Year: 1862

national aid for the improvement OF a
I particular section. How much money
has been contributed by Congress to i'm
! prove harbors and construct roads, from
which only very small portion of the
I people paying taxes received any imme-
date beneft2 Even sheets as Demo
cratic as the Register would see no OBJ
lection to the appropriation of few
millions to the improvement of naviga-
ton upon Western rivers and lakes.
And yet, when Congress is asked to ap-
propriate from the national treasury to
aid the people of an entire State in
throwing off dead weight from their
prosperity to remove an obstruction
from their path-it is at once objected
to as unjust to the people of other States,
by parties who find nothing to say in op-
position if the object of the appropriation
was to build a road across the State of
Illinois, or remove a sand-bar from Chi
cago harbor.
Let those who derive the benefit foot
the bill, says the Register If Missouri
finds it would be to her interest to free
herself from slavery, Notwithstanding it
would greatly benefit the whole nation,
let her pay for it herself, is the idea.
Here is the Registers illustration of the
arrangement:


Let those who derive the benefit foot
up the bill We have no doubt Missouri
would have been greatly benefited,
would have made still further advances
in material prosperity, had her vast sys-
tenn of railroads been completed; and
particularly so had the other States of
the Union been made responsible for the
cost Her increased growth in this be-
half would not have been without its
compensating advantages to her neigh
bOrs, and would have added to the gene
raj wealth, but would it not have been
absurd in the Missouri Democrat to have
called upon the Northern States to tax
themselves to produce this advantageous
Missouri result?"


This illustration is unfortunate in
more than one respect In the first
place, it comes from the organ of the
present predominating party of a State
to build whose railroads the General
Government has largely contributed


How much land has the United States
given to Illinois, at the instance of Sena-
tor Douglas, the father of Illinois De-
! mOcraey, to help build the Illinois Cen
trail Railroad? That land belonged as
well.tO the people of Massachusetts and
] Missouri as to Illinois 1t was as much
national fund as the gold now in the
vaults of the Government sub-treasury


But the illustration is inappropriate
in another particular In the matter of
| the construction of railroads in Missouri.
the General Government is under no
necessity of giving anything; but in the
case of slavery in Missouri, it is very
different. Slavery in Missouri, as it is
everywhere else in the nation, is in re-
( 6dternment Is compelled to pay out her
money to put down that rebellion. She
/ has her choice Of modes. She can pur-
chase the slaves of loyal owners, and
confscate those of disloyal ones, as we
propose, and thus end the rebellion with
the cause of it, which slavery is, or she


can continue, as she has been doing, to


keep large armies upon the soil, to fight
the rebellion. We contend, as we think


we proved in the article alluded to, that


the former method would be much more


economical, as well as more advanta-


geous in its results


1t is folly to contend that the rebellion


will continue if slavery is put down. The


rebellion exists only where slavery does.


Slavery would therefore seem to be a


necessary attendant if not the cause


We hope the remark will not give of


iense, when we say that we see nothing


but the absence of slavery to prevent the


Democracy of Illinois from being in re-


belliOn against the Government to-day.


With the difference that one had slavery


and the other had not, there was moth


ing which was not in common between


the rebels in Missouri and the Democra-


cy in Illinois, at the time the rebellion


broke out. Take G,ody sldrery, and
there is nothing left for the rebels to
: fight for. The rebellion will then be


like fire deprived of fuel.


In making up their decision, whether


they will favor or oppose, in the case OF
Missouri, the proposition we have urged
upon the consideration of the Northern
people, which is the same that the Presi
dent has recommended, the Democracy
of the North will simply show whether
they prefer giving their money to sustain


slavery or abolish slavery Their senti
ments upon the subject of the existence
, of sla cry itself must determine.


The case at present stands precisely
!. thus: Missouri has the will to free her


self from slavery, but without the assis
: tance of the Federal Government, under
the restraints of her Constitution, requir
: ing payment for slaves, has not the pow
q er, if she has the will. The amount o
r money required for the purpose, althougl
\ more than Missouri, in her present i'm
q poverished condition, can well raise, i
). but trihe for the Government to con
a tribute. The proportion which woult
! fall to Illinois would scarcely be felt b
= her people. 1t is not asked as a gift


Its advancement can be looked upon il
! no other light than as loan, with Ger
# tainty of repayment and large interest
4 Remove both the rebellion and SLAYER
!. from Missouri to-day, and in ten year
h time, under the operation of the presen
% tax law, the increased taxes paid by Mis-
II souri,, in consequence of their remova
70 will have cancelled the debt In add
a. ton to this, the advantages to the Nortl
70 in having Missouri, located as she il
:, converted into free soil, in view of th
70 immense free labor empire growing u
~ to the west here, and which she now
n vides from the older North; in view {