New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-02-03

every Public Debt be repudiated on the
overthrow of the administration or party
which contracted it Where is the
line to be drawn The Democrats who
came into power with Jefferson might have
urged that the obligations incurred by John
Adams in preparing to fight the French
were unnecessary aud unauthorized by the
People; so of the Wings with regard to
the Mexican War Debt, and so on.-No:
a Nation is Nation ; and when it permits
its liberties 10 be crushed, its power to be
welded by despOt or oligarchy, it does so
to its own loss, at its own peril.
And this brings to view one of the
practical evils of the Repudiating theory of
our friend-namely, its inevitable tendency
to array the whole mass of fundholders or
Government creditors on the side of the
powers that be- however despotic and I'M
worthy they may be. Every one who has
a dollar in the funds will be tempted to
say must stand by the existing Gov
eminent, or shall lose my income Thus
will be needlessly created powerful and
inexpensive ally and champion of existing
abuses and wrongs, more potent than
veteran army.
No: our correspondent has not seized
the right end of the rope. The true course
for People which has been ground down
by despotism or aristocracy is not to re-
pudiate the Public Debt on regaining their
liberties, but pay 1t of. That will be NOR
ally, unexceptionably and socially bene6-
cent. The Public Debt of Great Britain is
now Four Thousand Millions of Dollars;
now suppose the People of that Empire
were soon to attain Freedom and Equality
through Republic based on Universal Sut-
fIage, and were thereuPon to decree that
by fair assessment on all Property, the
whole Debt should be paid off at once, or
in ten annual installments, has our cores
pondent really considered what the effect
would be Suppose the whole tangible
Property of the Kingdom to be fairly worth
five times the amount of the Debt, 1t would
require an assessment on all property equal
to one fifth of its present cash value paya-
bic in money or in public securities; and
it might be found expedient to issue (for
the occasion) some new description of Cur
rency, in order to prevent a ruinous depre-
citation of the money value of Property,
which should thus be kept as nearly uni
form as possible, until the payment was
completed.
This plan, rightly carried into execution,
will have these consequences In the first
place, the fundholders will be paid off in
full, and will have nothing to complain Of
Instead of their Stocks, they will have
their equivalent in money, lands and other
productive property. Secondly, Property
will have been made to pay the Public
Debt, whereas the burden of it is now
mostly borne by Labor, and the Debt not
paid at all. The Wars which involved
that country so deeplyin debt were mainly
engaged in for the supposed benefit of Pro-
perty, and Property has generally approved
them, as Labor has not. In short time, the
Debt will be entirely gone, and its payment
will leave Property far more equally and
generally dihused than now. Many great
(mortgaged) estate will have been entirely
broken up yit and divided among thous-
and owners; many who had previously
lived in Incidence on the small income of
three to twelve hundred pounds in the
Funds, will have instead a cottage and
three to thirty acres Of land, with every
Indictment to improve and cultivate it.
There will be not q dollars worth less of
Property in the Country; and what there
is will be actually worth more after the
Debt is paid than now, beside being better
distributed. Labor will have been relieved
of staggering load, and Property treated
to a salutary lesson against the needless
mourning of Debt. Public Credit, in case
of need, will have been net destroyed, but
invigorated and fortified. Is not this better
than Reputation
The Fall River Strike.