunges him deeper in the mire of his errors. For Georgia has
much more live stock, in proportion, either to her population, white and black, or
capital, than Ohio has. Of neat cattle Georgia has 1,097,528. Ohio, with double
the population has only 1,358,947. This is exclusive of swine or hogs. For,
when the gentleman talks of driving Ohio fat hogs to Georgia, he must be remind
ed that Georgia has more hogs than Ohio has. Georgia by the census, had 2,168,-
617 hogs, while Ohio, with her much larger population, had only 1,964,770. But
if the whole value of the live stock in each State be taken into the account, I say
the result will still be more favorable to Georgia. The Ohio live stock is put
down nt #44,121,741. In Georgia it is put down ut #25,728,416. If those
amounts be added to the respective products before stated, we shall have the Ohio
aggregate, as the gentleman states, #189,959,973, and the Georgia aggregate,
#91,216,683. We should then have the Georgia capital, of #101,647,694, pro
ducing *91,216,683, which is 89 per cent., and the Ohio capital, of #371,509,188,
producing #189,959,973, which is only 51 per cent. Being a production at the
ratio of 38 per cent, on capital in favor of Georgia.
I have, Mr. Chairman, gone through with this illustration more for the purpose
of exposing the .fallacies of the gentleman than for any other purpose; and to
show that, notwithstanding his most untenable assumptions, as to the basis of
prices, and his want of adherence, even to his own basis, first, in not abiding by
his own list furnished me for Ohio products, and then in not putting Georgia po
tatoes at the New York city market price, when he adopted that basis ; that, not
withstanding all this, his effort to make it appear that the agriculture of Ohio,
under her system of labor, is more prosperous than that of Georgia, under her
system, has, according to the soundest principles of political economy, most sig
nally failed. I, therefore, leave this branch of the subject where 1 left it before.
The same exhibits I then made on this subject, I again make, and hold them up to
the strictest scrutiny. Their results may astonish many who have never devoted
attention and investigation to the subject; but the principles upon which they are
founded, anil the great truths they illustrate, may be railed at, tint they can never
be refuted.
But, Mr. Chairman, my time is fast passing away, and I, too, must jmiss hur
riedly on.
The gentleman says there are other statistics besides those of agriculture; and
he goes into an enumeration of several classes of them in comparing the physical
as well as intellectual developments of Ohio with Georgia; he instances manufac
tures, public improvements, colleges, churches, and some others I ean only glance
at.
The first he gives is the following table :
MARCFACTUBltS, KTC.
Capital invested. Raw material.
Ohio #29,019,538 #34,677,987
Georgia 5,460,483 3,404,917
AKcracTnau.
•f Coot of
l usual product. I¥r tent. prof.
#62,647,259 49.97
7,086,525 36.06
Ohio ahead #23,559,055 #31,273,020 *55;560,734 13.91
From this table one would suppose that Ohio had the capital here stated invest
ed in manufactures, with the result stated; but, sir, by turning to the census
returns, we shall find that much more is covered by the et cetera than by manu
factures ; under this et cetera comes mechanic arts and mining. But in the census
I find no clue to what these mechanic arts are, or the details of mining—I do,
however, to manufactures proper, which is the heading title of the tabic. We
have in the census (Compendium, page 108) the manufacture of cotton, woolens,
pig iron, wrought iron, iron castings, and distilleries and breweries; those are all
the detailed heads of manufactures proper that the census gives—and the whole
capital in Ohio, invested in all these branches together, is but *6,161,644!
Here is the exact amount taken from the census :
Capital invested in manufactures of cotton # 297,000
“ “ “ “ “ woolen*. 870,220
“ “ “ “ “ pig, iaon 1,603,000
“ “ “ “ “ wrought iron 164,900
“ “ “ “ “ iron castings 2,068,650
“ “ “ distilleries and breweries............. 1,962,974
*6,161,644
1 do not include fisheries and salt-making, for how they, can be properly classed
with manufacturei, I cannot imagine; to that et cetera covers a Targe portion of
the #29,019,538, set down by the gentleman under the head of manufacture*, e(c.
And now, sir, I will take up two of the most important of these manufactures
proper, to-wit: cotton and woolens, and see how they stand, respectively, in Ohio
sad Georgia: |( " , ...
urosola maxi racTtaas.
