aled--all product, not
consumable, must become as valueless as the leaves and dross of the
German's dreamer!

The expenses of the North have ever been paid by the South, he
reasoned. This sum now withdrawn, it follows that not only will the
increased expenses of the North not be paid; but the heavy balance will
be efficient in the southern Treasury, to meet our far smaller
expenses.

With equal ability in management, this result _might_ have happened;
for there is no sort of doubt that depreciation in southern money was,
in some regards, reason for appreciation in northern. But while the
policy of the southern Treasury was weak, vacillating and destructive,
that of the northern was strong, bold and cautious. While Mr.
Memminger--instead of utilizing those products which had heretofore
been the life-blood of northern finance--allowed the precious moments
to pass; and flooded the country with paper, with only future, instead
of present and actual, basis of redemption, the northern Secretary
struck boldly at the very root of the matter and made each successive
disaster to northern arms another link in the strengthening chain of
northern credit.

The Union finances did indeed appear desperate. The stoppage of a sure
and heavy means of revenue, at the same moment that the spindles of New
England stood still for want of food; the increased demand for fabrics
and supplies, that had now to be imported; and the vast increase of
expenditure, coincident with decrease in revenue, left but had one door
open to escape. The North was flooded with greenback promises to pay,
issued with one sole basis of redemption--the chance of absolute
conquest of a people roused, warlike, and determined to yield nothing
save their lives.

To meet this issue and the interest of the vast debt incurred, taxation
in the North rapidly increased, until the oppressive burden represented,
in one or another shape, _near 20 per cent._ of the real property of
the people!

Besides, the North, unlike ourselves--argued the hopeful southern
financier--does not go into the war as a unit. New York, the great
money center, is entirely opposed to the war; New England is
discontented at the stoppage of her factories and the loss imposed upon
her people; and the great West, ever more bound to the South than to
the East, by community of interest and of pursuit, must soon see that
her only road to salvation is down the great river that has heretofore
been the one