amount of " power and gain" to be lost by a dissolution of the Union would appear to be less than fifteen millions of dollars, or about eighty cents per head of the Northern Union. Against this, however, there would be, connected with our foreign trade, important offsets. Sugar would then be free as tea and coffee now are, and as we should 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 Brazil, would be greatly increased, and that we should derive from them nearly all the sugar, of which we take now to the amount of fourteen millions from the South. We should also be at liberty to recognize the free people of St. Domingo, and of Liberia, and our trade in those quarters 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 head, we feel disposed, after this examination, to estimate the pecuniary value of the Union to the North. What is the cost of that Union, we propose next to consider.

COST OF THE UNION.

The policy of the North looks homeward. Northern men seek no enlargement of territory, but they desire to render productive what they have. To accomplish that object they need canals, railroads, light-houses, and the removal of obstructions to the navigation of rivers, and for these latter purposes they have steadily and regularly asked the aid of Congress.

Southern policy looks outward. Southern men seek additions to their territory, but they do not endeavor to render productive what they have. Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, and much of the Carolinas, and of Kentucky, have been exhausted by abstracting from the soil all the elements of production, and the occupants of their exhausted lands find themselves forced to seek abroad for new lands to be in their turn exhausted—and hence it is that the South is always on the watch to secure, by war or purchase, enlargements of its surface. Southern men, consequently, deny to the government 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 governmental action that it is now proposed to establish a great system of local taxation, calculated largely to interfere with the free circulation of men and merchandise throughout the Union.

Half a century since, the great territory of Louisiana was purchased, chiefly for the South. At the close of that long period the North has obtained from it but a single State, while the South has had already three, and now insists that the whole vast territory which yet remains unoccupied shall be thrown open to cultivation by slaves, and to ownership by the owners of those slaves. In 1820, the territory of Florida 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 years succeeding that purchase

-from 1821 to 1829-the annual expenditure of the government, exclusive of the payment of the national debt, was but thirteen millions of dollars, and yet out of that small sum, considerable sums were appropriated to the Cumberland road, and other works of internal improvement.

The administration of General Jackson succeeded that of Mr. Adams in 1829, and the expenditure rose in the first term to nearly seventeen millions, while in the second it was more than twenty-five millions, little if any of which was expended on any of those works of peace desired by the North, because the South had then determined that all such appropriations were violations of the Constitution. It was, however, deemed perfectly constitutional to swell the military and naval expenditure from eight millions, in 1828, to twenty-two millions, in 1836, because the object of that increase was the extirpation of the few and poor Seminoles of Florida, whose occupation interfered with the enlargement of the field of spare labor.

Mr. Van Buren followed, and in his period we find the expenditure to have been carried up to an average of thirty millions, no part of which was allowed to be appropriated to internal improvements asked for by the North, while the Florida war was permitted to absorb enormous masses of treasure contributed by the people of the Union, North and South. In the first two years of his administration, the expenditure for military purposes averaged no less than twenty-one millions, and the total amount so expended in the four years, was sixty-eight millions, or sixteen millions more than was expended for all purposes by Mr. Adams. It was, however, for Southern purposes, and therefore constitutional.

Under the succeeding administration, the total expenditure was reduced to twenty millions, or less than has been expended on the army and navy alone by Mr. Van Buren, while engaged in clearing out the Seminoles. The death of General Harrison having thrown the executive power into Southern hands, we find that twice during Mr. Tyler's occupation of the presidential chair was the veto applied to bills intended to satisfy the just expectations of Northern men anxious to improve the intercourse by the lakes and rivers of the West.

With Mr. Polk came the war for settling the boundaries of Texas, and enlarging the area of slave territory, and now the expenditure rose to an average of forty-four millions, chiefly bestowed on the army and navy. Large, however, as was the amount to be expended, not a dollar could go for the promotion of the peaceful improvements of the North; for when, in 1845, Congress appropriated about a million of dollars for improvements on the lakes and Western rivers, the bill was vetoed by Mr. Folk as unconstitutional; and when, in 1816, a still more modest bill was sent to him, appropriating only half a million to all such purposes, he pocketed it, end it failed to become a law. The same difficulty occurred in regard to n bill for the payment of the debt owing by the nation to the unfortunate claimants on account of French spoliations. Passed by Congress, it was vetoed by the President, because inconvenient to pay such claims while engaged in a war for the extension of territory on our southern and south-western

borders. To secure that extension we had to support an expensive war, and finally to pay fifteen millions to the Mexican Government; but, happily squatter government" secured to the Northern States a portion of the territory for nearly all of which they had been required to pay.

