Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-06-02

our Indebtedness at this moment is equal TO that
vast amount will hardly be denied by any intelli-
gent and candid person who has had the oppor-
tunity TO observe the profusion and recklessness
with which the resources and the credit of the
Government have been used since this most un-
natural strife fell like blight upon the land. A
little more than a wear ago we beheld the in
famed and wrathful visage of civil war for the
first time disturb, like baleful comet the peace
of this republic. Since then battles have been
fought, equal in numbers engaged, in heroism of
conduct and in the ghastly heaps of the slain, to
the renowned conflicts of ancient story. Victo-
ry, too, under an Overruling Providence, has
chosen the standard of the Government, and our
armies are steadily penetrating that immense
scope of country in which the banner of revolt
has been reared.
But assuming that the smiles of fortune will
continue to rest upon our arms. and that no re-
verses are in store for our troops vet nothing is
palmer to the thinking mind which resolves the
future by considering the past, than the fact that
the expenses of this Government for the ensuing
year will fully equal, and most likely surpass
what we have witnessed in the year that has Just
closed. AS our armies push forward their col
umns into the distant parts of desOlated and i'm
poverished and hostile country the difficulty and
cost of their support will rapidly multiply. The
value of transportation will almost double the
price of the stores transported. There has been
much undigested and crude defamation on this
floor in regard to subsisting our forces on the pro-
ducts of the country we invade. This, however,
is simply one of those unsubstantial theories
which, unhappily for the country, have so plenti-
fully abounded in this body since our national
calamities came upon us. All the great authors
on the art of war show its absurdity, and our
own experience has already exploded it, 1t has
already been found that where one army has
swept over a country, but a barren reception
awaits another; and especially is this the case
when retreating army is impelled by the strong
est military reasons to leave nothing for the sub
sistence of its victorious pursuer Destruction
then marks every field, and war, with its IRON
mailed hand, scOurges the bosom of nature her
self into stertility. Attila the fierce barbarian
conqueror, at the head of his ravaging hordes,
announced to affrighted Europe that grass would
never grow again where the hOofs of his war
horse had left their mark. Scarcely less blight
ed will be the track of defeated and retreating
Southern armies, when no longer able to meet
Us in general engagements But little will be
left after their own wants met and that little
will be destroyed. Our supply trains will have
to move with our armies from the loval States
thus augmenting the public expenditures at every
step. 1t is safe, then, to conclude that the year
that is TO come and on which we are lust enter
Indebtedness of this Government to the alarming
sum of $4,000, 100000 This amount will have
accrued about the time the toing citizen is fairly
called upon to commence the weary task of meet
ing its awful proportions by taxation. 1t is a
task, sir, that no eve which now beholds the sun
will ever see completed. The child is not born.
and will not be for more that hundred years,
who will escape the visits of the Federal tax
gatherer in the nceSsant labors of future genera
tons TO wear away by the steady droppings of a
perpetual tax this mountain of debt This is no
high-wrought or extravagant statement, but the
sad and melancholy truth, as each succeeding
year of the approaching future will but too truly
bear witness.
1t is said, however, here and elshwhere through
out the country, that we are a nation of mex
haustible resources, of almost fabulous wealth.
and that burdens which would cause other Gov
ernments TO reel and stagger, are as LIGHT as
feathers to us. This is pleasing tribute to our
national vanity; it sounds well in our self-com-
placent ears. We have so long been exalted in
happiness over all other people, so long blessed
in every enjoyment above what God has ever
vouchsafed to any other nation, that we are even
now unwilling or unable to realize the fact that
the hand of affiiction has at last fallen upon us
with force almost as cruel as that which visited
Jerusalem when Titus was encamped before her
walls. 1t is true, however, that we abound in
wealth. Its true that our lap has been filled with
treasure; but things in this world exist principally
by comparison. That which constituted immense
wealth little more than year ago, in view of a
public debt of less than fifty millions, dminishes
rapidly when brought to bear on a debt of forty
times that amount
By the census report of 1860, we find that the
assessed value of all the real and personal prop
erty of the entire United States. both loval and
rebellious, is Sl2, ,OO6, 756, ,5s5 Thus it will be
seen that our public debt is now equal to one
twelfth of all the taxable property of the Gov
ernment, and that in one year from now, it will
be equal to one-sixth of everything the people
possess. No cunning and studied speeches made
to misead and deceive. can hide the naked fact
that this is the peoples debt, and that thev will
have it to pay. Every sixth acre of land, every
sixth OK, every sixth horse, every sixth sheep,
every sixth hog, and every sixth dollar, under
the financial mismanagement and fraud of the
party now in power, will, in one year from to-
day, be covered and swallowed up by the amount
of the Government debt 1t will be equal to an
interest on every taxable substance in the land
of sixteen and twO-thirds per cent Every bus
ness man knows that in the private transactions
of life, such rate of interest is the speedy pre-
lude to individual ruin in him who paws it; and
the nation on which a weight is imposed is on the
brink of overwhelming bankruptcy. In this es-
innate it will be seen that have taken the fig
ures of the census report as they were made
when the unrufHed calm of peace and prosperity
gave to property its highest value To what ex-
tent the ravages of war have deprecated this
value it is impossible to calculate; but that the
property of the people of the United States is
to-day worth more than two-thirds of what it
was one year ago will not be pretended; and
to the extent of that depreciation is the pro-
portion which tbs public debt bears to it, in
creased.
But again. BY the census report from which
have just quoted, we find that the population
of the United States in the year 1860 was little
more than thirty millions. OF this population
about five millions are voters. A moments cal
culatiOn in the simplest rules of arithmetic shows
that each individual voter of these five mill
ions is in debt to-day 5000 on account of his
proportion of the national expenses, and that one
year hence he will be in debt S4OO on the same
account. The liability of my own great State of
Indiana, according to the rule of taxation which
has been enacted against her by the present
Congress, will be 100000 900, of which
enormous sum the people of the District which
j have the honor to represent, will stand charg-
ed with something over twelve millions of dol
lars.
Where, sir, in all the dreary history of profit
gate nations, were ever such burdens as these
imposed on the shoulders OF any people IN so
short time! The mourning children of Israel,
captives in the brickyards of Egypt, were scarce
ly more slaves TO their Egyptian masters than
the American people will be to the constant de-
mands and exactions of the national debt 1t
will come upon them like the lean and hungry
kline rising from the river of Pharaoh's dream to
devour the well-favored and fat-neshed cattle OF
all the land. Tell me not of the blessings of a
public debt. That cry is simply the cheat and
the falsehood by which men who have abused
their authority seek to cover up the outrages