wilderness again blossom as the rose." But for moral desolation there is no surviving spring. Let the moral and republican principles under which our country has advanced thus far in its career, be once abandoned; our representatives bow in unconditional obsequiousness to individual dictation and private interests; let impudence, intrigue, and corruption, triumph over honesty and intellect; let the demagogue, enriched with the spoils of office, march forth in the plenitude of his power; and our liberties, our strength, and our glory, will depart for ever. Of these there is no resuscitation. The "abomination of desolation" will be fixed and perpetual; "and as the mighty fabric of our glory totters into ruins, the nations of the earth will mock at our overthrow-just like the powers of darkness, when the throned one of Babylon became even as themselves, and the glory of the Chaldees had gone down for ever." We anticipate, however, no such calamity. Illinois will never repudiate. She has been improvident; she cannot pay the interest on what she owes, much less the principal. Still the time is at hand when she will do both. The debts of a nation, as well as of individuals, are sometimes compounded without compromising its honor. England, without paying a shilling, once reduced the interest of her debt, from four to three per cent. Further reductions are in contemplation. Her interest, and finally its principal, may perhaps yet be extinguished without the payment of either. In 1749, when it was small, compared with its present amount, the whole nation became alarmed; the idea of a public debt being at that time a public blessing, had never been promulgated. Henry Pelham was, at that time, chancellor of the exchequer, and he was a man whom nothing could appal. His design of reducing the interest upon the public debt was, as he said, "the result of the love he bore his country, and an opinion that it was the duty of the servants of the crown to ease the bur. dens of the people." A bill was thereupon brought into the House, which afterward became a law, "for reducing the interest on the public debt." It was proposed to issue a new loan, and that the holders of the four-percent. stock should become its subscribers; and that a new stock should be created bearing an interest of three per cent. The greater part of the stockholders became subscribers to the new loan immediately. Those who did not become subscribers by the act, were to be paid off. The East India and two other companies, together with a few private stockholders, having altogether about nine millions sterling in the public stocks, for a while stood aloof. "Being misled," as Mr. Pelham observed, " by evil counsellors, more intent on distressing the Government, than solicitous to serve their friends; and some of them being foreigners, who had not time to take proper advice, and give the necessary instructions ;" a longer period was given them to become subscribers, of which all finally availed themselves; and the interest on the whole public debt was thus reduced, in a manner (says an English historian,) that "excited the admiration and envy of all Christendom.” In Some further reductions of interest are, undoubtedly, in reserve. asmuch, however, as the Government and stockholders are nearly synonymous, and the tax-payer and the interest-receiver are, in so many cases the same; the question, in England, is of less importance than in any other country in Europe. Should it become expedient to reduce it another per cent., and still another, it will excite neither wonder nor surprise. The promptness of the English government in paying its interest, has secured for it a credit which no other nation has; and the fidelity of Great Britain in the discharge of her pecuniary obligations, has enabled her to borrow at a lower rate of interest than responsible individuals, and thus to subsidize one half of the globe. Punishment for parricide was unknown to the Roman law, because the offence, it was supposed, could not be committed. For the same reason, we forbear to discuss the question of repudiation, because it is a subject which we, in common with our Legislature, "detest and abhor." It is said that we are now in that state; that we have made no effort to redeem our credit or character. Although true it is, we have made no such effort as the emergency required, we have done enough to save our reputation from that charge. The ten-cents tax on the hundred dollars, which was imposed by the law of 1841, for the express purpose of creating an interest fund, was cheerfully paid. The same ratio of taxation, (a mill on the dollar,) has recently produced wonders in the State of New-York. It is true, that the moneys thus collected were not applied, in Illinois, as the law anticipated; for that, however, the people are not to blame. A law has since been passed for the payment of McAllister & Stebbins, out of the public revenue. This law, though not as liberal, perhaps, as it ought to have been, protects, in part, the character of our State from the charge of repudiation. It is also true that a portion of the revenue law was improvidently repealed, at the last session of the Legislature. The people, however, at large, did not participate in that suicidal act. The canal, in fact, has nothing to fear, except from its friends, nor the State at large, except from its demagogues. Were the pretended friends of the former, driven by whips and scorpions into the Gulf of Mexico; and the demagogues which pervade the latter, expelled from our borders, the State would do well enough. God, we trust, in his providence, has much for us in store. The Wabash and Erie canal, built at the expense of Indiana and Ohio, has added several millions to our wealth. The completion of the Illinois and Michigan canal, will add several more;-it will restore confidence, extinguish finally our State debt, enhance the price of produce, raise the value of lands, invite emigration