ssity in any case, a forced
loan, _without interest_, is simple robbery to the extent of unpaid
interest, even if the principal is paid. And a robber cannot expect
to have much credit left after his character becomes known to the
world.

THE FINANCIAL LESSON OF THE CIVIL WAR

The issue of legal-tender notes during the Civil War was of this
character. The country received a deadly blow to its financial
credit when that policy was adopted. Nations or peoples cannot,
any more than individuals, violate the established rules of honest
dealing without suffering the just penalty. If money is needed
beyond current revenues, there is no other honest way to get it
but by borrowing it at such rate of interest and upon such security
as can be agreed upon. Besides, to leave any room for doubt or
cavil about the conditions of a loan, or about the standard of
money in which principal and interest are to be paid, necessarily
arouses suspicion of bad faith, and hence destroys or seriously
injures national credit. It is now perfectly well known to all
who have taken the pains to study the subject that this false and
practically dishonest policy, however innocently it may have been
conceived, cost the United States many hundreds of millions of
dollars, and came very near bringing disaster upon the Union cause.
One of the most astounding spectacles ever presented in the history
of the world was that presented by this country. It went into the
war practically free from debt, and come out of it with a debt
which seemed very large, to be sure, and was in fact nearly twice
as large as it ought to have been, yet so small in comparison with
the country's resources that it could be paid off in a few years.
It went into the war practically without an army, and came out of
the war with its military strength not even yet fully developed.
It had more than a million of men, nearly all veterans, in the
ranks, and could have raised a million more, if necessary, without
seriously interfering with the industries of the country. Yet in
four short years a false financial policy destroyed the national
credit, brought its treasury to bankruptcy, and thus reduced a
great people to a condition in which they could no longer make any
use of their enormous military strength! This lesson ought to be
taught in every school-house in the United States, until every
child is made to understand that there is no such thing