The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1864-11-08
Our National Debt and Our National

Dir. benjamin, the rebel Secretary O
the Treasury, as well as most of thos
at the North who sympathize with him
seem TO take great comfort in the fac
that our public debt is now half as larg
as that of England, while the annua
interest on il is the same. The conclu.
sion which they draw from this circum
stance invariably is that the burder
which England finds SO heavy viii Ger
tsinly oyerwhelm us
In ali differences of this kind abou
our financial situation, however, it il
constantly overlooked that England
come out of the war with Napoleon II
! 1915 with her debt and her annual bur
1 den almost exactly what they now are
| 1t has not been reduced, we believe, by
above eighty millions sterling, while the
other expenses of Government have
enormously increased. And yet in ISL;
/ her population was only about half o.
| that of the free States, and has increas
ed at ratio which only doubles it once
in forty years, while ours doubles once
in twenty-five years, without counting
the increase derived from immigration.
So that our capacity to pay off debt
increases with more than twice the rap.
idity. of that Of England. In other
words, if we had numbered as England
did, only about 1900 900 in 1915, our
population liz 1910 would have been
1900 900, and in 1865, about 100000
while that of England in 1866 will only
be about 30,000,000
Nor is this all. 1t is safe to say that
in 1915, all the best land in England
was already under cultivation and
consequently what has since been
brought under cultivation, has yielded
a steadily decreasing return to steadi-
" increasing amount of labor. Here,
on the contrary, the extent of virgin
soil of the highest fertility, still I'M
touched, may be said to be, for all prac-
teal purposes, unlimited, and it is on
this that large portion of our increase
Of population is every year set to work /;
80 that not only is our own increase OF
population twice as rapid as that of
Great Britain, but its labor i at least
twice as productive. This Is shown by
the difference in the interest paid ON
capital, which is nearly twice as great
here as in England, which would not be
the case if the use of it were not twice
as profitable.
So that our situation far from resem.
bling that of Great Britain at the close
of the great French war, is more than
twice as favorable. We have the same
amount Of money to pay yearly, but We
have population Of twice the size 10
pay it, increasing twice a. rapidly,
on a soil Of which a boundless area is
still untouched. And vet England has
gone on steadily growing in numbers
and wealth, and with credit not only
unimpaired, but which during the
whole of the last fifty years has stood
higher III the money markets of the
world, than that OF any other nation
She has held this position, and acquir-
ed this confidence, without half the al
yantages that we enjoy, solely by the
rigid determination of the Government
aud the people 10 meet their engage
ments faithfully and punctually, and by
entire freedom from Ccpperheads and
Copperheadism We need hardly say
that it is twice az easy for us to be
honest as it is for her, and if we fail to
pay our debts, it viii be because we are
twice SIS great knaves.
When Benjamin writes circulars to
his agents abroad for the purpose Of
the national credit, he
does SO because he believes that this
viii be potent means Of paralyzing
our exertions in the field, and bringing
the war TO a termination ruinous to the
North. But in doing this he Is simply
following the example set him by
the Copperhead organs of the North =
There is not one of them which does
not labor zealously to prepare the way
for recognition 10y familiarizing the
public mind with the idea that our
debt can never be paid; and of course
nothing will ever contribute more to
National bankruptcy than general |
feeling Of despair about the possibility |
IF meeting the public liabilities. We |
therefore warn all patriotic Americans |
against attempts on the public credit |
lere as well as in Dixie Articles on |
his subject in the Copperhead news
,apers are simply the counterpart of
3eniamins circular, and are intended |
o help the the same cause and effect /
he same ends.-M T. 7gacs