Year: 1867

WHAT WE OWE AND now TO PAY IP.


Senator Morton, of Indiana, has written let
ter on the finances, Of which we copy below the
principal parts:-


mot one dollar of the bonded debt will fall
due before fourteen years, and it will then be-
come due at different periods running down to
1904. Can any good reason be given for paying
it off so long in advance9 The country has not
recovered rom the war. Trade and co nmerce
still languish throughout the land. Nine States
are disorganized and desolate, and can scarce
pay anything for years to come. The rebellious
South caused the debt to be created, but what
ever is paid in the next five or six years must come
almost entirely from the North. Why not wait
at least until the South can pay part? Why not
wait until the country has recovered from the
shock and waste of war; Has not this genera
tion put down the Rebellion and done its part,
and may 1t not justly leave the payment OF part
OF the debt to the next? This generation has
to discharge large State, county, and muni-
cipal Indebtedness growing out of the war, and
within the next ten years will have to pay not
less than $400 900, 600 for pensions and bounties
besides extraordinary expenses for Indian wars
and other causes. In ten years our population
will have increased ten millions, and our taxa
bic property nearly doubled in value. Ia ten
years tax twice in amount can be borne easier
than the tax OF to-day.


within ten years the Southern States will be
reconstructed and in the enjoyment of compara-
tive prosperity. Within ten years, and perhaps
within five, the increase Of population, wealth,
and capital will enable the Government to sell
at par bonds bearing much lover rate of inte-
rest than the present, and thus consolidate and
reduce the debt.


"should the Government find itself at any
time in possession OF coin or currency that can
be applied to the reduction of the debt, it should
of course, be, promptly applied; but any
attempt to pay the bonded debt in advance by
heavy taxation, or by initiating the currency,
will be unnecessary, unwise, and injurious.


81 would pay the interest promptly, accord
ing to the contract. ! would pay off our cur
mature, and see to it that the public debt
should under no circumstances be increased.


II would reduce the rate of taxation to the
lowest point that would defIay the expenses of
the Government, economically administered
and pay the interest and maturing obligations
and leave the principal of the bonded debt to
be discharged in other and better times.


'Who ever before heard of nation while
still exhausted from war, and with wounds un.
healed, attempting to pay off the war debt?
Foreign nations May admire our ambition in
this respect, but would despise our discretion.
The national taxes can be reduced by the adop-
tion OF the policy propose, and by the honest
and faithful collection of the internal revenue


"In fifteen years, and possibly in five, the diff
ference in value between gold and greenback
will have ceased to exist by gradual return to
specie payment, and the question OF the mode of
| payment of the bonds, whether in gold or
| ereenbacks, will have become unimportant
! Specie payments can be reached without con-
tracing the currency, by waiting reasonable
| time, until successful reconstruction and the
| growth of wealth and business have brought the
| country up to the existing volume of currency
without financial convulsion.


1.-THE decline OF gold from two hundred to forty
| brought corresponding reduction in the price
| of property, attended with great loss and de-
rangement of business. Another imitation of
the currency would be attended with another
ascent aud descent of prices, and with immense
disasters to the nation. What the country
needs is repote and stability in our financial
policy, and without these trade and prospe-
rity must languish. When our debt was con-
tracted the men who now clamor for its imme-
diate payment denounced bonds and greenbacks
as alike worthless, and dissuaded the people
from lending their money to carry on the war;
and my opinion is they mean no better to the
country now than they did then. Now, as then,
their effort il to destroy the public credit.


''The proposition to pay the public debt in
advance, is unnecessary, impracticable, and
destructive and would result in benefit to none,
unless 1t would be the gold gamblers, and they
! would ultimately be 'hoisted by their own pc
tard,' as they were at the close of the war.


'The national debt can be paid without op
pressing the country, not by hot-house expert


ments, spasmodlc efforts, or by violation of the
public faith, but by the solid growth of the
country in population, wealth, and prosperity


under the administration of a stable financial


policy. o. P. MORTON"