The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-11-05
results related are the doing, not Of
man, but of God.
CHARLES TODD QUINTARn,
Bishop of Tennessee.
American F1nnnee-our Indebtedness.

American Ftnnnee-Our Indebtedness.
The mysteries of American finance
are becoming gradually clear. It is
now confessed, and there is no dis
credit in the confession, that the
authorities of the Federal Treasury
were afraid to reveal the whole truth
while the war continued, and the issue
remained uncertain. The facts, even
if they could have been exactly ascer-
tanned, would have been too alarming
for publication under circumstances
so critical, and the statement has
been reserved accordingly for the
hour of success and confidence. The
Americans owe just 100000, 900.
That, allowing for few outstanding
demands, is the amount of their ma
tional debt, and it represents simply
and exactly the cost of their war.
ALI that they spent upon the war they
borrowed. Not one penny Of the
charge was betrayed out of the taxes
of the year. The revenue raised from
taxation was all consumed in the ex-
traordinary expenses of civil admins
tration incidental to the contest,
leaving the actual cost of the cam
paign to be met by loans. BY Il rough
approximation, it is computed that in
the four years of fighting the army
cost ESQ, ,OOO,0 900, and the navy e7O,
600, 900, and that is the whole of the
account.
The next question concerns the
revenue oy which the future e2pendi-
ture is to be met, and here also We
are furnished with definite statements.
The Americans calculate upon raising
by taxation an annual income of ESQ,
900, 900, which, they say, will not
only pay the interest upon the public
debt with all other charges OF the
year, but leave a surplus of e1o, 900,
Nor is there any reason for doubt
ing that the Americans can, if they
will, sustain the taxation which these
estimates assume. Their resources
are enormous, and their energies in
exhaustible, but the prospect, for all
that, is very serious one. We are
about the best taxed people in the
world, and yet we.have never in these
times raised $4,000, 900 a year by
taxation. In the years 1886 our
expenditures exceeded that sum, but
e75, 100000 was the utmost that
we paid, leaving the rest to be bor-
rowed. The Americans are even yet
unused to the full weight of heavy
taxes. They have never yet raissd as
much as 100000, 900 from ''internal
revenue ;" they only estimated their
receipts at eos, 900, 900 in the last
year for which accounts are made up.
All through the war their taxing
machinery was extended and strength
ened and improved, but they were so
new to the business that it never got
into order or produced much result.
In 1861, all they raised by taxation
was e9,OOO,O 900 /; in 1862, ELL, 900,
900 in 1868, EGG, 900, 600 in 1864,
934, 900, 900; and in 1865 they ex-
peoted to obtain e42, 100000. These
figures undoubtedly show the resolu-
ton of American fnancers to pay
more and borrow less, and they ex-
hibit, too, steady rise of income
under the application Of the system.
Still, it will be observed that even in
the very last year of the struggle the
results only gave about one-half O!
the revenue now anticipated as the
ordinary produce OF year. In othe,
words, America, now that the war is
over and the excitement has subsided
must accept and continue to endure 6
weight of taxation double that which
was imposed in the heat and impulse
of the strife.-London Times, Oct. IA
WAR STORIES. the Con