millions, without any check to the flow of the
current pressing inwards against the doors of the Treasury? Except in
those portions of the country which are the immediate seat of war, or
liable to be made so, and which, having the greatest interest not to
become the border states of hostile nations, can best afford to suffer
now, the state of prosperity and comfort is such as to astonish those
who visit us from other countries. What are war taxes to a nation which,
as we are assured on good authority, has more men worth a million
now than it had worth ten thousand dollars at the close of the
Revolution,--whose whole property is a hundred times, and whose
commerce, inland and foreign, is five hundred times, what it was then?
But we need not study Mr. Still's pamphlet and "Thompson's Bank-Note
Reporter" to show us what we know well enough, that, so far from having
occasion to tremble in fear of our impending ruin, we must rather blush
for our material prosperity. For the multitudes who are unfortunate
enough to be taxed for a million or more, of course we must feel deeply,
at the same time suggesting that the more largely they report their
incomes to the tax-gatherer, the more consolation they will find in
the feeling that they have served their country. But,--let us say it
plainly,--it will not hurt our people to be taught that there are other
things to be cared for besides money-making and money-spending; that the
time has come when manhood must assert itself by brave deeds and noble
thoughts; when womanhood must assume its most sacred office, "to warn,
to comfort," and, if need be, "to command," those whose services their
country calls for. This Northern section of the land has become a
great variety shop, of which the Atlantic cities are the long-extended
counter. We have grown rich for what? To put gilt bands on coachmen's
hats? To sweep the foul sidewalks with the heaviest silks which the
toiling artisans of France can send us? To look through plate-glass
windows, and pity the brown soldiers,--or sneer at the black ones?
to reduce the speed of trotting horses a second or two below its old
minimum? to color meerschaums? to flaunt in laces, and sparkle in
diamonds? to dredge our maidens' hair with gold-dust? to float through
life, the passive shuttlecocks of fashion, from the avenues to the
beaches, and back again from the beaches to the avenues? Was it for
this that the broad domain of the Western hemisphere was kept s