Year: 1865

A pamphlet was issued recently with
the sanction Of Jay Cooke laying
down the proposition that our ma
tional debt, rightly managed, can be
made national blessing. The intent of
this pamphlet has been misrepresented
in some quarters, its meaning perverted,
and ridicule thrown upon it. The fol-
lowing article from the New York indie
pendent upon the subject, though some
what lengthy, will be found very read
able and interesting, and will we'll repay
perusal:


Gan ancient writer, whose language is
even now dead to the common sight of
men, once wrote these words: at is
pleasure to stand upon the shore and see
ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure to
stand in the window of castle and to
see battle and the adventures thereof,
below; but no pleasure is comparable
TO standing upon the vantage-ground of
truth, and to see the errors and wander
ings and mists and tempests in the vale
below" Something OF this must be felt
by Mr.. Jay Cooke, as he sees the com
. ments excited by the publication now
before the world, prepared by Samuel
Wilkeson, but bearing the great finan-
cier's sanction. 1t is not often the lot
OF man to be the first to stand up and
declare the truth nor is it given to the
multitude to be able to see truth when
it comes to them. This is beautifully
illustrated in our recent history. When
Mr.. SumIsr said, ten years ago, that
4 L., IL,
tionaI all the world but Massachusetts
laughed for slavery sat upon throne,
and gave evidence of power, and even
declared that her sCeptre should be car
ried to Bunker Hill. When MIR. Doug
las anticipated universal suffrage by de-
clariDg in favor of popular sovereignty
men did not see that truth was speaking
through the lips Of the politician, and
making itself manifest amid many false
surroundings. Truth Is not always
agreeable to men who have found error
pleasant; but In the end it reigns. We
might as well call the dead from the grave
and bid them speak to us, as to attempt
the re-establishment of slavery in Amer
lea, or serfdom In Russia, or the reign of
Louis XIV. in France, or the corn laws
in England. And yet, in their day, all
these issues were living elements of So
ciety.


When the war was in its deepest
gloom. and we were In the high agony
Of national effort it became necessary
to accept the faith of the government as
the security for the payment of large
sums of money. The people gave this
money, and it became their national
debt" In other words, the government
accepted the nations confidence, as ex-
pressed in every way, and issued its OBJ
legations. As this national debt" was
the most potent element of war, those
who were in arms against US, and all
who sympathized with them, took every
means to destroy the credit upon which
1t was based. In every political cam,
paign, men were found willing to argue
that these obligations were unjust and
unnatural-that they oppressed the
poor, and were fraud upon mankind
in this, that they could never be paid
We know the effect of this opposition
Our enemies abroad held up our enter
prises to Tidicule and scorn, and great
journals like the London Times gravely
argued that of all the fools then cursine
America with their folly, none wer,
greater than the head of our financial
system, MIR. Secretary Chase. Our obli
cations were treated rudely. Men did
not want the note-ofhsnd Of the Cool