[137] Pamphlet, C. L. S. Vol. VII. Art. 7. p. 16. [138] Ibid. p. 19. [139] Pamphlet, Vol. II, C. L. S. Miller, p. 6. [140] Pamphlet, Vol. XXI. Memminger, C. L. S. p. 9. [141] Ibid. p. 23. [142] Pamphlet, Vol. V. C. L. S. Art. 18, p. 18. CHAPTER VII The school of Georgia politicians in 1852 did not favor Secession. Their objection to it was that it would so reduce the value of slaves as to force the owners to emancipate them themselves; while, with the preservation of the Union, they believed they could force slavery to the Pacific. Certainly Georgia was in many respects amply fitted to lead. By the census of 1850 it was disclosed that in the value of her personal property, returned for taxation, she led the Union with $213,499,486. Twelve million more than the old and wealthy State of Massachusetts, which returned $201,976,892. South Carolina came third with $178,130,217. Alabama fourth with $162,463,700. New York fifth with $150,719,379.[143] In the value of their real estate, which could not be as well concealed as their personal property, the Northern States stood out richer, so that in her revenue, Georgia stood not higher than seventh, among the States of the Union; but, when revenue, expenditure and debt were considered together, no State in the Union was apparently in such an eminently sound and healthy condition; for, with her surplus, she could have extinguished her debt in five years. Of course that which made the personal property returned for taxation by the residents of the Southern States, stand out so greatly in excess of that of the richer States of the North was the fact that the bulk of it was in slaves. But that fact reveals why the institution of slavery had such a hold upon the South, when not more than ten per cent of its inhabitants were slave holders. If the statesmen and politicians who supported and defended it demanded “a guarantee for property fairly acquired,” that property bore the bulk of the tax. That was not the condition of the North, and the vice of the more advanced civilization of that section was that, by every device which could be conceived, more and more the burden of taxation was thrown upon the poor.[144] While not to the swollen condition that is apparent today, the North was, for thirty years and more prior to the War between the States, the land of the capitalist, the abode of American capital.