The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1864-12-21
The National Debt.

hundred and ninety thousand four hundred
and eighty nine dollars and forty nine cents |!
FiUe hundred millions more will be required
for The present year.
Whether the President compreheuded
what he was saying, or al all understood
the subject he undertook TO descanl about,
we very much doubt. The debt as stated
BY him is larger than the aggregate of all
the debts OF all the natioas on earth, and is
very much more than this government is
capable o! contracting even though il void
pledge every dollaT'sryorh OF real and per-
sonal property owned by it or It's citizens
for the payment of the interest. The Sec
relary oil the Treasury states the debt on the
LIST OF July next at TWO thousand two hun.
dred and twenty-Ihree millions four thou
sand SIX hundred and seventy.seven dol
Iars-in figures -, 223 ,o04 677. Neither of
these officials give a true statement of the
debt, nor DO they make the least reference
to that part of it yel unadjusted, which is
certainly larger in amount than that which
is already settled. 1t is not pretended by
The tnaCciers in Congress and in our large
cities that The whole liabilities of the Uni.
ted States at This time do not exceed fire
thousand millions of dollars, not including
damages for private property destroyed and
the amount is probably two or three thou
sand millions more. What will it be if Inc
war is not soon brought 10 an end, those
who are fond Of conjecture may guess al,
or first class mathematician may approxi-
mately cypher out. Hear a correspondent
on this subject:
To the Editor Of the Clinton Deaocr al:
Some time ago | observed a statement in
your paper announcing our National debt
al four thousand million dollars, and that
that sum, when converted. into $50 gold
coins and piled one upon the other, would
make a pile 5000 miles in height. This
statement was denied by our Republican
friends al that time, as TO the amount OF The
debt. | now see by the Presidents mes
sage that the above statement really was an
egregious error, for instead of four thou-
sand million dollars, MIR. Lincoln makes it
one billion seven hundred and forty lhon
sand millions six hundred and ninety thou
sand four hundred and eighty-nine dollars
aud forty nine cenlsl Now ] find that this
sum when piled up in $50 gold pieces will
reach fire times around the globe, and enough
left TO enrich all the shoddy aris,ocracy for
a generation 10 come / take il for granted
that the I'd Washington has given as the
right figures the LIST Washington we all
| EunW was traIf voruod - aritb.,as;o 81 I
should be very sorry indeed il his iHustrious
successor was not equal in the science of
numbers One thing We must give him
credit for, and that is honesty in The super.
lative degree, for had he been a merchant
o. a yankee nutmeg pedlar, he would m
doubtedly have wound up with sc cents in-
stead of 40 cents No doubt the I'd Wash
ingion thought that il was easier 10 pay a
big debt than a bigger one" and hence
the even penny was lett off
| have looked at The above figures given
Us as the amount of our National debt, |
have made many calculations upon it, and
found that by piling it up in $50 gold pieces
it will make a pile ISo,772 miles high
And now ! ask any one to view it in any
light he p%Ieaees and say whether it is not
fa big fhing !" =
Note by the Editor-An English billion is
a million millions-a French billion is one
thousand millions. That the President
adopted the English hume ration is evident
from the fact that he speaks OF thousands of
millions. The National debt dissecled,
then is, if his figures are correct,
First, one million millions OF dollars
Second, add seven hundred and forty
thousand millions of dollars
Third, add six hundred and ninety
thousand dollars
Fourth, add four hundred and eighty nine
dollars
Filth, add foriy-nine cents.
Add all these sums together and we ar
rive at what the President states is the sum
of our National Indebtedness We insist,
however, that the President did not COM
prehend what he was wiring about, and
that he has made a mistake of at leas; one
million millions of dollars Clinton Dem
A curious case before the United States
District Court, which was in session in Au-
burne last week, was that OF Lyman North
a postmaster Of Allegheny county, convict
ed OF removing the stamps from letters
dropped in his Office and then destroying
the letters. The remarkable thing about
his petty ihieving is that North is sixty
years of age, is worth twenty thousand dol
lars, and previous TO his detection had borne
a good character. He plead guilty, aud was
sentenced 10 stay in the Rochester Penilen-
tiary one year, besides paying a fine of
50 600.
ARTHUR's Home MsGAzIEE-We agree
with our contemporary of The Pioneer, 81
Joseph Michigan, that "the stories in this
magazine are generally of a high moral