"[The following Extraordinary Advertisement is copied from the last (Windsor) Washingtonian.]
"SLAVES WANTED!
"UNCLE SAM, a worthy gentleman Slaveholder (of Virginia) wants to purchase, at 124 dollars a head, 65,000 ('more or less') stout, able-bodied, full-blooded YANKEES, to aid Field Marshall, the Duke of Newburgh, in taking Possession of a Plantation he has lately bargained for, (with himself) if he can get it, IN CANADA. Apply at the truly fortunate Lottery Office;—or, elsewhere, if more convenient;—as every 'Office-holder or Citizen,' in the United States, is fully authorized and empowered to contract, as the acknowledged agent of his Uncle.
"N. B.—Uncle Sam's purse is rather low—but no matter. The Duke will guarantee the pay—'FORCIBLY—if he must.'"[57]
In the Herkimer American of April 28, 1814, was printed the following:
"Economy.—A few days since, in a neighboring town twelve United States' waggons were repaired, for which the blacksmith was paid one thousand eight hundred dollars out of Uncle Sam's purse. Query. How much is the usual cost of a new waggon?"[58]
In or about May, 1814, the Keene Sentinel printed the following:
"More Economy!—Colonel Pickering in his Speech on the Loan Bill, stated, on direct information from two members of the former Congress, that a waggon started with 40 bushels of corn for the army—that the team of horses consumed 18 bushels on the way—reserved 18 to feed them on returning, and delivered 4 bushels, which must, at this rate, have cost fifty dollars a bushel!
"Everyone remembers the vinegar transported from Boston to Albany, which might have been procured cheaper at the latter than the former place.
"Uncle Sam's teams are continually passing thro' this town, with cannon balls, &c. for the fleet at Vergennes. These balls are transported from Boston, at an expense of not less than twenty shillings for every 100 wt. i. e. every 32 lb. ball costs a dollar for transportation only. Now it is well known there are several foundaries in the vicinity of the Lake, and one very extensive one in Vergennes.—What then could induce the contractor to resort to this useless waste of the sinews of war? Quere. Do not the contractors have a certain per cent? If so, the larger the bills are, the better for them."[59]
An extract dated Baltimore, June 22, 1814, reads as follows:
"A detachment of 260 Uncle Sam's troops, under Major Keyser have embarked from Baltimore, to aid in raising the blockade of Barney's flotilla. [This is as it should be,—The regulars are paid and fed for the common defense.]"[60]
The following passage is dated Keene, New Hampshire, November 5, 1814:
"The soldiers, drafted for the defence of Portsmouth are mostly on their return home. By some arrangement between the Governor and General Chandler, the latter, it seems, undertook to provide for, and pay the troops. The names of those poor fellows are on Uncle Sam's pay roll; but not a cent of money have any of them received. This will come when the government loan is filled, and this loan will be filled when public credit is restored, either before, or after 'the troubled night of this administration departs.'"[61]