Bank of the Republic,
New York, March 28th, 1861.
Dr. Sir: If Cotton is King, the King must command peace; for peace is essential to your prosperity. And Cotton is King—he commands not only all, all the mills and manufactures of Old and New England, France and Europe, but the allegiance of your own citizens, the interest and sinking fund for your Loan, and all the shipping, large and small, of the states.
If the North make war on the Confederacy their ships could not go South for freights—and that important arm, paying this year 20 and 30 pct. profit, not less than 60 million dollars this year, will be hors du profit, for excluded from cotton, rice, sugar and tobacco freights, their competition for the breadstuffs and provisions would so reduce their freights that they could not pay seamen’s wages. But though cotton is so very great it must not forget that its power is confined to Southern soil and under Southern control. Once exported to any other location, it is as Samson’s locks shorn of its power. Therefore wise legislation will look forward and provide all the means to give force and effect to its action.
Would you command peace with N. England and New York? Make a law that no ship belonging to any citizen of those regions shall be allowed to enter a Southern port on pain of forfeiture if the States in which they are owned contribute in any way directly or indirectly to sustain hostilities in any way against the Southern Confederacy; and to prevent changing the ownership, as they would gladly do, make the law have reference to the ownership of 1st Nov. 1860, enrolment and register, no matter by whom owned. Let it apply to the votes of their Representatives in Congress, and not one of them will vote for war. They are as sensitive as to money as Great Britain is, and would cut the throats of all the negroes rather than leave a ship in jeopardy.
But free trade is your trump card as well as the just and equal mode of taxation, and not only so but the cheapest. Take your own bill of taxation in Georgia. It produces at 6¢ on the 100$—450,000$. Put it 10 times as much, and it will produce $4,500,000. But suppose she had to pay $9,000,000, or two pr. ct. That is but little more than is paid in New York, and if Georgia pay 9 millions and the other states in proportion there would be abundant income and the collection would be less than 5 pct. on the amt. Under the impost system it would be 25 and 30 p. ct. on the amt. And Free Trade will be like Cotton, it will command the “good will” of all America and all Europe and cause them to cultivate your amity. If N. England attempt any injurious action, put a tax on the intercourse with them and they will succumb as readily as Gt. Britain will on the cotton question.
The two confederacies, established and moving on, will be constantly competing for the commerce of the world, and at home too. They will lower their duties to rival each other till they come to free trade as the finale; and therefore it is only a question of time, and now is the time for the Confederate States to reap the full harvest of the measure.
The Constitution ought to be submitted to the votes of the people— not that there is any doubt as to ratification but to clinch the people for their support hereafter, when things change and the burdens become onerous. And it will convince friends and foes at the North that it is the will of the people and not the action of politicians. It would effectually silence the radical section of the Republicans who advocate entire submission in everything to the people, and who advocate the freedom of Italy, Hungary, etc., and it would convince the world that the people made the new government, and they would then regard it as permanent and well founded.
You have never said any thing relative to the right of suffrage being restricted. That is a most important consideration, for the tide of emigration will be such from the North to South that within two years the new comers South will hold the balance of power and control your government and perhaps vote you back into the Union. I think judges should not be elective, nor negroes allowed suffrage, nor tenures of office be too short. And there should be qualifications for Senators, to distinguish their office from Representatives. And Electors should be appointed by the Legislature.
If the few manufacturers in the South cannot stand free trade let them go at something else, and pay them for their investments, rather than lose free trade. Free trade and cotton will carry the Confederacy beyond all precedent in the world if properly managed.
I think the emigration from this city alone will be 20,000 before 1 Nov. to the South. That will cause an advance in property, and that enhancement of property will reduce the rate of taxation—or increase the amount.
There should be a tax on property, on polls and on income, and thus compounded it would be moderate and tolerable, and the unbounded prosperity it would insure to all classes would redound to the credit of secession, and free trade after three years will take care of itself with the people and the world. But free trade will compel New York to leave New England and join the South or make another confederacy. It will give power to the South at the expense of the North. Every man and every dollar that leaves New York for the South reduces N. Y. and strengthens the South. New York when she loses more than her natural increase will decline, rents will be lower, livings reduced, and adversity succeed to her great prosperity—and the latter will have gone South.
From Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911.
Gazaway Bugg Lamar (1798-1874) was an American merchant in cotton and shipping in Savannah, Georgia, and a steamboat pioneer. He was the first to use a prefabricated iron steamboat on local rivers, which was a commercial success. In 1846 he moved to New York City for business, where in 1850 he founded the Bank of the Republic on Wall Street and served as its president. He served both Southern businesses and state governments. After the start of the American Civil War, Lamar returned to Savannah, where he became active in banking and supporting the war effort in several ways. With associates, he founded the Importing and Exporting Company of Georgia, which operated blockade runners.
Lamar and Cobb were cousins by marriage.
Howell Cobb was an American political figure. A southern Democrat, Cobb was a five-term member of the United States House of Representatives and Speaker of the House from 1849 to 1851. He also served as the 40th Governor of Georgia and as a Secretary of the Treasury under President James Buchanan. Cobb is, however, probably best known as one of the founders of the Confederacy, having served as the President of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States.