The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-02 00:00:00

STORIES OF 711 E CANDIDATES.

The New York World gives the following as
Grant's speech at St. Joseph, Missouri :—" General
Grant, accompanied by his poor relation, Dent, and
by General Sheridan, made an unimportant and
lengthy address upon national affairs. We give
the oration in full :
GRANT'S ANNUNCIATION OF lIIS POLICY.

I return my sincere thanks for this hearty recep-

tion.

IIIS OPINION ON RECONSTRUCTION.

I have been travelling for two weeks every day.

WHAT lIE THINKS OF FINANCE.

And most of the time at night, over mountains.

CONCERNING NEGRO SUFFRAGE.

Visiting the Western country, which I am now
seeing for the first time.

TILE GLORIOUS FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY.
I am fatigued, weary, dusty, and unable to ad-
dress you.

A MAGNIFICENT PERORATION.

I thank you, but I cannot speak to you this even-
ing.

At this point the eloquent gentleman concluded
his exhaustive and convincing address, and the
audience dispersed with three tremendous cheers for
Seymour and Blair."
A denial had been extracted from Mr. Seymour's
Secretary that he is or ever has been a holder of
United States Bonds. If it had been proved that he
largely held such securities, his gold redemption
sentiments would have been ascribed to selfishness,
and he would have been shown up to the Western
green-back Democrats as one of the rich and
pampered gang who desire to live on the earnings
of hard-working men. The contrary being the case,
it is said that the nation in the hour of its extre-
mity appealed in vain to this wealthy man for pe-
cuniary help.

THE DECREASE IN NATIONAL WEALTH.

The New York Nation, broadly asserting the
decrease of wealth in the United States, has pub-
lished a series of articles maintaining the position,
and refuting the objections of those who disputed
it. No other American paper carries the same
weight in Ragland, and its facts have found here
ready credence and circulation. In a former num-
ber we adverted to the first article, and we now
propose to summarize the subject as the Nation
deals with it. A nation consists of a multitude of
households, each, having the same requirements as
the whole. These are, mainly—food, shelter,
clothing, warmth, light, and entertainment ; the
quantity, depending upon the wealth, social posi-
tion, education, and taste, vary accordingly. The
households may be divided into classes, each having
as nearly as possible the same wants. Statistics
setting forth the similarity of requirements would
surprise society, and it may broadly be said
that in the average American household one-
half the income goes in food, one-fourth in
rent, and one-fourth in all other wants. This
is strikingly borne out by the census returns,
for though imperfect, and not giving a correct esti-
mate of the employment of labour, they show that
one-half the capital consists of farm stock and imple-
ments to produce food, while nearly one-fourth consists
of city and town dwellings, with household furni-
ture constituting the item of house rent. The con-
clusion is that wealth, national as well as individual,
consists of what satisfies the wants, of which food
stands first, and to show a diminution in that is, to
show that the most important half of the national
wealth is diminished. It is well known that food
and house rent have risen so exorbitantly that
although more is spent upon them less is procured,
and of inferior quality. But though poorer in the
essentials of national wealth than six years ago the
Republic is richer in railroads, in iron mines and
foundries, in coal mines and cotton spindles,
in lambs' wool and paper money. The reason
is that the war, protection, and paper money
have disturbed the national course of industry,
changing productions from those essential, to those
for the moment most profitable to the individual.
The war requirements, aided by the tariff, increased
the iron, coal, &c., but brought about a decrease in
the production of food. The disturbance produced by
the inconvertible paper currency prevented the evils
from being readily seen, but they are now felt in
the strikes of workmen, the stoppage of mills, and
the disorganization of labour. Mechanics who can-
not pay for their food and rent, at the present rate of
wages, high as they are, strike for an increase.
Employers, who cannot manufacture at a profit on
account of the high wages, combine to lower the
scale, and, failing, shut up their works. The hands
thrown out of employment fall back on the farm,
and the mill remains idle, the coal mine closed, and
both, at least for the time, valueless. The Nation
foretels, from a simple observation of the laws of
trade, that before next March one-fourth the spindles
of New England and one-third the hammers of
Pennsylvania will be idle. A gentleman from
Illinois forwarded to the paper the stock statistics
of the State to controvert these and the startling
statements of the preceding article. In seven
years, according to him, every hundred Illinois citi-
zens had gained 31 horses, half a mule, and 26
sheep, and lost 12 cattle and 7 hogs, and he
balances the one against the other. During this
period an immense amount of private indebtedness
was paid off, and although without the figures to
show how much, he states that each citizen could
assume his share of the national debt, and be
in a better condition than in 1860. In reply
the editor expresses surprise at such returns
from Illinois, for if asked to single out one
State that could show a large increase in wealth
despite the war he would have named Illinois.
If the most prosperous agricultural State in the
Union, untouched by war, has barely held its own,
what was to be expected from Arkansas, Missouri,
Kentucky, Tennessee, and the whole South stripped
of every moving thing during years of war ? In
the number of August 6 the Nation makes a para-
graph from this letter the text for a further article,
desiring to show wherein lies the fallacy and the
danger of the fallacy that there is any similarity
between private indebtedness and national debts.
the payment of a debt does not necessarily prove
increased wealth. A man owning a farm worth
$lO,OOO, with stock and crops worth $5,000 more,
mortgaged for $5,000, is worth neither more nor less
than $lO,OOO ; for if he sells the stock and crop for
$5,000 and pays off the mortgage, he is no richer.
But he is richer if he saves money and effects
this without selling his stock and crop. Now
what the Nation believes is that the Illinois
farmer has discharged his private indebtedness by
the sale of his stock, induced to do so by the high
prices resulting from the war, and having paid his
debts he is in the former, not the latter position.
Passing such questions as the means of escape for
the mortgagee furnished by the Legal-Tender Act,
which enormously reduced the farmer's liability to
the Eastern creditor, the Nation proceeds to discuss
whether the private indebtedness of Illinois or of the
States generally is less in 1868 than it was in 1860.
It asserts that the form only is changed, the credi-
tors now being the Eastern Banks instead of the
manufacturers. During the last three years private
indebtedness to the banks has increased nearly
$160,000,000 over 30 per cent., a share of which
falls to the lot of Illinois. But turning from
private indebtedness, a subject extremely difficult to
investigate, the general wealth of the State is shown
to have decreased. The taxable valuation of its
total property in 1860 was equal to $214 in gold
per head of the total population. In 1866 the
latest figures, the return gives only, in spite of in-
flation and high prices, per head $lB3 in currency.
The State debt amounted in 1860 to $6 per in-
habitant ; in 1866 to $4, but the diminution is inure
apparent than real, for the debts of local organiza-
tions, cities, and townships have increased enor-
navusly, r4tkaatino the population of the United

