FROM THE WRITER'S PREFACE. I DO not pretend, in this little volume, to any new discoveries touching the financial history of the Revolutionary War, but only to having brought together, in one place, those facts which are of prime interest and importance. They are written down with almost statistical brevity, but he who thoughtfully reads them will see how painfully our forefathers struggled and suffered to bring us "out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Ours is the only great nation which, in the ...
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FROM THE WRITER'S PREFACE. I DO not pretend, in this little volume, to any new discoveries touching the financial history of the Revolutionary War, but only to having brought together, in one place, those facts which are of prime interest and importance. They are written down with almost statistical brevity, but he who thoughtfully reads them will see how painfully our forefathers struggled and suffered to bring us "out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Ours is the only great nation which, in the Nineteenth Century, has paid a public debt contracted for war purposes, and it is not the least of the proud achievements of the American people. I have brought my little book to an abrupt close, because I wished to say "here" what might perhaps have been more appropriately said 'in a closing paragraph. It is this: That the most glorious celebration we could have made of our Centennial Anniversary, would have been the simple announcement that, for a second time, in the first century of our national existence, we had paid off a public debt. To do this would have required great exertions and great sacrifices, but such exertions and sacrifices were not beyond the powers of the American people. I will be allowed to add that the surest and safest way to a resumption of specie payments is through the extinction of the public debt. Its payment ought to be the paramount object of every administration, and is a policy commended alike by National Duty and National Honour. -J. W. SCHUCKERS New York, "October" 1st, 1874
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