Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1869-10-26
The Public Debt.

The Public Debt.
We give below an extract from Mr. Ralph
Geetc's speech delivered in the canvass to his
constituents at Ironton Ohio, on the 18th Of
September He presents the question of the
validity of the obligation of the State to repay
money borrowed of her citizens in a light
which is new and impressive. He quotes
Grotius and Puffendorf to show that all able
bodied citizens owe the country themselves in
case of defensive war, and he asks by what
rule shall the big purses be exempt from the
same risk of loss, and the 5Ah1s responsibility
He seems to think that the cry of reputation
has ceased to Brighten any body.
"The whole system of national debt is wrong
in principle, founded in fraud, raised in in>
Justice and sustained by the corruption of
public men. Debt is the Instrument by which
profigate and irresponsible governments exact
from the people the means of carrying out
their own schemes, to the injury of the State
and the impoverishment of the people.
The great writer's on war and public law
agree with Puffendorf, as follows:
| Natural law is only the determination by
reason of what must be done to preserve the
social state of mankind. 1t follows that the
first law of nature is this that the social state
! is to be guarded and preserved to the utmost
! By and TOR every man. This comprehonds
! the duty of good citizen towards the State
that nothing shall be preferred by him before
the safety and integrity of the State; and
that he shall freely and at all times c6er has
| life, his means and his fortune to prescrUe that
States safety anu iMtegrity.'"
4
lays it down as fundamental axiom of toW,
that in times of war there are cases Of great
urgency ,ohen the lac re0iVcS to use all things
as II they ,Uere common property.
Whenever the Government reaches point
where it is necessary to conscript soldiers to
fight its battles, then such an urgent case
has. arisen as to authorize the Government
to use all things as if they were common
property
I'm the third year of the late war the Gov.
eminent reached point when it conscripted
soldiers to fill the decimated ranks. Before
that, however, more than million of citizens
did, in the language of Puffendorf, freely
offer their lives to preserve the States safety
and integrity
GLOW was it with the capitalists of the coun-
try? Did they in that ease of great emer-
gency' freely and at all times offer their means
and their fortunes to preserve the States
safety and Integrity 2
t'No. The heroic example of the citizen
soldiers inspired them with no zeal in cause
which they deemed sacred. They watched
an opportunity to make the most profitable
Investment of their money and to drive an
unSonsciCnable bargain with Congress, by
which they were enabled to purchase the
bonds of the United States for less than fifty
cents on the dollar, bearing six per cent.
interest in gold ard made exempt from tax
alton.
"The men who stood in the battle fields,
for years endured all the perils of a terrible
war and the privations of camp life, are now
contributing moro than one-thitd ct their
earnings to the payment of interest of the
money which the capitalist owed to his coun>
try by an obligation as sacred as the duty to
spreserve the States safety and integrity.
"If it be correct, as Grotius and Putten-
dorf affirm, and as is asserted in the Declare
ton of Independence, that men o'oe then
| lives, and their fortunes, in cases OF great
! emergency, for the defence of their country
and that all the money and property IN coun
try are as liable to its wants, in time OF war
as the services, and the lives of its inhabitants
who then are the favored persons, whose
money and property are not only exempt from
| q demand WulCu nOlOS ttIl OtAASt71 -
quire full interest for the use of their money
as applied to objects, in which their interest
is as great as that Of the soldiers, or those
who borrow of them? 1t is therefore cioa
that if all citizens owe equal duties to thu
State, there can be no lenders to the State
excent in foreign countries. Nor has thu
State right to borrow of foreign countr!
for term longer than the life of the genera
ton that borrows; what right has one gene
ration to fasten debt upon the next, or tt
anticipate their credit.
"While the majority of men will, on al
occasions, give their assent to the proposition
that the public debt should be paid, they yc
feel an oppressive sense of the impossibilit!
of paving. 1t was made under vast in
fation, and it is possible that it might hav
been paid continuing an imitation of the cur
rency. When the Democracy of the country
through their enlightened chief George II
Pendieto:i, proposed, as an adjustment, tn
only plan that seemed practicable. and tina
was to nav the holders of the bonds in lega
tender treasury notes ct par, they indignant
rejected it, and cried out Reputation J! as
that was to frighten somebody.
at was the Radical Congress OF 1862 tha
nassed the bill making Treasury notes lawtt
tender in the payment of debts. The deb
of the individuals, and of cities, countrie