Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-09-13
THE AMERICAN CRISIS ABROAD.
Reckless ProfIigacY of the Federal Gov-
eminent.


The armies Of Xerxes and the wealth of Solomon
would hardly sustain comparison with the hosts
OF men and mountains of money which at any rate,
upon paper-sre placed at the command of PRESS
dent Lincoln for the suppression of the Southern
Confederacy. We may venture, perhaps, to pass
without too rigorous & scrutiny the bold, though
somewhat gasconading, vote by which the intelli~
genee of the defeat at Manassas was received in
Congress. The millions precipitately offered
represented probably the patriotic resolution of the
North to spend its last dollar in the preservation of
the Union; but without pressing these loose figures
to their literal import, we are really astounded at
the conclusions which forced upon us by recent
reports. 1t used TO be thought that this country
had attained an unhappy but unapproachabe emf
hence in national indebtedness Half our entire
expenditure in ordinary yeals still goes to pay the
interest of borrowed money and when we were
told 10 look at America and observe how, under
democratic institutions country popnlous as our
own could be governed at quarter OF the expense,
we could not but feel the force of the contrast We
knew indeed, that America had all her temptations
to come, and it was occasionally remarked IN these
columns that the tendency to extravaganza on the
other side of the Atlantic rapidly increasing
but the comparison still remained striking one.
Now however, q critical test has been applied.
America Is involved in war, and the rate at which
she Is raising men and money will, If carefully
examined, appear almost too extraordinary for belief
The exact position of American finances must be
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
rate of about 975000 900 per annum This, it Is
true is less by e9 600 900 than the amount of our
own expenditure-es4 900 000-in the heaviest
year of the Crimean war; but One-third of that
charge was absorbed in providing for the national
debt and the whole sum only showed an excess OF
some 35.000,0OO over our ordinary place expendl-
ture In 1858 spent e5l 900 600; in 1854, ESQ.,,
600 600; and it was until fouGd ourselves in
the very agony of the struggle that we added some
sixty per cent to our usual outlay We may say IN
short that the war cost us for the twelve months,
when it was most expensive, about ESQ 900 600 of
money, whereas the cUu 10ar is costing the Americans
at its veg outset at least tIoice that An expendi
ture of Els 900 900 represents an excess of about
eco OoO, 900 the ordinary outlay of the Federal
Government, and this incurred when the first cam
naion has lust been opened and before the real pro-
portions of the war can be supposed to be devel
oped This, however, though most Ominous fact
constitutes by no means the most striking feature
| of the case before US.
When we, in this country, were spending these
tens of millions upon the in hand we we're also
taxing ourselves in proportion We met an outlay
of e8 900 900 by taxes TO the amount OF E63 OOOOeO
net actually paid into the Exchequer after the costs
| of collection had been deducted. In the following
yeal we provided no less than e68 100000 to meet
an aggregate charge of Els 900 OO0 so that in the
two years together we added only some $50 900 900
to the national debt. In fact, the whole war, san
culinary and exhausting as 1t proved only augment
ed the public debt by the sum of 932,193,OOO Let
US now contrast these statistics with the accounts
| received from America. The ordinary Federal rev
enue amounts to about el6 0000 00 so that the ex
traordinary charge of the to be met either by
taxation or loan is, as we have said, about 96O-
| 900 000 But how do the Americans propose to
raise this What proportion will they borrow, and
| what proportion will they levy by taxation? As
far as we collect from the figures transmitted,
they design to borrow the whole. They have voted
| fresh taxes undoubtedly but these taxes, we i'm
agine, will do little more than provide for the
mere interest of the debts contracted, or, as 1t Is
phrased serve as "a basis for loans" We arrive
at this conclusion partly by srithmetlcal calculation
and partly from limitations conveyed by the Amer
| lean Journals. We told distinctly that though
| Congress was ready 10 authorize any amount of
loans it hesitated when asked for supplies on which
to base them and observe that, though the best
affected of the New York bankers did at first sug-
gest that provision should be made for meeting
part of the principal they presently admitted that
this arrangement might be dispensed with. More
over, it seems pretty evident 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 remark, will be necessarily ac>
cruing. Until we get the estimates OF the Govern
ment placed before us can do little more than
approximate to the truth by conjecture and COM
putation but if the Federal revenue, were TO be
doubled by the proceeds of fresh taxation the in
crease of income would be almost all absorbed IN
paving the interest of the debt which will probably
words the Americans now creating nations
debt st the rate of $50 100000 year.
We entreat the reader to observe for q moment
what this implies Such course trOlos all our bOr-
rOpinq into the shade. In all the nine years of the
American war. from 1873 to 2783, we only borrow
ed eIO4 10000 In the twenty two years of the
great Revolutionary war we averaged less than
100000 600 year, and in the tremendous year 1873
IA the loan was but e3G 100000. But this is only
half the battle. The burthen of load depends not
so much on the amount of principal as on the rat.
of interest We borrowed our money even in 1913 at
little above four and half per cent, and in 1854
at a little above three per cent. The Americans,
however, began by offer of seven per cent. and
are at this moment compelled TO pay ten tlOeUe per
cent. We find, therefore, that while EGO OOOO 900 an
nually would be added to their national debt &c.,
900 900 annually would be added TO tie charge of that
debt so that four years and quarters Of their present
expenditure lo0ld saddle them Ioih b,Tthen equal to
that tohich zoe hare Incurred in century and half
Mr. Gladstone has to provide some 100000 to
satisfy the public creditors of Great Britain. In the
year 1866, if the American war should be protract
ed so long, Mr.. Chases successor will have to pro
vide rather than thai sum for the creditors of
the Union.
1t is obvious that the war may not be carried on
so long, or continued at so heavy cost; and, in
deed, the exorbant propositions of Congress 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 ter
minatiOn Of the struggle. The SOutherners not
likely to succumb, nor the NorthePners to retire
Neither is at all in accordance with experience in
these matters that the cost of should be dimin
ished as 1t goes on. The scale of operations, in
deed, far resolutions go, has been actually ex>
tended The last mail tells US that the volunteer
bills passed by Congress empower the President to
call one million into the field and it sup
posed that half those numbers would be actually |
raised. Napoleon had not q larger army when he |
crossed the Niemen with the most prodigOus hoIt |
ever seen in modern days. We can detect no sign |
therefore, Of any curtailment in the dimensions of
this extraordinary 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 to rival the most reckless
of States in this ruinOus race, but they may not /
have the power Their credit is already but in
different and the terms of the market sure to /
become less and less favorable as loan follows loaD
This however, is the only difficulty likely to oper
ate as q check to the career. The desire for com
promise already discernible in the classes whom
the expenses OF the war will fall, would be nefec
tive in comparison with the passions of the multi
tude exempted from taxation. We see, in short /
Democracy in a crisis which brings all its various
pretensons to trial. Its institutions certainly /
not calculated to make men pacific, or this unnatur
al war would never have been adopted and prose
cuted as 1t has been. As certainly have they no /
tendency to promote public economy, for the ex-
pendture of the Americans is beyond all example |
We shall now be able to note their operation on /
popular opinion, ond observe how taxes regu-
lated and obligations incurred in great national
struggle. The commencement, however, says little /
for a system which has been so loudly extolled as
u