of the current pressing
inwards against the doors of the Treasury? Except in those portions of
the country which are the immediate seat of war, or liable to be made so,
and which, having the greatest interest not to become the border states
of hostile nations, can best afford to suffer now, the state of
prosperity and comfort is such as to astonish those who visit us from
other countries. What are war taxes to a nation which, as we are assured
on good authority, has more men worth a million now than it had worth ten
thousand dollars at the close of the Revolution,--whose whole property is
a hundred times, and whose commerce, inland and foreign, is five hundred
times, what it was then? But we need not study Mr. Still's pamphlet and
"Thompson's Bank-Note Reporter" to show us what we know well enough,
that, so far from having occasion to tremble in fear of our impending
ruin, we must rather blush for our material prosperity. For the
multitudes who are unfortunate enough to be taxed for a million or more,
of course we must feel deeply, at the same time suggesting that the more
largely they report their incomes to the tax-gatherer, the more
consolation they will find in the feeling that they have served their
country. But,--let us say it plainly,--it will not hurt our people to be
taught that there are other things to be cared for besides money-making
and money-spending; that the time has come when manhood must assert
itself by brave deeds and noble thoughts; when womanhood must assume its
most sacred office, "to warn, to comfort," and, if need be, "to command,"
those whose services their country calls for. This Northern section of
the land has become a great variety shop, of which the Atlantic cities
are the long-extended counter. We have grown rich for what? To put gilt
bands on coachmen's hats? To sweep the foul sidewalks with the heaviest
silks which the toiling artisans of France can send us? To look through
plate-glass windows, and pity the brown soldiers,--or sneer at the black
ones? to reduce the speed of trotting horses a second or two below its
old minimum? to color meerschaums? to flaunt in laces, and sparkle in
diamonds? to dredge our maidens' hair with gold-dust? to float through
life, the passive shuttlecocks of fashion, from the avenues to the
beaches, and back again from the beaches to the avenues? Was it for this
that the broad domain of the Western hemisphere was kept so long
unvisited by civilizat