the Father of the growth of cotton in America. It was his constant theme; there was an enthusiasm on this subject, that those inferior beings who were unacquainted with his sources of vision, were astonished at. His views reached into future prospects; he saw, in vision, from his enlarged principles and his correct calculations, what we now see in reality:-America increasing the number of her states; the federal government, loaded with surplus funds in the treasury; immense cities rising in every direction; peace and abundance enjoyed in the wide extended empire, and each department of enterprise, manifesting that each is beneficial to the other, and that the prosperity of agriculture adds to the increase of both manufactures and commerce. Legitimate objects of commerce are to transport the surplus produce of agriculture, and manufactured productions, to such parts of the world as present a market, and to bring back such articles as cannot be produced at home. "Until the revolution in the cultivation of cotton, by which it was converted, through the strenuous excitements of the friend of manufactures, from a petty object in little fields and gardens, into an extensive cultivation among the planters and farmers, there was no redundant raw material for the manufacture of cloths and stuffs, for apparel and furniture, in the United States. There is at this time no other redundant raw material. The green seed cotton was the best adapted to the general quality and situation, and to the climate of the southern states. But its cultivation, though perfectly pleasant and easy, was very much restrained by the extraordinary difficulty of separating it from the seeds. This operation required so much manual industry as greatly to impede the manufacture; and, of course, for the time, to prevent an extensive cultivation. In the year 1793 the invaluable saw gin was invented by a citizen of the United States, Mr. Whitney, and was so improved and perfected as to render it easy to separate the seed from one hundred millions of pounds weight of cotton wool, by the employment of three or four hundred persons; although it is alleged that it would require three hundred thousand persons to effect the same by hand. Mr. Whitney states the difference between its operation in common hands, and the ordinary manual operation, at one thousand to one. By the employment of this machinery, every vicinity can easily and expeditiously prepare its cotton for the manufacturing cards, and that in the aggregate, to any extent that the world could require, were it to clothe itself entirely in cotton manufactures. Thus has there been added, by our own invention, to the machinery, to facilitate the manufacture of a staple production of our soil, a single improvement, moveable by water, steam, cattle, or hand; which has let loose those immense powers of agriculture to produce cotton wool, that were before declined." The above remarks of Tench Coxe are only specimens of those enlightened and enlarged ideas which were original with him; and as he knew them to be based upon unchangeable maxims, he indulged the discussion of them with an ardour and impetuosity of feeling, chastened with profound reasoning, that silenced those whose severity of feeling prevented their sound conviction. He never rested till the work was completed, and he lived to see the American staple preferred in the cotton markets, before the growth of any other country in the world. It has been proved, indubitably, that the adaptation of climate and soil was as decided as he declared it to be, before a bale of cotton had been shipped from Charleston.* Tench Coxe appears to have inherited the talents and enterprise and even the peculiar turn of mind of his paternal grandfather, the first proprietor of Carolina, who in 1698, wrote of the natural capabilities of the south :†-" Cochineal is a commodity of * The increase of the new staple is insured by the triumph of science and truth; while the decay of the old is manifest, by the perversity of error and despotism. The former will be extended in its influence, while the latter will be confined within its contracted sphere. If the "wool-sack" was a significant seat for the Chancellor of the British Peers, to remind him of what was the great staple of the empire, the “cotton bag," the staple of the new world, may well be held in equal remembrance by the legislators of the Union. Every member ought to wear it, as the girdle of his loins, emblematical of the bulwark of the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial interests of the United Republics: every officer of the government should be clad in the productions of this superabundant article, from the crowns of their heads to the soles of their feet: and every citizen should be enrobed with it in life, and shrouded in it in death. It was protected, in its infancy, by the administration of Washington, and it has proved, in its youth, the defence of the "beauty and booty" of every section of the country. † The American branch of the family of CoxE.