Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/76

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS nected, more or less, with the extension of slavery. If we look back to the history of the commerce of this country in the early years of this government, what were our exports? Cot- ton 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. Mr. President, in the excited times in which we live, there is found to exist a state of crimina- tion and recrimination between the North and South. There are lists of grievances produced by each ; and those grievances, real or supposed, alienate the minds of one portion of the country from the other, exasperate the feelings, and sub- due the sense of fraternal affection, patriotic love, and mutual regard. I shall bestow a little attention, sir, upon these various grievances existing on the one side and on the other. I begin with complaints of the South. I will not answer, 66