Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-10-27
OUR NATIONAL DEBT.

many minds "loyal optimism" which causes its
subjects to close their eyes upon every prudential
maxim or forecast Of the future which comes in
conflict with the predominant passions of the hour
The most stubborn facts Of political and 6nan-
cisl situation are regarded in the glamour of delu
sive hopes, fanoies, and day dreams, if they are
not wholly put out of sight from the fear of the spec
tres they might otherwise evoke.
In nothing is this tendency of certain Admins
trstion politicians more apparent or more persistent
than in their treatment Of the public debt. 1t is
burden of debt without example in the history Of
the world whether regard be had to its comparative
magnitude or to the rapidity Of its accumulation.
And yet, under the influence of an injurious and
purblind optimism, there are multitudes who take
it as hardly less than an aront to their patriotism
if any intimation be thrown out that this mon
strous volume Of debt is destined to be heavy
load to the present generation, and in all probability
. fatal inheritance to our posterity. Contractors
who are growing rich on the suferings of the
country, and politicians who eager in the quest
Of Office, take care to play this unthinking SEN
timent, and the Administration, in natural de-
sire to keep the popular sense on this subject in
dormant state, has sought f.ras possible to post
pone the collection Of taxes to meet the current
expenditures of the Government.
Never has q debt SO vast been heaped up SO sud-
denly by any nation, at rate extraordinary in the
disproporon between the amount raised by loans and
the amount raised by contemporaneous taxes. The
IL Dr. L =.
may be stated at 81 ,OOO is the result of
national history running through more than thou
sand years. Our ascertained and acknowledged
debt, amounting to more than $4,000, 100000, is
the result less than four years of expenditures
And as our debt is in its amount more than half
that of Great Britain, SO in its rate Of interest it
is double that of Great Britain, thus making our
debt to-day equal to that of the British Empire in
the burden it imposes on industry and production
Intelligent and friendly European observers of
our country, in taking cognizance of our financial
situation are not mised in their calculations by the
binders which ignorant essayists, optimistic pa
triots, and selfish politicians oonspre to draw over
the eyes of our people at this juncture. All will
agree that our country and our cause have no more
fervent, as they have no more intelligent, we'll
wisher in Europe than Richard Golden, and yet
this British statesman and pubcist, called by his
political career to devote special attention to nan-
oial and economical considerations, did not hesitate
to speak rs follows nearly year ago, when our
debt was more manageable than it is to-day:
take probably" said Mr. Golden in November last,
"a stronger view than most people Of this county-and
0l- atra than nod in If
the sacrifices Of life and Of economical comfort and
which must follow 10 the North from this srug
GLE They MISTAKES II they fancy they carry
sirI like this drauing million of from produc
tipe industry 10 be engaged in the processes depson-
TO spend three hundred mions stcriing-theg are
DELUDED u they think they can carry like that
soithout TERRIBLE COLLAPSE sooner later, and
DREADFUL PRosTRATIoN IN every part Of the community
Instead of the two three hundred millions ster-
ling which Mr.. Golden then estimated, we have al
ready expended double the former Of those sums
and instead Of taking million of men from pro-
ductive industry, we have taken ta0o. Is Richard
Golden " copperhead" and false alarmist
Can We with impunity deride and set at nought
all the laws of prudence and economy which apply
10 other nations?
We know there are those who, as they are un-
willing to do any thing to relieve the country from
the pressure of debt, seek to find an emollient for
its hurt by plying the popular mind with Aattering
functions drawn from the ideal stores of our Gin
exhausblc resources" in apparent forgetfulness of
the fact that there is nothing belonging to our
finite sphere of being which cannot be exhausted
by too large and too many drafts upon it. And
this idea Of "inexhaustible resources" is per-
petually reinforced by the promise and prospect
Of peace at an early day in the proximate future,
though these promises and prospects, like the hap
py lands which Eneas was seeking in the epic
story of Virgil, are found day after day and year
after year to be semper cedenGa retro
A writer by the name Of Wells has recently pub
ishod pamphlet on this subject apparently for the
purpose Of making the popular ignorance on it more
profound, and it is surprising to observe how many
speakers and prints refer to bis statistics in entire
Inconsistencies that they are thereby only expos
ing the superficial views they take and satisfy
themselves with taking under this head We do
no; charge Mr.. Wells with intentional misstate-
msnts. He is simply blind leader Of the blind,
and, as such, is unconsciously, however impru-
IDENTIFY, helping the nation forward to the ditch and
slough which lie before it in the path Of his direct
,no THIN for instance tb;s xrhl;1:al :~.:.I.