Litchfield enquirer., 1858-07-22
IS A NATIONAL DEBT A NATIONAL
 BLESSING

IS A NATlONAL DEBT A NATIONAL
 BLESSING
 At "a time when our government is running with sail set and cracking breeze right straight upon the breakers of . national debt, it may be we'll to take brief survey of the most monumental national debt in the world flor the purpose of seeing whether it is " a national blessing" to those who have to pay interest on it. and whether the example of those who contracted it, is worthy of imita- tion.
 The public debt of England at this moment amounts to upwards of four thousand millions of dollars, or, to put her obligations in a shape more intelligible to the ordinary mind, the an nual charges for which the industry of the na- tiou is specially mortgaged, amounts to more. than one hundred and forty millions of dollars every year, a sum in itself equal to the whole public expenditure of the country for civil. out the interest on this .debt and the taxes of Great Britain would instantly shrink to less than half their present dimensions st'
 The impression prevails, we suspect, to . considerable extent in this country and, per haps, elsewhere, that this debt is the slow ae- erection of an indefinite period of time, and that it las been the handmaid of England's prosperity that it has grown with her growth and strengthened with her strength and, when the possibility of similar burdens being bound on our backs, has been suggested, we have comforted ourselves with. the reflection that. like the calf which Milo carried mile every day until it became an OK, the increase in weight would be so gradual, and our nation al strength would be so steadily developed that we would bear the beast full grown as easily as we bore it during the week of it's birth.--- This is great and pernicious delnsion. No social evil, affecting all classes, is developed more rapidly, we believe, than nation debt. The monstrous debt of England is of compar. atively recent origin. None of it is twice as old as our constitution. With the excep- tion of triaing debt to bankers, the first loans were made in 1890, and to the amount of only $3, ,75O, 900. At the end of one hum dred years from that time, that is in 1T92, their debt had reached the sum of $l,306,- 900, 900, on which the annual charge to the government was $47,375,0OO.
 Withip the next twenty-three years this debt was increased by no less a sum than $2, ,965,- 900, 900, making total in 1816 of $4,270- GOO, 900, and involving an annual charge of $l62, ,2S0, 900. Thus in the short space of less than a century and quarter had this enor- nous and paralyzing debt grown up from notl- ing. ,,...,...... - We may see from these facts. that it Is one of the easiest things in the world to run na- ton into debt. To get it out, is one. of the most difficult as the experience of England proves and, of course the difficulty increases with the amount, in compound ratio. All that she has succeeded in reducing her indebt- ness with the variously contrived sinking funds which different generations of her statesmen have tried, amounts to but $230, ,000, 900, or less than her expenses for sirgle year.
 If England, when comparatively free from debt, could run behind almost three thousand millions of dollars in the short space of twenty three years at time when gold was worth much more than it is now, and her resources nothing like what they are at present, what reason have we to suppose Americans, wtO voted for Buchanan in 1856, may not live to pay interest on national debt larger in amount than the entire commercial capital of the ceun- try quarter of century ago3 If in time of profound peace with all except our own citizens, we find ourselves running behind about SIC (, ,0O0, 900 year, it is not too much tosay that war with any first class power,-and with foreign policy as reckless as ours no one can tell how soon such catastrophe may over take us,-would bring that tax upon us mach sooner even, perhaps, than the period we have named. - But it is not the burden which such indebt- edness binds upon the backs of the people, merely, that makes national debt national curse It weakens nation where 1t most needs strength, ,-in it's intercourse with foreign nations and provokes encroachment from abroad in the same degree that it weakens the capacity by increasing the cost of resisting it. The more considerate people of England feel this. They see that her foreign relations are affected unfavorably by her vast liabilities, and while there is no disposition to reproach the present government for what it is in no way re- sponsible, and for which no two can agree npon remedy, they cannot disguise the fact that it is an element of weakness against which it seems as if no human wisdom or foresight can provide.-N. Y Erening Post.
 
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