An Article on the Debts of the States: From the Democratic Review, for January 1844 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from An Article on the Debts of the States: From the Democratic Review, for January 1844 For it is not true, as has been at times asserted or insinuated, that there has been in any part of these transactions any deliberate fraud, or intention to deceive, on the part of any of the State Governments. The debts have been all contracted in good faith, under circumstances which authorized a reasonable expectation of being able to provide for them, principal and interest; and for the most part, for purposes not only right and proper, but highly honorableto the contracting par ties. The origin of these debts contrasts, in fact, most favorably with that of the immense masses of public debt now existing in Europe. These have generally had their source in the reckless ambition or wasteful prodigality of the rulers of nations. The financial embar rassments that were the immediate cause of the French Revolution, grew out of the boundless expense of the wars of Louis the incalculable amount which he lavished upon court favorites and festivals. The beginning of the present Spanish debt was a loan of forty millions of hard money, equal to at least a hundred and twenty at the present day, contracted by Philip V. For the purpose of laying out a garden with fountains, in imitation of the splendid bauble of Versailles. 'ihe present debts of Great Britain, France, and the other principal nations, are, for the most part, the results of the wars of the French Revolution and although a just and necessary war carried on for the defence of a country, is the highest and'noblest object to which the public funds can be devoted, and takes precedence, from the na ture of the case, of any other claim, it may well be doubted how far any of the late European struggles realize, on either side, any near approach to that character. The origin of most of.our State debts is entirely different. They were contracted for the purpose of covering the expense of important works of public improvement, and have been applied to this purpose with as much fidelity and discretion as can be expected in cases of this description. New communications have been opened by rail-roads and canals between different parts of the country, generally at points wherethey were really wanted, and will be of immediate service. In some few cases the rage for speculation and facility of obtainino loans, which characterized the period when the debts were contracted, may have given rise to projects, not precisely of this character; but of these the worst that can be said of them is that they are premature. The population and business of the country are growing up to them so rapidly, that those which now seem the least necessary, will become in a few short years crowded thoroughfares. The results of the vast enterprises of a similar kind which had partially been undertaken and carried through by States - especially that of the New York Canal created, and to a certain extent authorized the expectation that they would produce an income suflicient to pay the interest, and finally extinguish the principal, of the loans which had furnished the means for their construction. This expectation has not, 'in all cases, been realized. Sometimes because the credit of a State failed before the works could be completed and put in operation'; in other cases, be cause particular works, as has been intimated, were in advance of the state of improvement of the part of the country where they were erected. This is the immediate cause of the difficulty. But there cannot be a doubt, that they will, in the end, almost without exception, become productive, and not only cover the cost of their construction but prove sources of vast revenue. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com