The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-06-17

|
tional party, which will reach both Congress
and the State legislatures the present admins
tration and next, and supersede the old, effete
parties of the day, and all their excuses of the
| abolition and secession schools. We want, in
short new national party, and to this end we
call upon the soldiers of the Union armies to
lead the way.
| Our National Debt-Is II . National
Blessing.
Mr.. Jay Cooke, of Philadelphia, has employed
some literary Bohemian to write, and has in
| duced the Tribune Bohemians to publish, q
long article endeavoring to prove that the ma
tional debt is national blessing To Mr..
Cooke the debt may be a blessing since it gives
him good income from percentages on the
sale of United States bonds, and it is quite
NATURAL therefore, that he should object to
having it paid off by subscription. The Bohe-
milan who wrote the article may also be in
favor of debts, both personal and national, and,
doubtless, if bis tailor, landlady and washer
woman could be consulted, we should discover
that, like all other Bohemians, he had made a
practical application Of his peculiar financial
views. But people who pay their debts, and
who are heavily taxed to pay the large annual
interest upon the national debt, take quite q
different view of the subject, and woufd be very
much p1eased-Mr. Jay Cooke to the contrary
notwitbstanding-to have the vast debt of the
country removed at once.
Mr.. Jay Cooke and his Bohemian assure US
that "it was not the industry, persistency and
frugality of the British people-it was not their
Goals nor their iron stone-that gave them SUI
premacy on the ocean and in the money mar
kets and trading exchanges of both hemis-
pheres," bu. it was their immense national
debt. If this be true, it is astonishing how any
country can prosper without an immense ma
tional debt, and it is especially astonishing how
this country could prosper 30 well, until the
beginning of the late civil war, without such q
benefcent burden. Everybody thought that
Prudhomme said o pretty bold thing when he
declared that property is robbery" but Mr..
Jay Cooke and his Bohemian throw Prudhomme
into the shade by asserting that debt is wealth,
debt Is success, debt is better than in
dustry, debt ia preferable to frugality,
debt is great blessing. Evidently the memory
Of Ben Franklin has been lost in Philadelphia.
We are no longer to thrive by industry; we
are to thrive by running in debt. We are no
longer to save the pence and the pounds will
take care of themselves; but we are to let both
pence and pounds slip through our fingers, and
get rich by getting in debt The man who
lived upon the interest of what he owed is no
longer a mere figure Of speech. He is adopted
by Mr. Jay Cooke, and his example is earnestly
recommended to Uncle Sam.
But we are further told that the national
debt of England is "a mortgage upon every
nobleman's estate and every spinning jenny in
| Great Britain-upon every coal mine and every
! ship--upon every mug of beer held in the fist
Of workingman-a mortgage signed, sealed,
acknowledged and delivered on the whole life,
| ave, on the death and burial of the people OF
all England" and that this mortgage is
"backed up by the most vigilant, distrustful
and thorough system Of taxation, for the en-
forcement of which the whole power Of the
| government, military and civil, is pledged
The Bohemian, who has nothing to mortgage
and pays no tax, may admire this cheerful pic
| ture of the pleasant effects of national debt
upon Great Britain, and Mr.. Jay Cooke, with q
to see the same system established here; but
| we would like to hear the opinion of the work
jngmen, the farmers and the business men Of
this country upon this queer kind Of q blessing.
| One hundred and sixty-fve millions of dollars
o year are to be taken out of the pockets Of the
people to pay the interest upon our debt Can
we convince them that it is better to pay out
this money than to keep its Who will go to a
laboring man and tell him that he is richer be-
cause be has just paid his ten twenty or one
hundred dollars in taxesa Who will assure a
landowner that he is really weather. because the
government has tackled q mortgage upon every
foot Of bis land, and demands the yearly interest
upon that mortgage in the form Of a taxi Mr.
Jay Cooke and his Bohemian volunteer TO do
this; and we wish them all the success they
deserve
Next we are informed that national debt
will be tie TO hold the States together in the
Union; but our merchants and flnanciers will an
swer that debts, either State or personal, did moi
hold the Southern States in the Union, and that
bayonets we're much more eflcscious. Perhaps
Mr.. Jay Cooke and his Bohemian believe that
If we had possessed q national debt we should
have had no civil war, and that our national
debt really saved the Union. We should like Ia
be informed, then, why the Southern confede
racy did not sucoeeds That had natiopa
debt before it became nation. If deb. b,
such blessing-better than industry, com
merce wealth or manufactures did 1t moi
help the rebellionf Surely the rebels carried
out Mr.. jay Cookies theory to the utmost. LIE