MR. PRESIDENT,—I have already during this session introduced a bill providing for the extension of the national banking system and the withdrawal of greenbacks in proportion to the new bank-notes issued,[202] thus preparing the way for specie payments. The more I reflect upon this simple proposition, the more I am satisfied of its value. It promises to be as efficacious as it is unquestionably simple. But it does not pretend to deal with the whole financial problem.
The bill which I now introduce is more comprehensive in character. While embodying the original proposition of substituting bank-notes for greenbacks, it provides for the refunding and consolidation of the national debt in such a way as to make it easy to bear, while it brings the existing currency to a par with coin. In making this attempt I am moved by the desire to do something for the business interests of the country, which suffer inconceivably from the derangement of the currency. Whether at home or abroad, it is the same. At home values are uncertain; abroad commerce is disturbed and out of gear. Political Reconstruction is not enough; there must be Financial Reconstruction also. The peace which we covet must enter into our finances; the reconciliation which we long for must embrace the disordered business of the country.
In any measure having this object there are two things which must not be forgotten: first, the preservation of the national credit; and, secondly, the reduction of existing taxation. Happily, there is a universal prevailing sentiment for the national credit, showing itself in a fixed determination that it shall be maintained at all hazards. Nobody can exaggerate the value of this determination, which is the corner-stone of Financial Reconstruction. On the reduction of taxation there is at present more difference of opinion; but I cannot doubt that here, too, there will be a speedy harmony. The country is uneasy under the heavy burden. Willingly, gladly, patriotically, it submitted to this burden while the Republic was in peril; but now there is a yearning for relief. War taxes should not be peace taxes; and so long as the present system continues, there is a constant and painful memento of war, while business halts in chains and life bends under the load.
The national credit being safe, relief from the pressure of existing taxation is the first practical object in our finances. But so entirely natural and consistent is this object, that it harmonizes with all other proper objects, especially with the refunding of the national debt, and with specie payments. As the people feel easy in their affairs, they will be ready for the work of Reconstruction. Therefore do I say, as an essential stage in what we all desire, Down with the taxes!
The proper reduction of taxation involves two other things: first, the reduction of the present annual interest on the national debt, thus affording immense relief; and, secondly, the spread or extension of the national debt over succeeding generations, for whom, as well as for ourselves, it was incurred. The practical value of the first is apparent on the simple statement. The second may be less apparent, as it opens a question of policy, on both sides of which much has been already said.
Nobody doubts the brilliancy of the movement to pay off the national debt,—calling to mind the charge of the six hundred at Balaclava riding into the jaws of Death, so that the beholder exclaimed, in memorable words, “It is magnificent, but it is not war.”[203] In other words, it was a feat of hardihood and immolation, abnormal, eccentric, and beyond even the terrible requirements of battle. In similar spirit might a beholder, witnessing the present sacrifice of our people in the redemption of a debt so large a part of which justly belongs to posterity, exclaim, “It is magnificent, but it is not business.” Unquestionably business requires that we should meet existing obligations according to their letter and spirit; but it does not require payment in advance, nor payment of obligations resting upon others. To do this is magnificent, but beyond the line of business.
President Lincoln, in one of his earliest propositions of Emancipation, before he had determined upon the great Proclamation, contemplated compensation to slave-masters, and, in order to commend this large expenditure, went into an elaborate calculation to show how easy it would be, if proportioned upon the giant shoulders of posterity. Dismissing the idea of payment by the existing generation, he proceeded to exhibit the growing capacity of the country,—how from the beginning there had been a decennial increase in population of 34.60 per cent.,—how during a period of seventy years the ratio had never been two per cent. below or two per cent. above this average, thus attesting the inflexibility of this law of increase. Assuming its continuance, he proceeded to show that in 1870 our population would be 42,323,341,—in 1880 it would be 56,967,216,—in 1890 it would be 76,677,872,—and in 1900 it would be 103,208,415,—while in 1930 it would amount to 251,680,914.[204] Nobody has impeached these estimates. There they stand in that Presidential Message as colossal mile-stones of the Republic.
The increase in material resources is beyond that of population. The most recent calculation, founded on the last census, shows that for the previous decade it was at the rate of eighty per cent.,[205] although other calculations have placed it as high as one hundred and twenty-six per cent.[206] Whether the one or the other, the rate of increase is enormous, and, unless arrested in some way not now foreseen, it must carry our national resources to a fabulous extent. What is a burden now will be scarcely a feather’s weight in the early decades of the next century, when a population counted by hundreds of millions will wield resources counted by thousands of millions. On this head details are superfluous. All must see at once the irresistible conclusion.
It is much in this discussion, when we have ascertained how easy it will be for posterity to bear this responsibility. But the case is strengthened, when it is considered that the war was for the life of the Republic, so that throughout all time, so long as the Republic endures, all who enjoy its transcendent citizenship will share the benefits. Should they not contribute to the unparalleled cost? Recent estimates, deemed to be moderate and reasonable, show an aggregate destruction of wealth or diversion of wealth-producing industry in the United States since 1861 approximating nine thousand millions of dollars, being the cost of the war, or, in other words, the cost of the destruction of Slavery.[207] If from this estimate be dropped the item for expenditures and loss of property in the Rebel States, amounting to $2,700,000,000,[208] we shall have $6,300,000,000 as the sum-total of cost to the loyal people, of which the existing national debt represents less than half. Thus, besides precious blood beyond any calculation of arithmetic, the present generation has already contributed immensely to that result in which succeeding generations have a stake even greater than theirs.
Assuming, then, that there is to be no considerable taxation for the immediate payment of the debt, we have one economy. If to this be added another economy from the reduction of the interest, we shall be able to relieve materially all the business interests of the country. Two such economies will be of infinite value to the people, whose riches will be proportionally increased. In the development of wealth, next to making money is saving money.