The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-28

Editorial Opinions of the Leading Journals
Upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.

THE DEBT, AND THOSE WHO ARE GRA-
VELED BY IT'S REDUCTION.
From the NJ Y. Tribune
There was large class of politicians and
journalists among us who, throughout the
war for the Union, persisted in doubling or
belittling every Union victory that they could
not absolutely deny. The same class, by a
curious coincidence, are now fighting the re-
duction of our national debt as though it
badly hurt them. Some of them stoutly in
sist, in the face of weekly purchases of
Government bonds by the still overhowing
Treasury, that the debt is not in process of
reduction. One of them says:-
''Tbe following is correct statement of the
amount Of the public debt at different periods from
the lst Of April 1868, until the 1st Of July last:-
September /, 1865 65...................2 2757 6sO57i
November l, 1861 2,50i, ,504 450
November 1, 1865. 6S................... 1921 1919 532
'From this it will be seen that instead Of the
debt having been diminished it has been augmented
during the last four years. 1t is now nearly three
hundred millions more than it was on the 1st OF
April, 1865 This increase has taken place during
period Of profound peace. Since November last,
one hundred and fifty millions have been added to
the huge and intoerable load"
Comments 6y tie Zr56Une
Why should this enemy of the national in
tegrity and solvency go back to April 1, 1865,
for q basis of comparison? Richmond was
then Rebel capital; Lee still commanded
formidable, defiant Rebel army; 10. John
ston another; Dick Taylor q third; and such
patriots as the writer of the above extract
were still predicting and protesting that the
Rebellion would @e0er be put down. The
Union had at that moment nearly one
million soldiers and sailors on the war
path, to whom it owed at least two
hundreds millions of dollars, beside 7ast
sums to contractors, etc, none of which
figured in the official statement of the debt
issued on that day. None of those soldiers
and sailors could be spared from service for
weeks thereafter; many of them not for
several months; and of course they had to be
paid so long as they served with mastering
out bounty in addition, that swelled the debt
by at least fifty millions more. And yet this
man talks of the debt as only twenty-four
hundred millions at the close of the war
The twenty-seven hundred and ffty-seven
millions reported on the 1st of September
following was the amount of the Hquldated
debt, after deducting the cash in the Trea-
sury. Every official statement since made
has been computed in the same way. And
why not? In what sense are greenbacks in
the Treasury debt? To whom are they
owed? And why not regard the coin in the
national strong-box as balancing like amount
of outstanding greenDaclls?
We do trust haste will be made in using
that coin to pay off public debt. When
the bonds have been called in, redeemed, and
cancelled or deposited in the sinking fund, it
will be hard to make even a COpperhead
believe that we still owe them. SO hurry up
the use of the public money in payment Of
the public debt
Another carper says:-
''Mr Boutwell, informs us that the sum of the
public debt on August l. 1869, was S24Sl 5G6 1856 as
per column a. This shows a steady decrease against
the sum similarly arrived at for the four preceding
months; in other words, that the debt has steadily
fallen since he came into o1lice. TO arrive at this
result he not only deduCts from the of debt the
cash and bonds in the Treasury, and the premium
and accrued interest on the latter, but the Pacific
partially fill the vast deduction thus made he adds
on the accrued interest of the whole debt which of
course varies from day to day, but was on the 1st
August, 1869, thirty-three and three-quarter mil
lions"
Well, why not ''add on the accrued inte-
rest ?' Do we not owe it p? Must we not
pay it? What is public debt, if the accrued
interest on our bonds, specifically payable in
coin at an early day. is not
So of the bonds advanced ITO the Pacific
Railroads Those roads are pledged to pay
them, principal and Interest," we presume
they 10U pay most of them. If any should
default, the Treasury must make good the
deficiency. But it will be time to assume
that load when it shall be piled upon us For
the present, let us state our own debt by
itself, and assume that of the railroads when
we must