The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1854-05-11
T From the Neac Fork; IfibUne. I
The North and the South.

render productive what they have. Tc
accomplish that object, they need canals
railroads, lighthouses, and the removal
of distractions to the navigation of rivers,
and for these latter purposes they have
steadily and regularly asked the aid OF
Congress.
Southern policy looks outward. South
ern men seek additions to their territory,
but they do not endeavor to render pro-
ductive what they have. Delaware,
Maryland, and Virginia, with 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 pur-
chase, enlargements of her surface
Southern men, consequently, deny to the
Government the right of aiding in the
construction of roads or canals, or of ap-
propriating from the treasury any moneys
to be used in the construction of light
houses, the formation of harbors, or the
removal of distractions from rivers and
it is to meet southern objections to gov
ernmental action that it is now proposed
to establish great system of local taxa
ton, calculated largely to interfere with
the free circulation of men and merchan o.
disc throughout the Union.
Half century since, the great terri
tory of Lo uisiana was purchased, chiefly
for the South. At the close of that long
period, the North has obtained from it
but single State, while the South has
already three, and now insists that the
whole vast territory which yet remains
unoccupied should be thrown open to cul-
tivation by slaves, and to ownership by
the masters Of those slaves. In 1920 the
territory Of Florida was purchased for
the South, at cost Of seven millions of
dollars, paid out of taxes imposed on
property of the North and South. In
the eight years succeeding that purchase
from 1921 to 1826-the annual ex-
penditures Of the Government, exclusive
of payments on account of the national
/ debt, was but thirteen millions of dollars,
and yet out of that small sum considera
BILE appropriations were made in aid Of
| the Cumberland Road and other works
OF internal improvement.
The Administration of Gen Jacks on
succeeded to that of Mr.. Adams in 1929,
and the expenditure rose in the first term
to nearly seventeen millions, while in the
second it was more than twenty-five mil
lions, little or none of which was expend-
ed on any Of those works ofpeacc desired
by the North, because the South had
then determined that all such appropria-
tions were violations of the Constitution.
1t was, however, deemed perfectly con-
stional to swell the military and naval
expenditure from eight millions in 1928
to twenty-five millions in 1886, because
the object of that increase was the extir-
patton of the few poor Seminoles Of Flor
ida, whose occupancy interfered with the
enlargement of the field for slave-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 permitted
to be appropriated to internal improve
ments asked for by the North, while the
Florida war was allowed to absorb enor-
nous masses Of treasure contributed by
the people of the Union, North and South
In the first two years of this Administra-
ton, the expenditure for military pur-
poses alone averaged no less than twenty
one millions, and the total amount SO ex-
pended in the four years was sixty-eight
millions, or sixteen millions more than
was expended for all purposes by Mr.
Adams. 1t was, however, for southern
benefit, and therefore constitutional
Under the succeeding Administration
the total expenditure was reduced to
twenty millions, or less than was expend
ed on the army and navy alone by Mr.
Van Buren, while engaged in clearing
out the Seminoles. The death of Gener
al Harrison having thrown the executive
power into southern hands, we find thai
twice during Mr.. Tyler's occupation o
the Presidential Chair, was the veto ap
piled to bills intentended to satisfy the
/ ;ucT oxpnototiopc Of northarn mon anviou,