The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer. (Bel Air, Md.) 1862-1864, 1862-03-22
The War Debt for One Year Difficulties
of Collecting Taxes.

of Collecting Taxes.
A Washington correspondent Of the
New York Evening Post says: The pub
lie debt Of the United States at the end of
the present fiscal year fJune, 1862 will
be about $3.50, 900, 900. So said Mr.. Fes-
sender, Chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee, in his able speech on the Trea-
sury Note bill. The average interest on
this debt is trife more than six per cent.
but say $45, 900, 900 per annum It is
estimated by the same eminent Senator that
the budget for all expenses, aside from the
increase of army and navy and interest on
the public debt, will be about 100000
per annum. A way is thus provided for
the disbursement Of $115,000,000 annu-
ally, without counting for the enlargement
of our military and naval establishments,
which, for a year or two at least, cannot
be less than $50, 900, 900 per annum great
er than they were before the breaking out
of the present rebellion. In point Of fact,
the House has just sent to the Senate q ma
val appropriation bill Of $50, O0O,OOO Il
is safe to say that the demands on the
Treasury to be met by taxation, direct and
indirect, will not be less than $165 900 900
per annum. If we take into account the
losses to be entailed by the issue Of Gov
ernment shinplasters, in the expulsion OF
gold, and the increased cost of everything
the Government has to buy, this sum will
be much larger. The tyros who thought
to obtain $l50,000, 900 without interest,
by the issue of Treasury notes, have already
fonnd five per cent. shaved on their issues
before they are out of the paper-mill and
the engraver's shop. And it may be pre-
dicted with as much confidence as the next
eclipse, that no number of victories by land
or sea can stay the rnsh Of our specie to
Europe, or long prevent the steady depre-
citation of the notes. if the mad scheme is
persisted in.
The most formidable problem for our
rulers to deal with is, how to raise $685.
100000 per annum. Borrowing and exit
ing" have their limit The limit of bor-
rowing is always reached sooner by resort
to Hitting" than in any other way
When it is proposed to raise $l65, 0O0, 900
by taxation in one form and another, we
know just where we stands One hundred
and sixty-6ve millions Of dollars are con-
crete substance provided they be not pa
per dollars) which may be handled by the
four rules of arithmetic, distributed by the
census tables, and apportioned to States,
counties, and individuals The sum to be
raised and paid into the Federal Treasury
by New York every year will be $2l, 344,-
O42.6O; by Pennsylvania, $15,685, OBS;
by Ohio, ST., 1896, 794.50; by Indiana, ST.
430, 1850; by Illinois, So, 4l4 ,641. so;
and the other States in the same cheerful
ratio. Our Committee of Ways and Means
may conceal these items never SO deity;
the money may come through channels the
most invisible and inscrutable-t sums
are SO enormous, as compared with any
former experience of the American people,
that the taxation will not only be felt, but
it will grind us all pretty fine before we
finish paying the first assessment. When
we add to these aggregates all the State
municipal taxes required annually, when
we reflect that the Federal tax is from four
to six times greater for each State than
their usual assessments heretofore, we can
judge whether it will be raised by any
other process than practical confscation.
Perhaps New England, New York, Penn
sylvania and New Jersey, may 60 through
such tax mill with the breath Of life re-
naming in them, but there is not another
State, loyal or disloyal that can 60 half
way through. / know that when Fed
eral land tax is added to the State and
county taxes in Wisconsin, Iowa, Mime
sofa, Kansas and Missouri, the tax gather
er will, in vast number of cases, have to
take the land itself, and believe that sim
liar results will follow in many parts Of
Ohio, Indiana and Michigan And yet,
the land tax Is a small part Of the propos-
ed revenue bill. FIN