Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1864-05-19
National Progress.

press, are continually complaing of our ma
-@stional debt, and harping on our not being
u able to liquidate it, fearing that the coun-
try will be bankrupt and the national debt
q. orepudiated. But such persons do not look
at the matter rightly, for on reference to the
census returns for the last twenty years it
win be seen beyond doubt that at the same
ratio Of increase for the next twenty years,
we will not only be able to pay our present,
!. but any future reasonable debt that the ex-
LICENCES Of war may compel US to incur.
r.. And also that the payment will
not be extremely difficult or very
- burdensome. 1t must be remembered in
the first place, that unlike an individual
who is unable to count with certainty upon
BOT increased ability in the future to pay debts
-sq4 contracted in the present, the government
is sure to increase in wealth and population;
Tor our gold mines, which without doubt
are the richest in the world, have only been
hi partially worked, but so far with unlocked
.a for success, and during the next twenty
JCdlS Will iClQ dill Oh WEALTH..
Our system Of railroads, which is gradually
Extending, and will keep extending, is open
la ing UP to the operations of the successful
ia agriculturist one of the most productive,
and fertile region on the globe. Immigra-.
ton is also On the increase, and notwith
1a standing our losses of brave and gallant
4 men in the field, our population is gradu-
ally but surely increasing, and increasing
n. with men Of sinew and muscle, men who
3sa know how to use the pillow, the axe, the
- hammer. We are not dependent on the
influx OF capitalists for our success and ad-
ila yancement in wealth and prosperity. The
a. poor, hard working man serves our purpose
90 :. better, we have the elements of wealth with
= in our borders, they only need working
r Extracts from the census returns showing
"a the increase in wealth and population du-
=, ring the last twenty years may be Of benefit
4 here The increase in the value OF. real
II and personal property in the United States
from 1910 to 1850, was from $3,764 ,oOo,-
900 in 1910 to $6,174OOO 900 in 1850 or
ID Ga per cent, The next decade shows i.
- still greater advancein general prosperity
3 and riches. For the wealth of the country
sa was raised from ,$6,174, 600, 900 in 1850 to
10 the enormous, sum of $l4 183, 0oo, 900 in
az 1860, OR l27 per cent, and of that enor
q nous aggregate, all with the exception of
$3,467 00O,0 900 was owned in the Northern
States. And there is no good reason tohe-
20 lieve that there is anything but the chances
of war that can in any way interfere with
p our Increasing prosperity, and they can on
s4ly, slacken and retard our progress, but cam
notlmaterially change it,. - ea
'@'H But experience of what others have done.
will best tell us what we may rightfully ex-
n expect to do. Let US compare our position
u with that OF Great Britain during one of the
=" gloomiest periods Of her financial history.
At the end of her great wars in 1916, her
wealth was estimated at ten thousand four
hundred millions (S10, 400, OoO, ooo) and her
national debt Of that time was four thou
sand three hundred millions ga, SOC, 00o,-,
or OQO) or more than Al per cent. of her entire
81 property. In 1861 her property was stated
q at thirty-one thousand FIVE hundred mil
lions ISL 800 900 ,o00) while her debt was
= three thousand eight hundred and ninety
O. millions ($3,s9O, o,Ooo) or was charge
- on the property Of the country of only
about 125 per cent. 1t needs no argument
n, to show that the weight of the burden of
this debt is, now, but one third it was when
contracted. a dt a-a
It is rot denied that the war destroys
be- yast amounts of property, and in measure
aislackens industry and enterprise, but new
ssrtheless the hand of industry has never
ceased to create, and the .reation will more
e- than balance the destruction. In spite of
Z the war raging in our land, we verify be-
lieve the Northern States are to-day as rich
as they were three years ago, and unless we.
should be utterly destroyed and dismem-
bered by traitors in the field and traitors at
home, there is no human power that can
permanently arrest our continued progress
and development All wars haze ended as
will ours. Let us hope that it may be soon !:
but when it is ended, and triumphantly as
it must be, this. country is bound to take a
position in population, wealth, and yigor
that VIII make its debt so small in proper
ton to its wealth that the most timid man
VIII laugh at the fear that mar have once
overloaded his vision. ao9 800
t.v \ Prophecy. Mr.. Seward, in 1856.
ventured to predict that slavery would
disappear from this Continent and that
the men of this generation would live to
see it, The prophecy only excited at