The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-10-21
a Bone for Abolition Farmers to Gnaw

Stop moment, honest Freesoler, we
want TO reason with you. Let you pillow
stand in the fulrow, breathe your horses,
aud put on your thinking-cap. You be-
Iieve in the Emancipation Proclamation
YES You don't want the President to
back Uat Of it? "No,' The war, then,
n.ust'go on, so far as your vote can iuAu-
cnce it, till the slaves are all free.
Now, honest friend, have you ever
thought what this experiment of freeing
all negroes is likely to cost you9 Are
/ you willing to mortgage your farm for halt
Its value for your share in defrayiug the
expenses? Why, dear man, it is already
u'ortgaged to nearly that extent aud every
year the war is continued patches this
mortgage with another on the back of it.
GIVE your attention IA moment, and we
will make this as plain as the rail fence
that divides your farm from your neigh
bors. You must of course, see that the
public debt is a mortgage on the property
OF the whole country, for this property may
be taken by law to pay it. If you were
SO rich as to OWE half of the property you
would owe half tic debt if you own a
hundredth or thousandth part of the
property, you would owe hundredth or a
thousaudth part Of the debt; that is, your
share of the debt-is just in proportion to
your share of the property. Now it SO hap
pens that this is thing that is easily got
at; so that if you will tell us the value of
your farm we will tell you what part of it
IS already mortgaged to the Government
We are not got going to impose upon you
by any statements which we have cooked
up to serve purpose !; the figures we will
use are taken from documents prepared by
Republican officials and as for the arith-
metIc, you are just as competent to verify
our calculations as we are to make them.
So, good farmer Glipedollar, give heed
Ii you will call the members of Con-
gresS Tor your district, Or at any newspa-
per ottce in your county, you can get an
opportunity to examine a book prepared
by MIR. Kcnney, chief Of the census hu.
reau, containing the figures Of the census.
Turn to page one hundred and ninety.
four, and you find table giving the assess
ed value of all the real estate in every
State and territory Of the United States. =
You will observe by the footing at the
bottom of the column that it amounts in
all to $6,973,l 10000. If you will then
take out and add together the figures rep
resennng the real estate of the slave states,
the amount will be S2,377,994,357.-
Subtractiug this from the whole you will
have left 81, 595, l9l, 1872 as the total as
sessed value of all the land aud building 10
the free states and the territories of
which your farm and the buildings and
Improvements upon it are part Now
III finding the debt which stards against
tins property, we will lead you on ground
which you must regard as equally solid.
Look up almost any file of city newspa-
per for the month of July last, and you
viii tind in the financial column an official
statement of the public debt as it existed
on the 9th of July, purporting to be taken
trom the books of the Treasury Depart
ment, and signed by the acting secretary
of treasury. According to this statement
the debt was at that date 81, 1872 1867 ,O40.
A lew days previous to the publication Of
these figures, the secretary made Il semi-of.
clal statement that the debt was then in
creaslng at the rate Of $4,000 day.
There have interviewed since the 9th of ia
ly up TO this 10Th day Of September, eighty
three days, which, at that rate, would bring
an addition to the debt of SIT, 100000
which added 10 the amount ON the 9th of
July, makes the present debt 81, 010, 367,-
O40. There are the best reasons for sup
posing the debt to be much larger, but We
take the official figures because they can.
not expose us to any suspicion of exaggera-
! ton.
With these data, it is easy TO determine
the amount Of mortgage which rests on
any particular farm by reason of the pub
lie debt. If the farm be worth $4,000. it
is mortgaged to the government for 81 900;
if it is worth $500 it is mortgoged 81
900; and In the like proportion for any
larger or smaller value. Nearly half Of
your farm is already gope; four yea's
more Of war would make the mortgage to
the public creditors ubout equal to It's as
sessed value. Are you acilliny to prose-
cute the experiment of freeing the negroes
at this cost? By the time the experiment
Is completed, you will be as much "a slave as
the negroes themselves For in what d, e.
slavery consist, but in one mans laboriug
and another having II legal title to the
fruits Of his labor? The slave lab and
the master pocket, his earning. You la
Dor, and your earnings, all but a small
Suos'St nee, will go to pay for the luxury
OF the Emancipation proclamation. Are
you 50 enamofed Of this prospect that you
will vote for doubling the present heavy
mortgage which the government holds On