-The first ancestor of the Coxe family connected with America was Dr. Daniel Coxe, who was physician to the queen of Charles II., King of England, and also to Queen Anne. He was the principal proprietor of the soil of West Jersey, and sole proprietor of the government, he having held the office of governor, to him and his for ever. At the request of Queen Anne he surrendered the govern ment to the crown retaining the other proprietory rights.† A member of the Coxe family was always appointed by the crown, while there was a resident member in the province, a member of the royal council of New Jersey until + This document is extant in an old folio edition of Laws of New Jersey, which I saw some years since. 359 great value, very necessary as the world goes, and costs England great sums of money, which may all be saved, there being in the province sufficieut to furnish both us and our neighbours. "Silk is a commodity of great use in England for many manufactures, it being imported from France, Italy, Sicily, Turkey and the East Indies; and there is no foreign commodity which exhausts more of our treasure. This province abounds with forests of mulberry trees, both white and red; a considerable quantity of silk may be here produced. It hath been tried in South Carolina, by Sir Nathaniel Johnson and others, and might be turned to great account. I would advise an imitation of the Chinese, who sow the mulberry seeds as we do pot-herbs, and to mow those of one year's growth for the young silk worms, the leaves being short and tender, fit food for them when first hatched; and the second for them when in their infancy; when grown strong they may be supplied with leaves from the trees, which method secures them from disease, which they are liable to when fed, from the beginning, with great rank leaves. "Hemp and flax are very common in this country; sufficient to supply the British market. Besides we have a silk grass, which makes very pretty stuffs, such as comes from the East Indies, the revolution. (See Smith's History of New Jersey for an account of this gentleman, called the great proprietor, &c,: also of his son Colonel Daniel Coxe, the first ancestor who resided in America.) Dr. Coxe was also sole proprietor of the extensive province of Carolana,* an account of which is extant, in an octavo volume, written by his son, Colonel Daniel Coxe, called the "History of Carolana;" a copy of which will be found in the library of congress, the Philadelphia library, and the Athenæum of Philadelphia. Colonel Coxe intermarried with Sarah, the only child of John Eckley, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and left issue: among others, William Coxe, who married Mary, the daughter of Tench Francis, Attorney General of the province of Pennsylvania. Tench Coxe was the son of this William and Mary Coxe, and was born in Philadelphia, 22d May, 1755, and died 17th July, 1824. The charter was, in the extent of territory and powers, the most extensive ever granted by the crown to a subject, &c.: the family was, therefore, obliged to release it to the crown in consideration of a mandamus of the king conferring 100,000 acres of land in New York. Dr. Coxe was also a large proprietor in Pennsylvania, and nearly all the American provinces. To his eldest son, Colonel Daniel Coxe, he gave all his American possessions, and this gentleman was the first of the family who resided in America. He arrived in America in 1709. (See Smith's History of New Jersey. * Carolana.—This was the original name, and ought to have been so spelled in the previous mention of the province. which they call herba stuffs, whereof a garment was made for Queen Elizabeth, whose ingredient came from Sir Walter Raleigh's colony, by him called Virginia, now North Carolina, a part of this province, which, to encourage colonies and plantations, she was pleased to wear for divers weeks. Excellent timber, turpentine, and every thing suitable for building ships. Iron, potash, materials for dyeing, such as logwood, campeachy wood, and many others, fusticks, &c. A valuable shrub called quassia, drank as a tea. Saltpetre, copper in abundance, lead in great quantities, with various metals and minerals, including both gold and silver.”* DIFFERENT GROWTHS OF COTTON.-FROM BAINES. Cotton is now so extensively manufactured into a great variety of different qualities of cloth, that a short account of the various descriptions imported into the British market, with a few remarks "The plant of which indico is made, is very frequent in most of the southern parts of this country, and may possibly produce better than that made in our islands of Jamaica, &c. This province being in the same latitude with Agra and Byana, territories in the great mogul's country, whose indico is accounted the best of its kind in the world, and is double the price of ours. It is easily made, and the Indians may be assisting to us herein, if we think fit to undertake it. Besides, if we believe that judicious natural historian Hernando, there is in Mexico, and consequently here (being much the same climate) a plant or little shrub, which produces an indico abundantly more noble, and the colour more lively, than that