New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-09-16

columns that the tendency 70 extravaganza on the
other side Of tie atlantic was rapidly increasing
but the comparison still remained striking ensg
Now, however, . critical test has been applied
America ID involved in war, and the rate at which
she is raising men and money will, II carefully ex.
aned appear almost too xtraofdfnafy for beliefs
The exact position Of American finances must bs,
to great extent matter of estimate even in the
country itself, but it has been calculated on good
authority that the actual expenditure Of the Fed
eral Government, at the present moment, is at the
true, is less by so0ooo 900 than the amount Of our
own expenditure ss4 900 y0Gg-in the heaviest
year Of the CrimeaB war: bnt one-third of that
sharge was absorbed in providing for the national
debt, and the whole snn only showed an excess Of
some E35 00g.OS0 over our ordinary place expendi-
ture. In 1858 we spent H1 900 060; IN 1854 G6G,-
100000: and it was nGs until we found ourselves in
the very agony of the struggle that we added some
sixty per cent. to our usuaf outlay. We NAV saw
in short that the war cost us for the twelve months
when it was most expensive, about f30GG0 600 Of
money, whereas the ci7ii is costing the anne1i-
cans, at its very outset, at least twice that sum. An
expenditure of E75 900 eco represents an excess
about ESQ 900 on the ordinary outlay Of the
Federal Government, and sais incurred when the
first campaign has just been opened; and before
the real proportions Of the war can be supposedto
be developed. This, however, though most omi-
nous fact constitutes By means the most striking
feature of the case before US.
hen we, in this country, were spending these
tens OF millions upon the war in hand. we we're
also taxing ourselves in proportion. We met an
outlay OF 6s4, ,uo0,6 BY taxes to the amount of
1853 600 net, actually paid into the Exehequer
after the costs of collection had been deducted.
In the following year we provided no less than
Egg 100000 to meet an aggregate charge of f7s,5
600 900; SO that in the fHo. years together we
added only some EDO 900 go to the national debt.
In fact, the whole war, sangninary and exhausting
as it proved, only augmanfed the public debt by
the surn of f32 793 600. Let us now contrast these
statistics with the accounts received from America.
| The ordinary Federal revenue amounts to about
5l6, ,ooO so that the extraordinary charge of
the war, to be met either BY taxation or loan, s,
| as we have said, about EGO ,1C0 900. But how do
the Americans propose to raise this What pro-
portion viii they borrow, and what proportion Will
they levy by taxations As far as we can collect
the whole. They have voted fresh taxes. undoubt-
edly; but these taxes, we imagine, will do little
more than provide for the mere interest of the
debts contracted, Or as it s phrased, serve as a
basis for loans"
We arrive at this conclusion partly by arithmeti-
cal calculation, and partly from intimations con-
yeyed by the American journals. We are told dis
| tincty that though Congress was ready to author
ize any amount of loans, it hesitated when asked
for supplies on which to base them and we OBJ
| serve that, though the best affected of the New
should be made for meeting part Of the principal,
they partly admitted that the arrangement might
| be dispensed with Moreover, it seems pretty ev-
dent that the produce of the new taxes will not
suffice for much more than the liquidation of the
enormous interest, which, as we shall presently re-
| mark, will be necessarily accruing. Until we get
| the estimates of the Government placed before US
we can do little more than approximate to the
truth as by conjecture and computation but if
the Federal revenue were to be doubled by the
proceeds of fresh taxation, the increase OF income
would be almost all absorbed in paying the.inter-
est of the debt which will probably be contrasted
| by this time tweivemonth. In other words the
| Americans are now creating a1national debt atthe
| rate of ESQ, 600 600 q year.
| We entreat the reader to observe for moment
/ what this implies Such a course throws all our
borrowing into the shade. In all the nine years of
the American war from i71s to 1888, we only bor-
rowed fl04 008,000. In the twenty two years of
the great Re voutionary war we averaged less than
f40,0 900 a year, and in the tremendous year
lSl3-l4, the loan was but f36 ,000. But this is
only half the battle. The burthen of loan de-
pends not so much on the amount of principal as
| on the rate of interest. We borrowed our money
| even in 1873 at little above four and half per
cent, and in 1854 at little above three per cent
| The Americans, however, began by an offer of
| seven per cent, and are at this moment compelled
| to pay ten or twelve per cent. We find therefore,
that while $50 ,Oo00oO annually would be added to
| their national debt, &c, ,000,00O annually would be
added the charge of that debt that four years
and three-quarters of their present expenditure
would saddle them with burthen equal to that
which we have incurred in century and half.
Mr. Gladstone has to provide some f23ooo,o0o to
satisfy the public creditors of Great Britain In
the year 1866 if the American war should be pro-
tracted so lonr, Mr.. Chase's successor will have to
provide rather than that sum for the credit
ors of the Union.
1t is obvious to remark tbas the war may not be
carried SO long, continued at so heavya cost;
and, indeed, the exorbant propositions of Con-
gress were probably based upon the assumption
that the way to make short work was to go to
work unsparingly at first. But the history of the
campaign up to the present point contains little to
suggest speedy termination of the struggle. The
Southerners are not likey',to succumb, nor the
N0rtherners to retire. Neither is at all in accord
ance with experience in these matters, that the
cost of a war should be diminished as it goes on.
The scale of operations, indeed, far as resolu-
tons go, has been actually extended. The last
mail tells US that-the Volunteer bills passed by
Congress empower the President to callsoue mil
lion men into the field, and it was supposed that
> half those numbers would be actually raised Ma
poeon had not q larger army when he crossed the
Niemen with the most prodigious host ever seen IN
modern days. We.can detect no sign, therefore,
of any curtaiment in the dimensions Of this extra
ordinary war, though we may well doubt whether
/ the Americans will find themselves able to borrow
quite SO fast as they desire. They have evidently
the will orival the most reckless of States in this
ruinous race, but they may not have the power.
Their credit is already but Indifferent, and the
terms of the market are sure to become less and
less favorable as loan follows loan. 81
Il This, however, Is the only difficulty likely to
operate as check to the career. The desire for q
compromise, already discernable in the classes on
whom the expenses of the war will fall, would be
ineffective in comparison with the passions of the
multitude exempted from taxation. We see, In
short, Democracy in a crisis which brings all its
various pretensions to trial. Its institutions are
certainly not calculated to make men pacific, or
this unnatural war would never have been adopted
and prosecuted as it has been. AZ certainly have
they no tendency to promote public economy, Tor
the expenditure of the Americans is beyond all ex-
ample. We shall now be able to note their opera
ton popular opinion, and observe how taxes are
regulated and obligations incurred IN great na'
, , tonal struggle. The commencement, however,
says little for system which has been so loudly
, extolled as superior to all others.
t Things la Washington.