Texas had been dragged into the Union by Mr. Polk, and in 1850 the people of the North were required to unite in paying ten millions for this enlargement of slave territory.

The expenditure seems now to be fixed at from forty to fifty millions of dollars, of which the military and naval department, exclusive of the contracts for mail steamers, require more than twenty, or one half more than was expended by Mr. Adams for all purposes, internal and external. Having purchased Louisiana, Florida. Texas, and New Mexico for the South, we have but just escaped the payment of twenty millions for the enlargement of the area of Slavery, accomplished by General Gadsden, and yet not a dollar is likely to be obtained for removing obstructions from the great rivers of the West, or for improving the harbors of the lakes. Any amount may be lavished upon foreign missions, having for their object the removal of restrictions on the tobacco trade of France or Germany, because that interests the South; but the treasury is hermetically sealed against the claims of the North for any aid in developing the resources of its territory, or in facilitating intercourse between the States of the East and the West.

We beg our readers to reflect carefully upon these facts, and then to study how much expenditure would be required for a Northern Union. We need scarcely any army, for we desire no extension of territory. We do not desire to add Canada to the Union, and were the offer of annexation at this moment made it might not be accepted, while the South is always at work to obtain territory, by purchase or by force of arms. But recently, it offered a hundred millions for Cuba, to be paid out of the revenue contributed by all the States, and the chief reason for so doing was the danger that the slaves of that island might, at some future time, become free, and thus be placed in a situation that would render them dangerous to their slaveholding neighbors of Florida and Carolina. The North dares not even propose to accept, free of cost, the British possessions, with two and a half millions of free inhabitants; and yet the South does not hesitate at buying Cuba at a hundred millions, nor would it hesitate about involving the whole country in a war that might cost twice that sum, for the purpose of preventing any movement in the island looking to the gradual enfranchisement of its Negro population.

The North, as we have said, scarcely needs an army. It has but little need for a navy; but even admitting that five millions were required for that purpose, it is difficult to see how the expenditure of Mr. Adams could be much exceeded. The post-office of a Northern Union would support itself at lower rates than those now paid, for we have thrice the amount of population capable of maintaining correspondence, and three times thrice the quantity of exchanges, while the organized territory of the South is greater by almost one half than that of the North. The diplomacy of a

Northern Union would require small expenditure, for we have nothing to ask for, and there is nothing for which we desire to fight. Northern policy looks, as we have said, always homeward, while that of the South looks always outward, as witness the constantly repeated invasions of Texas and of Cuba.

Admitting, however, that the expenditures of a Northern Union should reach the sum of twenty millions, even that is less by five and twenty millions than its present amount and not one half of that excess is paid by the South. How, indeed should it be? Nearly all our revenue comes from duties on foreign merchandise, of which slaves consume but little, and the poorer class of white people of the South consume but little more. Taking, however, the whole white population of the South, we have but five millions of consumers to put against thrice that number at the North, and if the consumption, per head, were equally great in all portions of the Union, their contributions would be but one fourth of the whole, or about one half of the twenty-five millions of excess expenditure. That the Southern consumption, per head, will average less, and much less, than that of the North, no one can doubt; and it is, we think, quite as little to be doubted that the contributions of the South towards the revenue are less than ten millions of dollars- -a sum not more than sufficient to pay the mere interest upon the sums expended in the purchase of Southern land, and on the making of wars for Southern purposes. We are now about to spend twenty millions more, and if Cuba can be had at a hundred millions, it will be bought and the interest upon these two sums alone will amount to seven millions two hundred thousand dollars, or a large portion of the whole amount of contributions furnished by the South. The same men who now urge upon the whole Union these enormous expenditures for Southern purposes, deem it so highly unconstitutional to appropriate a single dollar for the improvement of rivers and harbors, that to keep within the letter of the law they would violate its spirit by authorizing states, counties, cities, and towns to make improvements and charge tonnage duties upon ships and merchandise, by which Iowa and Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky, would be compelled to contribute largely in taxation for the promotion of the trade of New Orleans.

