Year: 1864




Can We Pay Our National Debt?


The population of the United King
dom Is about the same as that of the
Unite1 States. The national debt of
Great Britain is about four thousand
millions, and ours about'one thousand
seven hundred millions. Can we sup
port our debt without ruinous taxation?
Can we bear, that is to say, much less
than half of what Englishmen bear
without suffering


Supposing that the circumstances of
the two nations were alike, no Ameri-
can of spirit would doubt that we can
support as heavy burden as our English
cousins-let alone one far lighter. But
our circumstances are not alike: they
have country thickly settled, soil
exhausted to great extent Of its fer
tility, a system OF land tenure extremely
wasteful, an organization of society
which represses instead of encouraging
individual energy and enterprise We
have a virgin soil, inexhaustable mine
raj wealth, system of land tenure, at
least in the free states, which conduces
to the highest prosperity of the greatest





number, and a condition of society in
which individual enterprise is encour-
aged and fostered. With these and
other advantages, we must grow in
wealth much more rapidly than the
English, and the measure of national
wealth is the measure Of strength to
support the burden of national debt


Mr. Robert J. Walker sets this ques-
ton in clear light by some statictics
which he has recently printed in Lon
don He shows that our national
wealth was increased in the ten years
from 1850 to 1860 over one hundred and
tWenty-six per cent, while that of Eng
land from 1851 to 1861 increased but
thirty-seven per cent He shows, from
the census table, that the ratio of in
crease of our national wealth has been
constant, and always in excess of the
population. Thus from 1920 to 1890
our wealth increased forty-one per cent
from 1880 to lS40 forty-two per cent;
from 1910 to 1850 sixty per cent;
and from 1850 to 1860 I2G.4j per cent


If we go on at the same rate foP
another decade the result win be in
1870 an increase of over two hundred
and fifty per cent.


But, ne adds, if the product per head
of the population in the slaves states
had been the same in 1859 that it was
in the free states, that would have
added to tae national wealth an addi-
tiOnal value produced of 81 ,j3l ,63l 900,
according TO official census returns.
Now the way to make the southern
states as rich and productive as the
northern, and even more so, as Mr.
James Brooks Justly observed more than
thirty years ago, during a journey in
the South, is to abolish slavery. Sub
stitute sl1illful, intelligent, interested
and uninterested slave labor, and, as he
remarked South Carolina would be the
Wealthiest state in the Union


Now, we are going 10 have the assist
ance of this added and hitherto unde-
veloped wealth to pay not only the in
terest but the principle Of our national
debt With small farms and divided
labor taking the place of the feudsl
system" as Mr. Brooks says, all the i'm
mense undivided natural resources Of
the Southern States will vastly increase
our national wealth and prosperity
With slavery abolished, free working
men win pour by hundreds Of thou
sands from all parts of Europe into
region to which mild climate, sparse
population and high rewards for labor
win tempt them, bat from which
they have been hitherto excluded by
the fatal competition Of unpaid slave
labor against those who must nave "a
fair day 8 wages for fair day work
Emigration, so astonishingly great du-
ring the last three years in the midst OF
war, will increase still more when the
area opened TO free wOrkingmen Is
more than doubled and Mr. Walker
does not oYershoot the mark when he
estimates the increase in our national
wealth, from the substitution Of free
for slave labor IN the S0ath, in ten
years, at the great sum Of over seven /
teen thousand millions Of dollars, ne2r-
ly ten times our present national debt
Thus the mere addition We shall make
in ten years TO cur national wealth, by
abolishing the Institution which has
been SO long a curse and a source Of
dissension to US, would many times over
pay our natianal debt


DMb W E4DW III aAA0AAAEA way FAhaek arc
our prospects, Sir. Walker compares
the future wealth Of Great Britain and
the United States, supposiDg that each
increases in the same ratio as during
the ten years for which IN each case we
have me latest census returns. IL viii
be remembered that the increase in the
United States from 1850 to 1850 wss
J264j per ceut, and in Great Britain
from 1851 to 1861, 81 per cent Assuming
these ratiOs-which, however are un-
fair towards us-the result would be as
follows