American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-10-04
Moral and Material.

The war has been costly, and we need
to make a great deal of money 1t is Gu
rious and cheering to mark the honest
alacrity with which the country recog
nizes this fact A cursory glance at a
single number of The Tribune shows us
how swiftly the nation, escaping from
the enormous expenditure Of war, is pub
lie safety has consumed. The country
may be compared to great ant-hill, OF
which the swarming inhabitants rapidly
and wisely repair damages, and speed
lily return to the work Of provision
The paper promises of all kinds of the
Government, represent the amount which
must be earped before we shall be whole
again. 1t is enormous. yet it frightens
nobody. There is no suspicion of insoI-
vency. There is no fear Of depreciation.
There is confidence everywhere among a
people proverbially sharp and suspicious
in all matters of money.
At the reception Of The English rail-
way delegation at Toledo, last week, Sir
Morton Peto said that "half the truth had
not been told him respecting the resodrc-
es of the country or the profits to be OBJ
tanned from iudiclous inveatment of cap
ital.' We might 60 further and say,
that for every dollar the war has cost, we
can show two in the enchaueed value of
prperty which will surely follow the per-
manent settlement of the Slavery ques-
ton. Whatever legislation, labor and
production may now need can be made.
uniform and consistent. We free our
our economy from the eternal wrane les
which the instructive hostility f Free.
dom and Slavery occasioned. We have
taken an element of strife forever out of
the partnerships The bane Of all bust
ness is insecurity. We can now lave
permanent law, aud the shadow of civil
d ssensisf viii rest no loner upon, our
busy enterprise.
There are two ways Of looking at mon
ey. 4 man may have no in9rdinate love
Of it, and yet not swear at It, like iimon
of Atheus We have, as people, been
fond Of accumulation, but ithas only been
for the sake of spending lavishly. The
net result of human activity mnst find
some representation, and it fnds it in cap
ital. But the whole face OF the land, the
long lines of railways and canals, he
teeming cities, the fertile farms, the groan-
ing warehouses and the crowded piers are
all witnesses of the incessant activity of
trade and of the blessings which that ac.
tivity everywhere diffuses. Now, if this
prosperity brought merely physical COM
forts and immunities, it would still have
its value but that we will not now con.
slider. We are glad that the nation is
wealthy, because its wealth enables the
nation to be just. In other lands, the
many have starved because the few were
rich; I; but here, because the great minori-
ty is rich, the less wealthy majority earns
fair wages. and has bread enough and to
spare. We have thus guarded TO a great
extent, against the seishness of classes,
aud against domestic jealousies tending to
civil commotion. More than this, it was
the absence of pinching poverty which
permitted the yeomanry, the merchants,
the mechanics of this country to protest,
without fear, against system OF compul-
sorry and unrequited labor. The slave
holder thought that we needed his eoun-
tenance and his crops. Had we been poor,
had we absolutely needed either, we might
have been deaf 20 the voice of pity, and
dumb dogs still We all know for how
many years we we're frightened into
mean acquiesceace in a great wrong
Thank God the temptation can never come
again
Money is usually writteh down by tho