Some critics raised practical economic questions. The Cincinnati Commercial asked: “Will the people consent to be taxed to the extent required to indemnify the owners of slaves? If they are willing, are they able? Shall the tax be general, or restricted to the free States?” In southern Pennsylvania, where deep-seated Negrophobia prevailed, especially among working men, many Republicans balked at the prospect of higher taxes to free slaves. Indiana Republicans suffered reverses because voters objected to “taxing the people hundreds of millions to pay for negroes to be turned loose to work North at 10 cts a day.” An attorney in Peoria snorted: “If any states think they would be better off by setting their niggers free let them do it. … When our forefathers in the North saw fit to liberate their slaves, they did it without asking or dreaming of asking any compensation. Why should we now voluntarily offer them a reward for doing the same thing?” Congressional opponents demagogically taunted the administration, saying in effect: “You are exceedingly anxious to take away the property of the Southern people and to tax us in order that emancipation may be effective, but we hear nothing from you about protecting the poor white men and women of the free states.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