Asked Of Abraham Lincoln...
“Why not let the South go in peace?”
Response Of Abraham Lincoln...
“I can’t let them go. Who would pay for the government?”
http://www.rulen.com/partisan/quotes.htm
Never happened.
“I can’t let them go. Who would pay for the government?”
Tell that to California. (smile)
Response Of Abraham Lincoln... “I can’t let them go. Who would pay for the government?”
It is worse than just paying for the government. The South created the vast majority of the Trade with Europe, so it wasn't just the revenue to the government that the Union would lose, it was the bulk of all European trade that would disappear.
The economic consequences to the North of an Independent South would be horrible and devastating. According to what I have read from the various books, New York/New England was skimming off about 40% of every dollar earned by those Southern exports to Europe. Their shipping, banking, warehousing, insurance and other industries were heavily dependent upon those Southern exports going to Europe with the return trade coming back through New York (mostly.)
It wasn't just the loss of ~64 million in Tariffs to pay the cost of running the Federal government, it was more like 300 million in lost revenue to the Northern industrial interests.
These numbers also do not take into account the consequences of boosting the capitalization of Southern industries by that 40% that was previously going to New York. With all that extra money, the South would have built their own factories and industries which would thereafter compete directly with the Northern industries.
The power barons of the existing Northern Industries were looking into their open grave, and they realized that at all costs, the South must be stopped from establishing direct trade with Europe.
Hence, one of the first things the Union did was to throw up a blockade around the South to prevent trade with Europe, because if the Europeans started to realize greater profits from direct trade with the South, it would have been impossible to put that genie back in the bottle.
Your link no work
Since you’ve got it in quotation marks exactly who asked, when, and where? Where was it reported?