You meet Judge This and Judge That, not knowing whether
they are ex-judges or in-judges; but you soon learn that your
friends do not hold any very high social position on account of
their forensic dignity.
It is, perhaps, but just to add that in Massachusetts, which I
cannot but regard as in many respects the noblest of the States, the
judges are appointed by the Governor, and are appointed for life.
CHAPTER XII.
THE FINANCIAL POSITION.
The Americans are proud of much that they have done in this war, and
indeed much has been done which may justify pride; but of nothing
are they so proud as of the noble dimensions and quick growth of
their government debt. That Mr. Secretary Chase, the American
Chancellor of the Exchequer, participates in this feeling I will not
venture to say; but if he do not, he is well-nigh the only man in
the States who does not do so. The amount of expenditure has been a
subject of almost national pride, and the two millions of dollars a
day, which has been roughly put down as the average cost of the war,
has always been mentioned by Northern men in a tone of triumph.
This feeling is, I think, intelligible; and although we cannot
allude to it without a certain amount of inward sarcasm, a little
gentle laughing in the sleeve, at the nature of this national joy, I
am not prepared to say that it is altogether ridiculous.
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