The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-01-09
The wealth Of the onuntru.
aggregate Weclh Of De Unael sSatss-s
Ne Bearing upon ne Var and Free IN
si'tations--Ihe actual loss Jy he Var.
From tho Naw YORK nms..l
THE BEEcnEs December, 1862.

HHUtloRS--ihe dctuqt loss by he Var.
From tho Eew York rmssl
The BEEcnEs, December 1862.
just now the question Of finances IL
the question Of interest in the public
mind, almost equal 10 that of the wa.
Perhaps a few simple facts may serve 10
inform many persons how il is that we
shall probably not be great losers by IT,
What confuses most persons is, complica-
ting the ideas of taxes, currency aud
wealth together. Now, they are three
totally different things. We SHOULD not
confound them, any more than suffrage
and citizenship, confusion, which
seems to have COMPOUNDED the Supreme
Court in the case of bred Scott and
which, / learn, Mr.. Attorney General
Bates has cleared up. If he has, he has
done q great public service. There new
err was such folly and such Judicial
crime perpetrated in this country as that
same bred Scott case. But TO the pres
ent matter. Currency is mere inrtru-
ment, like drill machine, for our own
convenience. II is no matter whether IL
is silver dollars, which they use al Trip
oil. or strings OF shells, for which the
dollars are exchanged in the interior, or
ivory buttons, provided a unit of
exchange is agreed upon. II is
an instrument for our convenience
and the most convenient is the best
But no matter what it is we want enough
of il 20 make exchanges with facility.
Taxes are the revenue for the support of
the Government. But wealth is a very
different thing II is the actual sub
stance on which is based the right to is
sue currency as evidence of debt, and
| out of which taxes are paid The real
question in case of a war is twofold
/ first, is there wealth enough to sustain
the required revenue? and, next, do the
annual losses of the war, whether in men
or money, exceed or fall short of the ac-
tual gain Of the nation The problem
is precisely the same as If ii were that
of farmer or merchant contemplating
certain expenditures for building. He
has the building to pay for, and the
taxes Of the Government, and his own
support. He may not have any currency
to pay with. But il is certain that If he
has an income largely exceeding his out
goes, he can easily get the currency and
the taxes. To do that is a hereinafter Of
continuance and convenience. This is
precisely the case with the United States
| at the present time, even with this inn
meuse war And here, let every man
disabuse himself of one idea at once
The cost of the war is not the money
!. paid out of the Treasury, nor the appro-
priations made by Congress. The war
costs the nation just what II lost TO
the nation by it and no moro. This con-
sists of three articles: /. The difference
of exchange paid in gold TO foreign ma
tions. 2. The actual destruction of pro-
erty; and 3. The loss of labor by the
withdrawal Of men from industry TO the
war These are the only losses TO the
nation. All others merely change the
relations of property between individu-
ais but do not change the national
wealth. Let us now compare the national
income with tho national losses by war.
The census return Of our national wealth
in 1860, (rather low, Think was S16,-
000,000000. On this l estimate the an
nual income TO be at least ten per cent,
which is 4 dollar day for each able
bodied man, irrespective of skill; and
the average wages of men are fully equal
| 4
throughout the country. This is ire
spectiye, too, of machinery. The income
Of the nation is at least s 100000,
per annum. The losses of the war by
foreign exchanges have been small, but
they will be greater, and may be esti.
mated at $50,000,000 per annum. The
losses by the destruction of property
may be taken at 100000, 900 per annum.
The loss by labor which makes the bulk
of the loss, is that Of million of Men
per day, which, at dollar per day, is in
round numbers, $780, 100000 per annum.
The actual loss of the war, then, amounts
to S460,000000 per annum. This is
what We call dead loss. IL the war were
TO continue three years, the dead loss
would be $1350000,000, which should
be deducted from the valuation of the
national property at that time But the
national income In that time will be
three fold the actual loss. In the mean
time we must observe that the develop
ment of the mines and machinery OF the
nation is increasing the income very
rapidly.
think after this year the whole ma
tional income (if we were united) may be
fairly counted at two thousand million
per annnm. | have made no note Of the
rebel States; but if we deduct from the
national income a little more than one
fourth for that acooont il will be nearly
correct The result is, that in the midst
Of this gigantic war, we are actually in
creasing the national wealth al the rate
Of six hundred million a year.
Now, If we borrowed the money from
Europe we should do no such thing. We
might even run behind. We should owe
Europe both principal and interest. Now,
we pay our own citizens the interest in
gold. We only take money out Of one
pocket 70 put into the other. Here /
say, we have one cause Of universal con-
eratulation. Its the admirable way in
| which our National finances have been
| managed. II we owe this both 70 the
{ ability Of the Secretary and the aid and
+ couasol Of bankers, we also owe Il 10 our
free Institutions In no other country
i on earth could such gigantic Efforts have
been successfully put forth. The reason
is obvious. Our free Institutions have
made the people snd the government one
y The result Is that the Goyern.@ai il
1 sustained with no actual loss 10 the ma.
: tion. IL Gas I supposel Eve are losing
4 about 1000 men year more than W.
!, need otherwise havf dcne this loss 70
Il a