, 1867-07-26
The Financial Question.

| HueSHOu VI 'aASuoui Auu Nentured the opinion
that uDless something is done for the relief o
tax payers, and that shortly, an irresistible de
mand will come up for reputation. An eastern
paper of great ability, and undoubted loyalty
discusses this question in the same strain, an,
Says:
A most remarkable change of opinion is nov
taking place all over the country regarding tb
so-cAlled "blessngs" of a national debt. Up Il
within six mouths or year, the iguoramuse
nave preached up the debt as a "bond of uuiol
which cemeuts the country /" now they begi,
to change their tu1e altogether, and we are in
clned to the belief that iu a year or two lout
aud unmistakabiy howl ofdespair will arise from
the same debt-loving party, which will roll from
the Atlantic to the Pacific and it is not alto
gether impossible that it will also be a howl ot
reputation from every member Of the party who
does not carry portion of this debt in the shape
OF national bond One of the debt-loving or,
gans said, the other day, that 1--WE bad gone on
10 this optimistic way just as long as we could
anord to-too long not to be summoned to pay
heavily for our infatuaton up to date A debt
Is no more good thing for a nation than for an
indlVidual" year ago large revenue was
derived from the country for the Treasury and
there was some wild talk of paying off our en-.
tire obligations in nine or ten years. Then il
was deferred till the end of a generation-this
present generation-say twenty years; but with,
In the past six months very little has been heard
Aoout cancellng the obligation; whether the en-,
thusiasm of the hopeful ones, who were able to
see the thing out, has consumed itself, or that
something has occurred to cause a collapse in
their arguments, the great world can Judge. The
TACT now boldly stands cut that u huge debt,
IKE the one this nation owes, is much easier
handed down TO future generations, as legacy,
than worked out by industry, economy and per
severeuce to-day.
II is scarcely year since the New York Her.
aid made Zany of ITSELF in seriously going off
to work to pay the national debt by subscripS
uons and the best of the joke was, that it,pa>
raded the amounts proposed to be given by
dozen of the wealthy men Of New York, as an
evidence that the scheme was a practical one.
Had the astute editor of the Herald not over
looked the fact that the debt, being equal 10 at
least one quarter of the wealth of the country
the subscriptions must Of course be equal to one
quarter of each mans individual wealth, be
would not have made himself, to use one of his
own favorite expressions, go great "nincom-
poop" When be put forth the column of SUBJ
scriptions, it was found that liberal as they ap,
peared at glance had every individual 10 the
country given in like liberality, it would have
wiped out about Que quarter of the national debt.
We remember that Cornelius Vanderbilt was
down at S5OO,O0O To pay his proportion, il
should have read S4oo0,oO9: Ql SoGiied ont
Ia most silly abortion.
England, to-day, with her debt Of 81, ,O00, ,OO0,-
900, is paradise for poor man when compared
with the United States. The great question of
the day is finance, the disposition of this huge
debt The taxation it imposes Is the gravest
subject ever discussed in the American Congress-
and the terrible depression now weighing upon
the country and crushing out trade and com,
merce, killing the revenue aud threatening the
government aud people with bankruptcy, is the
result of ignorance 10 deal with the circumstan-
ces that envelop US. We shall wither up COM
mercially, and become nationally pauperized,
unless the tax and financial principles radi.
cally changed.
The tax system is destroying the industry of
the county, and exhsusting the vitality of tie
nation 1t has rami6ed into every department
of trade with so blighting an influence, that
commerce is fast dying out. Prices have been
raised unnecessarily by the taxation of products
10 their crude stale, aud all the way up, at sue
cessve stages of manufacture, tax on top of
tax till the cost of the finished article is brought
to fabulous figures, and consumption has decreas
ed thereby fifty per cent.
Industries that in 1860 brought millions of
dollars in profit to the country have been crushed
out. Millions of capital have been driven from
the country, because no profit could be, gotten |
out of its employment here there is no enumer.
ating all the evils this buudering, blind taxation
is inhicting upon the people. Their name is
legion. Taxes, even carefully and judiciously |
levied, are a dead weight upon the shoulders of
any nation, aud ever productive of misery to the |
great million but when they are spread like a
great net work over the entire producing world, |
cIoggiug head, hands aud feet, cloggiug both |
muscle and brain, lettering soul as well as bOdy, |
they become evil Of so unindurable charac'
ter that mankind are warranted in taking any |
whatever, to rid themselves of such |
a curse.
The operations of the American tax laws are |
drying up the sources of prosperity, without
which this once fair land will soon be CONNER
cial Golgotha--a place of dead mems bones.
Let Congress look to this ere it be too late.