Select the correct answer.

read the passage from “cotton is king” by james henry hammond. what is the speaker’s main argument in this excerpt?

without firing a gun, without drawing a sword, should they make war on us we could bring the whole world to our feet. the south is perfectly competent to go on, one, two, or three years without planting a seed of cotton. i believe that if she was to plant but half her cotton, for three years to come, it would be an immense advantage to her. i am not so sure but that after three years' entire abstinence she would come out stronger than ever she was before, and better prepared to enter afresh upon her great career of enterprise. what would happen if no cotton was furnished for three years? i will not stop to depict what every one can imagine, but this is certain: england would topple headlong and carry the whole civilized world with her, save the south. no, you dare not make war on cotton. no power on earth dares to make war upon it. cotton is king. . who can doubt, that has looked at recent events, that cotton is supreme?