The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer. (Bel Air, Md.) 1862-1864, 1862-06-21

6 No true patriot can contemplate the fu-
ture of our country without the most
poignant feelings Of sorrow and shame
sorrow that the wealth-producing classes
areto be burdened with taxes that shall eat
out their substance aud shame that this
great and prosperous land should have
sunk, in about one short year, to the low
condition it now, occupies reasonable
man expects to see us escape from the pres
ent war with less debt than $2,000,000,-
900. The public lands will all be absorb
ed in "homestead bills" or in bounties to
soldiers, and there will be no revenue from
that source. The only resource left to
provide for this debt will be taxation
The interest on two thousand millions Of
dollars will be, at six per cent. per annum,
just equal to the interest upon the public
debt of Great Britain, which is three per
cent. upon four thousand millions of dol
lars. It will thus be seen that two years
Of Republican, party management have
loaded us down with the same burdens
which now enslaye the, producing classes
Of England. There must come $40, 000,-
900 every year from the pockets of the
producing classes to pay the interest, on
our public debt. In other words, there
must be sold each and every year, $780,
600, 900 worth of the products Of labor TO
60 into the pockets of the capitalists. 1t
is the high rate Of interest in this country
which, more than any other one cause, is
making the poor poorer and the rich rich
er.
Look at the frightful sum Of money
which, in the course Of fifty years., this in
terest on our public debt would take from
the working men Of this country. The
simple interest in fifty years will amount
TO sic thousand millions Of dollars, or three
times the principal, But this is not all !;
the $l2O, 100000 annually taken from la
Dor is reloaned each year, and at compound
interest, which is the true way to- compute
it, would amount to q sum almost beyond
the power Of figures. No nation can
stand this absorption Of the products of la
Dor by capital without the masses being
reduced to poverty and beggary., The
public debt Of England has been hun
dred years ,accumulating, and the interest
upon it is only three per cent, and yet
her wisest statesmen have found it one of
the most difficult Of all questions to han
die. If the interest on her public debt
had been six instead Of three per cent, the
nation could not have endured the bur
den. Nor can we for any length of time.
It is the high rate of interest which eats
out the substance of the people, and makes
everybody in debt. The simple reason is,
because the money absorbs more of the
products Of labor than it ought to do, and
hence it accumulates in the hands of those
who possess it, and as it accumulates it
keeps on absorbing the products of labor
in compound ratio.
The public debt of Great Britain pro-
duced revolution there. 1t destroyed
the small farmers or yeomanry, the tilleys
Of the soil being always the first to feel
the oppression Of taxation, because the
percentage of their profits are less than in
any other business. The small farms were
absorbed by large Landed proprietors, and
the children of the farmers driven to the
towns to become factory slaves. Property
gradually concentrated in the hands Of a
few, as under the workings of high tax
alton, it must always continue to do
Does any one suppose that this county will
be an exception to this inevitable law r
1t were madness to suppose So Indeed
We shall go down the hill Of poverty with
much greater rapidity than they have
across the water; for here the interest on
our public debt win take just double Of
the proceeds of labor to pay its interest
Where it takes one bushel Of wheat in Eng
land from the farmer, here it will take two.
Where the halter there has to contribute
one hat to pay interest here he must contri-
butte two. Where the. laborer gives one
days work there, he must give two here,
and SO on through all the rami6cation of
business. IN
But when we add to the $4,000, 900
Of interest the annual expenses Of. the
Government, we are ut a. loss how we are
going to obtain the sum No one can tell
what it will be. No Que expects it, inter
est and all, even should the army be dis
banded, to be less than 100000
All this must come from the hard earnings
of the laboring classes. There is no other
place it can come from simply because all
wealth must be produced, and money is
but the representative Of wealth. Hence
the $500 100000 governmental annual
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