South Carolina compelled the resignation of the United States Collector at Charleston, and made the harbor unsafe for vessels from abroad; consequently the trade of that port is transferred to Savannah. The Secession mob in Alabama compelled the resignation of the Collector of Mobile, consequently, in the midst of the cotton shipping season, they have no way of issuing clearances to vessels, insurance policies will not hold, and shipments will probably have to stop. The Secession of Louisiana and the blockade of the river by Mississippi have turned the shipments of cotton up-stream through the Northern States and Canada, and about doubled the usual margin on the price of provisions and their supplies, which they nave to purchase in the North.
We are in the habit of talking of the navigation of the Lower Mississippi as something that we will have; and the New Orleans people talk as if they controlled it and could dictate their own terms; but we can take care of our end of the river if they can of theirs. The more impediments they throw in the way of navigation at their end, the more Southern produce will be carried by Northern routes, and the higher price they will pay for Northern provisions. Even the Insecurity of navigation which they have already created is sufficient, by the increase in the rate of insurance alone, to turn the scale and send shipments from the banks of the Mississippi by Northern route.
New Orleans may sink vessels in the channel over the bar, and block up her harbor, and turn her city into a place for alligators, but it would make no perceptible pause in the progress of the North-west. Her tampering with the navigation of the river is just about as sensible as it would be for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to stop Ohio freight, and drive it all to Northern routes. New Orleans talks of having the key of the Mississippi, but she may have to amuse herself by turning it in the rusty lock of an empty stable after the mare has gone by some other door.
Cincinnati Daily Press