The world was at peace, and great
prosperity was universal; money was cheap, or rather its
representative, bank paper. The system of finance, so wisely conceived
and put in practical operation subsequently to the war of 1812, had
been disturbed by being made an element in the political struggles of
party. It had paid the war debt, and all the expenses of the
Government--furnished a uniform currency, equal to, and at the holder's
will convertible into coin. Its face was the nation's faith, and its
credit equal in New York, London, and Calcutta. A surplus fund was
accumulating in the United States Treasury, and the unexampled instance
of a nation out of debt, and with an accumulating surplus of money in
her treasury, was presented to the world by the United States.
The political economist, from this fact, would naturally infer that the
people were heavily taxed: not so; there was not on earth a people who
contributed, in proportion to their means, so little to the support of
their Government. The tax-gatherer of the nation was never seen or
known in the house of any citizen; he knew not that he contributed one
dollar to the public treasury.
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