Cotton.^ .36
Woolen 3
Ctpiul
68,000 10,39!
raw Ctettf
'
%
iwdr
ing-tl.91 jiePisnt. flu®, when Ve
of capital to production, she is, in the first, 22 per cent., and in tha
cent., behind. I have not looked into the manufacture of iron to'
result would stand, because Georgia ha* very 1UU* espital invested j n
, |2r’ 9jj‘°| kRS 0, “ rtainl >' not enou f?h *<> make it a matter of great
Under the head of distilleries aud breweries, 1 find that Ohio
TflVeroa of *1,809,074, In which they wwd 990,tMTharitels of!
, bushels of corn, and 281,750 bushels of rye; Qut of which they .
barrels of ale, and 11,865,150 gallons of whisky! lot .the prine ef
grain is not given, so that is impossible to tell wliat ratio the value of'
m this buslines bore to tha investment. But it may bsthat it
head that a very heavy per centage was counted, which increased the ic
on manufactures in all branches taken as a olaae. But in Georgia, on
facture of cotton, the production, after taking off the cost of labor snd
rial, bears to capital invested the ratio of 55 per cent.; in Ohio, but 33
In Ohio, on woolen manufactures, the similar ratio of product to ca
per cent.; in Georgia, 56 per cent! I cannot dwell upon these things.
Mr. CAMPBELL. You arc wrong there.
Mr. STEPHENS. No, sir. 1 am never wrong upon a matter I
as close attention to as I have giveu to this.
Mr. CAMPBELL. 1 can prove it.
Mr. STEPHENS. You had a chance to show that 1 was wrong
but you signally failed, Try it again.
I come, now, to railroads. The gentlemau says that Ohio has 231
railroad in operation, while Georgia has but 884 by the census, p
1,485 miles ahead. Very well, sir. This is a very good showing;
had five times as many more miles, it would have nothing to do with
about agricultural products. But, sir, as favorable os this showing
for Ohio, if we look a little into the matter, it will not be so bad for
the gentleman seems to imagine. I find, by lookiug into the Ilailroad
and taking all the roads in Ohio and Georgia—the condition of which i»
that publication—that 1,071 miles of the Ohio roads, which haves
#18,094,102, have, also, a funded debt of #12,225,400; while in Geo
miles of her roads, the capital of which is #9,099,975, have a funded debt
#732,401.
From this it appears that the roads in Ohio, as far as I have been »b
information, are two-thirds unpaid for ; while in Georgia, less than onc-t
hers is unpaid for. If all the roads in each State, therefore, stand in
eonditiou ; or if the 1,071 in one, and 553 in the other, may betaken as
for tiie whole in each State, then Georgia has more road completed
than Ohio lias. Two-thirds of 2,367, the number of miles of the Ohio
1,578, which, taken from that sum, leaves only 789 miles in operation
for; while one-twelfth taken from 884 miles of the Georgia roads, tea
miles complete and pai 1 for. And why should not these improvement!!,
of, as they are, as evidences of prosperity, be subjected to this test 1 U
more evidence of the thrift or prosperity of a people, that they have rail
w hich they arc hrarihj encumbered, tbau it is of tnc thrift or prosperity
from the fact that he accumulates property by running in debt for it?
real thrift can only be correctly ascertained by knowing not only w hat b«
what he makes, lint what he owes. And the same principle is equally
to States or communities. With this view of the subject, tlierefore, and
when we take into consideration the much greater population of Ohio
t ia, the railroad showing is by no means prejudicial to the character of'
tate, for that sort of progreas, which pays as it goes, and which never f'
end to secure the most lasting and permanent prosperity.
But the gentleman says that “ there is another sort of development to
sidered—that of the mind.” And he cites us to the colleges in Ohio, 26
tier, against 13 in Georgia, putting Ohio 13 ahead. Now, sir, let us see
entitled to this lioasting exultation upon any just principles of comparison,
it is true, has, by the census returns, 26 colleges, while Georgia has but 1
Ohio lias a white population of 1,955,050, while Georgia has but 521,572.
therefore, might very well be expected to have more colleges; but if the
man claims the number of colleges as evidence of a greater development
Ohio ought to have a number equal to the ratio of her population to
Georgia. Aud upon this basin, she ought to have 48 instead of 26, so tha
really- 22 behind what site ought to have, instead of being 13 ahead.
