In this war,—New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania,—seven States—furnished 172,436 troops and were paid for services, $61,971,167. Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia—six States—furnished 59,335 troops, and received $52,438,130. In other terms, the Northern States furnished about three times the number of troops and received less than one fifth more pay. In particular States the inequality was far greater.
The War of 1812.
The Slaveholders envied the commercial prosperity of the North, and, to crush it, decreed the war of 1812, under the pretence of defending “free trade and sailor’s rights;” and one hundred and thirty-seven millions of dollars were wasted in its prosecution, and $200,000,000 more were lost on sea and land by Northern merchants and farmers, and then, leaving “free trade and sailor’s rights” where they were before, they made peace, and demanded a National Bank and Protective Tariff. And in the prosecution of the war, says Alvan Stewart, Esq, (Address to Abolitionists Aug. 1846)—“The South placed Major General Smyth at Buffalo, a slaveholding lawyer of Virginia; Major General Winder, a slaveholding lawyer of Maryland, at Forty Mile Creek, on the side of Lake Ontario; Major General Wilkinson, a Louisiana slaveholder, at the Cedars and Rapids of the St. Lawrence; and Major General Wade Hampton, the great sugar boiler of Louisiana, and the largest slaveholder in the United States, (having over 5000 crushed human beings bowing to this monster and tyrant), was located at Burlington, Vermont, four slaveholding Generals with their four armies, were stretched out on our northern frontier, not to take Canada, but to prevent its being taken, by the men of New England and New York, in 1812, '13 and '14; lest we should make some six or eight free States from Canada, if conquered. This was treason against Northern interests, blood and honor. This horrid revelation could have been proved by General John Armstrong, then Secretary of War, after he and Mr. Madison quarreled.”
Florida, Florida War, Removal of the Indians.
While Florida was in possession of Spain it furnished an asylum for slaves escaping from the contiguous States. It was therefore bought, at the dictation of the slaveholders, at an expense of $5,000,000. For the same purpose, and at the same dictation the late Florida War was waged, and the native Indian exiled. Of this, the Hon. J. R. Giddings, 1845, said,—“They (the army) captured 460 negroes, who were adjudged slaves by staff officers of the army, to whom the duty was assigned, and who delivered them over to interminable bondage. [See House Doc. 52, 3d Sess. 27th Congress.] We have no means by which we can determine the number of lives sacrificed in that war; but it may be safely asserted, that the capture of each slave cost the lives of two white men, and at least $80,000 in cash, the most of which was drawn from the pockets of the people of the free States. The whole expense of the war is estimated at $40,000,000. The moral guilt incurred, and the sacrifice of national character cannot be estimated. Perhaps I ought to add, on the authority of Gen. Jessup, that bloodhounds were also purchased to act as auxiliaries to our army, and that bloodhounds, and soldiers, and officers, marched together under the star-spangled banner, in pursuit of the panting fugitives who had fled from Southern oppression. [House Doc. 125, 3d Sess. 25th Congress.] And blood hounds, and soldiers, and officers were paid for from the avails of Northern industry; while our people were not permitted to petition their servants to be relieved from such degradation.” One R. Fitzpatrick was employed to get the blood hounds. He obtained thirty-three, and the cost, including expenses of bringing to Florida, was $5000. The removal of the Indians from the several slave States was merely to make room for slavery; and it has cost at least $50,000,000, and of all these millions the North has had to pay the largest share.
Texas and the Mexican War.
Everybody knows that Texas was annexed and that the war is waged to extend and strengthen Slavery. The cost of these measures is yet to be ascertained. There is little doubt that it will exceed rather than fall short of one hundred millions.
Bank, Tariff, Southern Bankruptcy, &c.
The South originated the Bank and the Tariff. When they ceased to work for its interests, the South abolished both. The sums filched from the North by these changes of national polity and by Southern bankrupts, seem almost incredible. $27,000,000, of the capital of the United States Bank was sunk at the South. $500,000,000, it is estimated, would not more than meet the losses of the North, in sixty years, from Southern bankruptcy. In fine, there is no end to these burdens—this side-wise plunder of the free, by those whose entire life is a wholesale plunder of the Slave. How long will freemen bear it?
“We have a weapon firmer set