Foreign Emigration-Correspondence of Cass and Ellauri. 249 for those portions of the New World tween Senor Ellauri, the Oriental minisfurnish no incentives to anarchy, while ter, and General Cass, our minister at they offer every reward for honest labor. Paris, in which the former, in accordNor is it true that because they are often ance with special instructions and elements of anarchy at home, under the powers which he had received for that pressure of want and idleness, their con- purpose, offers to make a treaty of friendduct will be the same where no such ship, commerce, and navigation with pressure exists. On the contrary, I am the United States. This, be it remarked, satisfied that, as they have already pre- was in a time of profound peace for the served, so they will contribute to increase, Banda-Oriental, and whilst General the element of civilization in South Rosas was engaged in subduing the America; and I am equally convinced upper Argentine provinces. General that they must absorb, in a few genera- Cass states his want of instructions, and tions, the two or three millions of natives, who, proud and disdainful, with few exceptions, refuse to learn from others, and have no idea of advancing themselves. Thus, under proper management, we may expect to see a new nation truly republican, rising up on the shores of the La Plata, within a few years, founded upon the débris of liberty in the Old World, and without containing in its elements the only plague-spot to be found upon our own incomparable body politic. applies to his government. His government-that is, the government of the United States-answers him, and he replies to the Oriental minister, under date of March 5th, 1842: "I have been instructed to inform you that, although the United States are desirous to extend and improve commercial and friendly relations with the governments of the Western Hemisphere, and to place them under the high sanction of conventional stipulations; yet, under existing circumstances, and particularly while war continues between the Argentine Republic and your Government, and while that region is in an unsettled and unquiet state, the moment does not seem favorable to the development of its resources, nor to the formation of new diplomatic relations with other countries. The President of the United States, therefore, thinks it necessary to defer, to a more favorable opportunity, the further expression of his amicable disposition towards the Oriental Republic, and the negotiations for the regulation of its intercourse with the United States." That the people and government of the United States may be properly represented in the future of these magnificent countries, now that they have the opportunity of so doing, they should move the first and foremost in the matter. The order of Providence seems to have constituted us the protector and teacher of the other parts of our hemisphere; and it is a duty which we have hitherto but poorly performed. Again, it is the evident policy of our government to protect all small states from the encroachments of their more powerful neighbors, as far as they can do so by diplomatic action; and the more especially, when they desire it themselves, as in the case of Paraguay and Monte-Video. In reference to this latter state, I have said nothing. But to make more evident still the great supineness of some of our past administrations, I will state that Monte-Video has always been the last refuge of civilization, and the only constant upholder of constitutional government on the shores of the La Plata. Yet, although such has Thus, then, we have seen that the been her character, as I am amply able Banda-Oriental sought our connection in to prove, she has never met with any no- 1842; Paraguay, in 1843-both of which tice or favor from us; but the contrary. states have been treated with complete inI have now among my papers some re- difference. For this we owe them at cords, procured from the files of the least some reparation; and to call the Oriental Legation at Paris during my attention and speculation of all persons late visit there, and which cannot be to beautiful and fertile South America, untrue. They are a correspondence, it is only necessary for the government under date of December 14, 1841, be- of the United States to give to these In a letter to me, of October 30, 1851, Señor Ellauri says, "I ought to make you notice, a very especial circumstance it is, that the only nation with which my government has taken the initiative to invite them to celebrate treaties of friendship, commerce, and navigation, has been that of the United States; with all others, we ourselves have been the invited parties, even by England." steamboat in those waters would increase our exportations to these regions a million of dollars the first year, and that countries that impulse which is the indispensable element of civilization and of Christianity. With such friendly aid as it can supply, a sudden metamorpho- this amount would double every six sis will transform the face of these coun- months thereafter, for a considerable tries. The power of steam will reproduce period of time. This boat would proupon their waters the wonderful results