American Eloquence, Volume 2: Studies In American Political History (1896)
History
American Eloquence, Volume 2: Studies In American Political History (1896)
Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- History; United States -- Politics and government
be added the territory acquired with Texas. If the whole should be added
to the southern section it would make an increase of three hundred and
twenty-five thousand five hundred and twenty, which would make the whole
left to the South six hundred and nine thousand and twenty-three. But a
large part of Texas is still in contest between the two sections, which
leaves it uncertain what will be the real extent of the proportion of
territory that may be left to the South.
I have not included the territory recently acquired by the treaty with
Mexico. The North is making the most strenuous efforts to appropriate
the whole to herself, by excluding the South from every foot of it. If
she should succeed, it will add to that from which the South has already
been excluded, 526,078 square miles, and would increase the whole which
the North has appropriated to herself, to 1,764,023, not including the
portion that she may succeed in excluding us from in Texas. To sum up
the whole, the United States, since they declared their independence,
have acquired 2,373,046 square miles of territory, from which the North
will have excluded the South, if she should succeed in monopolizing the
newly acquired territories, about three fourths of the whole, leaving to
the South but about one fourth.
Such is the first and great cause that has destroyed the equilibrium
between the two sections in the Government.
The next is the system of revenue and disbursements which has been
adopted by the Government. It is well known that the Government has
derived its revenue mainly from duties on imports. I shall not undertake
to show that such duties must necessarily fall mainly on the exporting
States, and that the South, as the great exporting portion of the Union,
has in reality paid vastly more than her due proportion of the revenue;
because I deem it unnecessary, as the subject has on so many occasions
been fully discussed. Nor shall I, for the same reason, undertake to
show that a far greater portion of the revenue has been disbursed at the
North, than its due share; and that the joint effect of these causes
has been, to transfer a vast amount from South to North, which, under an
equal system of revenue and disbursements, would not have been lost to
her. If to this be added, that many of the duties were imposed, not for
revenue, but for protection,--that is, intended to put money, not in
the treasury, but directly into the pockets of the manufacturers,--some
conception may be formed of the immense amount which, in the long course
of sixty years, has been transferred from South to North. There are no
data by which it can be estimated with any certainty; but it is safe to
say that it amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars. Under the most
moderate estimate, it would be sufficient to add greatly to the wealth
of the North, and thus greatly increase her population by attracting
emigration from all quarters to that section.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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