Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-07-07
TERMs OF ADvER TisIse.
Can We Ray Our NationaI Debt.

The population of the United King
dom is about the same as that Of the Uni.
ted States. The national debt Of Grea,
Britain is about four thousand millions. and
ours about ono thousand seven hundred
millions. Can we bear that is to say, much
less than half Of. what Englishmen bear
without suffering?
Supposing that the circumstance Of tho
two nations we're alike, nc American Of
spirit would doubt that we can support as
heavy burden as our English cousins-let
alone one far lighter. But our circumstan.
ces are not alike; they have country thick
ly settled. a soil exhausted to great ex-
tent Of its fertility Q system Of land tenure
extremely wssteiul, an organization Of so.
ciety which represses instead Of encouraging
Individual energy and enterprise.
We have virgin soil, nexhaustible min.
eral wealth, q system Of land tenure, at
least IN the Free States, which condIces TO
the highest prosperity Of the greatest num-
Der. and condition Of society in which in-
dlvldual enterprise is encouraged aud fos
tered. With.these and other advantages,
We must grow 10 wealth much moro rapidly
than the English, and the measure Of ma
honal wealth IS the measure OF strength 10
support the burden Of q national debt
ASbOGit " w alkSi btlb lulS
Ia clear light by some statistics which he
has recently printed in London. lie shows
that our national wealth was increased in the
ten years from 1850 to 1860 over one hun
dred and twenty.six par cent, while that Of
England from 1851 TO 1851 increased but
thirty-seven per cont. He shows, from the
census tables, that the ratio of increase of
Our national wealth has been constant, and
always in exosss Of the increase of popula-
tion. Thus from 1920 TO 1880 our wealth
increased torty-one per cent; from 1880 to
1910, forty-:wo per cent; and from 1850 to
1860. l2e IS per cent.
Ii We go 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 product per head Of
the population in the slave State had been
the same 10 1859 that i. was in the fres
States, that would have added to the na.l
tional wealth an additional value produced
Of 81 ,53l, ,63l 900, according to official cen.
sus returns. Now, the way to make the
Southern States as rich and productive as
the Northern. and even moro go. as Mr..
James Brooks justly observed more than
thirty years ago, duringa Journey in the
Sonth, is to abolish slavery. Substitute
skillful. intelligent, interested free labor for
unskilled. ignorant and uninterested slave
labor. and, as he remarked, South Carolina
would be the 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 but tho
principal of our national debt. With small
farms and divided labor taking the place Of
the. feudsl. system." as MIR. Brooks says. all
the iIEmenFe undcyelopod natural resources
NJ tko Cnt, ,horp Gtnta. xn;lI
orr rational wealth and prosperity. With
slavery abolished, free workingmen will
pour By hundreds of thousands from all
parts of Europe into region to which
mild climate, a sparse population and high
rewards for labor will tempt them, but from
which they have hitherto been excluded by
the fatal competition of unpaid slave labor
against those who must have "a fair days
wages tor q fair days work" Emigration.
so astonishingly great during the last three
years In the midst of war, will increase still
more when the area to free workingmen ia
more than doubled; and Mr.. Walker does
not overahoot the mark when he estimates
the increase In our national wealth, from
the substitution of free for slave labor in
the South. 10 ten years, at the great sum Of
over seventeen thousand millions of dollars,
nearly ten times our present national debt.
Thus the mere addition we shall mako in
ten years TO our national wealth, by abolish
ing the institution" which hss been so
long curse and q source of dissension to
US, would many times over pay our national
debt.
Bu, to show in another way what are our
prospects, Mr.. Walker compares the future
wealth Of Great Britain and the United
States, supposing that each Increase in the
same ratio as during the ten years forwhich
in each case we have the latest census re-
turns. 1t will be remembered that the in.
Britain from 1851 to 1851, 81 per cent
Assuming these ratios-which, however,
are unfair toward us-ths result would be
as Follows: