Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-07-08
From the New Yorker.
The Future of our National Debt.

look upon the future of our national
debt with some foreboding. Let us
examine the whole subject fairly and
see if we are not only able to pay
our present, but any reasonable flu
ture debt that the exigencies Of war
may compel us to incur, and that the
payment will neither be difficult nor
excessively onerous. L ct us see
what are the facts. Unlike an in
dividual who is unable to count with
certainty upon increased ability to
pay in the future the debts he con-
tracts in the present-this country
is sure to increase in wealth and
population. 1t appears from the
census returns that the increase in
the value of real and personal pro-
perty in the United States, from the
year 1910 to 1850, was from three
thousand seven hundred and sixty
four millions in 1910, to six thous-
and one hundred and seventy-four
millions in 1850, or GA per cent
The next decade shows a still great
er advance in general prosperity
and riches. For in that period, the
yield of our gold mines, the extern
sion of our railroad system and con.
sequent Opening of new fields for
agriculture, our large immigration,
and the stimulus given to every
branch of manufactures and the me-
chanic arts rails d the national
wealth from $6,174,000,000 in 1850,
to the enormous aggregate of $l4,-
I183,O00,000 in 1860, or 127 per
cent, of which $10,716,000,000 was
owned in the loyal States.
Is there any good reason to be-
lieve that we shall not continue to
prosper as we have done-( except
from the chances of war, which can
only modify and not change the
character of the answer to the ques-
ton that the nation shall not con-
tinue to nearly, if not quite, double
its wealth every ten years for sever
al decades to come? We have but
just begun to work our gold mines,
and the vast body of our other min
eral wealth is still undeveloped.-
We have fertile lands enough for
an empire that the pillow has never
touched, and it is only in this gen
Grafton that science and art have
fairly begun to opon the doors and
show the way towards our future
material greatness.
But experience of what others
have done will best tell us what we
may rightfully expect to do. Lett
US compare our position with that of
Great Britain during one of the
gloomiest periods of her financial
history. At the end of her gre a Il
wars in 1916, her wealth was esti-
mated at SI0,4 00,000,000, and herI
national debt of that time was "a,
300,000,000, or more than Al per
cent. Of her ntire property. mi
1861 her property was stated at
$31,50O,000,000, while her debt was
$3,S90,000,000, or was a charge on
the property ofthe country of about
IL IL per cent. 1t needs no argu-
ment to show that the weight of the
burden of this debt is now but one
third what it was when it was con-
tracted.
We do not wish to deceive our
selves on either side of the question.
Debt is always bad enough, but we
should look the facts squarely in
the face, and accept whatever de-
auctions we have a right to draw
from them as truth. In spite of the
war, we believe the Northern States
are as rich to-day as they were three
years ago. Such demand for la
Dor was never before known, and
never before was it so well paid
War destroys, but oar hand of in
dustry has never for moment ceas- {
ed to create, and the creation will {
more than balance the destruction.
Large as our losses Of brave and ,
gallant men have been, the popula- I
ton of the country has steadily in ,
creased and unless some scourge
such as never visited a nation should
come upon us unless we should
be utterly destroyed, or dismember-
ed and broken to pieces by yieldingI
10 this demon of secession-there is IS
no human power that can arrest our o
continued progress and develop |
nent. All wars have ended as will o
ours. Let us hope that it may be :
;oon; but when it is ended, and tri-
as it must be, this coun
ny is bound to take a position in
population, wealth and vigor that II
viii make its debt so small in pro- C
portion to its wealth, that the most a
imid man will laugh at the fear g
hat may have once overloaded his n
-ision. v
A trophy from Shiloh, at the Phil "