A national debt of six hundred millions.
--The President seems to think that a national debt of six hundred millions would be but a trifle for the country to bear. Those who are well informed know better. It is more than one seventh of all the debt which Great Britain finds herself loaded with at the end of eight centuries of war. The wealth of the United States is not one-tenth part of the British empire; so that six hundred millions for us would be a greater burden for us than that of four thousand millions for Great Britain. At six per cent., it would require thirty-six millions every year to pay the interest. In ordinary seasons, this is about all that we could raise from customs; so that the expenses of the Government would have to be defrayed by direct taxation, and the principal of the debt, if it was ever paid, would have to be a direct and oppressive assessment upon the pockets of the people.In the distance we can see that the funding of this debt would create a great aristocracy, while it would grind down the laboring masses. Taxes upon tea and coffee, upon sugar, upon molasses, upon every article of necessity or luxury, direct or indirect, would be the consequence, in time of peace, of this tremendous debt. which, in addition to our State, municipal, and corporation debt, would hang over us for centuries to come. The sacrifice may be necessary — it may be a work of patriotism; but it is foolish to blind ourselves to its real nature and character. It is just as foolish as it was to underrate the forces at Manassas.--Cincinnati Enquirer.
