and the faith of the State is hereby pledged, that said fund shall be applied to that object and to no other, except at any time there should be a surplus, in which case such surplus shall become a part of the general funds of the Treasury.
SEC. 4th. That hereafter the sum of thirty cents for each hundred dollars' worth of all taxable property shall be paid into the State Treasury; and no more than forty cents for each hundred dollars worth of such taxable property shall be levied and collected for county purposes.
Mr. LINCOLN said he submitted this proposition with great diffidence. He had felt his share of the responsibility devolving upon us in the present crisis, and after revolving in his mind every scheme which seemed to afford the least prospect of relief, he submitted this as the result of his own deliberations. The details of the bill might be imperfect, but he relied upon the correctness of its general features. By the plan proposed in the original bill, of hypothecating our bonds, he was satisfied we could not get along more than two or three months before some other step would be necessary---another session would have to be called, and new provisions made.
It might be objected that these bonds would not be saleable, and the money could not be raised in time. He was no financier, but he believed these bonds thus secured, would be equal to the best in market. A perfect security was provided for the interest, and it was this characteristic that inspired confidence and made bonds saleable. If there was any distrust, it could not be because enough had not been promised; it must be because our means of fulfilling our promises were distrusted. He believed it would have the effect to raise our other bonds in market. There was another objection to this plan, which applied to the original bill, and that was as to impropriety of borrowing money to pay interest on borrowed money---that we are hereby paying compound interest. To this he would reply, that if it were a fact that our population and wealth were increasing in a ratio greater than the increased interest hereby incurred, then this was not a good objection. If our increasing means would justify us in deferring to a future time the resort to taxation, then we had better pay compound interest, than resort to taxation now. He was satisfied that, by a direct tax now, money enough could not be collected to pay our accruing interest. The bill proposed to provide in this way for interest not otherwise provided for. It was not intended to apply to those bonds, for the interest on which, a security had already been provided. He hoped the House would seriously consider the proposition. He had no pride in its success, as a measure of his own, but submitted it to the wisdom of