We are assured that all these expenditures are necessary to provide an outlet for the rapidly growing negro population. Well! the land is purchased, and next, we are told that labor is scarce that negroes are high

that it is unjust to permit Alabama and Texas to be taxed by Virginia to the extent of a thousand dollars for a Negro, when as good a one can be brought from Africa for a hundred and fifty dollars-and that, therefore, we should reestablish the African slave-trade. Such is the tendency of things, and such is the end to which we are pointed at the close of much less than a century after the publication of the Declaration of Independence, in which it was asserted that all men were born "free and equal." Prussia has emancipated her serfs, and Russia and Austria are now moving steadily towards the perfect enfranchisement of their people, but we of the North are paying many millions of dollars annually for the

enlargement of Slave territory, to end in reëstablishing the infamous trade by which Africa was so long degraded and depopulated. At this moment, we are urged to expend several millions on the enlargement of our steam marine, and among the important reasons for this measure offered by Mr. Bocock, of Virginia, is, that "the latent spark" of Freedom is likely now to blaze out in Cuba, when the "blood of Mr. Crittenden and his companions will not in vain cry for vengeance." Should, however, the spark of Freedom blaze out among the laborers of that island, their steamships will certainly be used for its extinguishment. Mr. Bocock is for extending the area of Slavery, and not that of Freedom, and it is for that object he would have us build so many ships.

There are in the United States, as we are told, 234 colleges, with 1,651 teachers, 27,159 students, and an annual income of $452,314 from endowments, $15,485 from taxation, $184,549 from public funds, and $1,264,280 from other sources; making, in all, $1,916,628. Of public schools, for common and academic education, there are 80,991, with 92,000 teachers, 3,354,173 pupils, and an income of $182,594 from endowments, $4,686,414 from taxes, $2,547,669 from public funds, and 2,147,853 from all other sources; reaching a total of $9,591,530. Add these two sums, and we find an expenditure for popular education, in all its departments, of 11,508,158 of dollars. Of this, the proportion expended north of Mason and Dixon's line is probably about not less than four fifths, or more than nine millions of dollars; a considerable sum certainly, but yet less than the interest on the expenditures for purchasing Florida and exterminating the Seminoles — for purchasing Texas and carrying on the war that was declared to “ when it was deemed desirable to enlarge the bounds of that State by seizing on New Mexico.

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Of the hundred millions already offered by the South for Cuba, four fifths would be paid by the North; and if Northern men desire to understand the object for which they are required to pay this enormous sum, they will obtain the information by reading the following passage from the Richmond Enquirer :

"Our view of the policy of this measure, as of every other, is determined by the paramount and controlling consideration of Southern interests. It is because we regard the acquisition of Cuba as essential to the stability of the system of Slavery, and to the just ascendency of the South, that we consent to forego our habitual repugnance to political change, and to advocate a measure of such vast, and, in some respects, uncertain consequences. The only possible way in which the South can indemnify itself for its concessions to the Anti-slavery fanaticism, is by the acquisition of additional slave territory. . . . We must reinforce the powers of Slavery as an element of political control, and this can only be done by the annexation of Cuba. In no other direction is there a chance for tho aggrandizement of Slavery. The intrigues of Great Britain for the abolition of Slavery in that island are pursued with a zeal and an energy which cannot fail of success, unless the United States interfere to prevent the consummation. The only effectual mode by which this may be done, is by the transfer of the island to the dominion of the States. If we contemplate the possible alternative of the disruption of the Union, by the mad spirit of abolition, the necessity for the acquisition of Cuba as a support to the South, becomes even more manifest and urgent. With Cuba in the possession of a hostile interest, Southern Slavery would be exposed to an assault which it could neither resist nor endure. With Cuba as a member of a great Southern confederacy, Slavery might bid defiance to its enemies."

The following pleasant and suggestive article is from The Southern