American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-11-04

HE BANKERS MAGAZINE, AND STATE FL
NAECIAL REGISTER. The November number
of this Publication is before US. It's published
and edited by J. Smith Romans, Esq, of this
: city, and contains variety of useful informa-
ton We transfer from its pages to our CO.
! umns, letter from our distinguished towns
man, J. j. Speed Esq, on the subject of the
public debt of Maryland-a subject to which
! the powers ofhs enlarged and comprehensive
mind have been assduousIy devoted for years
past; and whose opinions have consequently
had great and salutary influence both at home
and abroad-the London papers having quoted
and referred to them in terms of high appro-
baton.
In the letter published to-day, Mr.. Speed
4 expresses the conviction, that the next Legis-
I lature will appoint day for the resumption of
payment Of interest on the public debt. This
is point which we have been endeavoring to
enforce, and we think that it is called for by
public sentiment. On another matter we en-
tlrely concur in opinion with Mr. Speed-that
is, that we cannot honestly fund the back in
terest at less rate than six per cent--uness,
indeed, we are prepared TO offer the public Gre
ditor the alternative of reduced stock or
cash, If we owe a million Oh interest ac-
count, we cannot discriminate between the
parties TO whom it is due-saying to one you
shall take five per cent stock for your portion
of the debt, and to another, your share shall
hanr ipt Of L.
must stand upon the same footing, and the
whole should bear an interest of six per cent
BALTIMORE, I2th October, SAC.
To The Editer Of the Bankers .Magozine:
Recent developments have satisfied me, We
ry firmly, that the sentiments of my letters.
heretofore published on this subject, were the
sentiments of the great masses of my fellow ci-
items, that those sentiments, from the culture
which they naturally received in honest breasts,
have rpened into fixed and universal purpose
to lift up and re-estabsh the States honor,
and to restore the public faith
The two last general elections have brought
US hearty and resolute expressions of this deter
minaton from every county in the State; and,
| Affirm, that there is not now left an election
district in Maryland, where an advocate of re-
pudlation could get dozen intelligent votes
for the smallest office in the gift of the people.
In our own good city of Baltimore, | am proud
10 state, we have tax paying community of
uneXampled rectltsde. In its darkest precincts
in its obscurest suburb, no repudiator or tenet of
reputation can be found. Yet here the loads
of taxation are doubled and trebled upon u.s.
The great public works we are constructing,
the charter levies, the demands for the public
exchequer present an accumulation of burthens;
yet the tax-gatherer is met with cheetfuness,
and il his demands diminish the dishes upon
our tables, deprive US Of the luxuries and even
OF some of the comforts oflife, he is, neverthe-
less, met with cheerfulness; he is regarded not
as a I've, but as minister TO our honor. | do
not mean, by all tins, to say that cur burthens
are SO heavy that we cannot long endure them;
quite the contrary-l0r while they are some
thing heavier than those in NeS York and
Massachusetts, they are exceeded by those of
Pennsylvania, and are three-iold lighter than
those Of Ohio. The truth is, our people have
been spoiled, heretofore, by an entire exemp-
ton from taxation. They were unaccustom-
ed TO it until our present troubles The State,
possessing a large fund in the stocks Of the
banks-the proceeds of extensive confiscations
OF real property, made Immediately after the
revolution derived such revenue from it, as,
when added to the yield of slight system Of
indirect taxation, supported the government
And SO their minds have not been enured to
these things They have been enjoying the
blessings and protection of government, with
out themselves supporting it; and this, sin
eefely lhink, has been anything but an advan
lage 10 them. In the first place, they would
have weighed the expenses of government bet
ter, had they themselves supported it; and, a.
bove all, they would have been less likely to
have contracted this large debt, if il had been
palpable to them, from the teachings of expert
ence, that they would have to redeem it by
their own labor and toll. The monitor is. how.
ever, now amongst them, and they will not,
soon, forget his sautary instructions. | pro
coed to the second branch Of the inquiry. In
my Judgment, the Legislature have erred in not