The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-03-14
VOL. ".

souare miles less than that of the other section It
is impossible therefore, to attribute this loss of
equilibrium between the two sections to the action
of the General Government ia reducing slave
territory.
The other cause assigned is the system Of reve.
nue. and disbursement adopted by the General
Government.
al shall not undertake to show that all such
duties must necessarily fall mainly on the ex
porting 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 deem it unnec ssary, as the
subject has many occasions been fully dis
cussed Nor shall |, for the same reasons, under.
take 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 vast amount from South 10
North, which, under equal system of revenue
and disbursements, would net have been lost IN
her IL to this be added, that many of the du
ties were imposed, not for revenue but for protec-
tion-thst 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 il 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"
The South has suffered chiefly from having
been obliged to pay more on her foreign articles
| of consumption than she would have done had
more liberal commercial policy been pursued
But this is an evil under which all the consumers
of the North and West have equally labored
The manufacturers, it may be, have been the
gamers, but it so happens that the great increase
of the population of the North and West has
been, for the most part, not in the manufacturing
region, but in the Great West, which certainly
has derived no more benefit than the South from
high tariffs.
Mr. Calhouns alleged causes are not sufficient
to explain the advance of the North beyond the
South in population. No sophistry can blind us
to the fact that there rs but cause and that is
this: Slaue Labor prerals in the South, Free Labor
ia the North. Unwilling to admit this, an objectOr
says that the reason of the rapid growth of the
North is, the tide of foreign immigration con-
stantly setting upon its shores. Well, why do
immigrants seek one section and avoid the other
Another says that the people of the slave States
constantly emigrate to the free, while the citizens
of the latter do not generally settle in the former
True but WIZ IA this? We all know that were
it not for the system Of slivery, which degrades
labor, builds up an aristocracy, allies itself with
and encourages a monstrous system of land mo-
nopoly keeps down the arts, and is constantly
driving out planters who have been reduced TO
bankruptcy, small farmers, and the poorer classes
of freemen, the States Of the South would keep
pace with the population of the North. The loss
of equilibrium, then, between the two sections, is
the result not of the laws of man, but of the laws
Of nature, and no human device can prevent the
inequality from becoming more and more marked.