Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1896-03-19
National Debt

,etravs his country i'll time OF war, or the
patriot who telps foreign Shylocks to
kin the people in time OF peace
War prevs on two things-life and pro
oertv. but he preys with partial appe-
lite Feasting on life, he licks his jaws
and saws more, by your leavei Devour-
ir,g nroDertv. he SAYS, between gTlu and
plut' this is so good that it ought to be /
paid forl Into the vacuum OF the wasted |
life rush the moaning winds OF grief and |
desolation. into the vacuum OF the wasted !
property rushes the goblin OF debt. The |
wasted nroDertv becomes hideous night
mare. the heroes fallen, rise from their
bloody cereruents into everlasting fame,
the propertv destroyed rises from the red
and flame swept field as a spectral vam-
Dirr. sucking the still warm blood OF tue
heroic dea1td from their posthuuous
babes to the tenth generation.
THE NAME OF THE VAMPIRE IS BOND.
On the first of March 1866, the nation
al debt of the United States entalled by
the Civil War reached the appalling
maximum of nearly three thousand mil
lions of dollars.
The American people were inexperlenc-
ed in such business, they had never
known the incubus before. Europe had
known it, but not America. For long
time the public debt Of the nation had
been so small as to be disregarded; now
all of a sudden the terrible exlstancles OF
the war, the debt expanded and settled
over the landscape like a cloud from
Vesuvious, darkening from shore to shore
So far as the people and the government
were concerned 1t was an honest deot;
The method and in1ent of Lincoln and
the great men around him III ISo2-o5
were as sincere and Just as they were hui
name and patriotic, as for the American
people. they were always honest. The
nation was in deepest peril, and must be
rescued at whatever cost. The war was
a devouring demon, with the explosion
of every shell, the product OF a hundred
toiling hands was instantly vaporlZed, Tor
the bomb is not filed, as many suppose
with powder and iron and death, but with
the potatoes and milk and biscuit oi MAIL
kind. AT intervals the expenditure was
more than a million, and sometimes more
than two millions OF dollars day.
The government had nothing OF Its
own. did not venture to take anything as
its own, and must therefore support itself
by bonds or perish. Conforming to the
method of the age, the nation borrowed
from the accumulaGons OF the r1ch, ana
gave therefore its pronlls to pay.
The promises to pay got themselves IN
to a bond. 1t is the order OF modern so
ciety that he who has money to lend to
him who has not, receives his own
with usury. This principle was adopted
bv the American republic in the day OF
trial,
The means necessary for the prosecu-
ton of the war were not taken-as the
life was takeu-but were borrowed. 1t
was an epoch of borrowing, great part
of the lending was patriotic, but much OF
i, even at the first, was interested and
was mixed with contrivance and ulter1or
designs.
The currency that had to be provided
to meet the startling emergency that had
overtaken the American people was the
process of debt making had acquired SO
great momentum that it was difficult to
get it checked and reversed.
In the early summer of, 1865 the sol,
diers OF the Union army were mustered
out and remanded to their homes. BY
August the work was done, and the grand
army was no more, but such was the con-
fusion that for fully six months longer
the expenditure rolled on without abate-
ment. The great question which conf
fronted the nation at the beginning OF
1866 was the management of the debt.
There were bonds galore; a seven-thlrty
series of two hundred and fifty millions,
bv Act Iuly II, 1861, then five hundred
and fifteen millions of fve-twenties, by
Act of February rs, 1862, becoming more
than twelve hundred millions by subse-
ouent issues, then ten-forties in several
series 7.3 per cents, 5 per cents, As per
cents. d per cents; plain bonds at the hrst
and coin bonds finaal. Short loans and
long loans and longer loans, but always
becomes longer, until a measure OF calm
ensued. and the nation found opportur-
ity to take account of its losses and con-
slider the question of payment.
If governments had the same care tor
the life of the people as for the property
of those ho possess property. linen
national debts would not be made, or at
least not prepetuated by the event OF war.
1t had been an act of infinite mercy on
the part of the Government OF the united
States in that day to take directly what
ever was neceSsa<y-as It did take what
ever men were necessary-tor the sup
preston of the rebellion. That course
would have ended it. Had that almost
policy been temperately
and successfully pursued, in the nature
of the case, made to be a legal tender IN
the payment of debts. The Government
must needs have such money. All
metallic money-as is its inveriable habit
under such circumstances-slunk away
and hid itself in dark Golfers, mostly be-
vond the sea. What did gold cafe for
liberty. for the waste of human life,
for the republic, for the Union made
,oo-aJ h1-t tho Hood of orr fatherSp
1t was intended by those who first con-
trived the legal tender currency that 1t
should be absolute money in the payment
of all debts of whatever kind. The Su-
preme Court of the United States has
Since decided by voice of eight to one
that Congress possesses the right and
power to make such a money, whether
in war or peace.
The validity of the legal tender act l.
now as much part of the constitutional
history of the United States as IS the
abolition of African slavery, but they who
were ski1lful in their own interests, even
in the throes of our national breakup
and impending castrophe, adroitly con-
trived that the national currency should
have an exception in its favor OF those
who should lend their means to the gov
ernment They wEo should make such
loan should receive therefore bond, and
the interest on the bond as also the duties
on imports of foreign goods was exempt
from the legal tender of paper and re-
served for coin.
Thus came the bonded debt of the
United States. The debt grew with the
progress of the war, until it seemed to
approach ininity. The nation swayed
and struggled through the bloody sea,
and came at last to the shore; the cost OF
the war would hardly have been one-fifth
of what is has become, the bond would
never have existed, the wealth OF the
people would never have existed, the
wealth of the people would not have
been concentrated in the hands of few,
the present narrowing and dangerous
conditions of American life.
S. a.. Saxonburg.