Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1862-08-02

country. We have done all this under the
most discouragng circumstances and in
the face of measures most dstasteful to us
and injurious to the interests we represent,
and in the hearing of doctrines avowed by
those who claim to be your friends most
abhorrent to us and our constituents. But,
for all this, we have never faltered, nor
shall we as long as we have q Constitution
to defend and a government which pro.
tects us. And we are ioady for rene we'd
efforts, and even greater sacrifices, yea,
any sacrifice, when we are satisfied it is
required to preserve our admirable form
of government and the priceless blessings
of constitutional liberty.
A few of our number voted for the res
olution recommended by your message of
the 9th of March last; the greater por-
ton of us did not, and we will briefly
state the prominent reasons which inhu-
encod our action.
In the first place, it proposed a radical
change Of our social system, and was
hurried through both Houses with undue
haste, without reasonable time for con-
sideraton and debate, and with nc time at
all for consultation with our constituents,
whose interests it deeply involved. 1t
seemed like an interference by this Gov
ernment with question which peculiarly
and exclusively belonged to our respec-
tive States, on which they had not sought
advice or solicited aid. Many of US
doubted the constitutional power of this
Government to make appro priations of
money for the objects designed, and all
of us thought our iinaces were in no con-
dition to bear the immense outlay which
its adoption und faithful execution would
impose upon the National Treasury. If
we pause but a moment to think Of the
debt its acceptance would have entaied
we are appalled, by its magnitude. The
proposition was addressed to all the
States, and embraced the whole number
of slaves. According to the census of
1860 there were then very nearly four
million of slaves in the country from
natura increase they exceed that mum
Der now. AT even the low average of
three hundred dollars, the price fixed by
the emanci patton act for the slaves of this
District, and greatly below their real
worth, their value runs up to the enormus
sum oftwelvc hundred millions of dollars;
and if to that we add the cost of depora-
| ton and colonization, at one hundred
dollars each, which is but fraction more
than is actually paid by the Maryland
Colonization Society, we have four hun.
dred millions more We are not willing
to impose a tax on our people sufficient
to pay the interest on that sum, in addi-
| ton to the vast and daily increasing debt
already fixed upon them by the exigencies
Of the war; and if we had been willing
the country could not bear it. Stated in
this form the proposition is nothing less
than the deportation from the country ol
sixteen hundred million dollars worth OF
producing labor, and the substitution in
its place Of an interest-bearing debt of the
same amount!
But, if we are told that it was expected
that only the States we represent would
accept the proposition, we respectfully
submit that even then 1t involves sum
too great for the financial ability of this
Government at this time. According to
| III