Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-07-18

whose ambitious designs have thus led them
almost upon the very brink of ruin. Thus
it always will be when any people wilfully
shut their eyes against argument and reason.
and listen no longer to the counsels of the wise
and the patriotic.
From the n. Y. Times, (BIack Republican, July sth
Confseation of Rebel Estates.
In estimating the cost of the war that the
National Government is now waging for its
own existence against most nefarious in
surrection, our people are sometimes startled
by the vast amount OF money needed, and
insidious traitors among us intrude the in
quiry, Is the reduction of the Southern hos
tility to the Government really worth the i'm
mense sum that viii be required? But the
loyal citizens of the country have not shrunk
from the task of suppressing the rebellion,
great as the task is, and although it may
cost four hundred or six hundred millions
of dollars, or even double these sums; and
they have not stopped to consider whether
the whole amount of the immense war debt
will have to be paid out of the property and
resources of the loyal States alone.
At this time, therefore, IL may be encour-
aging to the country to be reminded that by
the law and usage of nations 1t is entirely
legitimate to make the property of the citi-
gems of the rebel States, whose wiekedness
mas DEOfOhcu pay Tue WuOle QtUt
incurred by the Nation in restoring the
supremacy of the Constitution and laws.
That it will be just TO infiict a penalty on
treason, no one can deny; and the country
will demand the recognition of this principle,
partially, if not to its full extent, by a
special impost on the property of those trait
ors who have plunged the Government into
its present enormous OUTLAWS.
The debts incurred by the Confederate States
a So III,
volt, are clearly without law and void, and
will be so treated by all National Courts.
They will not, therefore, be charge npcn
the property of the people of the seeded
States when the Union is restored, or rather
when the National jurisdiction over them is
resumed. 1t will be within the ability, then,
of the disloyal States to make up to the Ma
tional Government the losses they have occa-
stoned it; and the very revenues they have
devised-the export duty on cotton, and the
direct taxes they will lay may be properly
diverted by the National Congress from the
support of treason to the eXtinguishment of
the Nations war debt. The export duty on
cotton will thus become permanent regula
ton of American commerce; and as the Eng
lish people, who are its chief purchasers,
have no fault to find with the imposition of
this duty by the rebels themselves, it is not
to be supposed that they will complain if it
of the National Government.
1t would not be at all amiss for the Nation
al Government. in the exercise of its rightful
power, to cOufi@cate the property of rebels,
to lay a special tax on that species of proper
ty in the seeded States that has, more than
any other, been the cause of the present civil
war. The rebellion was nominally inaugu-
rated for the protection of slave property. 1t
has practically destroyed it, The only safety
of slave property now lies in the restoration
of the Constitution and Union. 1t is most
fit, therefore, that the property that has
caused the rebellion should be specially tax
ed to pay the expense it has occasioned. And
| it can we'll afford to do so, in view of the
| fact that the money now expanding by the
Nation is the absolute salvation of the pro-
| perty in question.
Mr.. Secretary Chase very properly presents
| this whole subject to the consideration OF
| Congress, in his admirable report on the
| Treasury. He says that 1.-THE property OF
/ those engaged in instruction, or in giving
| aid and comfort to the insurgents, may prop
| erly be made to contribute to the expenditure
made necessary by their criminal misconduct
\ AS a part of the punishment due to the guilt
| of involving the Nation in the calamities OF
| civil war, and thereby bringing distress upon
so many innocent citizens, Congress may
| Justly provide for the forfeiture of the whole
| or a part of the estates of the offenders, and
for the payment OF the proceeds into the pub
| lie treasury"
| 1t is obviously the policy to confscate only
a part, and not the whole, of the estates o.
the masses of the people found in arms
| against the Government. The object is mo-
| 10 crush the Industry of the South, but to
| punish The leaders, to be sure, should have
| nothing left to them-perhaps not even their
mischievous lives; but the more innocent
people, who have been deceived into parti
| eipation OF their crimes, may be spared, t.
repent and redeem the country, by honest in
dustry, from the debt they have brOugh
upon it.
We hope Congress will not hesitate to pas
| suitable laws at once embodying the princi
pies herein embraced. II will strengthen
the loans proposed by the Government, t.
have it assured that they will rest upon th,
pledged wealth of the entire Union-ot thirty
four States, and thirty millions of people
And it will greatly cheer the loyal States
| and their citizens to know, by the enacted
laws and resolves of the American Congress
that the whole debt of S400. 100000 now Il
be incurred by the Government to suppress
treason, can and will be drawn ultimately
every dollar of it, from the property and in
dustry of those whose wicked acts have made
the expenditure necessary.