h State then, as
before the Constitution, would control its own commerce, and the
railroads and canals of New York would cease to be the vehicles of the
trade of the nation and of the world. Each State, as under the old
Confederacy, would force commerce into her own ports by prohibitory or
discriminating statutes. No, when New York takes from the Union the
exclusive control of commerce, she commits suicide. One uniform
regulation of commerce, and one uniform currency, are more essential to
the prosperity of New York than to that of any other State. New York
represents interstate and international commerce. There are concentrated
our imports and exports, and there three fourths of our revenue is
collected. There, if the Union endures, must be the centre of the
commerce of the nation and of the world. If the rebellion succeeds, the
separation of the East and West is just as certain as that of the North
and South. Discord would reign supreme, and States and parts of States
become petty sovereignties, mere pawns, to be moved on the political
chess board by the kings and queens of Europe.

As New York has derived the greatest benefits from the Union, so would
she suffer most from its fall. It is New York to whom the Union
transferred the command of her own commerce, and ultimately that of the
world. It is New York to which England looks as the future successful
rival of London, and it is New York at whom England chiefly aims the
blow in desiring to overthrow the Union. The interest of New York in the
price of bank or State stock is insignificant compared with her still
greater stake in the success of the Union. Indeed, if the Union should
fall, State and bank stock and all property will be of little value, and
bank debts will generally become worthless.

But if the war continues, we have seen that a redundant and depreciated
currency would increase our expenditures $408,800,000 per annum. This
would require a like addition to our annual tax, of which the share of
New York would be over $50,000,000, and the share of every other State
in like proportion to its population.

By Treasury Table 35, the stocks, State and Federal, held by the New
York banks in 1860, was $29,605,318, the circulation $28,239,950, and
the capital $111,821,957. Thus it appears that the increased tax to be
paid _annually_ by New York, as the consequence of a redundant and
depreciated currency, would be nearly double her whole bank circulation,
and tha