war, when there was no adequate conception of the extent of the trouble
about to come upon us, shows how easily the public credit may be shaken
or destroyed by incompetent or dishonest agents. In spite of envious
detraction and interested opposition, these great and successful labors
of the Secretary will remain an imperishable monument of his ability to
conduct the most intricate affairs of government, in times of the most
appalling danger and difficulty. He has undergone the severest tests to
which a statesman was ever subjected; his genius and his great moral
firmness have brought him out triumphant.

There are a few prominent points in the lucid report of the Secretary
which constitute the great landmarks of his system. Adequate taxation
was of necessity its basis; and, from the very beginning, Mr. Chase
insisted upon a rigid resort to every available means of raising a
revenue sufficient to strengthen the hands of the Government, and
sustain its credit through all the vast operations which it was
compelled to undertake. And now by reference to the actual figures, and
by an analysis of the facts embodied in them, the Secretary shows that
since the first year of the war, the taxes collected have paid all the
ordinary peace expenditures together with the interest on the whole
public debt, and beyond this have yielded a surplus which, had the war
ended, might have been applied to the reduction of the debt. This sound
and indispensable principle, beset with so many temptations and
difficulties in time of civil commotion, is the very soul of the public
credit; and the fearlessness with which the Secretary meets the
contingency of prolonged war and the necessity of additional taxes,
evinces his determination to strengthen and sustain the principle,
rather than to abandon it under any possible circumstances. The enormous
loans already so advantageously obtained, to say nothing of those
additional ones which will probably be indispensable, could not have