The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-03-20
COLUMBIA, IS. g..
Saturday Morning, March 20, 1859.
Our Strong Box.

-e4 i Our Strong Box, 1l
General Grant, in his inaugural, referring
to the vast resources of theicountry and its
capacity to pay the great debt which rests
upon It, uses this language: 7o--
''Why. it looks as though Providence had
bestowed upon us q strong box, the precious
metals locked up in the sterile mountains of
the far West, which we are now forging the
key to unlock to meet the very contingency
that is now upon U.s. Ultimately, it may be
necessary to increase the facilities to reach
these riches, and it may be necessary, also,
that the General Government should give
its aid to secure this access"
The illustration of the General does not
strike US rs a very forcible or pertinent one
The contingency of paying the public debt
with tho treasure which is to be unlocked
for us in the far West-with the precious
metals ''untimely ripped" from the loins of
that distant, rugged and almost inaccessible
chain Of mountains-to which we are to be
borne by facilities to be secured by the Co
vernment, seems very remote and uncer-
tain one. We hope that foreign capitalists
will not be influenced in their estimates of
the value of their bonds by tho very dubious
security here held out for the eventual re-
demption of the Government issues. They
will, we trust, be too shrewd not to regard
this as a mere rhetorical fourish, such as
may be INDUCED in by q man who SO rarely
yields to that American weakness for hyper
bole. There are other resources of our
country to which these sagacious operators
and fnanciers will attach far more value
and Importance, as the great sinking fund
from which the means of meeting the liza
blities of the naticn will be derived, than
to the hidden metals that are imagined to
be embedded in the Rocky Mountains. One
of the largest and most promising OF these
great resources of future wealth is that
which, without Government aid is now
contributing more than all other products
of our industry and soil to maintain the
credit of the Government and to advance
the value of its bonds. We refer to the
product of that section of the Union-the
great majority of whose citizens are vir-
tually excluded from share in the govern
ment of the country-to that great staple
which furnishes nearly two-thirds of the ex
portable wealth of the country, and which,
by maintaining q fair balance of trade with
foreign nations, prevents the drain of specie
and the consequent depreciation of stocks.
This product, Which for this season will ex-
ceed $3.50, 600, 900 in value, will be doubled
long before the Government facilities and
explorers of the Rocky Mountains will have
opened the way to the metallic stores sus-
pected to be deposited therein. Would it
not, then, pointedly asks the New Orleans
Times. be far wiser in our Government to
rely upon and furnish every encouragement
tain source of wealth, than to indulge in
such Aladdin-like visions of caves of hidden
precious metals and jewels, which are to be
suddenly unlocked by some mysterious and
magical key? Will it not be far wiser to
multiply and strengthen the hands which
the South, and giving it the vigor and
power to germinate the plant that produces
niolc wealth than al the mines of the con-
tinent? In that behalf how little is asked
and needed trcm the Government? Not
subsidies, not enormous appropriations or
special projections, only equal rights, equal
taxation, equal representation, Il just Sc
cnrity for property and personal rights, and
n protection against political oppression
and plnnder
The KRAKEN REDWIvUs.- Captain Perry,
of the buoy tender Maggie, which arrived
4.