Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1859-02-23

pay ID, ana so on, or II, IKE the brfckH, Knocks
down i, b in turn knocks down C, and so on
through the alphabet.
To be more specific: At the time this difficulty
came on, the indebtedness this side of the wa
ter TO Europe may reasonably be estimated at not
less ilian six hundred millions of dollars. say
This because about the year 1852, Mr.. Abbott
Lawrence, who was then our Minister to England,
to,k much pAins 10 ascertain the amount then due,
ami lie estimated it at S450,00O,O00 Taking,
them the balance of trade against in that year,
of $40, l41, 548, md that again of 1858, which
was S61, ZOE, 1876, and in 1854, $50, 499, $685. and
in 1856, S3S S93, 205-making, in these four years
the sum of $500, T42, 53S, which, with balance in
the year 1856, that have not at hand, should be
added to the $55O.000, 600, together with the in
terest that had accumulated, las the gold and sill
yer shipped by steamer after steamer, was not
enough to keep this item down. it will be seen
that SG00.000 600 rather within than beyond the
probable amount Of our Indebtedness, on every ac-
count, to Europe.
Now, suppose this amount of paper in various
forms, which had served trading capital abroad,
is suddenly suspended: panic ensues, and there
is general failure this side to meet the Obli-
cations due on the other. All confidence in this
longer answers the purposes of trade or exchange
1t is difficult to understand how 1t would affect the
monetary concerns of the whole world?
What portion of this enormous debt has been
extinguished by fair bona fide Payments-how
much has been Inundated by bnnkruptcy-how
much has been compromised at twenty, thirty or
fifty cents on the dollar, Ihaye no means of form
ing conjecture. But we will suppose it all to
have been paid of-which is very far from the
fGct-and that We have now to take q fresh start
--what, then, is to be future, under the pres
ent system, lift shall be continued?
In little while, Yankee ingenuity and en-
terprisc-I use the term Yankee in its national
sense-aided by the unexampled resources of
the country will begin to push matters ahead
again. There will be partial recovery from
the present depression; confidence in American
securities will gradually be restored; heavy I'M
purtations will he made; the European manninc-
urers will get the entire control of our markets;
the balance of trade will go on steadily increas-
ing, from year to year against us; another enor-
nous debt will be created; the sub-treasury will
be rcplenished; the gold and silver, nOtrequired
for revenue and for locking up, Will be sent out
of the country, as heretofore, to keep down, as
much as possible, the rapidly accommodating in
terest; then some bubble will burst, or another
Ohio Life and Trust Insurance Company will
fail; panic will set in; confidence will again
be destroyed; payments will be demanded; there
will be nothing left i'll the country to meet them;
the banks will be compelled, in order to save
themselves, to protect their debtors; another
universal smash up" will ensue; and we shall
have the same scenes to go over again that VIC
have just passed through; and every cause but
the right one will be assigned for it, by those
who have produced all the mischief.
Why do / say this? Because Like Gegets Ike,
and similar causes produce similar results. Be
cause this has been the operation of the system
whenever it has been tried, and will lie the OPP
Grafton again, if continued, just as surely as
that Il well constructed locomotive will go ahead
when full head of steam is applied. 1t is the
natural working of the machinery and it cannot
he avoided.
The natural instincts of s'a burnt child" teach
him 'tO dread the fire." Why will not the
common sense of grown man, who have been
scorched almost to n cinder by Democracy, teach
them also to dread n further repetition Of those
fatal experiments which the political DIR. San
grades at Washington have already resolved to
try?
Yet, this visionary, speculative, experimental
and destructive closet theory Of Adam Sn it'll, ia
ken up by Mr.. Calhoun, (who, although bright
but erratic genius, was always wanting in that
first great cementOf true greatness, to wit, prac
teal utility,) but this theory, taken up by him,
and pressed by the peculiar school of politicians
who followed, wherever he chose TO lead, hold
ing, as they did, the balance of power. between
the two great parties of the country-forced 1t
upon the Democracy as party measure, and 1t
was substituted for the maturcd wisdom and
teachings of Washington, the elder Adams, JET
ferson, Madison, Monroe. calhoun himself In
1Sl6-17,) Adams Clay Webster and all the most
prominent of their contemporaries; and by that
memorable and unyielding rule of tho party, o.
which have already spoken, it has been adj
hered to with all the lei acity of death notwith
6tnnQlnH It's Dltter, POISONOUS duu llle ueStEOJ
fruits have been seen and felt and tasted.
In surveying the present condition of thu
country the task would be but imperfectly per-
formed if We were to overlook the present con-
dition of the Public Treasury, the expenditures
of government and the means by which it is now
carried on. But shall not dwell long upon it
l shall only say so much rs will be sufficient t.
attract public attention to it, and shall simply
present it, us it is exhibited by the President
message to Congress, but in a more simple, anc
hope more Ineligible form.
1t appears then that on the LIST day of June
1857, the commencement of the fiscal year, there
was Sl7,T10,1l4 % surplus in the treasury.
When the troubles of 1857 broke out, the Ad
ministration, confident that their fayOrite party
scheme of the Sub Treasury was beyond TIN
reach of these periodical revulsions, as Mr.. Blu
chanan calls them land bye the bye, if he hat
investigated the matter little more closely, III
would have found that these periods had Away
followed close on the heels of low duties and FREE
trade. and never under a protective duty, vert
engaged in tue lucrative business of buying VI
the bonds of the United States not then due TO
some fifteen years, at premium of 10 or Is pc
cent, as they had several times done before, TO
tue privilege of unlocking the Sub-treasury
door, and restoring to the channels OF trad'
,rhot 90 hove soi6 baforn shOuld never havt