Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-03-02
a British View of the War--National
t<uIn on a Ezagni cent Scale- G rand
American style of Doing Business.
From the London Times, January p

Although there may be some things passing in
America which we cannot perhaps regard with
totally unmixed satisfaction, there Is much to
crafty the patriot OF the true spread eagle order
1t things do not 20 exactly right, there is no de-
nying that they are conducted on a scale the most
magnificent the world has ever seen. The job, in
every sense of the word, grows bigger and bigger
What strength. what vitality, what resources,
what energy there must be in nation that is able
to ruin itself on II scale so transcendent and mag
nifcent, We admit that the American mind has
had to submit to serious notifications Defeat,
disunion, the loss of personal liberty, and still
dearer, of personal property, the perpetual sum-
mons to put on mourning for some dear friend or
relation, undoubtedly real aud tangible evils.
But, then, the thing is done on magnificent a
scale, the dimensions are SO vast, the magnitude
is so appalling; the national passion for wealth,
prosperity and union is disappointed, but every
thing tends to crafty what is scarcely less
deeply-rooted feeling in the American mind-the
disnterested love of magnitude for its own sake.
| If you are to have a blockade, it is fine thing
to blockade thousand miles of coast at once; if
| you are to have "A war, how glorious to light
conAagration which extends through all the
elimes and regions from Pennsylvania to Texasl
1t is a sad thing TO fight a pitched battle. but
there is something satisfactory IN fighting four or
/ FIVE in the same month on the Potomac, the Ohio
and the Mississippi. Next to not being ruined ct
ALL the finest thing, from the American point OF
view, is to be ruined on a good scale-to 90 down
| like the tropical sun, blood red and blazing into
the sea, with no pale and ineffective twilight, no
standings, no fadings away to extenuate the mag
nitude of the catastrophe.
| The latest commercial intelligence received
/ from America must, though not very pleasant in
itself crafty to the utmost this size worship of
/ the American mind. The telegraph informs us
that the Government bill for the issue of $780,
| 600 ,000-more than ElS0, 900 600 sterling of
United States bonds has passed the Senate.
Wall street is much excited Geld has reached
42c premium. The ship which brings this in
telgence carries away 5000 900 in specie to
\ Europe.
| We DO not think that any one will be found to
complain that this sum is not large enough; that
it is not fully adequate TO the dignity OF the free
and enlightened people who are anxious to borrow
/ it. and in all respects thoroughly commensurate
to the scale of the war TO which it is to be de-
voted. For ourselves. confess that we feel
deeply Inundated by the comparison When we
reflect on the miserable dribletS by which Mr. Pitt
and other architects, considered not altogether
timid or unskiful in therday, built up the goodly
/ fabric of our own national debt we undergo the
sensation OF the frog trying to swell itself to the
| goodly dimensions Of the OK Alas who are we
that We should venture to criGcise the magnih-
cent transactions OF which we are the remote and
/ admiTng witnesses? All the wars of King William
| III. en:ailed upon MS but paltry debt of tl5,-
\ 600 900. Queen Anne's wars LETT burden of
4 only G37 600 600 and we contrived to lose our
I American provinces, after war OF seven years,
at the very moderate figure OF an increase TO our
debt Of El2l 100000. The great Napoleon him
i SELF after struggle of two and twenty years,
only bequeathed US as a keepsake a debt OF
f603, 100000. These figures used to be thought
something, but. like finite quantity in mathe-
mates brought in contact with infinity, they alb
solutely Danish ana efface themselves when com
pared for n moment with the grand American
style of doing business.
Nor are we less impressed by the stupendous
. calmness with which these debts are incurred
John, Duke of Marlborough, himself did not
ride in the whirlwind and direct the storm with
more complete and absolute equanimity than is
displayed by Mr.. Chase in these stupendous ope-
ratiOns. He has the prettiest way OF sketching
out his alternatives. Take your choice, ladies
and gentlemen; which will you havel Shall il
be 800 millions in legal tender notes, with 5O
millions Postoffice stamps, and 300 millions in
three year notes bearing interest, payable TO
bearer, or shall we 60 in at once for the grand
total of 900 milliOnsY Thus adiured how could
Congress hesitate? The scale is everything, aud
so of course it took the largest. and may now
claim the undisputed honor of offering to con
fding public the largest loan that WAS ever Gre
ated by a single legislative act 1t is just like a
tale in the Arabian Nights, where Prince, a
shepherd, or a merchant, strayS casually on to
the side of q HILL and suddenly sees before him a
palace of mile square and 500 feet high, made
of single diamond He always approaches and
enters it just you would an ordinary caravan
sary. He eats, drinks, and otherwise amuSes
himself, and retires to rest, and rises up in the
morning with the most perfect calmness and in
=. l., = ho nl.r,f af
ground but his mind is recOnciled to the change
and you find him, under these extraordinary cir
cumStances, happy in all respects, like the mos
ordinary mortals
So it is in America; these things, though done
by delIberative assemblies, appear TO receive
very moderate amount OF deiberation. The
great Republic involves herself in the tremendOu:
transactions apparently with as little thought ant
deliberation fast young man about town
gives to the subscription of his name to a piec'
! of stamped paper No nation was ever ruined a
once so magnihcently and so gaily. There il
only one entity in the United States which scent
at all to take 10 heart the awful state of thu
finances, and that, to the shame of human ma
ture be it spoken, is not man or even an AMI
NAL. but a cold, impossible chemical compound
that much abused and much coveted metal, gold
This singular substance displays sensibility,
life, q keenness of observation and an alaeritl
of movement which are wholly wanting else
where. So far from being favOraby affected b,
the size of the transaction, that magnitude befor
which all else in the United States bows dow
! seems only to inspire it with the livelier panic
Il flies from the happy shores of free Americ
and seeks protection from the terror of democgati
finance amid the rotten and Wondering despot
isms of mOnarchical Europe. This preciou
metal clearly does not show when it is we'll of
1t surrenders its place ANONYMOUSLY, and leave
paper undisputed master of the field.
Legislative Summary.