The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1864-07-14
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From the New York Post.

Can we pay our National Debt
The population Of the United K ng
dom is about the same as that Of the
United States. The national debt o.
Great Britain is about four thousand
millions, and ours about one thousand
seven hundred millions. Can we bear
that is to say, much less than half Of
what Englishnlen bear without suffer
ing?
| Supposing that the circumstances Of
the two nations were alike, no Ameri.
can ofsp,rit would doubt that we can
support as heavy burden as our Eng
lish cousins-let alone one far lighter.
But our circums, s,ances are not alike
they have country thickly settled, a
soil exhausted 10 great extent of it's
fertility, a system of land tenure ex-
treme wastetul, an organization of So
ciety which represses instead Of en-.
conraging individual energy and enter.
prise.
We have virgin soil, inexhaustible
mineral wealth, system Of land tenure
At least in the free States, which con.
dnces to the highest prosperity Of the
greatest number, and condition Of
society in which individual enterprise
is encouraged and tostcred. With
these and other advantages, $, we must
grow in wealth much more rapidly thsn
he English, and the me asure ofnational
wealth is the measure Of strength to
support the burden of national debt.
NJ. Robert J. Walker sets this qres-
'ion in clear light by some statistics
which he has recently printed in Lon
don. lie shows that our national
wealth was increased in the ten years
from 1850 to 1860 over one hundred
and twenty six per cert, while that Of
England from 1851 to 1851 increased
but thirty seven per cent. f1e shows,
from the census tables, that the ratio
IT increase OF our national wealth has
been constant, and always in excess of
population. Thus from 1920 TO 1890,
our wealth increased forty-onc per cent;
from 1880 to ls4o, forty two per cent ;
from 1910 to 1850, 1875 IS per cent.
II we 60 OH the same rate for another
decade the result will be in 1870 an in
crease Of over two hundred and fifty
per cent.
But, he adds, if tho pr oduct 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 addi
tional value produced Of 81 .53l, ,63l 600
according to official census returns.
Now, the way to make the Southern
States as rich AMI productive as the
Northern, and even more go, as Mr..
James Brooks justly observed more
than thirty years ago, during q journey
in the South is to abolish slavery. Sub
stitnte skillful, intelligent, interested
free labor for unskilled, ignorant and
uninterested slave labor, and as he re
marked, South Carolina would be the
wealthiest State in the Union.
Now, we are going to have the as.
sistance Of this added and hitherto un-
developed wealth to pay not only the
interest hut the principal Of our national
debt. With ssmall farms, and divided
labor taking the place Of tho feudal
system,' as Mr.. Brooks says, all the
immense undeveloped natural resources
Of the Southern States will vastly in
crease our national wealth and pros
pe,ity. With slavery abolished, free
workingmen will pour by hundreds 81
thousands from all parts Of Europe,
into Il region 10 which mild climate,
sparse population, and high rewards
for labor, will tempt them, but from
which they have hitherto been exclud
ed by the fatal competition OF nm, aid
slave labor, against those who must
have ga fair days wages for fair days
work.. Emigration 50 astonishingly
great the last three years. in the mds,
of war, will increase still more when til,
area opened to tree workingmen j,
more than doubled and Mr.. Walker
does not overshoot the mark when ht
estimates the increase IN our nationa
wealth, from the substitution Of free foI
slave labor IN the South, in ten years
at the great sum OF over seventeen
thousand millions Of dollars, nearly te,
times our present national debt. Thu
the mere addition We shall make in te,
yeas 10 our national wealth, by abo
fishing the s'institution'' which has bee,
50 long course and : source vf d..