Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-09-12
BUTLER ON THE BONDED DEBT.

BUTLER ON THE BONDED DEBT.
The proposal to cancel the bonded
debt of the nation by an issue of legal
tender notes, which is so fast gaining the
confidence of the people as a measure at
once wise, just and eqitable, has been
received by leading Radical organs
in the interest Of the large bond
holding class in the great cities of
the North with a shock Of affected indig-
nation. 1t has been denounced as virtual
reputation, and damned with the impu-
tation of disloyalty
The New York World, in calling at
tention to the recent utterances in the
financial situation of Gen Butler, of
Massachusetts,, in which he advocates the
proposition, notes the important fact,
that the fundamental basis of the argu-
ment in its favor is that the faith and
credit Of the, government was never
pledged to the payment of the principal
of the fye-twenty or any other class of
bonds in coin. To support this construc-
ton of the law, it cites from debate in
the House of Representatives in regard
to it in June, 1864, in which it was as
serted by Thadeus Stevens, Chairman of
the Ways and Means Committee, that
such was the law, and his statement was
not rebutted So the paternity of this
scheme properly belongs to the arch
Radical, and is not an outgrowth of Demo
cratic disloyalty. ....
Butler thus forcibly and ingeniously
argues the question
The next great question, upon which
parties will range themselves in this coun-
try and the solution of which we are per-
haps to look forward to with as much
interest as any, is the question of finance.
While it is true that the resources of the
country are unbounded, and viewed in the
light of future prosperity, the national
debt is comparatively trife; yet the ex-
pense of the government in the future must
necessarily be very large, and we see that
the people are very impatient of taxation.
While il is probable that we may pay
more voluntarily, for the support of reIi
gion and objects of religious charity, per
capita, than the people of Great Britain for
their Established Church, yet the taxation
of one quarter the amount by government
for such purposes would produce a peace
able if not bloody revolution. Our tradi-
tions are all against taxation. We have
from boyhood been pointed TO oYertaxed
England with its national debt as an ex.
ample to be specially Stunned, while to-
day our taxes to the individual, if honestly
collected, are in fact quite double those of
Great Britain. Again, there is now no
equality in taXatiOn-which tends TO make
the people FESTIVE, because, while few dis |
pute the force of the law which requires |
that government bonds shall be untaXed, |
fewer still acknowledge the justice of it. |
No right minded man would desire to see |
a title Of the national faith fall to the |
ground, but all fear that some system must |
be devised by which all property, however |
acquired, or of whatever nature should /
equally bear the public burden.
There are six hundred millions more 1
or less OF cur bonds in Europe, bought at
rates from forty to seventy cents on the /
dollar. To say nothing of the effect of a
return to specie payment on our own bonds
the first effect OF such return would be 10
put some two hundred millions of dollars
into the pockets of the bankers of Europe
which must be paid from the taxation of |
the products of labor in this country, which
is the only source of revenue in fact.
There might probably be some call upon
us in equity to do this if these bonds had
been taken by the European bankers to aid /
us with money for our great struggle; but
Ii is notorious that they took not one dollar
of our bonds until our success in the war
was assured. During the war we had to
take ali our own loans, and they bought
them AZ the usurious discount Of thirty to
forty cents as a matter of investment; so
that we are not called upon by any equta-
bic considerations to pay a dollar more
than the bonds compel us, The same is
true in regard 10 the five-tWenties held by
our own capitalists. The argument used
why we should pay them in gold is that
our capitalists, and bankers took them,
when the country was engaged in war, "a
an act of patriotism but with gold at 200
and from that 10 to $50, one cannot forget
hat they had an eye to proceeds as
well, in this, that they shaved them at from
City TO sixty per cent Now, why should
he country be called upon to disarrange
is business relations, to reduce its values
10 burden Its people with taxation, in order
10 pay from the poor mans labor into the
pocket this immense premium
while, too, this investment escapes taxa
ion, which is thus wholly thrown upon
productive industry 1t would seem to be
wisdom in the first place TO have all national
taxed, and while one should re-
the fact that during the war the
country might raise money upon any terms.
and that those terms, whatever they are
should be faithfully kept-yet, now that
peace has returned, with it should come a
return to financial policy which shall
raise the money to pay Of these untaxed
obligations at the earliest possible moment,
and substitute for them securities liable TO |
taxation. Now, the fve-tWenty bonds be
come payable at the option of the United
States in five years after the issue.
There are six hundred millions
becoming payable in the present
year. Again they are NOT, by their terms,
payable in gold. On the face the interest
8 declared to be payable in gold, and the
Tery fact that the interest is stated to be
70 payable excludes the idea that il is 80.