No One,
I Presume, Doubts That That Nation Which Works The Most, Or Works
Rather To The Best Effect, Is The Richest.
On this account England
is richer than other countries, and is able to bear, almost without
the sign of an effort, a burden which would crush any other land.
But of this wealth the States own almost as much as Great Britain
owns.
The population of the Northern States is industrious,
ambitious of wealth, and capable of work as is our population. It
possesses, or is possessed by, that restless longing for labor which
creates wealth almost unconsciously. Whether this man be rich or be
a bankrupt, whether the bankers of that city fail or make their
millions, the creative energies of the American people will not
become dull. Idleness is impossible to them, and therefore poverty
is impossible. Industry and intellect together will always produce
wealth; and neither industry nor intellect is ever wanting to an
American. They are the two gifts with which the fairy has endowed
him. When she shall have added honesty as a third, the tax-gatherer
can desire no better country in which to exercise his calling.
I cannot myself think that all the millions that are being spent
would weigh upon the country with much oppression, if the weight
were once properly placed upon the muscles that will have to bear
it. The difficulty will be in the placing of the weight. It has, I
know, been argued that the circumstances under which our national
debt has extended itself to its present magnificent dimensions
cannot be quoted as parallel to those of the present American debt,
because we, while we were creating the debt, were taxing ourselves
very heavily, whereas the Americans have gone ahead with the
creation of their debt before they have levied a shilling on
themselves toward the payment of those expenses for which the debt
has been encountered. But this argument, even if it were true in
its gist, goes no way toward proving that the Americans will be
unable to pay. The population of the present free-soil States is
above eighteen millions; that of the States which will probably
belong to the Union if secession be accomplished is about twenty-two
millions. At a time when our debt had amounted to six hundred
millions sterling we had no population such as that to bear the
burden. It may be said that we had more amassed wealth than they
have. But I take it that the amassed wealth of any country can go
but a very little way in defraying the wants or in paying the debts
of a people. We again come back to the old maxim, that the labor of
a country is its wealth; and that a country will be rich or poor in
accordance with the intellectual industry of its people.
But the argument drawn from that comparison between our own conduct
when we were creating our debt, and the conduct of the Americans
while they have been creating their debt - during the twelve months
from April 1, 1861, to March 31, 1862, let us say - is hardly a fair
argument.
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