The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-10-28
The Union, Past ana
Hov il Works, and hoD to Sape H.
BY A CITIZEN OF VIRGINIA. 49,.
'..- TcoNrfNUED.

lS45 inclusive, the North received 81, 23I 500, or
81 93 per ten miles square, and the South ST. lis,
500, or $l92 for the same area. In the first period
the North received from the treasury To times as
much as the South; to the next period, S.3 times
as much. In the first period the South paid, over
and above what was given back to her, 80, 642,
800 to improve the North, and IS, 731 900 in the
second period, an increase on the yearly average
of 81 per cent.
The inequality was especially great amongst
the old thirteen States. |
New England received 81, 1Ol ,73O, equal to
$l,7l5, to improve every ten miles square.
New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey re-
ceived $5,226, $50, equal to 1924, to improve
every ten miles square. n. %s' .#' |
The old plantation States, Virginia, Maryland,
the Carolinas, and Georgia, equal to $685., 100,
equal to $500, to improve every ten miles square.
This needs no comment. t.1M I...g /
The Presidential veto has arrested these appro-
priation since lS45 Congress, however, passed
bills, which gave still more to the North and still
less 10 the South. The estimates from the Trea-
sury Department this winter are of the same
character, for which we impute no blame to the
Administration; it well knows, that nothing more
equal could receive the sanction Of Cong ress, as
now constituted.
The coast survey had cost not much less than
million of dollars in ls45, and had been almost
entirely confined to the Northern coast, though
the North had only 6,675 miles Of coast line to the
South's l,02l.
1t is generally, and perhaps justly, supposed
that the post Office system works more equally be-
tween the sections, than any other part Of the Fed
eral Administration. Yet, in 1916, the mails were
transported 81 1913 900 miles in the free Sates or
Al miles to every square mile of their area, and
only l6,025 900 miles, or &c miles to each square
mile, in the South. In ls47, there were $3.50
postmasters in the North, and only 1904 in the
South, though their population is as 81 to 49, and
their areas exclusive of Texas) as As to 6l.*
ers to settle the State accounts.
Is. eral nt he
North to look to Federal expenditures a means
OF support; and there is constant press or the
Administration to multiply offices. Hence the
immense rush for removals and scramble for the
spos at the incoming Of every new President, and
the cardinal maxim of Northern party manage
ment-to govern by patronage and not by reli-
ance on principle. The maxim is utterly repug-
nan, to Southern feeling and practice.
=, The pension system throws strong light on
the tendency Of the people OF the free States tc
quarter themselves on the General Government
at the same time that it shows the usual progress
I've inequality of expenditures between the two
sections. calculation, founded on data in 3O1
Sen. Doc, 1889, shows that from 1871 to 1885
inclusive, $35, 59S 1854 had been paid for revolu-
tonary pensions, Of which the North received
$2s, &C., 597, or Sl27.29 for every soldier she had
in the war, and the South ~ 1885, 1867, being only
$3.50 for each of her soldiers. The number of
soldiers is here estimated according to knox's re-
port, which, confessedly, does not show by great
deal, the full exertons of the South in raising
troops. Let us then compare the amounts re-
ceived with the white population of each section
i'll 1870, and We find the free States in 1888 had re-
ceived SLABS of revolutionary pensions for every
soul In their limits in the former year, while the
South had received only 1851 for every white
But the military efforts of the slaveholdipg States
were fully in proportion to their whole population
for the labor Of the slaves the plantations left
much larger proportion of their masters free tt
take up arms. On this supposition, the Southern
soldier received only 49, "a for the same revolution
airy services which brought the Northern S14 IS
This gross inequality remains the same by what.
ever test it is tried. For example:
The seven free States contributed to
the expense of the wart 1871 ITO
And had received in pensions, in 1888 % 262, 597
Balance in their favor S33, 70S, 573
The six slave States contributed $50, 43S, l23
And had received, in 1888, 1886, 1867
Balance in their favor S45, lOl ,756
Now let us see how it stands with single States
Virginia contributed $l9,Os5,9s ratio as 500
And received in pen
sions up to 1888 1,969,534 toIO.3
Massachusetts cont b ed II, 1854 GLIB ratio as 500
And received in the same
s. Carolina contributed II ,523 500 ratio as 400
And received in the same
time 43l,l41 to 35
I.II
And received in the same
time 7,s5o,O54 to 1898
To appreciate this injustice fully, we must re-
member that the South not only paid into the
Federal Treasury, all she ever received back in
pensions, but also $l6,663, 633 Of the pensions
given to the North. The inequality of the appor-
tionment Of these revolutionary pensions, has
grown with the Northern majority in Congress.
In the first decennial period, 179l-lsOO, the free
States received annually $4,000 more than the
South. In the next period, this yearly excess
was diminished to 81, 200, but j. rose to $685., 900
aged 5000, and from 1881 to 1898, 1856, 900.
In like manner grew the burden upon the South in
paying the pensioners at the North, besides those
at home. In the first period it was s4l7,449; in
the second, 1870 600; in the third, 80, ZOO, 900;
IN the fourth. 500 oe0 and in the last PERIOD
According to General Knox's report, the North
sent 10 the army 100 men for every 227 of military
age in 1870, and the South 100 for every 2O9. But
in ls4s, l out of every 81 of the men Of military
North, and only out Of ITO in the South. New
England alone then had !, LAG Of these pensioners
more than there were in all the slave States; and
New York two-thirds as many, though she con-
tributed not one-seventh as much to the war;
The results are equally remarkable if we have
regard to the whole number Of pensions, revolu-
uonary and other. The expenses under this
head, for the four years ending in 1871 were
SS0l0o5l in the free States, and So $685. lOi in the
slave states, who not only paid their own share,
but $1,000 600 to the North. New England alone
received S3,924,9ll, rather more than 50 a head
Tor every man, woman, and child in her limits
During the same four years she paid in. taxes to
the Federal Treasury, according to our tables,
Sl72 per head, SO that she actuaily received more
in pensions than she paid in taxes, In lsIO.
there were not quite two and half times as MANY
pensioners at the North as at the South, but in
1S4S there were more than three times as MANY.
New England had more revolutionary pens;onars
than the five old plantation States had pensioners
The public debt has been the source of vet
more enormous benefits to the North The nav.
ments on account of principal and interest had
amounted in all, on the 30th Of September, ls4s,
to $500, 136, 719. OF this sum the South had paid
liz millions of dollars from the lands ceded by
her, as before shown, and 800 millions of the
residue in duties on imports, making in all ala
millions, nearly the whole Of which was paid at
the North. The chief owners Of this debt have
ceen citizens Of that section, partly because the
FUNDS yielded higher profit than investments in
L. ~