Legislative document from Mississippi Governor James L. Alcorn to the Mississippi Legislature; May 23, 1870

Documents
Legislative document from Mississippi Governor James L. Alcorn to the Mississippi Legislature; May 23, 1870

Document Network
Document Metadata

Each transcribed document contains links that connect it to other documents on the same topic in the collection.

People

Alcorn, J. L. (James Lusk), 1816-1894 Ames, Adelbert, 1835-1933 McAdam, John Loudon, 1756-1836 Revels, Hiram R. (Hiram Rhoades), 1827-1901

Organizations

Mississippi--Executive Department Mississippi--Legislature Mississippi--Treasury Department United States--Congress United States--Department of the Treasury

Occupations

Cotton factors Cotton gin operators Farmers Laborers Legislators Manufacturers Surveyors

Places

Austria Bodies of Water--Interstate. Mississippi River Bodies of Water--Interstate. Mississippi River Valley Bodies of Water--Interstate. Missouri River Bodies of Water--Interstate. Ohio River Bodies of Water--Mississippi. Yazoo River England--Manchester Europe France Haiti Illinois Indiana Iowa Italy Kansas Kentucky Middle East Mississippi--Hinds County. Jackson Missouri Ohio Portugal West Indies

Page 1

Executive Office,
Jackson Miss.
May 25 1870.

Gentlemen,

Accompanying this Communication I have the honor to enclose you a Memorial of the Legisature praying Congress to make certain grants of land and money to aid in the construction of levees for the reclamation of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta. In compli-ance with the terms of resolutions under which the memorial has been placed in my hands, I have the honor, further, to address to you the following considerations in support of the prayer of the memorial.

Revolutions so sweeping and dis-tructive as that through which the south has passed, have seldom taken place in history without crippling, if not destroying, some branches of the national production. And the history of several heads of industry may be seen following them up through intern=ment ~~war~~or foreign war as they have waned in our country to flourish in another;

In the nature of things we have, therefore, on general grounds grave reason to fear that the war of the sections may have dealt a deadly blow at the supremacy which had been won by the south under her great head of

Page 2

production—raw—cotton.

The growth of raw cotton is a branch of industry which has been seen, by even the present generation, to be migratory. Men are now living who have witnessed that agriculture thrive and wither in Hayti and the West Indies, in Italy and in the Countries of the Levant. And they can bear evidence that the movement to decay in all these cases, has gone on pari passu with the reductions of the price. Inasmuch as the migration of cot-ton industry which has followed in those cases to our own Shores, has gone on under the pressure of cheap production, the supremacy which followed ultimately under the operation of that cause, Stands menaced from the moment at which the struggle for supremacy had to be fought over again on the basis of high prices.

And the danger which is seen, on gen-eral grounds threatening our cotton industry has been made the opportunity of an attack upon it by a great European combination. England, France, Aus-tria, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, are united in a simul-tanious effort of their diplomacy and capital for the reversal of that triumph of American Skill and energy which has made us supreme in the cotton market of the World! The extent to which this cooperative movement among great nations of Europe has gone, may be seen to have shown the

Page 3

objects of the movement to be alarmingly practicable when it has known to have given already enor-mous accessions to the cotton production of the world from sources which had been long dried up un-der the operation of the formerly cheap prices of the American fibers.

The Manchester Cotton Supply Association is the brain of the European combination against the main-tainious of our cotton production.—And be it recollected that a production so uncertain in its yield from year to year, cannot be maintained on a great scale in any one country save on the condition that suprem-acy which compensates falling off in the production by the power to regulate the price.—And the lea-ders of that association have laid down the axiom and predicated on it cotton-culture in thirty different states, that America must continue as but a tributary rather than as a master of the cotton market so long as the price of her short staple shall exceed twelve cents per pound.

The scepter is about to depart from us in the commerce of the world if we do not break down at once the rivalry that is being de-veloped by a combination of great powers of Europe under the opportunity of high prices. And while we enter on this battle which can only be won by us in the future as it has been won by us in the past, by driving rivals from the field isbefore the force of cheap production, we stand confronted

Page 4

with the embarrassment of a labor system in transition and a system of capital in but imperfect organization. But inasmuch as our upland pro-duction yields but one third or one half of a bale to the acre, while our production in the Mississippi—Yazoo Delta yields a bale to the acre, the plainest suggestion of policy demands that, whatever disadvantages may be in the case, we must fix the field of battle with the European combination against us on cotton-culture in the invincible stronghold of production—in such rich soils as those of the Delta of Yazoo. And thus it is that the construction of the levees of the Mississippi as a means of keeping our cotton-power at a height which gives strength to our diplomacy, volume to our commerce, and gold-tribute to our treasury constitutes a work which rises to the very highest dimensions of the Na=tional!

Give a substantial protection to the magnif-icent waste lands between the Mississippi and the Yazoo, and you throw open to immediately settlement between three and four millions of acres of the finest cotton lands on the face of the earth! When Italy builds railways, constructs McaAdamized roads, makes elaborate surveys, and offers large gifts for settlement of a less extent of soils, inferior in yield, in order to crush the power of the United States in the cotton markets of the world, shall the United States hesitate to reassert that power by a small outlay which

Page 5

will enable her to bid defiance as a cotton producer to the whole world combined from the unequal yield of the cotton soils of the Mississippi—Yazoo?

Federal fosterage may be made to whiten the Yazoo—Mississippi wastes with a crop of cotton equal to ~~thou~~three million of bales. And while this would represent an accession to the National wealth of at present rates a gold income of two hundred and fifty million of dollars, it would open an immense demand for the breadstuffs, the fabrics, the machinery, the agricultural implements of the great States bud-ding into [?] on the Missouri, the Upper Mis-sissippi, and the Ohio. And cheapening those great civilizers, the cotton-shirt, and the calico dress, it will create the wealth ~~the~~^and^ prosperity of the hives of free-labor that are destined before long to con-stitute centers of demand for the produce of the farmers, when manufacturing cities shall have been called into life at those points in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, when raw-cotton shall have first come into contact with mineral coal.

In reference then to the pursuant interests of the States on the Ohio, the Upper Mississippi, and the Missouri the grant to the lives of Mississippi will bring a demand for their pro-ducts to their very door. In reference to the immediate future interests of those states, the pro-gress of events which promises to deposit the cot-

Page 6

cotton of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta for refinement on the nearest coal—fields will have given those states on the great rivers of the west before many decades, large accessions to their wealth—in the presence of several manufacturing cities. And in referece to the overthrow of the combination which arises from Europe a deadly blow at the cotton—Supremacy that has been a power in our diplomacy and the grand factor in our commerce the contribution sought by the memorial which I enclose, for the planting of our cotton-supremacy, upon the invicible productioness that may be placed at our service behind the lives of the delta of the Yazoo, will constitute a grant made in the intent of, not only the states in Ohio. Upper Mississippi & Missouri, but in the interests of any state of^in^ the Union concerned in the maintenance of our power and the restoration of our ~~superio~~^prosper^ ~~rity~~^=ity^.

Asking you, gentlemen, to bring the whole influence of your delegation to bear in support of the prayer of the enclosed memorial, I have the honor to be

Very Respectfully &c
~~Your obt svt~~

J.L. Alcorn
Govr. of Miss

Hon A Ames &
" H R Revels U.S. Senators
& the Honorable