computed by the
Secretary of the Treasury at $850,000,000; citizens of foreign countries
receive interest upon a large portion of our securities, and American
taxpayers are made to contribute large sums for their support. The idea
that such a debt is to become permanent should be at all times discarded
as involving taxation too heavy to be borne, and payment once in every
sixteen years, at the present rate of interest, of an amount equal to
the original sum. This vast debt, if permitted to become permanent and
increasing, must eventually be gathered into the hands of a few, and
enable them to exert a dangerous and controlling power in the affairs of
the Government. The borrowers would become servants to the lenders, the
lenders the masters of the people. We now pride ourselves upon having
given freedom to 4,000,000 of the colored race; it will then be our
shame that 40,000,000 of people, by their own toleration of usurpation
and profligacy, have suffered themselves to become enslaved, and merely
exchanged slave owners for new taskmasters in the shape of bondholders
and taxgatherers. Besides, permanent debts pertain to monarchical
governments, and, tending to monopolies, perpetuities, and class
legislation, are totally irreconcilable with free institutions.
Introduced into our republican system, they would gradually but surely
sap its foundations, eventually subvert our governmental fabric, and
erect upon its ruins a moneyed aristocracy. It is our sacred duty to
transmit unimpaired to our posterity the blessings of liberty which were
bequeathed to us by the founders of the Republic, and by our example
teach those who are to follow us carefully to avoid the dangers which
threaten a free and independent people.

Various plans have been proposed for the payment of the public debt.
However they may have varied as to the time and mode in which it should
be redeemed, there seems to be a general concurrence as to the propriety
and justness of a reduction in the present rate of interest. The
Secretary of the Treasury in his report recommends 5 per cent; Congress,
in a bill passed prior to adjournment on the 27th of July last, agreed
upon 4 and 4-1/2 per cent; while by many 3 per cent has been held to be
an amply sufficient return for the investment. The general impression as
to the exorbitancy of the existing rate of interest has led to an
inquiry in the public mind respecting the consideration which the
Government has actually