cure the exclusive right for the navigawhich have marked its introduction tion of these waters, from Bolivia, Brazil, among ourselves, and which to our be- and Paraguay; and the company, durnighted brethren of South America ap- ing the existence of their monopoly, pear but the phantasy of a dream. If could control, in every respect, all imwe lead them to adopt those modes of ports and exports. commerce for which they have such unsurpassed yet unexplored advantages, we shall open to them a new era of grandeur and happiness, of which they cannot form as yet any adequate conception. In four days a steamboat could run up from Monte-Video to Asuncion, and in eight days to the interior of Bolivia and Brazil. A shorter time will carry the return voyager to the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, after having touched, in both trips, at the many cities and villages upon the banks, leaving in them the spirit of life and wealth, and through these the benefits of education and refinement. The time has arrived when all things tend, in the old world and in the new, to the realization of these most magnificent projects; in a word, to the opening of an entire new world to our enterprise. Why let the opportunity slip from our grasp, to be certainly seized upon, in a few months, by our only rivals, the English? The best commercial statistics fully prove what I advance. For, in 1842, when not half a dozen individuals in each port of the United States had a dollar invested in the Rio de la Plata, the American tonnage which had arrived in the port of Monte-Video for the seven previous years, amounted to 113,696 tons, and fell short of the British by only 57,586 tons. For the year 1842 a year of peace-the total of the imports and exports of Monte-Video, with only a small back country, and without any aid from Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Corrientes, or Entre-Rios, amounted to $22,558,762; of which the Americans had the third share. Thus, if under circumstances of governmental abandonment and general want of confidence we did thus much, what ought we to do now? I do not surpass probability when I say, that the appearance of an American river I have said that the attention of the English merchants is largely drawn to this important question. As far back as 1845, the South American merchants of that country petitioned the Queen to force open the navigation of the Paranà (in the same manner as their countrymen procured a trade with China); "because," said they, "in a few years its trade will be only second to that of your Majesty's East-Indian possessions." They said well; for the southern provinces of the empire of Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, and the other territories watered by the tributaries of the La Plata, offer to a legitimate commercial ambition nearly nine hundred thousand miles square of virgin lands, very much more profitably situated for commercial intercourse with the globe than the Chinese empire, owing to their superior geographical, as well as social position. În China we are obliged to struggle against a traditional policy which repels the foreigner, and against a high industrial development which rejects almost all our manufactured goods, with the exception of such as come from the national mint; besides which, the Chinese are generally short-lived, and infanticide is common among them. In South America, on the contrary, we find a fresh population, ignorant of the words economy, scarcity, because they know not want. These people, the reverse of the Chinese, expect the wants as well as they demand the benefits which civilization brings in its train. Therefore we ought not, cannot remain deaf to the appeal which they make us. Shame should hinder us from permitting the English to be considered, on any part of our own continent, as the head of civilization and all progress rather than ourselves. In vain has a third of a century passed since we conferred upon these people the blessings of national independence. In Commercial Statistics-Emigration and Steam. vain have opposing interests labored for a long time to efface the remembrance of this our noble act. In vain have our own errors come in aid of those interests which are opposed to us. The name of Henry Clay, as the champion of South American independence, still survives. among them. It is only necessary to give to this remembrance a proper tendency, and it will revivify and spread abroad; it will infuse itself into the ideas and the manners, into the material and moral wants of those people who love us, that we may become the law of their interests; for this is what their sympathies demand. 