which is the common indico. This the Spaniards call Azul, as being like Ultramarine. "Ambergris or grey amber, is often found upon this coast from the cape of Florida to Mexico, which is of great value. The best, (for there are divers sorts,) is of equal worth to its weight in gold. This is agreed upon by the learned, to be a bitumen or naptha, which comes from certain springs or fountains, that empty themselves into the sea, and is coagulated by the salt water, as succinum commonly called amber, from another sort of bitumen or naptha, and in storms cast upon the coast. The same ambergris is also found upon the east side of the cape or peninsula of Florida, the Bahama islands, in the East Indies, and Brazil, and sometimes great lumps, even upon the coast of Cornwall and Ireland. And among others, I have read of a piece weighing eighty pounds, cast upon the coast of Cornwall, in the reign of King Charles I., which was bigger, till diminished by the countryman who found it, by greasing his cart wheels and boots, but discovered accidentally by an intelligent gentleman, who, riding by one of his carts, and perceiving a very grateful smell, enquired of the man whence it proceeded; he told him he had found a nasty grease upon the shore, which he hoped would have saved him the expense of kitchen stuff and tar for carts, harness, and boots, but it was of so poisonous a smell, that they were not able to endure it. The gentleman desiring to see the remainder, found it what he expected, purchased it at a very easy rate, presented it unto the queen, and was requited in places or employments far beyond the value of it.-Coxe's Carolana. upon their qualities,-the estimation in which they are generally held by manufacturers,-the countries where they are cultivated, &c., may, perhaps, not be uninteresting to managers, carding and spinning masters, and to those interested in its manufacture.* Cotton is generally distinguished by its colour, and the length, strength, and fineness of its fibres. There are many varieties of * Mr. Woodbury's letter on the culture and manufacture of cotton, is a bright exposition of the present state of the business; it transcends all possible conceptions of those who first conceived the project of raising cotton in the United States. Tench Coxe was ardent and sanguinary in his hopes and prospects on this subject, but he lived to see his expectations more than realised; we have lived to see what appeared incredible twenty years ago. America, who imported all her cotton for manufacture in 1791, at the present time raises and exports more than all the world besides; and the manufacturing nations of Europe are absolutely dependent on America for this staple. Not only is the business capable of an immense increase, but of important improvements; a finer article can be produced, such as will demand in Great Britain one dollar per pound. The nankeen cotton can be raised of a finer fibre than in China; and a fabric of the nankeen yarn, mixed with silk, can be manufactured superior to any thing of the kind that has ever yet appeared either in Asia or Europe. This new article is worthy of the nicest attention, and I must press the subject, both on the growers of cotton, and the manufacturer, to cherish its cultivation and its use; an article which will be purely American, and which cannot be superseded in Europe for want of the raw material; nor in China, because they are destitute of machinery. The immense amount of capital invested in the growth and manufacture of cotton, and the number of people employed in the business, renders it a subject of great importance. It must proceed and it must increase, and measures must be adopted to regulate the system, consistent with freedom and good morals. We cannot neglect this with impunity; and the whole community are interested in the course to be adopted and pursued, in relation to this business. Industry and talent must be called into exercise to promote the best possible order in the establishments and plantations, such as shall be satisfactory to the parties concerned; for there must be no variance, no discord, in an operation in which all are interested, and in which the prosperity of the whole of America is deeply involved. Mr. Woodbury's letter has made a great impression; sixteen thousand copies have been published by congress; and I presume few persons were aware of the rapid and unparalleled increase of the exportation of cotton in the short space of twenty years. The number of persons employed, both in the culture and manufacture of cotton, calls for the consideration of the wise and good, of the various communities concerned; and instead of recriminating each other, let both exert themselves to remove whatever positive evils exist. The labour necessary for the culture of cotton, is attended with less danger of affecting the health of the labourers, than either the culture of rice or tobacco; the cotton plantations therefore produce an amelioration of the condition of those employed; it is better than sugar, or any other article raised in southern climates; and hopes may be raised, on those con |