Indeed, An American Is
Rarely Impatient Of Any Ordained Law.
Whether he be told to do
this, or to pay for that, or to abstain from the other, he does do
and pay and abstain without grumbling, provided that he has had a
hand in voting for those who made the law and for those who carry
out the law.
The people generally have, I think, recognized the
fact that they will have to put their necks beneath the yoke, as the
peoples of other nations have put theirs, and support the weight of
a great national debt. When the time comes for the struggle, for
the first uphill heaving against the terrible load which they will
henceforth have to drag with them in their career, I think it will
be found that they are not ill inclined to put their shoulders to
the work.
Then as to their power of paying the bill! We are told that the
wealth of a nation consists in its labor, and that that nation is
the most wealthy which can turn out of hand the greatest amount of
work. If this be so, the American States must form a very wealthy
nation, and as such be able to support a very heavy burden. 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.
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