Year: 1867




writers, and as diverse as the policies of
the parties to which they belong. One
advocates an increase of tariff, another
is m favor of free trade; some urge the
increase of national banking capital,
| others the Immediate retirement of The
national currency and the issue of legal
tenders in its stead ; while Greeley, as
usual, finds a panacea for all financial
ills in the immediate resumption of
specie payments. Each are sanguine
that the country's salvation depends
upon the adoption of their particular
theory, and tremble lest any other should
overwhelm it in irretrievable ruin. The
resources of a country are her material
wealth, and their proper development
the wisest political economy. As to the
best means of attaining this development
and protecting her industrial pursuits,
without establishing pernicious monopo-
lies. opinions differ widely; and what is
bane to one is antidote to another But
in all the suggestions made, we think
they have overlooked one of the most
important resources of the country, and
that which will have the most salutary
effect in restoring our finances TO a sound
basis. This is not surprising, when we
consider that in the entire message to
Congress the President failed to make
the slightest allusion to those portions
of the country which are pouring into
the treasury the only means with which
the obligations of the government can
be redeemed and ignored, by. his silence,
the existence of a class of people who
have, since 1S4S, produced half as much
gold and silver as the present amount
of the national debt. While measures
are urged which will cripple commerce
or crush labor which will entail disaster
upon the capitalists of the country, or
foster monoPclies to the injury of the
laboring classes, they have utterly
neglected that which to us seems the
surest, speediest and safest means of
relief: the development of the gold
producing lands. To boliova these
writers, one would consider the country
on the verge of bankruptcy, and
surrounded with imminent financial
perils In this we cannot concur. 1t
took England ten years to resume specie
payments after the exhaustive wars
with the first Napoleon and to-day her
Indebtedness per head is fifty dollars
more than ours yet who doubts her
solvency or stability The debt of the
United States is chiefly due TO her own
people and while she has the ability to
redeem her bonds on maturity, are an
element of strength instead of weakness;
for where the treasure is, there the
heart is. Had the pockets of the south
ern people been lined with bonds instead
of cotton, there never would have been
heard at the gates of the capital the roar
of rebel guns. We only need national
economy and diversion of capital from
purely speculative channels tolegitimate
fields of operation. Our national debt
ON the first day of November, 1866, was
S2,551, ,31O,O55. Since gold was first
discovered in California, the product of
bullion in the United States has been
81, 100000, and the great western
mineral belts have been only prospected.
This product has been chiefly the result
of placer mining; the mere wash and
crumblings from the great auriferous
veins that grow richer as they descend.
To develop these, capital, skilled labor
and earnest intelligent effort is needed,
and the recompense will be ample. Here
are million square miles of territory in
which the precious metals abound, and
scarce one lead in a thousand already
discovered, is being developed, while
there are three hundred millions of CAPT
tai invested in national banks, and the
clamor is for an extension of the limit.
While capital so employed rarely ever
yields larger interest than twelve per
cent, and is of little benefit to the coun-
try, it could, if prudently invested and
controlled by practical men, be made to
quadruple itself every year in the min
ing regions, and at the same time return
a large revenue TO the government. The
placer mines of Montana have yielded
largely to the hardy sons of toll who with
pick and shovel delved into the gulches
for the precious dust, but her true wealth
still lies buried in the wall rock that en-
closes her numberless veins of quartz
and the same is the case with her sister
Territories. That large sums of money
have been invested in mining property,
from which no returns have been re-
ceived, is very true; but it is just as true
that in nine cases ont of ten the invest
ments have been made recklessly by in.
arents or the money souan-