Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-12-04

pie between April /, 1867, and June 80
1858, to the support of the Government
Of that enormous am0unt-more thar
507, ,O00, 600 q yearly far the greater
part has been spent for the civil wal
and the Interest on the debt which the
rebellion caused us to create, over anc
above our vast yearly contributions
during the war.
In those three and quarter years oul
| ordinary expenses. over and above wal
debt and war Interest paid, as Mr.. At
kinson has proved, were less than S92,.
000,0 in currency, say &65s00O,o0o in
gold, each year.
/ I doubt whether the history of nations
has any thing like this to show; a re-
| duCtion, in a little more than three
| years, of on6-quarter of q great debi
and a dimination Of the annual ex-
| denses of vast republic like ours TO &C
/ small sum. Add the interest of the
debt at six per cent, say sI20, ,000, 600
ana you have less than $500, ,000, 900,
| gold, as your yearly budget. The an
/ nual expenses of Great Britain, with its
! debt funded at three per cent, are $780,
least, $400, ,000, 900.
! Each power fs spending at this mo-
ment about twice as much as we spend,
while the principal of the French debt
Is quite as large as ours, and that of the
Eogilsh sixty per cent. larger. Yet the
/
| iOuE, the French three per cents. at
| slzty-nine and ore-fOurGh, while our
six per cents. are hardly .seventy-hye.
Is not this the very essence of unrea-
son Compare, for example. the zu-
/ speetIve position of these two great
countries, the French Empire and the
| American Union I shall say not B
word of the comparative value of their
Institutions or their schemes of national
life.
Look only at financial facts.
france has as0meWhat less numerous
population than that of the Union
say thirty-efght millions.
Inc latest and most trustworthy sta
tlsticians compute the yearly product
OF tne Empire at twenty milliards of
Lfancs-say, 81 600, ,00O, 600, or exactly
what was the estimate of our produc-
lions lew years ago. The sum total
OF her war debt is just equal to ours.
Her yearly budget is more than double
our own. How are these four hundred
annual millions spent +?
Ihanks to the superior credit enjoyed
by the Empire over that of the Union
the interest of her debt is but S68, ,000, 900
gold. This leaves her 1888, ,000, 900.
Ana how does she spend these $685.
OOU,UOO. The army and navy take each
year IN time of peace-the irOn-clad
peace, which is all Europe ever knows
about $40, ,000, 900.
the United States Government for army
and navy together, are $56, ,000,000in cUr-
rency; equal to S40, 200, 900 in gold, or
S100, 100000 less than those of France.
Let me not fatigue your patience with
more details. We perceive that France
wish less numerous population than
our own, and the same amount of debt
and annual production, spends in time
OF peace as much as we do; that her
army and navy expenses are three and
nall times as large as our own; that
she has at this moment, ready to re.
spond to the first cannon shot in Eu-
rope, 200, 600 soldiers, equal to any the
world ever knew, one fifth more than
the whole number we disbanded as
soon as the armed rebellion was over
thrown.
Remember, too, that her production
seems almost to have reached it's limit I;
tna6 her population IS nearly stationary,
having scarcely doubled in 10 years;
that her expenses have been annually
increasing with dizzy speed; that her
debt is rapidly augmenting, having
doubled in the last fifteen years and
then remember that our population
doubles in little more than twenty
years, our annual production every
dozen years, our accumulated capital
every eight years, while our debt has
been decreased twenty-five per cent.
in three and quarter years-and then
behold France borrowing money with
perfect ease at four and q half per cent
while we are talking of repudiation,
bond-tRxing and national bankruptcy.
Why, it was but yesterday that we
all saw the imperial minister of finance
put q three per cent =laaza ON elaa -rzaArlx-
eE1 which was 50 gssSeCllIy taken at 65z :
that he had offers of money about equal
TO the whole ofour national debt at it's
maximum although he asked for less
than hundred million dollars. There
were 7Sl ,293 persons who subscribed
for more than six hundred and sixty
million francs of annual Srentes," re-
presenting capital of fifteen thousand
millions and thirty-four times as much
as NJ Magne asked for. Within one
week six hundred million francs in coin
were deposited as a guarantee,
Well may that war-ike nation, from
be proud of their mighty armaments
and their apparently unlimited credit.
Well may we hang our heads at the
humiliation of our national credit. Is
it even conceivable, If the prudent and
mastery financial policy which the Re-
publican party has been pursuing. be
! persisted in, and which is not yet fully
| appreciated at home, and entirely un-
| known elsewhere, that we are TO see
| our six per cents. haWked about at sew
| enty-hve, while other great empires,
not more wealthy, vastly more expen-
L SAh0 anu A1uCA less DEORTBSSlN0g p1dC6
their funds at 378 and Al per cent. in
terest?
The American people had confidence
| enough in themselves during the war.
| Republican and War Democrat tOgeth-
| er bore arms cheerfully against the
| common foe, and went into the death
struggle as if it was festival. Whence
comes this abject fear, or this affecta-
ton of fear, this despair of our destiny,
when the national future mas never SO
radiant as now Let us resolve TO re-
turn to specie payments, which can be
done as well next year as next century;
let US get rid of this irredeemable paper
currency, which converts US all, wheth-
er we like it or not, into a nest of gam
blers; let US, in the words of the Chica-
go platform, spurn all forms of repudI-
ationy "partial or total, open or covert
as a national crime;' let US nnt follow
that financial 1g71iS futGats WHich, by
way of showing US some other way tC
clear ourselves of debt except by pay
ing it when due, is sure to lead us in
the Slough of Despond; let us remem
ber that to us is confided a trust fol
those who are to come after us, tha
most precious of national possessions
the national honor; let us cease to q
about moping and humping of nation
al ruin when the road to national pros
I perity lies straight before us, and W,
shall soon see the specters which hav'
haunted US going back to the limbo 0
departed spirits.