Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-10-09

THE PUBLIC DEBT INCREASING !
Average Yearly Expenditures 81 60 900. 600
A man, be he in official position or out
of it, must be nearly demented who counts
upon such stupidity on the part Of the poe
pleas that they can be made to believe that
the public debt will not necessarily increase
when Congress, upon menace Of the man
ufacturers. exempted their products and
property-$90, 600, 000-from the working
of the internal tax law.
1t is true, Congress, to keep down the
public debt, in hope to hide its corrupt
atrocities, has denied justice for years to
public creditors, and has persistently re-
fused appropriations for necessary public
purposes. Yet the DEBT HIS steadily in
creased, and must continue to augment
when Congress shall manfully 90 its whole
duty to the country, and when, also, the
treasury Department shall pretermit its
policy OF withholding every dollar in pub
lie or private expenditure that it possibly
can.
A Mr. Wells, whose duty is simply to 60
about the country and observe practically
the working of the excise acts, and report
! ticles may bear creator or less taxation,
| and at the same time enhance revenue,
has adventured into waters beyond his
| depth, and utterl y unknown to him, when
treating of the great subject matter of Mr..
Delmar's report. This simply because he
has neither the ability to treat upon sub
jects that engaged such master minds as a
Hamilton. a Woodbury., Walker, and
| Chase ; nor DO his duties lie in that direc-
ton. lie has no authority to examine the
J records. It is otherwise with Mr.. Delmar,
who, as the head of the Bureau of Stats
tics, has full access to the records of all
the proper Offices of the Treasury, or other
departments of the Government. As to
his capability for the discharge of the
proper duties of his Office, we have the fact
of his lncumbency of the position upon the
best possible credentials; and upon the
fact of the application to him for the infor-
| nation given in his late report, by men of
the highest commercial repute in the great
central city of the continent. We nave
also the fact of his capability in the report
itself, which, however it may vary imma-
| terially in form from the manner which
other officials may treat the subject, bears
| that internal evidence as to its verify which
the best intelligence on the subject, official
or otherwise, must and does recognize.
this work with his own hand Like all
other offices in the Government, there is
in his bureau large number Of superior
clerks, of approximate ability to the Com
missioner himself. The report is the work
| of all these hands. Nor does it lie in the
power of Secretary McCulloch himself, nor
any other official, to deny the general &C.
curacy of this report, without long and ex-
| hausting labor to test its statements. The
tedious work for months of body of su-
| perior clerks cannot be upset in day by
| the lpSe dirH of any inflated Spinner, or
any other official or officials, whether their
duties lie in the same direction of those of
MIR. Delmar and his corps OF clerks, or not.
Moreover, it is of little use for the Radi-
cal demagogues and tricksters to insult the
public with the idea that the debt can be
long kept down by Congressional or de-
partment artifice and wrong, when such
really great mind as that of Thaddeus Ste
vens has always admitted that it, whether
| acknowledged or not as yet, Is really 3d.,
O,OOO, 900. Especially is it at the extreme
Of :nsolence for persons to thrust into the
face of the people the idea that the debt
does not necessarily increase when the
means of the Government are taken away
to the tune Of $780, 100000, more or less,
forthe benefit of manufacturers, as estimated
| ny Oecretafy McCullOcu. AS well may
robber insist that you have money after he
has stealthily purloined your purse.
| AS to Mr.. Wells, whose work on the sub
ject of the finances was largely made up
with extracts, without credit, from writings
of Hon. Robert J.. Walker, he has neither
the ability nor means to write with sense
| on the subject. In the regard of accuracy
or ability to treat the subject with intelli-
gence, he is an utter impostor.
It should be remembered, too, that there
are capable men connected with journals
i'll the large cities, who give the subject of
| finances the devoted days of the best por-
| tions of their lives. These agree in sub
stance with Mr.. Delmar, as follows:
From the N. Y. Journal of Commerce.
| st is curious to see the squirming of the par
| dsan papers st the expose made by Mr. Delmar
of the condition of the Treasury. The director of
| this bureau was appointed as ardent Republi-
can. He has been quoted approvingly by all tho
party papers as long as his figures met the wishes
| of the party leaders. But the condition of the
| Treasury is now uninyiting. When Congress, for
| partisan purposes, took off the tax which had
been ley.ed upon certain domestic manufactures
thus reducing the revenue in that item nearly one
hundred millions per annum, showed plainly
that this legislation began entirely at the wrong
end. TO reduce the revenue without cutting