States in 1866 at thirty-five millions, anti the debt
at twenty-five hundred millions, each citizen's bur-
den is over seventy-one dollars. Supposing, as the
Illinois gentleman suggested, that each should per-
sonally assume his share, then, instead of being
worth $2OB in coin, as in 1860, each inhabitant of
Illinois is but worth in 1866 $lOB in currency.
Other States show similar results : the property de-
clined in value in lowa per head, being from $294
to $285, increase of debt from 50c. to $1 ; Michigan
from $395 to $383, increase of debt from $5 to $7 ;
Wisconsin from $237 to $lB6, increase of debt
from 15c. to $3 ; giving an average of reduction
from $285 in gold in 1860 to $259 in currency in
1866, with an increase in the State indebtedness
from $3 to $4. These four States, removed from
the theatre of war, producing the articles which
have mainly risen in price during the last six years,
are selected; and the result is the more astonishing
when the fact is stated that not a cent. of the local
debts of cities or counties is counted, nor a dollar
of the national burden. The Nation appears to
have been very busy gathering its statistics
during the period it has been making these remark-
able statements. Of all the statistics it was able to
obtain only New York and Minnesota showed an
increase of wealth, and Minnesota alone, that, .
coupled with a diminution of State Debt, the wealth
having increased from $207 to $229, and the State
Debt decreased from $l5 to $lO per head. The
increase in New York is from $372 to $433 of
average wealth ; but the State DJlat is increased
from $BB to $135. With the exception of Cali-
fornia, and perhaps of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
some of the New England States, could complete
statistics be obtained, they would all undoubtedly
show far more unfavourable results. Connecticut,
Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire., New
Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia have largely in-
creased their State Debts, while the reduction in pro-
perty value in the Southern States is all but
fabulous-70 per cent. in Arkansas, 30 in Ken-
tucky, 45 in Louisiana, 7 in Missouri, 90 in South
Carolina, and 50 in Texas and Virginia. The
Nation sees in these undeniable facts, not to be
ridiculed by ignorant pertness, but to be taken into
account by serious men, the cause of strikes, dull
trade, restiveness under taxation, and the daily in-
creasing talk about repudiation. The object of the
writer is evident, for he tacks his moral as the
sequel to all his able and exhaustive arguments. lle
maintains that a fatal delusion fostered by a paper
currency has taken possession of the national mind,
which should be removed—a delusive wealth, which
covers real impoverishment, and leads not merely to
boasting, but to idleness and extravagance, which
would instantly be corrected if the nation were alive
to its true position. One of the national fallacies
most widely current is that the diminution of indi-
vidual indebtedness is a set-off to the increase of
national or State debt. There is this difference,
that individual debt, when honestly contracted,
represents existing property, while national debt
rarely represents other than property destroyed or
not in existence. A merchant buys from a manu-
facturer, giving his note for the amount which rc..
presents the goods, or if sold the money received
or due for them. When the merchant ascertains
what he is worth, he counts his goods, his money in
hand, and that due, deducting therefrom what be
owes, and if he pays, or if he does not pay, these
debts, he is worth the same amount, and that only.
So with the manufacturer ; but with the nation the
case is different. The Government has bought from
New England manufacturers and Western farmers
an immense quantity of goods on credit, giving
notes which are represented by the pay, the food,
the clothes, all spent on the soldiers ; by the horses
destroyed, by the ammunition expended. Th°
notes remain, but the property they represent 55
gone for ever. The people owe these notes, but do
the people, when taking stock, deduct the amount
of these notes from their total property ? In esti-
mating his wealth, who deducts his share of the
national debt? The holders count them as part 01
their property, but the givers do not deduct them
from theirs. The more then issued, the greater the
seeming wealth, for all who hold count them as
part of their riches, while none deduct them as
part of their debts ; and this evident delusion leads
the country into the belief that it is richer by the
amount of the National Debt. The evil of the self'
deception in this belief which disguises the national
improvement is, that it encourages the boastful, reek'
less extravagance which the Nation says is rapidly
sapping the very foundation of the national pro-
ductiveness. If the debt were distributed to 0011
individual, taking four as the family attached to
every male adult, it would burden the head of each
with a liability of $355. Were this distri-
buted in accordance with wealth, and the country
as rich as in 1860, then every property bolder
would be sixteen per cent. poorer, or at the ests
mated ratio of positive decline in wealth his slim;
would now represent a tax of more than 20 per eell
These facts and figures have attracted attention'
They have been generally called in questio,het
eoPle
nowhere authoritatively contradicted. The p
unwilling to believe in the impoverishment, have ne:.
cepted the pleasant gloss of delusion thrown over
actual state of affairs by the inconvertible pap i 3
currency ; but the Nation, convinced that there
no cure except in tearing away this covering ae,lo
laying bare the truth, has done so with no geinf
hand, and thus concludes these able articles :---
all the people of the United States were to treat tba°
national debt as they treat their private debts, all t
were to deduct each one his share from the aaueeta.,
of their supposed individual wealth, how. many
people who are now at Newport would ilast°l;
back to town in spite of the heat, how many
gilded equipages would be discarded, how man o
idlers return to labour, how quickly the eight-hou'r
„
movement would be stopped and the bricklarls
.
resume their work, how carefully the reckless ei`_
'
penditures of city and county and national gov,i,era h
meats would be scanned and scrutinized, hew
financial ability would rise in public esteem, hoor
much honesty would advance in value, and
,110
resolutely, above all, a whole awakened
would sternly vow never to permit one swoto
dollar to be a ided, on any pretence whatsoever,
that most injurious of all delusions—the nation
debt!"

