The South and the Union, Part V [pp. 681-690]

DE BOW'S REVIEW:
JUNE, 1855.
LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS JOURNAL.
THE SOUTHI AND THE UNION.
THE UNION, PAST AND PRESENT-HoWV IT WORKS, AND HlOW TO SAVE IT.
[Continued.]
A large extent of sea coast not only improves the climate,
but greatly increases the facilities of commerce. This was
one of the chief physical causes of the early prosperity of the
nations on the Mediterranean, especially in the peninsulas of
Italy and Greece, and it has been no small element of England's power. The southern States are eminently favored in
this way. Their coast-line on the Atlantic and the Gulf is
7,033 miles, while the northern States have only 3,295. But,
to appreciate the full advantage of the south, we must include
the islands and the rivers, to the head of tide-water, which
make her whole navigable coast-line 22,701 miles, while the
northern is but 6,675. The very compact shape of the southern States make this great line of navigation available to nearly
the whole country, while the reverse is the case at the north.
The slaveholding States have an equal superiority in the extent of the steam navigation on the western rivers. The 1,000
miles of the Ohio may be considered common to the two sections, and so may the 2,000 miles of the Mississippi, though
1,230 of these lie exclusively in the south, while some 300
more divide Missouri from Illinois, and little over 400 are
wholly in the free States. There are 2,655 miles of steam
navigation on the Missouri and its tributaries, the most valuable
part of which lies in a slave State; and, as the whole debouches at St. Louis, that city commands all its commerce.
On the other tributaries of the great "father of waters," as
wvell as of the Ohio, there are 5,029 miles of steam navigation