Year: 1870

Of Democratic orators to find in this
condensed list of taxes any oppression
upon the people; and it would puzzle
the wisest financier to devise any
easier method Of raising one hundred
and twenty-five million dollars than
is presented in the sources of revenue


embraced in this brief schedule.


FUNDING THE DEBT.


But while the Republican policy is


against keeping up a rate Of taxation


for the purpose of rapidly paying off


our bonds, il is not proposed to main


tain our whole volume of indebted


ness at its present rate of interest.
/ With the unbOunded resources of our
/ country, and with our continually ap-


preciating credit, it is believed to be


an easy task to fund our entire debt


at four to four and a half per cent.
! interest-and Congress has just en-
acted a law having that object in
view. The total amount of our bond
ed debt will soon be reduced to about
I two thousand millions of dollars. OF
/ this amount well nigh One-fOuFth is


already employed in our system of


national banking, and by law pass
| ed at the late session, banking is made
/ free ON the gold basis, to all who may


wish TO engage in ii. 1t is therefore
quite apparent that as we approach
the specie standard and the business
demands of the country require a
greater volume of currency, the ten
dency must be to absorb a still larger
and larger amount of Government


bonds as the basis and security of the
circulating medium. Just where this
absorption Of bonds will cease, no one
can now pFediet-bgt within q very


brief period more than half Of our total


bonded debt will be used as the basis
of our National currency. With these
bonds bearing four per cent. interest
and the banks paying back into the
Treasury in various forms of taxation
at least one per cent. If not more, on
their aggregate capita, we shall speedi-
ly see a large proportion of our debt
funded in form that will practically
demand but three per cent. annual
interest from our National Treasury.
1t is, therefore, quite apparent that
the National debt which the Demo-
cratic party has been so ready to dis
honor and repudiate, will, under the
wise and faithful policy maintained
by the Republican party, be soon
placed where it will be no longer rec
Ognized as a burden to the individual
taxpayer or an obstruction to the de-
velOpement of our national resources
and industries,


REDUCTION OF EXPENDITURES.


Meanwhile the annual expenditures |
of the government under the Admin !
istratiOn of General Grant arc reduced |
70 the lowest practicable point. There |
are two large amounts of expenditure |
over which Administrative discretion |
can have no control. The one is the /
interest on the National Debt-the |
other il the sum paid as Pensions to |
the scared and disabled veterans of /
our late war. These obligations must |
be met with prOmptness and cheer
fulness unless we are prepared on one /
hand to repudiate our obligations to |
the men who risked their lives and /
lost their health in defense of the gov
ernment, or On tho other hand to treat /
the public creditors with downright /
dishonesty, and inflict lasting disgrace 1
on the name of our country. Exclud- |
ing these two items, therefore, as i'm
perative and not within the discretion /
of the executive or legislative branch
es of the government we find the fol-
lowing as the sum total of our eX-
penditures for the current fiscal year