Year: 1871

| Couutry-Where the treasury fOHcy IN


at Fault.


With all the resources or the country and
active industry of the people, which are un-
equalled by any natisn in the world, trade is
paralyzed, business and the markets are dull,
and productive labor aud enterprise are de-
pressed This state of things is general,
though there may be exceptions In few cases
of incidental prosperity. Certain few indus
tries thrive In the dullest times, and somo
even upon the general distress; but this fact
does not disprove our assertion and the evl-
dence everywhere seen Of the paralyzed state
of trade and industry il general. New York,
which is the commercial and financial centre
Of the country, represents the condition of
business throughout. Like the heart in the
human system, when It beats strsng and
healthful and the circulation gives fresh
life and vigor to every part, New York
shows the state Of trade and industry through
every part of the republic by its own condi-
ton. And what dc we see here Ask our mer-
chants, tradesmen manufacturers and work
men, and the well grounded complaint il heard
in every direction that this is the dullest time
known for long period. It may be said that
this season Of the year, dead and mid wiatcr, is
generally one of depression in business; and
this is SO to some extent; but the present
depression is unusual even at such time. 1t
is clear, then, that there are other causes
| operating to produce this uncommon and
almost unprecedented decline OF trade and
industry.


There is no doubt that the chief cause, if
not the only one, of this state Of things is the
burdensome taxation imposed upon the people.
Almost everything they use or consume is
taxed In one form or another, directly
or indirectly. Even the farmer cannot
sell his produce, by which we subsist,
at anything like the cheap rate
of former times, because his expenses and the
cost of production are raised greatly through
taxation The coal that warns us, the clothes
we wear, the very salt that seasons our food,
and every article that enters into domestic
use or that is used In industrial pursuits are
either taxed directly or the price raised
through taxation in some ether way. The
people bore the enormous burden so patiently
! during the war and while the war issues were
| being adjusted, for the sake Of the Union and
from high sense of patriotism, that the men,
bers Of the goverament-the administration
and Congress-inagine there is no limit to the
capacity and forbearance of the public in sus-
tanning taxation. They forget that such
| strain upon the people wears them down in
time and leaves them PROSTATE. The country
may be compared to q splendid team Of horses
or animals of burden, which at the beginning
can move or carry the greatest weight with
comparative ease, but which after years of
heavy work lose their strength and sink be-
meath the labor.


| At the commencement of the war the coun-
try was full Of virgin resources, realized
| wealth and capital; and these were brought
out in manner which astonishea the world
and even surprised ourselves. The vast ex-
penditure of money to carry on the war and
to adjust the issues of it, which entered into
manufactures and business, kept up sort Of
ephemeral prosperity for time. The excite
ment, too, caused the people to lose sight Of
their burdens and the financial results to
follow. 1t Is always so in war. But the
taxes, the drain of laborers from industrial
pursuits to supply the armies and the extra
ordinary destruction of property were sure to
be seriously felt afterward. The debt then
accumulating, as no national debt ever accu-
mulated BEFORE had to be organized and the
interest paid at the close Of the struggle The
process of exhaustion was going on all the
1 hon ~ poff fo1f
Now, however, we have reached the period
when the effects of the war. the debt and
! taxes are most felt. Had it not been fer the
wonderful recuperative power Of the South,
and the hundreds of millions worth Of cotton
and other exportable products Of that section
as good as gold-raised every year, the whole
country-North, East and West as well as
the South-would have been PROSTATE under
the burden long since. Let us not be de-
ceiyed, then, by appearances, by what the
country has borne, and imagine it is capable
now of sustaining the continued strain without
serious injury and great suffering.


1t is gratifying, no doubt to know that
upwards Of four hundred millions of the
organized public debt has been paid, besides
large amount of floating debt, since the
close of the war in 1865. But we venture to
say that if that sum, with the additional large
sum that it cost in collecting through an army
of fce-holders, had been left in the bands of
the people the nation would have been far
richer to-day. Still the payment of so much
debt has had the good effect of establishing
the credit Of the government and Of assuring
the people that the whole can and will be paid.
But that object having been attained and the
time having come when the exhaustive results
Of the war are most sensibly felt why should
the government continue to impose unneces-