The Rev. B. Spalding, brother to Arehbigh °P
Spalding, of Baltimore, lost his life at Louisville, 8.11.
tucky, on the 4th August, by his mosquito netting ol'ij3;

fire from the gas burner.
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Births.
BUTTON—On the 31st ult., at 30, Hanover-terrace,
0.
gent's-park, the wife of H. E. Buxton, Esq., OL3:09611
ConnET—On the 31st ult., the wife of H. It Cory—
of Adderley, Shropshire, of twins, stillborn.
SAUNDERSON—On the 31st ult., at King -too, -too,
Rachel Saunderson, of a son.
Marriages. „bnpob
at Arioy ,
BROWNING CORNER— On the Ist inst.,
Herbert, fourth son of Clrts B Bset• o'rge
Maida-hill, London, to Emily, only' daughter o'f Cle
Corner, Esq., of Eltoff•terracc, Bristol.
PARKER—GRAN-Es —On the 28th ult. at St. 31811.P''
ings, Edward C. Parker, youngestß r
son of ‘8• ;).1 tb°
s' Esq., to Georgina Alice Graves, so oud daubh
Hon. Henry Graves.

Dni.c)ll:.-errxt n8ur..1.01..-- talt., atiDonlogancils:eiritiocrl;
elceonbnurtheDi3,,,h oaths.
Brackenbury, Esq., ofY' Briggiltsoenc,°Snt'is:ets'a, aged 65'Vtic4
TIC .t.lhkLieteEaOtT—hT,O MajoratSt.
3loletrhkielllet.y,
aCtl
q\lreiontet, .togtetdagBo2,.
0,
ntricviii4o
East, Regent's-park, the Rev. Dr. Flare. ,1., /4or"
Ross—On the 30th ult at Kilravaek liouse, 5011'"
wood-hill, Surrey, Major Y/
Ross, aged 74 e
. t
SMITH —On the 31st ult., at Malcolm Lodge, Bourilla
of
James Smith, Esq., aged 76.
TIMOTHY—On the 31st ult. David Timothy, Esq"'
Camden-road Villas Hollow' ay ao-ed 06'.__________________/
7 1 0
lOW St
_____________._.____-_, ._-----
London : Printed and Published by WILLIANI AND,,zo 111 i
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tub Sus 01110, '3ty 0
Strand., in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the 02"
UilllQ3Qli.""Weclncgclay, september V36s,