Year: 1867

From the London Times Nov 49,


The public debt of the United States
is officially returned at $3.50 million
dollars-that is, about $40 millions ster-
ling of our money. That it should
stand at SO large figure two years and q
half after the complete termination of
the war may be disappointment to the
sanguine inanciers Of the Union, but il
no more than was foreseen by lockers
on. The accumulation of such debt in
four years and the difficulty Of dealing
with it are terrible novelties to the Amer
lean mind, which has faced many inn
possibilities, but not till now the task of
repaying u real debt of old European
proportions. Nor is the task made more
agreeable by the reflection that a high
tariff, which was the principal cause of
the war, has become its principal con-
sequence. The European mind has
been thoroughly educated and Injured to
debt. We find ourselves scarcely able
to separate Indebtedness from our SIM
pie notion Of a civilized and respectable
State. We all owe more or less, gene
rally more rather than less, and any
State here enjoys a character for solven-
cy which goes on paying its dividends
without having to borrow for the pur-
pose. If it can do this, the sum total
ofits obligations can be left to the atten-
ton of posterity. For even more def
mite reasons we are able to offer substan-
tial comfort to the United States. Our
own debt, instead of being little over
five hundred millions, stands, after a
half century of economy and sinking
| funds, at eight hundred millions. This
debt has to be paid out of a territory
that cannot be increased, and from re.
sources limited to that area, instead Of
out of the Continent which the United
States are rapidly ovcrrunning and
absorbing 1t must be added that by
far the greater part of the American
debt is in tcrminable annuities. 1t will
expire of itself in few years without
the aid Of National Debt Commissioners
Then $3.50, 100000 about 990,000,000 in
our money--of the American debt bears
only currency interest, and is, therefore
lighter and more tractable. More thar
$4oO, 900, ,OoO-about esO,0O0,OOO in oul
moncy-bcars no interest, and is, i'm fact
the paper currency of the Union, which


it appears keeps afioat much more Of the
circulating medium than we do. Fur,
ther, against the total debt must be put
more than Sl0O,O 900 of coin.and more
than 100000 900 of currency in the Treas.
ury, which, in effect, brings the debt
less cash, under five hundred million
British pounds sterling. The annual
interest payable on such debt in this
country would be about sixteen millions
sterling. The annual interest on the
American debt is considerably more
than twice that sum, because it is not
only interest, it is also repayment OF
capital, and while it is paid the debt is
paid too. Considering what we pail


and are still paying, and shall leave Oul
children to pay for the pleasure Of taking
our part in continental settlement
which has long since vanished and left
not wrack behind, we may consider
that the Americans have bought the lac,
keystone of their Union cheaply. Even


at the present rate, with a certain degree
of disappointment, they are not unlike


" to pay oil their debt in twenty years


But the shoe pinches. The Ameri