Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-06-23
THE NATIONAL DEBT.


GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN on THE BENNETT
PLAN or PAYING TIT is FREE TRADE
IN DIsGUsE-A CHARACTERISTIC LET
TER.
George Francis Train writes the following
letter, under date of the 3Ist ult, to J. G.
Bennett, in which he calls the latest Miles
q Reilly Joke, viz the plan to pay by
subscription the whole of the national debt.
He says, in his strange way
You and Bonner are rich. Forty thou
sand is nothing to either But what other
journals could pay as much ON call You
insult your less prosperous contemporaries by
your audacious proposition Vanderbilt il
rlch-with Pacific Mail, Harlem, and Hud.
son at present. quotations I What is FIVE
hundred TlI0peanid 10 NM stewart could
pay c million, Nth g0ld at ttoo hundred and
ffty Would you like to have a rich man
receive vou with open arms, oBet 10 lend
him hall million Wealth iscredit cred
it is confidence. Take away that and down
comes your partition We live in the age
of paper. Your fortune is paper HaGldD
Paper houses, paper banks, paper constitu-
tons. Men marry paper wives, and unto
themare born paper children. The wealth
Of the rich is already in Government paper
pay it of aud they are poor. Suppose you
get five thousand names instead of five hun
dred2 Only one hundred and forty five
thousand more will be required As a bit
of bunkum for European consumption, your
idea is good. Tie advertisement IS cheap
ospo margin IS required dBdas 1 erpect to be
a millionaire some doy, PIT me d0l0lt for one
hundred shares VIII vou take 1t in Prairie
Dog2 Our national dent i7 credit--a ma
tional firm-thirty million OF partnership
ital, three thousand millions. Statesman
ship begets confidence confidence guaTan-
tees debt; then our debt is gold, capital,
wealth Destroy either, and all fail. At
Washington Heights you told me that you
believed ia panics. Imitation built Chicago;
its founders were ruined, but its palaces
stand Our debt guarantees American in
dustry; pay it, and free trade is ruin. Look
at Turkey, Portugal, India under England
pestlential tutelage. Nothing but intense
vitality and enormous resources saved Amer
lea from Democratic policy. Toadyism on
the brain begat free trade. Bright and Cob
den fred their double barrel, bringing down
both birds. Abolitionism hit Wings free
trade hit democrats. America, however,
viii bag the game instead of England. Yet.
over the grave of slavery, by paying the debt
which is protection, you would resurrect
serfdom, which is free trade.
Continental currency, French assignats,
Confederate paper, were not backed up by
commerce hence disaster. Let the Green
back Chase McCulloch system stimulate
commerce, manufactures, agriculture, IN
stead of trying to control gold or stock mar
ket, and new industrial enterprises will Gre
ate general prosperity. Dispatches go by
wire now, not by mail. We cross the ocean
in ten days under steam, instead of sixty un-
der canvass. England took duty off OF corn
because Ireland was starving and emigrants
flowed America-ward. She called it free
trade We fools eheered. 1t was protec-
tion to her labor England, (having five
hundred million dollars in three thousand
cotton Mills took duty off of cotton because
we undersold her in the east. She called it
free trade We idiots cheered again 1t
was protection to cdpitdtl both these great
political events were acts of protection,
which we in our miraculous wisdom, inter-
preted free trade.
Prohibit export of cotton, and make for
eign fabrics contrakand erect rolling mills,
iron foundries establish potterles, cultivate
sorghum and sugar beet; plant mulberry
trees for silk worms increase woolen facto-
ries, cotton mills manufaetpre hardware /;
open westward, the world s highway TO Chi
ma; Paris to Pekin in thirty days, and speak
the American language in short, be Amer
lean. Let McGalloeh introduce the Credit
Mobilier system, by using debt to start
through National Banks, factories every
where, and skilled artisans will pour in,
taxes will be reduced, and the Grand lmpe-
rial Continental Republic is established for
thousand years. And
Then America, crushed to earth, will rise
again
The eternal years Of God are hers
But England. wounded, wFithes in pain,
VIII die amid hen Worshippers
Sydney Smith assures me that Mrs. Par
tingdon failed to mop back the sea. 80 will
you fall, Mr.. Bennett, in stopping the man
ifest destiny Of our race, in trying to force
paupefism on our people, By Introducing
free 7r4E In t}fsguise.
GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN.