King Cotton? No, Says This Confederate’s Letter

At the outset of the Civil War, Southern hopes for victory rested upon the strength of its people, valor of its soldiers, and skill of its leaders, both political and military. The Confederacy also clung to the belief that foreign intervention would come to its aid, either through a diplomatic crisis (as almost happened between the Union and Great Britain in the Trent Affair), or because Europe—and, especially, England—would break the Union blockade to keep the flow of Southern cotton heading across the Atlantic. “Cotton is king!” the Confederacy cried, and many believed it.

Many—but not all. This Confederate took a shrewd, levelheaded look at the war and state of affairs in the Southern countryside, and came to a different conclusion. His letter to the editor was published by the Macon Daily Telegraph (Macon, Georgia) on Feb. 27, 1862:

Cotton Is King and Will Subjugate the South

Mr. Clisby: I believe it is proper at this time of peril with our beloved country that every man, woman and child should lay their shoulder to the wheel and afford all the aid possible. There has much been published through your excellent paper upon the subject of planting a crop of cotton the present year, and as the success of our arms, and the freedom and independence of our country greatly depend upon the crop that will be planted in the course of a few weeks, I wish to give my feeble aid in making a fair statement, hoping thereby to help the farmer to come to a correct conclusion upon the subject. The question stands thus: If an average crop of cotton is planted in the South, we will be subjugated by the North. If no cotton is planted, and corn and meat is produced in great abundance, not Lincoln with his hellish host can conquer so brave a people as compose the Southern Confederacy. The Gulf States must raise provisions or we shall be whipped. Let us look honestly and fairly at the condition of things: Tennessee can’t more than make a supply for her home consumption the present year, Kentucky can’t possibly make her food with the great army drifting over her bosom. Missouri is in a worse condition. North Carolina cannot make a support. Virginia is in as bad a condition as she can be, all her most productive land lies on her water courses, and is, and must be for some time to come, the campground of two great armies. In fact, South Carolina will make but little rice, and it will take her best to make a support.

The small planters in the South have supplied the cities and towns with provisions, and, at least, two-thirds of the small planters are in our army. The farmer must be blind to his own interest, and the welfare of his country, that will plant more cotton than to keep in seed. If they make cotton, it is now a fixed fact, they will find no market for it. The delusion of foreign intervention, so far as to lift the blockade, has now vanished, and when it is broken up, the brave volunteers of the South will have the honor of doing it, and before they can succeed several more crops will have been planted. If cotton is planted, where is the planter to get bagging and rope to pack it in? It can’t be purchased at any price. So long as the war lasts, there will be a good cash market for provisions, and it will be after the present time impossible to sell enough cotton to pay taxes. Farmers of the South awake to your danger, and rally to the support of your bleeding country. If you plant cotton we must be the slaves of your slaves and Lincoln. If you plant grain and produce provisions, we may expect the help of God and we shall be free and independent, yes, the greatest, the most prosperous, and happy of all the nations upon the earth.

—T.M.
Cuthbert, February 24th, 1862.

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