New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1845-01-09
covernor wri.,,t,s MESSAGE

The calm, cold cunning of his nature comes GU
in his Message as every where. Able, acute aod
plausible as ne ever is, he will make no mark en
the page of History because ne AIMS at nothing,
aspires 10 nothing, beyond personal elevation and
party ascendency. Els Inind is subtle but not
eapecious, eternaIly dealing IN tcig'd negatlons,
and looking back into the primal darkness n"
man could make u more ingenious argument
ageins, having any sunshine for the next cen
tury, or present more frighttul array Of caiaml.
ties caused by the too fervent heat of the great
orb. Very nervous cid ladies' would doubtless
be chilled with horror, and many would watch
the day.dawn with painful forebodings-blt the
sun would shns nevertheless.
Any fair, straightforward man might have
presented the financial condition of our State IL
. column; Mr.. Wright has sinister purposes to
subserve, and 50 takes four columns. he is de-
tsrnined 10 frighien tho People OF New Yo.k
into continued acquiescence IN the Stop aud
Tax policy, while Great Britain Is drawing of
the business of our Canals, and the vast
Trade of the boundless Vest IS finding o.
making other channels 10 tho soaboarc,
from Phila 1elphia 10 Baltimore. And yet he
does not dare 70 state explicitly how much ls the
great State Debt which go appals HIM. We
gather from different columns OF his Message
that the whole amount (as he ciphers ~ IS 1885,,
6i54l34. but this is subject to many deductions
la the FIRST place, there is 81, 496 1861 Of avail
able funds set apart fpT the paYiaent of the OLD
Canal Debt, and to be paid on it in July next
49, L..
ty.fiye Millions We believe there are at least
Three Millions more of good assets of the Gene
raj Fund, but let the Debt stand for the present
at Twenty Five millions of Dollars, balanced by
all the Canals and other Property Of the State
What is there here to irighten ut into twenty
years torpidity1
Take The Revenue view OF the whole matter:
Our Canal Revenues for the past year were 49,.
350,6l6, while the entire charges thereupon, in
GLIDING 81, 03l,l23 for Interest or the Canal
Debt, and $546.665 FOR Expenses of managing,
repairs, Sc. 100000 far losses Of tie Canal
Fund and $780, 600 contributed 10 the General
Fund, amounted bat 10 Sl,777,950i, leaving
clear surplus Of Canal profits applicable to tic
payment eli principal of the Debt, or 10 the com
pletion of the unfinished Works, as Mr.. Wright
counts, of S572, 645, but, as we nsist, of STA
CAS-, since the two items aoovc cited vi S 100000
each are clearly cx;raneous from the proper bur
thsns OF the Canals Hero, then, are our Canals,
bali constructed, dsjonted, with at least half the
expenditure upon them unpfoductive ioc the
want Of a few millions more, yet earning Three
Quarters OF silon Dollars per annum over
their expenses aad interest, and yet the Governor
of the State oxhausting all his remarkable ipge.
nuity to irishten the People from completing
thosc Works by fpectres OF Taxation and Bank
ruptcy
We meet this whole question of Debt very
plumply. We deny that there is any fairness in
comparing our States indebedness for living and
paying Canals with what ere called Natioaa
Debts, originating in desQla;ing wars, and for
which there is nothing to show but bones and
ashes. If Great Britain had good Railroads and
Canals to show for all he, Public Debt, paying
into her Treasury even five per cent interest on
their cost, she would 30 practically out q debt,
because able to become SO at any moment by the
sale OF the fruits OF the Debt. So is New York
to-day. There is rational probability-therc
is scarcely possibihty-that cur Canals will
ever, for three successive years, produce less Re-
venue than for the three last The probability is
entirely the other way, that they will 60 on IN
cfeasng their trade ana tolls from year TO year,
as they have hitherto done, fully 10 tue ratio as
sumed in Mr. Ruggies's much detained Report,
which Time is no7y viociceung.
1t seems TO US most clear, therefore, that the
Governors notion that the People mus! be taxed
sufficiently To pay off every loan when due is co
iircly faacious, and rs unjust as inpo!itic. The
State Works benefit Ia unequal measure different
sections ana Counties, but ,he NJ H. Tax is inpos-
cd equally on Suffolk as on Erie, on Ulster and
Monroe. When the debt shall have been paid of
by means of t. tae Canal Counties viii clamor
for reduction of tolls and carry II, and thus The
Southern Counties will have been taxed u opIn
a free passage 10 their markets for The boundess
produce of the West. The Just aud fair way
seems to DO to make The Canals bear lheir own
weight, especially when they are a5undsntly able
TO DO 50. They are certain TO pay all charges
and eventually extiDguish the debt; why no.
allow them 10 dc it The stocks which fail doe
meantime can easily be replaced By new issues Ut
still more favorable rates, reducing the aenual
bur,hen There canuot be reasonable doubt that
We nigh; extend the term OF payment of any
portion OF our deUt u. A; per cent. So long as our
annual income shall palpaoly exceed the charges
upon It, Then why tax it our of the people vino
ought not TO pay it, and 20 whom ii IS worth seven
per cent
The Governo, unfairly represents The new
financial policy US he calls it. which was COM
menced in 1885 with the sanction OF Gcv. MAJ
cy and Regency Senate, and continued BY tbs
Wings under Gov. Seward. 1t Was a funda.
mental principle of chat policy, as SC, forth IN
Mr.. yerplanck's Report, TO borrow no farther and
no faster than the actual receipts OF Revenue
urnnld cover The whole sccrrinr interest," The