The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1864-07-15
Can we Pay our National Debt2


The population Of the United Kingdom is
about the same as that OF the United States.
The national debt Of Great Britain is about
four thousand millions, and ours about one
thousand seven hundred millions. Can we
support our debt without ruinous taxation
Can we bear, that is to say, much less than
half Of what Englishmen bear without sui.
fering?
Supposing that the circumstances Of the
two nations were alike, no American OF spir.
il would donbt that we can support as heavy
a burden as our English cousins-let alone
one far lighter. But our circumstances are
not alike they have country thicsly set
tied. q soil exhausted to great extent OF its
fertility. q system of land tenure extremely
wastelul, an organization OF society which
represses instead Of encouraging individual
energy and enterprise. We have o virgin
soil, inexhaustible mineral wealth, u system
of land tenure, at least in the free States,
which conduces to the highest prosperity OF
the greatest number, and a condition OF 30.
ciety in which individual enterprise is en-
couraged and iostered. With these and 9th.
er advantages, we must grow in wealth much
more rapidly than the English, and the meas
ure OF national wealth is the measure oil
strength to support the burden Of national
debt.
Mr.. Robert j. Walker sets this question
in clear light by some statistics which he
has recently printed in London. He shows
that our national wealth was increased in the
ten years from 1850 to 1860 over one hundred
and twenty-six per cent, while that OF Eng
land from 1851 to 1861 increased but thirty
seven per cent. He shows, from the census
tables, that the ratio Of increase Of our ma
tional wealth has been constant, and always
in excess Of the increase of the population.
Thus from 1920 to 1880 our wealth increas-
ed forty-one per cent. from 1880 to 1910
lorty-two per cent. !; from 1910 to 1850 six
ty four per cent. and from 1850 to lS6O,
l26.45 per cent.
IL we 20 on at the same rate for another
decade the result will be in 1870 an increase
Of over two hundred and fifty per cent.
But, he adds, if the produce per head OF
the population in the slave States had been
the same in 1859 that it was in the free States,
that would have added to the national wealth
an additional value produced OF Sl,5Sl. 69l,-
900. according to official census returns.
Now. tho way to make the sosthern States
as rich and productive as the Northern, and
even more so, us Mr.. James Brooks justly
observed more than thirty years ago, during
Journey in the South, is to abolish slavery.
Substitute skilful. intelligent, interested free
labor for unskilled, ignorant and uninterest-
ed slave labor. and. as he remarked, South
Carolina would DO tho wealthiest State in the
Union.
Now, we are going to have the assistance
Of this added and hitherto undeveloped
wealth TO pay not only the interest bat the
principal Of our national debt. With"small
farms and divided labor taking the place OF
the feudal system" as Mr.. Brooks says, all
the Immense undeveloped natural resources
of the Southern States will vastly increase
our national wealth and prosperity. With
slavery abolished, free workingmen will pour
by hundreds Of thousands from all parts OF
Europe into region to which mlld climate,
sparse population and high rewards for la
bor will tempt them, Lut from which they
have been hitherto excluded by the fatal CON-
petition Of unpaid slave labor against those
who must have "a fair days wages for fair
DAYS work." Emigration, so astonishingly
great during the last three years in the midst
Of war, will increase still more when the area
opened to free workingmen is more than
doubled and Mr.. Walker does not overshoot
the mark when he estimates tho increase in
our national wealth. from the substitution Of
free for slave labor in the South, in ten years.
at the great sum Of over seventeen thousand
millions Of dollars, nearly ten times our pres
ent national debt. Thus the mere addition
we shall make in ten years to our national
wealth. by abolishing the constitution"
which has been so long curse and source
Of dissension to US, would many times over
pay our national debt.
But to show in another way what are our
prospects, Mr.. Walker compares tho future
wealth Of Great Britain and the United
States, supposing that each increases in the
same ratio us during the ten years for which
in each case we have the latest census returns
II will be remembered that the increase in
the United States from 1850 to 1860 was
l26. As per cent, and in Great Britain from
1851 to 1861, 81 per cent. Assuming these
ratios-which, however, are unfair towards
us-rhe result would DO rs follows: