THE AMERICAN NATIONAL DEBT.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 50, 1 May 1863, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE AMERICAN NATIONAL DEBT.

(From, jthe London .^Ws.)

Although' there -may- Be- some things passing ;$n .America which; we cannot) perhaps, regard with totally unmixed .satisfaction; there? is much, to gratify the patriot of , the true spread-eagle order; If things do not go exactly , right, there is no denying that they are conducted ,on a scale the most magnificent'the v'orld has ever seen. The J.o'hj.j? every sense of the word, grows bagger rand bigger. What strength, Vjvfhat' .vitality^, what resources, what -. "energy ;must:the.re be in a nation that ; -^s^able 1 to 'ruin itself on a scale so tran-

.. jscendanl and magnificent ! We admit 4 that Hhe' American mind has had to *; .serious-mortifications. Defeat, :• 's^KLUnidn, the loss- of personal liberty, „ and, still dearer, of personal property, the perpetual summons to - put on mourning for some dear friend or relation, are, undoubtedly real and tangible evils. But then the thing is done on co magnificent "a scale, the dimensions v are so y.ast^ the magnitude is so appalling; the national passion for wealth,

•prospenty, and union* 'is" disappointed, ■fcufceverything tends to gratify what is aless deeply-rooted feeling in . the American mmd — the disinterested

r iov"e' of magnitude for its own sake

If you are.to.have l a blockade, it is a "•fine'thrng to blockade a thousand miles . of coast at once ; if you. are to have a war, how glorious to light a conflagration which .extends through all the . climes and regions from Pennyslvania .^ co Texas ! It is a sad thing to fight a 'pitched battle, but -there is something . Saiisfactqry in fighting four or five in .the, same month on the Potomae, the " :;Ohio, J ana\£b.e Mississippi. Next to not -^., being ruined.' at... a,11,.. the iinesi thing, ■'. from the American point of view, is to Vbe rufried on ¥ good seale — to go down, : Jike^ .the' : -tropical eun, blood-red and Kissing -mio. the sea, witli no pale and --■and -ineffective twilight, no shadings . -or fadings away^to extenuate the mag- ■ nitude of the catastrophe. The latest commercial intelligence '^. received from America nnrst, though ' Tiotvery pleasant in itself, have grati*|ified,to the utmost this sipe worship of * the American mind, The-teiegraph in•sPorms us that the Government Bill for , the issue of 900,000,0(30 dollars more than Ll80;000,000 sterling— of United States' bonds has passed the Senate. Wall-street is. much excited.

Gold has reached 42 premium. The ship which brings this intelligence •carries away 600,000 dollars in specie to Europe. We do not think that any one will be'found to complain that this sura is not large enough ; that it is not fully adequate to the dignity of the free and enlightened people who are anxious to borrow it, and in all respects * thoroughly commensurate to the scale

of the war to which it is fco.bef devoted. For ourselves, we confess that we feel •deeply humiliated by the comparison. we reflect on the miserable drib--lets by which Mr. Pitt and other architects, considered not altogether timid 'or unskilful in their day, built up the goodly fabric of our own National -Debt, we undergo the sensation of the frog trying to swell itself to the goodly ■dimensions of the o.c. Alas! who are that we shonld venture to criticise

the magnificent transactions of which TVe are the remote and admiring witnesses! ? All the wars of King William JII. entailed upon us but a paltry debt of L 15,000,000. Queen Anne's wars left a burden of only L 37,000,000, and we contrived to lose our American provinces, after a war of seven years, at the very moderate figure of an increase to our debt of X 1 2 1, 000,000. The

#reat Napoleon himself, after a struggle of two-and-twenty years, only bequeathed as a 'keepsake a debt of L0'03,000,000. These figures used to be thought somethiug, but like a finite quantity in mathematics when brought into contact with infinity, they absolutely banish and efface themselves when compared for a moment with the grand American style of doing business. Nor are we less impressed, by the stupendous calmness with which these debts are incurred. John Duke of Marlborou^b bimself did not ride in the whirlwind and direct the storm with more complete and absolute equanimity than is displayed by Mr. Chase in these stupendous operations. He has the prettiest way of sketching oat his alternatives. Take your choice, ladies and gentlemen ; which will you havel Shall it be 300 millions in lea;al tender notes, with 50 millions in Post office stamps, and 300 millions in three-year notes bearing interest payable to bearer, or shall we go in at once for the grand total of 900 millions ? Thus adjured how could Congress hesitate? The scale is -everything, and so of course it /took the largest, and may now claim the undisputed 'honorrof offering to a confidingjpjiblic the largest loan that was ever cr^at|'d?by a single -legislative Act. It is -jusl like a tale in the Arabian Nights, where a prince, or a shepherd, or a merchant strays casually on to the side of a hill, and suddenly sees before him a palace of a mile square, and 500 feet High, made of a single diamond. He always approaches and enters it, just as you would any ordinary .caravansary. He eats, drinks, and otherwise amuses himself, and retires to rest, .and rises up in the morning with -the most pei'fect calmness and indifference. He is, to be sure, on enchanted ground, but his mind is reconciled to the change, and you find him, under theseextraoidinary circum-, «tances, happy in all respects like the most ordinary mortals. So it is in America ; . these things, though done by deliberative Assemblies, appear to receives very modarate amount of deliberation. The great Republic'invoives herself "in these tremendous transactions apparently with as little thought and deliberation as a fast young 1 naan about town gives to ihe subscription of his name to a piece •of stamped paper. •! No nation was i&ver ruined at once so magnificently and so gaily. There is only one entity in the United States which seems atall to take to heart the awful state of Ihe finances, and thnt^-to the shame of human nature be it spoken->-is not a man, nor even an animal,, but a colti"^ impassable ' chymical compound— •thatfjmuch abused

and much coveted metal, gold. This singular substance displays a sensibility, a life, a keenness of observation, and an alacrity of movement which are wholly wanting elsewhere. So far front being favorably. affectedlby4he size of the transaction, th^t magnitude before which all else in the United States bows down, seems on I j to inspire it with the livelier panic. liilies from the happy shore of free America, and seeks protection from the terror of democratic'finance amid the rotten and mouldering despotisms of Monarchical Europe. This precious mefal clearly does not know when.it is well off. . It surrenders its place ignominious! y, and. leaves paper undisputed master of the field. Meanwhile, amid all this spending and borrowing and fighting-, we hear not a word of the only source from which those funds are to be derived that are destined to support the enormous fabric of credit. We hear not a Word of the collection of taxes. At the very moment when America expects to obtain from some quarter or another an amount of credit quite unexampled in the history of the world, she carefully drops out of sight any notice of those taxes by which alone the interest of foer loans can be paid. She attends to -one thing at once. To borrow is enough for her to think of, without perplexing herself with the disagreeable consideration of how she 13 to pay what she has borrowed. There is a time for all things— a time for borrowing and a time for pay'iDg, and the present is emphatically the borrowing season.. To perplex such great operations by giving the public a practical taste of the liability which they involve would be a suicidal measure which no friend of the Union could regard without disgust. People are expected to lend their money on the security of taxes which they have some reason for supposing it may never be found convenient to levy- The scale of the loan is undoubtedly sufficiently gigantic to gratify the most exacting imagination. But we may, perhaps, be pardoned for thinking that the security is scarcely of commensurate magnitude Indeed; when we observe the steady flight of whatever is portable and has a money value from the United States across the Atlantic, when we conneei this observation with the fact that absolutely no effort is made to raise any appreciable portion of the year's expenditure by the vulgar old-fashioned expedient of taxation, we may, perhaps, be-exeused for entertaining the suspicion that there does not exist any serious intention of repaying this loan at all. The scale of this transaction would, it is only fair. to say, be still more magnificent than that of any of which we have hitherto had experience. It would be a grand consummation to the great war, to the great armies, the innumerable navies, the vast reports, the interminable despatches — to all, in fact, which has for the last two years attracted the attention'of mankind almost exclusively to the continent of America. IF it should come to this, that the^main body of the American Confederacy should turn out to be a common lability to an enormous debt, how long must we.caiculate on that bond retaining its force \ Is it not only too probable that this community of debt, instead of a connecting link, may turn out to be an universal solvent, and that the extreme tranquility with whitSh the momentous transaction is conducted may not be wholly disconnected with the probability of the view which we have indicated I