thither, and unite the north and the south with an adamantine chain, which can never be broken. NOTE I. In 1255, Henry III., of England, demanded eight thousand marks of the Jews, and threatened to hang them if they refused compliance; said he "had not a farthing, that he must have money from any hand, from any quarter, and by any means.” King John, his father, had previously demanded ten thousand marks of a Jew, in Bristol, and on his refusal, ordered one of his teeth to be drawn every day, till he should comply. lost seven teeth, and then paid the sum required. The Jew NOTE IL The public debt of Great Britain was increased during the wars of William and Mary, During Queen Anne's wars, (Marlborough's time,) During the war with France, from 1793 to 1801, terminated by the peace of Amiens, £ 15,730,439 37,750,661 31,338,689 72,111,004 102,541,819 295,105,668 During the same war with France, which terminated by the treaty of 335,983,164 was 782,667,234 28,341,463 Being a little more than $125,000,000 This amount is now actually paid in cash, by the producing classes in the British Empire, for interest only. NOTE III. revenue, How the transfer of lands from non-residents to residents, should diminish the public is inexplicable. The ordinance of 1787, provides, that "in no case shall nonresident proprietors be taxed higher than residents." The constitution of the State provides also, (article eighth, section twentieth,) that "the mode of levying a tax shall be by valuation, so that every person shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of the property he or she has in his or her possession." Judge Douglass, at a circuit court held in La Salle county, very properly vacated an assessment of real estate, because the property of non-residents was assessed higher than the property of residents, of equal value. NOTE IV. Messrs. McAllister & Stebbins decline accepting the propositions made by the State, to pay the above amount, ($261,500,) and interest in auditor's warrants. Of course, the bonds and scrip, above mentioned, remain as before, in the hands of those to whom they were sold, or to whom they have since been assigned, the law being nugatory. It is alleged by Messrs McAllister & Stebbins, that the bonds and scrip, aforesaid, were pledged to them, on the 17th June, 1841, in security for the payment of the said $261,500, in six months thereafter, with interest. That the same were then to be sold at auction, unless the $261,500 interest were previously paid. That no part of said sum being paid, the said bonds and scrip were sold according to agreement, and a portion only of the $261,500 realized thereon. NOTE V. "In 1837," says the auditor of public accounts, in his report of December 5th, 1842,* "the State received $477,919 14 of surplus revenue from the General government. One law directed that a part of this sum should be applied to pay off the debt due the school * The Auditor of public accounts at that time, was James Shields, Esq., an officer of great ment, at present a judge of the supreme court. fand, which was at that time $335,592 32. Another law directed it to be added to the school fund; and a third, directed it to be paid to the banks, upon the stock taken by the State in those institutions. In the midst of these conflicting directions, the fund commissioner paid $335,600, to the banks, on account of stock; and the auditor added $335,592 32, not in money, but in credit, to the school fund. Upon this credit the State is still paying interest." On settling with the banks, a large amount was found due them for moneys advanced to the State, for current expenses. These debts were cancelled on such settlement, and of course the whole $808,055 39, have been expended in addition to the revenue of the State, and the $121,000 we owe for the State House. NOTE VI. It appears from the United States census, taken in 1840, that there were raised in Illi up Rice, Cotton, Hemp, Many of the above articles have increased one-half since 1840. "Charles Dickens, Esq., and lady," having visited Illinois in 1842, and having sailed "the great father of waters," thanking Heaven all the way, that he (the Mississippi,) "had no young children like himself"-" an enormous ditch, sometimes two or three miles wide, running liquid mud six miles an hour;" having stopped at the Planter's House in St. Louis, "built like an English hospital, with long passages and bare walls;" and having visited one of our prairies, where he was fed on "wheat bread and chicken fixings" instead of "corn bread and common doings," and in "a linen blouse and a great straw hat, with a green ribbon and no gloves; his face and nose profusely ornamented with the stings of musquitoes;" having "met a full-sized dwelling-house coming downhill at a round trot, drawn by a score or more of oxen;" "without the exhilaration which a Scottish heath inspires, or the English downs awaken"-" where he saw nothing to remember with much pleasure-or to covet the looking on again in after life and where, too, he visited the "Monk's mound,” near where "a body of fanatics, of the order of La Trappe, had once founded a desolate convent, when no settlers were within a thousand miles, and were all swept off by the pernicious climate; in which lamentable fatality, few rational people will suppose that society experienced a very severe deprivation;" our readers will not be surprised to learn, that an English gentleman of Mr. Dickens's taste, who had previously selected the Five Points in the city of New-York, as the principal objects of interest there, should have selected and described a scene in Illinois, just as he has done. They would, however, have been surprised to hear, that the people of Illinois, (like some of their eastern friends,) took offence at Mr. Dickens's description of their prairies. The latter speak for themselves, and require no eulogy. Those acquainted with the best English parks, can alone appreciate their beauty. |