The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-07-13

| pleasure in raking us down and misrepresenting
| opportunity of doing so. The characteristic
| egotism and self-righteousness of John Bull
| stick out in remarkable manner on all such
occasions. We are called cousins, blood rela-
| tions a great people, and all sorts of compi-
mentary things are said of us when the British
want to settle Alabama claims after their own
fashion, to get tariff from us favorable to
themselves or to gain some other advantages
but when we are in trouble or believed to be
in difficulties the cloven hoof is shown. John
Bull then strikes at us and complacently COM
pares his degenerate offspring with his own
noble and honorable self
For example, no sooner were the financial
features of The democratic platform, as adopted
by the Convention held in this city, telegraphed
| to England than the press there cried out repu-
diation and we all know that by some means
or other, and either from ignorance or design,
our six per cent gold interest securities are
kept down twenty per cent below the British
three and half per cents. # the credit of
one country be as good al that Of the
other and the resources equal, the securities OF
| the two countries should have the same credit.
| British three and half cOnsols are quoted
now at ninety -four to ninety.fve. This would
make United States skies worth about one
hundred and sixty If, as we said, the credit
and means Of paying be as good in one case as
the other. Yet what do we seep Our secu-
rites are quoted in London at the same time
at fraction over seventy -three-that is,
reckoning the value of the securities upon the
interest drawn from them and the return for
the capital invested in them. ours are con-
sdered by the stockholders and capitalists
| abroad not worth half the value. placed upon
those of England Out credit stands less than
fifty per cent below that of Great Britain.
There is no cause for this difference. 1t is not
real, but artificial, and can only be temporary.
| 1t arises in a great measure from the per-
sistent efforts of the British press, capitalists
and stockholders to depreciate the character,
standing and credit of the United States.
| What are the facts with regard to the credit
| of the United States-to the prospect of paying
| the debtand the means of paying it2 How
| does this country compare with England and
the other countries of Europe in this respect?
First we will remark that our debt, enormous
as it is, was contracted at home we did not
ask for money abroad; we obtained'no loans
from foreign countries. Yet we raised more
money than any nation ever raised in the same
time, and carried on war unexampled in
magnitude and cost to successful issue. No
nation in the world-no, not even England, with
all her wealth-could have raised such vast
sum within the few years that the war lasted
The effort would have broken down any other
country Why were we able to do this Be-
cause we had vast and rich Continent, full
Of wealth and natural resources, and thirty-fve
millions of the most Industrious and enterpris-
ing people in the world. The debt is but a
small mortgage on the vast wealth and I'M
equalled industry of the nation We have not,
like England, reached the limit Of production,
nor have we any reason to look gloomily on
the future, as Mr.. Gladstone does of England,
when her coal mines and other resources must
give out Stupendous as the development Of
this country has been in wealth and population.
it is only the beginning of a mighty future.
There are not three millions of paupers to eat
up the earnings of industry or who cannot find
employment. Every person is producer;
there is plenty of well paid employment, and
room enough for ten times the present popula-
ton. There are now, probably, forty millions
of people in the United States, and within the
next decade there will be over fifty millions.
And il must be remembered that this popula-
ton is equal in productive power to double
that of most other countries, on account
of its superior energy, invention and
enterprise. II is hardly necessary to men,
ton here our unlimited agricultural re-
sources, including almost everything that is
grown elsewhere, from the hardy cereals of the
North to the semi-tropical productions of the
South, or to our boundless mineral wealth in
iron, coal, copper, the precious metals and
every other kind of mineral. All this is well
known. Who will presume to say, then, that
we cannot pay the national debt, and pay 1t,
too, within the period Of the present genera
ton If we choosep
But the foreign cavaliers intimate that our
people may repudiate the debt, and point to
party platforms and the utterances Of party
politicians as indicating that. Our political
parties and politicians say great many things
for buncombe, and abuse each other for all
sorts'of bad doings and intentions. In other
countries parties and politicians do the same,
If they do not go quite so far as ours. There
is great deal of captrap in all this, and is so
understood by the people But with regard to
the platforms of the democrats and repub
| licans, which are much alke.as to financial
questions, there is nothing squirting even at
reputation in them Both parties intend to
| pay the debt honestly, and If either Of them