To this must be added the following amounts:
| War indemnity, paid to Great Britain by reason of our not having a navy | $1,500,000,000 |
| Canadian debt assumed |
300,000,000 ——————— |
| Carried forward |
$3,770,000,000 |
| Brought forward | $3,770,000,000 |
| Amount expended by U. S. in War with Great Britain | 100,000,000 |
| Amount of damage done to New York and Brooklyn by British fleet |
300,000,000 ——————— |
| Total | $4,170,000,000 |
| Less credits as above |
350,000,000 ——————— |
| Total cost of ten years of Congressional "economy." | $3,820,000,000 |
"There are other items, gentlemen, which could easily be made to swell the above debit balance; but these are sufficient. You may step down and out. The people of the United States are the most wealthy and liberal people in the world, but ten years more of such "economy" as yours has been, would bankrupt us. We wish you no harm, gentlemen, but we have no further need of your services."
Of course this monologue is not to be taken literally, but it is what the people of the United States practically said, by their action, at the elections which succeeded the Battle of the Swash.
It is, perhaps, needless to remark, that for many years subsequent to 1890, American statesmen were not called upon to wrestle with the difficult problem of "how to dispose of the surplus revenue."
Their "economical" predecessors had effectually obviated all necessity for any such discussion; but the lesson which the people had learned, was a most valuable one, and instead of considering themselves the suffering victims of an excessive and burdensome system of taxation, they fully realized that they were the most favored people in the world in that respect, and cheerfully supported the new generation of Congressmen in authorizing the liberal expenditures, which in a few years made our coasts and harbors invulnerable; gave us a navy superior to that of any other nation, and placed us once more in the van among the maritime powers of the world.
At the first glance, the Battle of the Swash seemed to have been a most disastrous event for the United States.
England got all the glory and all the money, and the United States got Canada and—the experience. But the latter proved to be worth infinitely more than it cost, in that it exploded the absurd system of miscalled "economy," which only "saved at the spigot to waste at the bung."
Let us rejoice that in this year of grace 1930, we have so profited by the errors of our ancestors, that we now occupy unchallenged, the foremost position among the Nations of the earth; and that with our 200,000,000 of intelligent, prosperous and contented citizens—each one a sovereign in his own right—we can afford to look with indifference upon the wars and struggles of our less fortunate contemporaries on the other side of the Atlantic.
Too late, alas! had the truth and wisdom of these words—written by that great founder of the Government, Thomas Jefferson—become manifest.