Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-12-19
BANKRUPTCY OF THE NATIONS.

The manner in which the nations have been do
ing business heretofore, and the disastrous results
that must sooner or later follow, are forcibly pre-,
scented in the following article from the New York
Sun
There is not a nation 10 Christendom can pay its
debts in full. Nationally, the United States are
not heavily in debt; but as a people, as States
and communities, our debts are immense. The
general government owes comparatively little, and
the national property is worth many times all the
republic owes: but there is not enough gold coin
on the Western continent to pay the debts Of in
dividuals, of city and other corporations, and of
the several States. 1t would take q large share of
the specie in the vaults of our city Banks to pay
the debts of our city corporation, and all the gold
in the State would scarcely pay the State debt
Were we, then, called on to pay our debts in spe-
Gle, we should be obliged to make confession of
general bankruptcy. We contracted these debts
under an inflated state OF the currency, and we
cannot pay them in 'hard coin"
The case of other nations is similar. England
is oppressed with a national debt which she can
never ray. France, Australia, aud all the Ger,
man States, are in the same category. They are
all so deeply involved in debt, that they must soon,
er or later repudiate, or sink under the load. The
whole system of finance in Euro pc and in this
country is artificial and unsound. Debts are made
TO represent wealth, since the consols and coupons
the stock and evidence of public debt-are
bought, exchanged and deposited as the represen.
tatives Of value, when, in fact, they have no in.
trinsic or fixed value, and may, under certain cir
cumstances, become utterly yalueless as securi-
ties.
The State of New York, for instance, owes some
twenty-five millions of dollars and it has issued
promises to pay to an equal amount. These prom
Uses are bought and sold as property, and as rep
resentatives Of value, but their value huctuates ac-
cording to the state of the money market. When
money is plenty, or rather, when the demand for
it is limited, State stocks command a premium, be.
cause they bear interest. and the State is supposed
to be a good debtor but when money is scarce,
or the demand for it is large, State stocks will not
sell at par, because the interest which they pay
bears but a small proportion to the interest which
individuals will pay for the use of the money in
vested in them.
Thus. the business man who, in prosperous
times, invests his profits in the purchase of State
stocks, bearing six per cent. interest. will, wheu
the times become adverse. and he ls obliged to pay
! two and three per cent. o month for the use Of
} money, sell his stock readily below par, rather
than go into the street TO borrow at exhorbitanl
J rates of interest. And when all want money and
few want stock securities, all kinds of certificate
of Indebtedness must decline in price. 1t will bt
seen, therefore. that a financial system which EN-
ploys the evidences of our public Indebtedness, al
! if they constituted wealth of a fixed AMI perma
! nent character, ia exposed to many and frequen
disturbing influences. And when we add 80 these
the evidences of our railroad and other debts
which are still more sensitive to the varying con
ditions of the financial world, we have constructed
a composite system of finance, which the first vic
lent shock to credit will break in pieces. 1t doet
seem as if the commercial nations of the worlC
will yet be obliged to go into general bankruptcy
and reconstruct their financial systems on a sim
pier and sounder basis.