THE SOUTHERN COTTON BURNERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 553, 5 July 1862, Page 8

THE SOUTHERN COTTON BURNERS.

The Richmond Examiner of February 28 reports a meeting of planters in that city, held on the previous evening, to con&ider the report of a committee of their number. Resolutions were reported, declaring it to be the imperative duty of the Government of the Confederacy to purchase the whole crops of cotton and tobacco on hand, in order to effect their destruction by fire. The Hon. Mr. Marshall made a speech, in which he enlarged on the great straits to wliidi the Confederate cause had been brought. He said: —

" We live in a world where it is really the question 'To be or not to b-:?' We are in the midst of a bloo iy war. We hav3 to contend against gruit odds. We have been driven by the blockade to many strange expedients. Men have seized pikes ami lances, for want of proper arm:;, to defend their wives and daughters anil mothers. Hitherto the authorities who have had our destiny in charge seem not to have been awake to the exigency of tlie time«. We have raised the Merriiniu 1 , and clad her in a jacket of iron. Why have we not many such yes els?"

After exhorting his au.iieucc to fortitude, he said: —

"We come to the cotton question. The last crop is actually rotting unbaled. We have been taught to believe that England und France were dependent on this st iple, and that they would come and get it. Why do they not come ? I have begun to doubt whether there arc such countries as Franc*? and England. The enemy found cotton at Ship Island ; some, it is true, they found in flames, but not enough of it. At Florence they went up and to-)k an inconsiderable quantity. No one seemed to think of setting lire to it. "At Nashville they will perhaps get 50,000 b'lles, a;'.d the owners, to save their property, Will have to swear allegiance to that miserable tyrant Abe. Lincoln. And presently they w.il descend t'.iu Mississippi with porhap-s fifty guubo.its, and compel the negroes to load them wiih cotton, and send it to E.irope, and sny, We have opened a cotton port, there is the evident. I want us to do something manly — something grand. I want the Confederate Government to buy all the cotton, and. if mod be, des-tioy it. If one of those pillars which support this temple were cotton, and the other tobacco, and England, France, Ku-bia, and the United State.-* of America, and ourselves depende I on them for existence, and it were ncccaI sarv, I would, Samson-like, drag them down, and in ! one universal ruin overwhelm civilsation. Suppose, as these resolutions propose, the Government buys the cotton and toba 'co crops, it is not to be expected tint it will soon be able to pay for them. liar ishipa will ! c the consequent.: Gre at numbers vill i-uf.er. A tax will have to be imposed. I will suppose that half of the cotton nml tobacco crop lias been burned. My cotton lu;s been burned, and I have received seven cents, a pound from the Government, while my neighbor's, whoso ha< not b'.-cn burnt, has been enhanced double in value. His small crop ofeott* n would ba a fortune, yet who among us would hesitate to apply the torch is it, sooner than it shonld fall into tho hiii.lsof the enemy? Ij«i% suppose the Government were to bay the whole crop, ami deti-rmine to bum it — as I want them to (1 > — that the world may see thar thia little republic, as they may choose to consider us, cm strike a Mow that will said consternation through the world, while t'»ey are talking about conquering the rcpublc and hanging the President I want the Go^c-inmcr.t to come forward and say, " Here is the mi-ney for 4,000.000 hales of cotton," an-l giw it to her Commissioners, und say, " Burn i\" I want the G.VL-inment to go in seal ch of the c itton, instead of leaving it to be capiureJ by iro-'-'hd steamers. Thj Government have 2,000,000 bales as a. finauuiil mcisurCc

" There are sonic gentlemen present who raise as much ns ibur tliousnndi bales of cotton, and who say they will thein^-lves burn it, indemnity or not, rather than • lie Yankees shall get possession of it. We shall rain our own interest by letting this crop lie here, and put another crop upon it.

Cotton, instfad of being 10 cents., will not command more thin three cents. Suppose the blockade were opened now, we could not get it to

market by August. The boats which used to transport our cotton are engaged in making war upon us, and somo of them have got well peppered at Fort Donnelson. They are to-day planting cotton in Texas, and next week they will begin to plant further north, i needn't enlarge on this to planters. It is evident to them that there will be two crops on the market before next January. Some will say, we will force England to go to India for cotton. I will say to her, Go! England has spent £350,000,000, and gotten Louisiana planters to go to those distant countries, and has been obliged to give it up as a forlorn hope. But suppose England finds other cotton fields, I'd like to know if we can't find other spinners for our crops, and be for ever independent of her. To the west of us are two little countries — China and Japan. In China, they desire to put all their lands in tea, but they fear to discontinue the raising of cotton. If t ey could get cotton elsewhere, tliey would put ah the land in tea. Well, then, the best spinners and weavers in China can be hired for nine cents a day, and we can get them to spin and weave our cotton long before England can find other cottoa fields. China and Japan are not so distant from us as were we from England when Whitney put

the fir3t cotton-gin in operation in Savannah."

Governor Moore, of Kentucky, being called on, then addressed the meeting in a speech advocating the resolutions, which elicited much applause.

On the motion of Mr. Edmond Il'iffin, the resolutions were then put to the meeting and unanimously a lopted.