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Show 472 Appendix. awount of "power and gain" to be lost by n di ssolution of the Union would appear to be less than firtcC'n millions of dollars, or about eighty ceuts per head of the Northern Union. Ag-ain<.;t this, boweYer, there would be, connected with our foreign trade, important offsets. Sugar would then be free as tea and coffee now arc, and as we hould be released from any necessity for interfering against the gradual emancipation of the slaves of Cuba, it may fairly be inferred that the trade with that island, and also with Drazil, would be greatly increased, and that we should dcri ve from them nearly all the sugar, of which we take now to the amount of fourteen millions from the South. \Ve should also be at liberty to recognize the free people of St. Domingo, and of Liberia, and our trade in those quart<'l's would grow with great rapidity. These would, to a great extent, make amends for diminution at the South, and would, as we think, lessen the loss to one half, or about seven millions of dollars, at which sum, or forty cents per hC'nd, we feel disposed, after this examination, to estimate the pecuniary value of the Union to the North. '\Vhat is the cost of that Union, we propose next to consider. COST OF 'l'IIE UNION. The policy of the North looks homeward. N orthcrn men seck no enlargement of territory, but th<'y desire to render productive what they have. To accomp' ish that object they need canals, railroads, light· houscs, and the removal of obstructions to the na,·igation of ri\'crs, and for these latter purposes they have steadily nnd regularly asked the aid of Congress. Southern policy looks outward. tiouthern men seck additions to their tcnitory, but they do not cndca\'Or to render productive what thl'y have· Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, and much of the Carolinas, and of Kentucky, have been exhausted by abstracting from the soil all the clements of production, and the occupants of their exhausted lands find themselves forced to seck abroad for new lands to be in their turn exhausted-and hence it is that the South is al\\'ays on the watch to secure, by war or purchase, enlargements of it surfncc. Sou them men, consequently, deny to the governmC'nt the right of aiding in the construction of roads or canals, or of appropriating from the treasury any moneys to be used in the construction of light-houses, the formation of harbors, or the removal of obstructions from rivers; and it is to meet Southern objections to govcmmcntal action that it is now proposed to establish a great system of local taxation, calculated largC'ly to interfere with the free circulation of men and merchanclise throughout the Union. Half a centmy since, the great territory of Louisiana was purchased, chiefly for the South. At the close of that long period the North has obtained :ro~n it but a single State, while the South has had already three, and now ll1Sists that the whole vast territory which yet rcmnins unoccupied sltall bC' thrown open to culti,·ation by sb.Ycs, and to ownership by the owners of tho!'(' slaves. In 1820, the t erritory of li'lorida was purchased for the South, at a cost of seven millions of dollars, paid out by taxes imposed on property of the North and South. In the eight year~ succeeding that purcha:,e A ppc;-Hlix. '~73 _from 1821 to 1820- the :1nnual rxprnditme of the governmrnt, rxclnsh·e of the payment of thr national dC'l>t, was but thirtcC'n 111illions of rlollars, and yC't out of thnt small :lttm, considerable sums worr appropriatC'd to the Cumberland road, and other works of internal improvcJttent. The ad min i:ltration of Genera 1 J a<' kRon succC'edcd that of l\I r. Ada 111s in 182!) and the expenditure rose in the first term to nearly seventeen Juillion; while in the second it was more than twenty-five millions, lit t!c if any ~f which was expended on any of thos.c works of peace dcsirl'<l .~>y. the North, because the South had then dC'tenmncd that all such npproprLJIIOits were violations of the Constitution. It was, however, deemed pcrf(•vtly constitutional to swell the military and naval expenditure from right nlillions, in 1828, to twenty-two millions, in 183G, because the objett of that increase was the extirpation of the few and poor 'cminoles of Florid a, whose occupation interfered with the enlargement of the field of ~l :l ,·e labor. 1\Ir. Van Duren followed, and in his period we find the rxpenrliturl' to have been carried up to an aYcragc of thirty millions, no part of ~rhi(·h 11:ts allowed to be appropriated to internal illtprovcmcnts a ked for h.r the North, while the }'lorida wnr was pe rmittetl to absorb enormow; mas<;c•s of trC'asure contributed by the people of the Union, North and .South. In the first two years of his admiuistration, the expenditure for milito~rr pinpnst•s avernged no less than twenty-one millions, and the total amou nt so <'.\pended in the four yrars, wns r-;ixty-C'ight millions, or ~ixte('ll 111illi <·ns more than was cxpenclecl for all purposes by 1\Ir. Adams. It wn~, ho11 (·H·r, for Sou thcrn purposes, an t1 I h!"nf'ore con sti tu tiona I. Under the succeeding :ulministration, the total expenditure w:~s rvdnrccl to twenty millions, or less than has been expended on the army and n:·ry alone by 1\Ir. Vnn Rurc11, while engaged in clearing out ~h e SC'nlil ll:lc· s. The death of General Harrison ha1·ing thrown the rxccuttyc po11·tr 111to Southern hands, we find that twirc tltll'ing Mr. Tykr's occHp:~tion of .tl1e presidential chair was the Ycto applit•d to h~lls intcnde<l. to sa tisfy th <• .J>'st expccta tions of N orthcrn men nn xious to 1m proYc the 111 tNcou rsc b) the lakes ant1 riv<'l's of the '\Vest. With 1\Ir. Polk came the war for settling the hn111alarirs of Texa s, : ncl enlarging the area of slave t e rritor~·, and now the expenditure rose to nn average of forty-four milliou s, chiefly bl'stowccl on the army :mrl nH.r. Large, however, as was the amount to be rxpcnded, not a dollar co1drl !.{O for thr promotion of the peaceful improYements of the Nor~h; for ll'h<'n, in lSL.J, Con~ress appropriated about a milli on of dollars for 1mpron•rrH nts on the lake ~ and 'Vestrrn ri\'ers, the bill was vetoed by 1\lr. Polk as "".c:mstitutional; and "hen, in 18·1G, a still more modest bill was sent t:1 Ill Ill, appropriating ouly half a million to all such purposes, h.e pockl"tcd n, ·1 r~cl it fail ed to become a ln.w. The same di£Ticnlty occurred m rega rd to :1 .hill for the payment of the debt owing by the nation to the unfort.nn:ttc dunnants on account of French spoliations. Passed by Congress,. 1t was ,·cto~d by the President, because incom:cuicnt to pay such claims while engagrrl m a. war for the extension of territory on our southern and south-ll'e~tcrn 4.o·:~ |