Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-08-23
TRUE POLICY AS TO THE PUBLIC IN
pEBTEUNEBH.

II Win properly, rphi huu pots"""'
this country as a basis for taxation
amounting, according to the best author
tiles, to only SIG, 200, 100000, we pay i
taxes $500, 100000 to the United State
and 5000, 900, 900 to the States, or in al
$500, OOO,0Oe Great Britain, with sax
able basis of $50, 900, 900, O00,. or more
than double that of the United States
pays $3.50, 900, 900, or $4,000, 1000 less
than we do; aud yet is barely able tc
keep down the interest of its public debt
which, as the result of century, is about
the same as our own. And France, with
a still larger basis Of taxable property,
and still greater population and re-
sources, pays but $39O,OOO,eOO, or $llO,-
900, 900 per snnum less than we pay
Will any one who looks carefully at
these startling figures doubt that, If we
intend honestly to pay off our unprece'
dented public debt, which is two fold
larger than that Of any other nation OF
the earth, in proportion to the value OF
taxable property we possess, it is to the
last degree indispensable that our re-
sources shoold be husbanded with
the utmost possible economy, and
that all the means which expe-
rience and ingenuity can suggest,
should be studously brought to bear, for
the purpose OF increasing our capital and
augmenting the available resources OF
the country2 They must be mad and
unfit to rule free people, or even slaves,
who can expect to pay off public debt
of such magnitude as that of the United
States, when combined with that other
almost equal Indebtedness of the indi-
vidual States amounting in all to not
less thar $4,000, 100000, and requiring
$500, 10000 annually, at the least, only
to keep dozen the interest while all other
expenses are running on), without fru-
gality, without economy, with wasteful
expenditure, and a policy vindictive,
cruel and crushing, not only to indi-
vidual happiness and security to the
citizen, but also to the intrinsic value of
real and personal estate, and the very
life.blood in the power of production, of
one.third the people and the States OF
the Union. Must not the malice, which
brushes, pay the price ? Or, under such
an insane and understandable policy,
must not this government be compelled
to insolvency or reputation of the pub
lie debt, by the necessity for its aug
mentstion created by these circumstan-
ces, and superinduced by an unwise and
blind administration of public affairs2
Grant, if you will, that there is no
passion at the bottom, and no malice
ranking beneath the surface. Suppose
the legislation of the country to be the
emanation of patriotism, and accompa
MED with the intention not to exceed
the bounds of justice in the provision
made for the punishment Of guilty re
bellion-which was, but is not-have we
not here blunder which is worse than
crime 2
The utmost energies Of this great
country in all its parts must be brought
into resuisition if the public debt is to
be paid off, Nothing less will do Any,
policy which Expresses and disables any
section or part will prove suicidal. There
must be amnesty, magnanimity and wis
dom in the management of the affairs
of the natien, which will bring peace,
quiet and a sense of security to property,
life and liberty, before the sun Of
prosperous fortune can again smile on
the eleven rebel States. And until it
does the South and North alike will grow
daily poorer, instead of wealth augment
ing. One cannot be impoverished with
out so disabling the other that relief
from, pecuniary obligations will be i'm
possible. And persistence in the rule
and ruin policy Of the present governing
fanatics and madmen, will soon be ap-
parent as "penny wise and pound fool
ish," in a condition of hopeless national
insolvency Aud the large class OF un-
taxed bondholders will whistle for their
money.
The Baltimore Sun, in speaking of
this subject of the public Indebtedness,
has the following sensible suggestion as
to the true policy to be pursued toward
the South; and this looking to Northern
interests alone
No one questions the ability of the
country ultimately to pay the debt ii its
industry is permitted to have full devel-
opment, and the energies Of the people
are not paralyzed by an oppressive pol
icy towards large section of the Union,
which necessarily increases the indebt.
edness of the nation, while, at the same
time. it diminishes the ability of that
section which once paid great part Of
the expense Of the government TO bear
its share of the general burthens. 1t is
while the country is in such a condition
as this that we see il ANNOUNCED that "a
bill is being prepared by good loyal men
| Of the South 10 enforce the present con-
fiscation laws and so modify them as to
resurvey all the seeded States in the
1ame manner as the public lands are sur
| nxsa.a rrrr e