present paper blockade continue for a few years, and cotton rule at the present New York prices of 22 cents, or even at 15 cents, our political dreamers may wake and find the cotton sceptre, if not entirely lost to our hold, at least divided in our hand.
"Every one can see that in case the supply of American cotton to foreign markets be materially interfered with, the effect will be to enhance the value of other cotton. You will not only stimulate those already engaged in the cultivation of cotton abroad to increased production, but you tempt their neighbours into the fields, and induce others successfully to bring lands under cotton cultivation which, but for such encouragement, would never have been thought of. Our cotton interests cannot be tampered with without danger. . . .
"Suppose England and France do not choose for a few months to come to break this paper blockade, which we have not the naval strength to force, paper though it be, does it follow that that blockade, weak and ineffectual as, up to this time, it has notoriously been, will continue so until those nations get ready to act?
"The amount appropriated for the Lincoln navy during the current year is upwards of $40,000,000. . . . We cannot, either with cotton or with all the agricultural staples of the Confederacy put together, adopt any course which will make cotton and trade stand us as a nation in the stead of a navy. . . .
"With two or three millions judiciously expended, it is possible for us to put afloat, in a little while, a navy that will give us the command of our own water. . . .
". . . . In our present circumstances, the navy which we most require is for smooth water and shallow places. Such a one, consisting of small vessels, can be quickly and cheaply built, and, for the most part, will not be required to keep the sea but for a few days at a time.