But, sir, there is another view of this subject that the gentleman did not
but which is one much more interesting to those looking after mental
ment, than the number of colleges, and that is, the number of pupils or
at them. Georgia, at her 13 colleges, by the census, has 1,535 pupils; «
to have as many in proportion to her population, ought to have 5,852,
fact, as the returns show, she has only 8,621. So, here again, upon the o
ratio uf white population, she is 2,231 behind. Georgia, by the census,
pupil at college for every 339 of her entire white population, and Ohio
one for every 539 of hers. In this particular, Georgia, by tho census
not only ahead, and a long ways ahead, of Ohio, but of every State in the 1“
of any and every other State or nation in the civilized world ! This I will set
a legitimate “ se*t-off” against the gentleman’s array of those who cannot read'
in Georgia. On this head he says, that Ohio has but one to every twenty ar
population who cannot read and write, while Georgia has one to every,
hers. I shall not dispute the returns of the census takers on this head,
Georgia or Ohio; but there is one singular fact about it, which strike
something worthy of note, and that is, that out of the foreign populat' "
bom—of 218,099, in Ohio, there should be found no more than 9,062 W
cannot read and write. If this be true, then much that we hear said of the
and want of intelligence on the part of that class of people, cannot be
ded.
But I have this to say of this showing against Georgia : Much of it i>
some important facts in her history. Georgia, it is true, as the gentl'
was one of the old thirteen States; but, in point of settlement, she
ranked junior to several of the new States, particularly Ohio; it ha*
twenty years sinco she got possession of her entire territory. And fu
years after independence was declared, she had possession of hut little ov
of it. It was held by the aborigines, while the Indian title to at least t*‘
of the Ohio territory—if I am not mistaken—was extinguished bv the
Greenville, in 1795. Ohio was admitted as a State in. 1802, and as early
the Indian title was extinguished throughout her territory, with the v
some small reservations. It was not until 1838—more than twenty yerif
wards—that the Indians were removed from that large and fertile sootiou
State known as tho Cherokoe country. This is now, by far, the moat A-'-,
ulated of any part of tho State. The policy of Georgia in lottoring on u*
in small tracts of 202}, and 160, and 40 acres each, without any price,
grant fees, naturally induced the landless and ths most indigent, whose
education in early life had been most limited, in the neighboring, and eve
States, to look to her cheap domain for homes whenever any portion w
expected to be opened for settlement. Many of these pionoers, unoducaF
selves, went into the woods, with hardly anything save a horse and » v*A,
and a gun, a wife and, perhaps, not a few “little ones.” \\ itliout oo%
schools for several years, the older members of the rising families grt*
their fathers had done. Amongst this class is to be found much the
her of those adults amongst us who can neither read nor write; but, wifo
and frugality, where labor meets with the returns it does with us, --
and comforts soon followed. Then came “ men servsnts and maid sc rr
then, also, commenced that physical development which it is my pride he"
to exhibit in such a high degree of prosperity; and, what to me is *
still more pride and gratification in contemplating the working ol our i—
is, that many of that great number of students, both male and fcmsie,
crowd our colleges and hall* of learning, with such distinguishing
State, are the younger sons and daughters of parent* w ho, thirty and c
ago. commenced life’s career in our then wilderness, poor, illiterate *■}“.
as I havo described. Moreover, Georgia has never received any "z
Government for educational purposes. Ohio has reoeived 69,120 scr^
for colleges, which, at Government prices, is #86,400. She has, be«
for common schools. T04.488 acres of land, ^hich,at the same estimated
more than *800,000. And, for internal improvements, she has i.*—
287 acres more. And to this may also be added over half a million
has reoeived a* a per centage on the amount of land sale* in her h®«®-
has been yopr benefactor to the amount of millions in the grant ol .
but tbe recipient of none of tjiese fovors. 3he made herself whits**
own exertions, energy and enterprise. ...
But, sir, I pass on to churches. The gentlemap gi*e* u ! W “ 10
5V tfekurduo. irmmMJafion. .
......3,966 1,457,294 #5,793,099
'”'f&uded
Faarth HfjW.]
1,269,359
523,740