Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-05-31

ABOUT % millions more were from the sales o
lands in Alabama and Mississippi, north of lati-
tude 80, and within the cession by Georgia. ma
king in all out of the 1877 millions, l2 that were
contributed by the slayehodbg States. We may
falry add to this account / millions, the value o
lands granted for various purposes to the north
western States within their limits making total
OF l25 millions given by Virginia and Georgia to
the free States But it may be said that if this
sum had not gone into the federal treasury from
lands, 1t must have been raised by direct taxation,
and the Southern States would have paid their
share. Well, deduct that share, which would
have been Al millions, and we still have left the
very handsome gratuity of 78 millions, which the
slave States, or rather Virginia and Georgia, gave
the north in order to form the Union!
How have all these taxes been spent? Has the
South received, in the disbursements of the Feder
al Government, any compensation for the very dis
proportonate share she contributed to it's revenue
And first, as to the public lands.
Large quantities of these lands have been given
for internal Improvements to the States in which
they lie, and such grants were, therefore, confined
to the new or land States. 1t appears from ia
bic which We have carefully prepared from the la
test official documents, that the new free States
have received in this way, ,474, ATS acres, worth
at the actual average price of the public lands sold
within their several boundaries, ST. 584 500, while
the new slave States have received only 8 millions
OF acres, worth S4, ,025, 600 that is, there have
been granted to the new free States 1876 acres to
every square mile of their surface while the new
slave States have had only 9.3 acres to the square
mile. The dlsproportion is still greater in the OIL
der States, where the system has been longer at
work. Thus Louisiana has received 1913 acres,
Alabama 9.8, and Missouri only IA, while Ohio
has had 29.6, and Indiana 47.6, (neary one thir-
teenth part, to improve every square mile of their
respective areas. The proportion will be some
what diminished if we add the donations for
schools which were made by virtue of general
law /; but even then the free States have received
38.9 to the square mile and the slave States
only 27.7. (3)
We cannot trace all the expenditures of the Fed
eral Government so as to determine the exact a
mount in each section. There are no published
documents to furnish the necessary data. But
the distinction can be made in some
branches of Federal disbursements, usually cas-
sed as miscellaneous, and from these we may Judge
of the rest.
A report of the Secretary of the Treasury,
{ (46O Ex. Doc. 1837-'8, shows, that in the five
years, 1887, out of l02 millions of expendi-
tures only 81 millions were in the slave States
Y ct during the same years, our table shows that
they paid 80 millions of duties to II and half
paid by the free States. Therefore, while all that
the north contributed to the support of the Union
was spent within her own borders, she enjoyed the
additional expenditure of 33 millions, 10, 600,
900 year, levied on the South.
An examination of the Secretary's report will
show that even this statement does not give
Just idea of the inequality. A better notion
may be formed by investigating in detail some
branches of expenditure, of which we have full
accounts.
The collection of the customs revenue is large
and increasing item in the Federal expenses. 1t
gives salaries to a great number of officers; at
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia alone, there
are 1923, and it is the indirect source of subsis
tence to six times as many persons. These expen
dtures have amounted in all, from the formation
of the Government to the year 1849, to So mil
lions of dollars, of which ten millions have been
at the South. Yet the slave States have paid at
least seven nnths, or Al millions of these expen-
ses, so that the free States had the benefit for
their citizens, in custom house offices, revenue
cutters, &c, not only of their own payments, 12
but of 81 millions paid by the South.
The bounties on picked fish, and the allowan-
ces to fishing vessels, have amounted, in round
numbers to 10 millions of dollars. Nearly every
cent of this large sum has gone to the free States
chiefly to New England. The records show that
shareholders have not received SO much of it as
! SO, 900 dolls. Yet these very shareholders have
paid of these bounties and charities to the north
no less than 1900, 900 dolls.
While 838 dolls. 76cts have been spent by the
Federal Government In defending with forts each
mile of the Northern coast line, from the st.
Johns, in Maine, to Delaware bay, only 545 dolls.
17cts per mile has been devoted to the Southern
coast, to the Sabine up to June 3Oth, 1916, the
latest period for which there are official returns
More than six-elevenths of the expenditures
the Southern coast have been in fortifying the
Chesapeake bay and the mouth of the Mississippi,
that is, the to the seat of Government, and
the great outlet of northwestern commerce 1t is
fair therefore, to deduct what was spent at these
points, which leaves only 416 dolls. 89cts spent
per mile in Notifications ON the Atlantic coast of
the slave States, from North Carolina to Missis-
sippi inclusive Yet while the South has not had
half as much expended in her defence as the herth
she has paid some a out of 8 millions of dollars
devoted to these objects.-(See Off rep. to the
Senate, 70 Senate Doc, 1846-'7.
The light house system exhibits the same ine-
quality. The appropriations for creating light
houses for the year ending June 30th, 1847, (see
81 Ex. Doc, 1879, were $6O,O1 for each
mile of the Atlantic shore to the north and $29,
70, not quite half, for each mile of the shore to
the south, from Delaware to Texas The differ
ence is still greater, if we consider the whole cost
line, including islands and rivers to the head Of
tide. The north $29 62 to light every such mile,
and the south $9,23 not one third The expense
of supporting the existing lighthouses in the same
year, (see 7 Elk. Doc, 1919 on the Atlantic
and Gulf coasts, was $476, GAG. Of this the south
paid at least $3.50, ,00O yet she received only
$187, $50, equal to Se6, 70 per mile on her dan
gerous shore from the Delaware to the Rio Grande