Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-09-04
LINCoLN's WAR EXPENSES AND WAR TAXES.
Ffom the London Times August "a

NAi"S PA"NNi e0PS-' "A'O's INC uiy sOOus JOO
L1NcoLN's WAR EXPENSES AND WAR TAXES.
From the Loudon Times august a.
Every Englishmsn knows, by the experience of
his own country, where the shoe would begin to
pinch the American belgerents. Ia that country
as elsewhere, any number of men can be procured
TO fight, after some fashion, in any cause, good or
bad if they only well paid well fed well cloth
ed, well housed, and moderately well commanded
with come prospect, if not Of booty, at least of
whole skin. So 1t becomes a question of prOney.
confidence in money alone has always proved false;
but money there must be- and there is no country
in which it is more necessary than in the United
States, where wages are high and work is abundant
A war will cost there almost much as it did here,
for if the work is nearer home, and the area of the
wsr somewhat less than the whole surface Of this
terraqueous GLOBE STILL for that very reason there
Is much interruption Of the ordinary pursuits of
life. In the fest place, all the bonds of debtor and
creditor whether public or private and all the
latOns of business in cotton and other cultivation,
at sn end. The State governments themselves
set the example of reputation by refusing to cash
bonds, or coupons, witch can be traced 10 the pos
session of The other party the struggle. Search
ing interrogatores are put and must be answered
on oath, before state Will pay interest which may
find its way to hostile hands. Meanwhile commerce
is interrupted by blOckades and privAteers and i'm
mense works commenced in the depth of peace are
stopped by the withdrawal of hands and resources,
and not less by a general diminuten of confidence
in the prospects Of the country. At Washington,
finance observes the old forms of Union, and sup
p7ses tax to be levied on all the States Its
obliged, however to condesceni to fact aad c2lcs
late on the certainty that only halt tie States viii
respond to the cstl.
As is usual in such novel situations the Federal
cause has fed It's treasury from hand TO mouth by
such expedients the issue Of bonds, redeemabeiu
sixty days, md of course, 10 be rep aced by similar
issues. But the assuming more gigan-
tie proportions a hundred thousand men postzd in
and about Washington found insufficient and
the best excuse thai be made for a disgrace
frl rout is that many of the States Militia were
glad to avail themselves Of the expiration of their
three months engagem ant, and that the enemy had
command of larger reserves. All this show that,
great as the efforts are which have already been
made, they not up to the mark, Sixty or eighty
thousand more men are demanded and will soon be
in the field. All the arseuals, backwards aud man
Ufactories of arms are at work. Immense orders
dispatched TO this side the Atlantic and will be
promptly met All this reminds Engiishmen of the
days when war, rever too well supplied, cost US
sixty or seveety millions sserliQg year, sometimes
with other result than defeat and loud com
plants of insufficient men, money and munitions.
So the Congress Of Washington is locking the
difficulty, they say there, square in the taee;"
not so square" however, as they will one day
have to look at it. There appears to be no difcul
ty il the authorization OF loans to any amount in
deed at this moment government has large powers
for the issue of Treasury for three years and
has found the market we presume, unfavorabe for
the exercise OF Its powers, The real question is
how 10 fad pro- er basis for loans in an augment
ed and well paid revenue. This involves taxation
and, unfortunately, taxation appesre to be a point
on which the Eastern and Western States ofthe fed
eral Union almost as much at variance as both
are with the Southern ConiederacY The Western
States have a particular objection to taxes; and
whSn read the war budget which the Congress
seems finally to have decided on one feels that such
objection msy be expressed not only in good sen
fences on the floor OF Congress, but also in not
tIat,l
tax of $50 600 600 apportioned among the States
and expected from only half, the new budget pro-
pOses tax upon carriages, varying from one dol
to fifty; tax upon Watches an excise duty on
spirituous liz aors OF five cents gallon and on fer
mented liquors of sixty cents barrel; and gene
raj tax upon incomes, the rate OF which, well az
the incomes liable is not yet decided. Meanwhile
the Morrill, tariff is untouched except by the mpo
sitiOn of additional duties Every item in this
budget SUCCESS financial war, diff .ult if not
so saDguinary, as the war in the open field
Our great war a period of smuggling
by sea and by lind. An army of excisemen, fleet
of revenue cutters, and coas,guard that nightly
watched and paced the whole of our shores, were
necessary to protect the revenue, without which
ihe war must have come to an end. 1t cannot be
otherwise in the Northern States. The United
States contain the same social elements as those
which in this country have ever evaded taxation
when it was sble. The morality of the tax
payer on reiaxes when his political feelings con-
spre with his pecunary interests and his conscience
throbs in his pocket Already we are told that the
Western States have Gel tin paUSibe objections to
taxes, a ID a m jOIi5y o. III B4nkers at New York
are altogether averse to the war and its causes
the private Intelligence that reaches agree in
describing the war as the result of mob passions
and the real act of men who have comparatively
little interest in the mantenace Of union, order,
national credit property itself When such is !
the case they who have Incomes who spend, and |
who employ, will feel small enthusiasm for the !
war; as as on the other hand they who enter INTO
it heart and soul viii be generally men of less
means, lower social position, add need AIDA
laxer tone of morality What prospect Is this fort
succession of War Budgets, like from 1898 TO 4
1915, each more colossal, more exclusive, more ruin
Gus than the last? Washington has already lsarnt +
the secret of some of our military reverses; it
will now learn to sympsthize with our finance h
But there is another question which presents it
self II the capitalist before the solvency of
State or the yield of tax, the final success of
cause: and that is the number and frequency Of
similar calls If We to Judge of the immense {
figures on paper paraded by the NJrtheTners this 4
is war that may take rank iIh any of ours-with
the European war, which cost US from first to last
more than thousand millions of money OF the
Russian war. which cost us a hundred millions in
two years. If the government of Washington is OBJ
liged to ask for hundred million dollars today,
when and how soon win it have to repeat that de- (
mand; and how many such demands will it have to I
make this year 1ld for nov mary years? Every such
demand will compete in the market with the bonds
of the last and our old folks can remember with
what celebrity pronIse to pay e5 year became
worth not so much as ESQ prudent people do not
like huying stock at Its present price when they
know that twenty or thirty millions more viii soon
be thru Wn on the market for what it will fetch.