251 and investigations of scientific men, the introduction of machinery and new means of labor, together with a new spirit of energy and enterprise, will bless all persons with new discoveries of unbounded usefulness, before unknown. Thus resting upon those solid foundations which alone can give a permanent existence to liberty, a new terra firma of prosperity and peace will rapidly loom up from among the sinking billows of discord and civil war, which have so long swept in all their fury over some of the fairest regions on the face of the earth. In conclusion, I wish it to be distinctly Contrast opportunities and feelings understood, though I have made some like these, with the proportionate dislike forcible statements, and made therefrom of the snares of monarchial influences, my own deductions, that I do not desire from which they have suffered so much. to wound the prejudices or the partialiConsider, in addition, the hopeless debt ties of any person whatever. I trust and consequent oppression, in one form that I have spoken in accordance with or another, under the apprehension of the opportunities of information which I which all the nations of South America, have enjoyed, and in conformity to the except Paraguay and Chili, so heavily principles of human progress and hulabor; and our view into the future, of manity. what we ought to do and can do, becomes clear and distinct. The time for talking is over. If we do not wish to be distanced, anticipated, superseded, we must act, and act without delay. The American people seem to be very desirous at the present moment to extend the area of freedom. Some have gone to Cuba and the Sandwich Islands. Öthers would like to go to Hungary and If we follow on in the path thus open even to Moscow, notwithstanding its bad before us, emigration and steam will reputation as a winter residence for an speedily call into action those sympa- invading force. And it is only a little thies of which I just now spoke. Incom- of this spirit, differently applied, which parable instruments of peaceful revolu- I have desired to see extend itself to tion, they promise to these magnificent South America. countries the most abundant development for the happiness of the human race. Under their vigorous impulse solitudes will be peopled, inertness will become action, and the earth will yield its fruits an hundred fold. The travels NOTE. Mr. Hopkins has used, throughout his the different places therein mentioned have been memoir, the orthography of the language in which named. His reasons for declining to anglicize proper names, in reference to geography, may probably Society. be made the subject of a future paper before the ART. VIII.-COMMERCIAL GROWTH OF BOSTON. We have frequently referred in the pages of the Review to the rapid growth of Boston in all the elements of population and commercial power, and we condensed a great many of our statistics upon this subject into the volumes of Industrial Resources published by us last summer. In order that the subject may be brought down to date, we draw upon the reports of the Shipping List for many interesting particulars, in relation to the commerce of the year which closed on the 1st January, 1853. The business of the year, says the Shipping List, shows a good and healthy increase in nearly every department, and, on the whole, has been highly satisfactory. Cotton goods and boots and shoes, the leading articles of our manufacture, have been unusually active throughout the year, and the quantity taken for export and home consumption largely exceeds that of any previous it fully in force the coming year, we feel that nearly all branches of our trade will suffer in consequence. It is certainly a new kind of legislation, when the legitimate business of a large number of respectable and upright citizens is interfered with, in order to try a doubtful experiment on the morals of a few erring ones. We hope, however, that our present legislature, while promoting the cause of temperance by all wholesome restraints and laws, will deem it their duty to repeal this unjust and therefore intemperate one. year. Our Canada neighbors find us so The arrivals from foreign ports for ten years past have been as follows at Boston: 1852. 1851. 1849. 1848. Total. Ships. Barks. Brigs. Sche. .180....269....846....1,533.. 2,828 The foreign clearances for the same 1845 trader 44 1843. 1852. Totals 57. 37 period have been as follows: 98......35......166......151 1851. 1850. 1849. .159. 1848. 1846. 1845 1844. 159. 2,671 ..309....888....1,754. 3,110 .315....887....1,449....2,810 116....228....626.. .1,556....2,526 95.. .192....480....1,214....1,981 102. .207....514....1,344....2,167 92....203....520....1,166....1,981 78....149.... .477.... 883....1,587 The coastwise arrivals, and the clearances, as far as known, as many are not entered at the custom-house, for a number of years, have been as follows: 1851 1850. Although the number of vessels is less 1848. 1847. 1846. 1845. 1843. 1844. Cotton Trade-Dyewoods-Dry Goods-Coal-Provisions. 253 The exports to foreign and coastwise ports have been as follows: To Rio la Plata, &c...... Value. Packages. 36,904 11 "Rio Janeiro... 1,026... 64,181 25 4,923 58 "Africa.. 95.. 5,510 46 70,759 ....22,998.. 63,471 28,631 27 28,536. 51,574 "Fayal... 68 3,156 28 "Pacific Ocean. 29,065. 76,717 ...25,098...... 116,713 "Hayti.. "Provinces 1,631. 79,064 65 "Rio Hache.. bales....131,877 66 Mobile.... 66 42,935 .... 12,929 66 30,660 "Bermuda.. 3. 167 00 16 1851.. 239,958 COAL.-The imports of foreign coal at 198,932 this port have been as follows: 193,549 187,619 175,529 From Great Britain.. The exports from this port to foreign Total 1852. ports have been as follows: 1852 1851 1850 1849. 1848 64 1851 1850 1847 1846. |