Miscellanies [pp. 550-560]

COTTON BALED WITH IRON HOOPS.
viso; in Felburary, the State of' New York; in the same month, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, New Jersey, and New Hampshire; Michigan claims the extension of the
ordinance, prohibiting slavery north-west of the Ohio; in August, 1847, Maine
adopted similar resolutions; Massachusetts, March 1.
Resolv,cd tinnaeimoitsly, That the Legislature of Massachusetts views the exist ence of human slavery within the limits of the United States as a great calamity,
and immense moral and political evil, which ought to be abolished as soon as
that end can be properly and constitutionally attained;'and that its extension
should be uniformly and earnestly opposed by all good and patriotic men through out the Union.
RESOLUTIONS OF TIlE STATE OP VIRGINIA.
Resolved, That the Government of the United States has no control, directly or
indirectly, mediately or immediately, over the Institution of Slavery, and that in
taking any such control it transcends the limits of its legitimate functions by de stroying the internal organization of the sovereignties which formed it.
R!solved, That under no circumstances will this body recognize as binding any
enactment of the Federal Government. which has for its object the prohibition of
Slavery in any Territory to be acquired either by conqluest or treaty, south of the
line of the Missouri compromise, holding it to be the natural and independent
right of each citizen of each and every State of the confiederacy, to reside with
his property, of whatever description, in any Territory which may be acquired by
the arms of thie United States or yielded by treaty with any foreign power.
Jesot'ed,', That this Assembly holds it to be the duty of every man in every
section of this confetderacy, itf the Union is dear to him, to oppose the passage otf
any law, for whatever purpose, by which Territory to be acquired may be subject
to such a restriction.
Resoleld, That the passage of the Wilmot Proviso by the House of Representatives of the United States makes it the duty of every slaveholding State and the
citizens thereof as they value their dearest privileges, their independence and their
rights of property, to take firm, united, and concerted action in this emergency.
5. COTTON BALED IVITH IRON HOOPS.
BURTAU, LOUNDES Co., ALA.
J. D. B. Ds Bow, Esq.,
Thie subjoined letter, written, I have no doubt, in a spirit of perfect candor, and
intended fairly and in good faith by the writer, to present a true statement of the
relative advantages of rope and iron hoops in the packing of cotton, nevertheless
contains objections to the use of the latter article, which I conceive so untenable,
that I send the letter to you for publication; hoping it may arrest the attention of
R. Abbey, Esq., of Mississippi, or some one else practically acquainted with the
subject, and elicit a rep'ly.
As they are the objections not of the writer of the letter, but of that entire cornmmunity of cotton sellers and buyers of Mobile, who control the preparation for
market of so larg.e a portion of the Southern crop, I hope Mr. Abbey, whose
valuable article iln your January number, contains so many good reasons for preferring the hoop iron, will not think themn undeserving a reply. With several
neswly invented, and, as I believe, improved cotton presses, just coming into use,
we can certainly pack our bales within a square of 2,2 inches, and if we can persuade our mercantile friends in Mobile, that there is no good reason why bales
thus packed, and kep-)t in their sqtar7e fint by the n?eclastic ir'7& ho,p, should be "u nmo c.'ront "bl-"-we can certainly avoid the onerous tax of repacking them in
Mobile-ebut as long as we use the hemp rope, which by stretching, allows our
hales to lose their compact square shape, and to become enlarged and flattened,
so as not to pack close on shipboard, we must submit to the tax of repacking.
AN ALABAMA SUBI3scRIBER.
MOBILE, SEPT. 8, 1847.
DE.,R SIR:
Your favor of 29th ult., is before us, and contents have had our attention. Cot.
ton compressed is only reduced in depth, and the average is about one-third less
than the bale before being compressed. A large light bale will be reduced more
than a smaller one of the same weight. The presses run them down to nearly
55S