The Only Fair Comparison, As It Seems To Me, Which Can Be Drawn
Between The Two Countries With Reference To Their Debts, And The
Condition Of Each Under Its Debt, Should Be Made To Depend On The
Amount Of The Debt And Probable Ability Of The Country To Bear That
Burden.
The amount of the debt must be calculated by the interest
payable on it rather than by the figures representing the actual sum
due.
If we debit the United States government with seven per cent.
on all the money borrowed by them, and presume that amount to have
reached in July, 1863, the sum named by Mr. Spaulding, they will
then have loaded themselves with an annual charge of 16,800,000
pounds sterling. It will have been an immense achievement to have
accomplished in so short a time, but it will by no means equal the
annual sum with which we are charged. And, moreover, the comparison
will have been made in a manner that is hardly fair to the
Americans. We pay our creditors three per cent. now that we have
arranged our affairs, and have settled down into the respectable
position of an old gentleman whose estates, though deeply mortgaged,
are not over mortgaged. But we did not get our money at three per
cent. while our wars were on hand and there yet existed some doubt
as to the manner in which they might be terminated.
This attempt, however, at guessing what may be the probable amount
of the debt at the close of the war is absolutely futile.
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