and the States, and thereby enhanced 2 per cent in the hands of the holders.  We thus have an aggregate of 17 per cent which may be received upon each dollar by the owners of Government securities.  A system that produces such results is justly regarded as favoring a few at the expense of the many, and has led to the further inquiry whether our bondholders, in view of the large profits which they have enjoyed, would themselves be averse to a settlement of our indebtedness upon a plan which would yield them a fair remuneration and at the same time be just to the taxpayers of the nation.  Our national credit should be sacredly observed, but in making provision for our creditors we should not forget what is due to the masses of the people.  It may be assumed that the holders of our securities have already received upon their bonds a larger amount than their original investment, measured by a gold standard.  Upon this statement of facts it would seem but just and equitable that the 6 per cent interest now paid by the Government should be applied to the reduction of the principal in semiannual installments, which in sixteen years and eight months would liquidate the entire national debt.  Six per cent in gold would at present rates be equal to 9 per cent in currency, and equivalent to the payment of the debt one and a half times in a fraction less than seventeen years.  This, in connection with all the other advantages derived from their investment, would afford to the public creditors a fair and liberal compensation for the use of their capital, and with this they should be satisfied.  The lessons of the past admonish the lender that it is not well to be over-anxious in exacting from the borrower rigid compliance with the letter of the bond.

If provision be made for the payment of the indebtedness of the Government in the manner suggested, our nation will rapidly recover its wonted prosperity.  Its interests require that some measure should be taken to release the large amount of capital invested in the securities of the Government.  It is not now merely unproductive, but in taxation annually consumes $150,000,000, which would otherwise be used by our enterprising people in adding to the wealth of the nation.  Our commerce, which at one time successfully rivaled that of the great maritime powers, has rapidly diminished, and our industrial interests are in a depressed and languishing condition.  The development of our inexhaustible resources is checked, and the fertile fields of the South are becoming waste for want of means to till them.  With the release of capital, new life would be infused into the paralyzed energies of our people and activity and vigor imparted to every branch of industry.  Our people need encouragement in their efforts to recover from the effects of the rebellion and of injudicious legislation, and it should be the aim of the Government to stimulate them by the prospect of an early release from the burdens which impede their prosperity.  If we can not take the burdens from their shoulders, we should at least manifest a willingness to help to bear them.