New-York daily tribune., 1865-09-28
moRAL AND MATERIAL.

make great deal of money. 1t is curious and
cheering to mark the honest alacrity with which
the country recognizes this fact. A cursory
glance at single number OF The TRIBUNE
shows us how swiftly the nation, escaping from
the enormous expenditure of war, is repro
ducing the wealth which war for the puphc
safety has consumed The country may DC
compared to great ant-hill, Of which the
swarming inhabitants rapidly and wisely re-
pair damages and speedily return to the WORK
of provision. The paper promises OF all KINDS
of the Government, represent the amount whch
must be earned before we shall be whole again.
It is enormous, yet it frghtens nobody. There
is no suspicion of insolvency. There is no fear
of depreciation. There is confidence every
where among people proverbially sharp and
suspicious in all matters of money.
At the reception of the English railway
delegation at Toledo, last week, Sir Morton
Peto said that "half the truth had not been
told him respecting the resources OF the coun'
try or the profits to be obtained from judi
cious investment of capital" We might 70
further and say, that for every dollar which the
war has cost we can show two in the enhanced
value of property which will surely follow the
permanent settlement of the Slavery question
Whatever legislation. labor and production may
now need can be made uniform and consistent.
We free our economy from the eternal wrangles
which the instructive hostility of Freedom and
Slavery occasioned. We have taken an element
of strife forever out of the partnership. The
| bane of all business is insecurity. We can now
have permanent law, and the shadow of civil
dissenson will rest no longer upon our busy en-
tcrprise.
There are two ways OF looking at money.
A man may have no inordinatc love OF 1t, and
yet not Swear at it, like Timon OF Athens. We
have. as people, been fond of accumulation,
but it has only been for the sake of spending
lavishly. The net result Of human activity
must find some representation, and il finds it in
capital. But the whole face of the land, the
long lines of railways and canals, the teeming
cities the fertile farms, the groaning ware
houses aud the crowded piers are all witnesses
of the incessant activity of trade and of the
blessings which that activity everywhere
dihuses. Now, if this prosperity brought
merely physical comforts and immunltles,
it would still have its values but that we
will not now consider. 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 rch but here, because the great minority
is rich, the less wealthy majority earns fair
wages, and has bread enough and to spare. We
have thus guarded, to great extent, against
the selfshness of classes, and against domestic
jealousies tending to civil commot:cn. More
than this il was the absence of pinching pow
erty which permitted the yeomanry. the mer-
chants, the mechanics Of this country to protest,
without fear, against Il system of compulsory
and unrequited labor. The STAKEHOLDER thought
that we needed his countenance and his crops.
Had we been poor, had we absolutely needed
either We might have been deaf to the voice of
| pity, and dumb dogs still. We all know for
how many years We were frightened into a
mean acquiescencc in great wrong. Thank
God the temptation can never come again!
Money is usually written down by the moral
ist as a curse National wealth is denounced
as anything but a blessing. But in private life
nobody contends that competence and indc-
pendencc are not extremely necessary to per-
sonal happiness and culture. Now, it il the
general diffusion of wealth in the United States
which establishes an analogy between our large
monetary aggregate and small individual ac-
QUESTIONS. There is a great deal of money, but
there are not many enormous fortunes, and
these are being continually through the alb
sence of laws of primogenture and entail, dis
tributed and redistributcd, and distributed
again. Thus every man, in every station Of
life, is perpetually sharing the blessings which
money commands. He gets them in the shape
Of light taxes, good wages, public schools, pub
| lie libraries, certain work, and opportunities of
profitable Investment. Look at the United
States now! See how, in every quarter, indus
try is quickened how invigoratcd labor bends
once more TO its task how great works OF
public Improvement are resumed !-how COM
mercc and manufactures are redoublng their
energies how brightly the future beams once
more before us And there is no man so poor
that in all this happiness he can have no share.
There is work for all, a home for all, bread for
all, recreation for all, education for ALL and at
the foundation OF all is the National wealth.
1t is for this reason that we rejoice TO mark
! .f t-t,siV t.,-tt. l..