Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1863-12-02
From the n. Y. Freeman's journal.
The Public Ruin--WhO Must
Pay?

The rare delusion has possessed an un-
thinking public that, some acay, this war
is feeding itself. The infamous class of
newspapers that deceive the public, points
to the activity and the luxury prevailing
in the North States, as evidence that our
prosperity is not even unfavorably affected
by the war. The fundamental truths of
political economy are not abstruse, yet
they are not generally understood. The
nomenclature of public finance, by its
pompous pretensions, imposes on the un-
wary, and leads them to consider the mat
ter one too deep for common men to faith
ON. Let us simplify affairs little.
The territory embraced, or held: by the
late United States, presented vast un-
occupied acreage, giving room and verge
for industry proftably to develop. No
healthy man or woman was compelled to
be idle, except by temporary mismanage-
ment, which speedily corrected itself
! The population was engaged in producing.
| The bounties of earth and of climate were
such that production was in excess.
Hence rose a class of non-producers, living
on the proceeds of wonderfully enhanced
values, and consuming, without producing
Lur,u1es multiplied, and the preparing of
these opened new fields for industry and
enterprise. Accumulated production, and
drew the fortunate, and those that aspired
to be such, to cities, to live on the labor
of others. Necessity, at brief periods,
came in to correct such excesses, and, every
few years, a new brood pushed out to oc-
cupy vacant lands, and to replenish the
demands for production. Thus, with
nothing harder than individual discomfort
here and there, the general resources o
the people of the United States went or
augmenting. At length, in their self-con.
ceit, they thought they had solved the
tangled problem that Providence has ap
pointed for men to be exercised with
They thought they had taken bond o
fate, and could flourish without farthe
care of God, or regard for the laws III
| has established in the order of nature
The breaking up of the Union betweeI
the States, changed the relations of thei
peoples from harmony and mutual advan
tage into hostile and warning States
That portent found the granaries ant
storehouses of the country groaning witt
the accumulations of years of unexample,
prosperity-our fields full and pourin
over with the elements of exuberan
supply.
The war between the States cut off tn
mutually advantageous commerce betwee
their respective peoples. For two and
half years, it has taken from million t
a million and half of men, from North
, ern population of some twenty millions
, One million, at the least, of these me
f were producers, not mere consumers of pre-
ductive industry. Yet, so prodigious wa
the surplus of accumulated production
4 that its holders found rather benefit tha
f an injury in the revulsion. With thos
l were not hoIders-with many classe
of the poor-there was, two years ag'
wan misery. But this tended, chiefly,
S recruiting the army, while women, chi
, dren, and men incapaciated for war, wei
r huddled out of sight, to groan and di
The appearances of prosperity were kept VI
But, rho have been paying for this
:, From a million to a million and half
d men, out of population of twenty mil
e ions, have been turned from producers
y non-productive consumers. Add to tn
that, while at least one million OF the
r. soldiers were producers, only a minorl
e of the twenty millions were of the active
e producing classes. Add, farther, tn
this million and half have not mere
!. been idle consumers, but have been turn
= into active destroyers of what were, latel
elements of our common prosperity. Al
~ to this the ,caste of war, and the embe
l. Elements of public property by anoth
"a army of unprincipled and greedy specul
tors in contracts Add to this the exit