Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1862-03-06
Shan Rebel or Loyal Property be
ConfscatedP

Wa, publish the subjoined letter, with the
single remark that We do not agree with the {
writer's view of the difficulty Of collecting
the taxes necessary to meet the obligations
which the country has imposed on itself:
Correspondence Of the N. Evening Post
WASHINGTON, Feb. 81, 1862.
The public debt of the United States at
the end of the present fiscal year June,
1862, will be about $3.50, 600, 900. So said
Mr.. Fessenden, Chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee, in his able speech on
the Treasury Note bill. The average inter
est on this debt is a trife more than six per
cent. but say $45, 000, 900 per annun'. 1t
is estimated by the same eminent Senator
that the budget for all expenses, aside from
the increase of army and navy and interest
IN the public debt, will be about $40, 900, 900
per annum. a way is thus provided for the
disbursement of$ll5, 900, 900 annually, with
out counting for the enlargement of our
military and naval establishments, which,
for a year or two at least, cannot be less than
$50, 100000 per annum greater than they
rebellion. In point Of fact, the House had
just sent to the Senate a naval appropria-
ton bill of 500, 900, 900. 1t is safe to say
that the demands on the Treasury to be met
by taxation, direct and indirect, will not be
less than $l65. 900, 900 per annuin. IL we
take into account the losses to be entailed by
the issue Of Government shinplasters, in the
expulsion Of gold, and the increased cost of
everything the Government has to buy, this
SUN will be much larger. The tyros who
thought to obtain $780, 900, 1000 without in
terest, by the issue of Treasury notes, have
already found five per cent. shaved on their
issues before they are out of paper-mill and
the eugraver's shop. And it may be pre-
dicted with as much confidence as the next
eclipse, that no number Of victories by land
or sea can stay the rush of our specie to
Europe, or long prevent the steady depre-
citation Of the notes, if the mad scheme is
persisted in. F.7.. r
The most formidable problem for our
rulers to deal with is, how to raise $l65, 900
: 900 per annum. borrowing and "%kiting''
have their limit. The limit OF borrowing is
always reached sooner by a resort to xxi
: ting Than in any other way. When it is
proposed to raise Sl65, 900, 900 by taxation
9 in one form and another, we know Just
1 where we stand. One hundred and sixty-fye
millions of dollars are a concrete substance
provided they be not paper dollars) which
may be handled by the four rules of arith.
metic, distributed by the census table, and
apportioned to States, counties, and indi
viduals. The sum to be raised and paid in.
to the Federal Treasury by New York every
year will be $2l, 344, 042 50; by Pennsylva
y MIA, SIS, 985, OBS; by Ohio, ST., S67, 7s4 so,
' by Indiana, $7,430, IFS so; by Illinois
! 50, 4l4,641 SO; and the other States in tht
same cheerful ratio. Our Committee Of
i Ways and Means may conceal these item,
= never so deity; the money may come through
= channels the most invisible and inscrutabl,
the sums are so enormous, as compared
: with any former experience of the American
people, that the taxation will not only b.
] felt, bnt it will grind us all pretty fine befor,
! we finish paying the first assessment Whel
. we add to these aggregates all the Stat,
!, and Municipalt taxes required annually, whel
we reflect that the Federal tax is from fou
y to six times greater for each State than thoi
usual assessments heretofore, we can iudg
whether it will be raised by any other pro
cess than practical confiscation. Perhap
New England, New-York, Pennsylvania an,
j New Jersey may go through such a tax mi
with the breath of life remaining in them
but there is not another State, loyal or dis
d loyal, that can go half way through. Ikao,
that when a Federal land tax is added t
the State and County taxes in Wisconsin
10 Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and Missouvi, tn
o tax. gatherer will, in a vast number ofcases
I have to take the land itself, and / beliey
that n similar result will follow in many part
of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. And ye
the land tax is small part Of tho propose
revenue bill.
Shall Rebel or loyal property (ifthe phras
lie may be ~allowed) be contiscated to pay tn
cost of the war? One or the other must be
You must either levy upon and sell tn
RS property of patriots in Ohio, or traitors i
n Georgia; of armed Rebels in South Carolinl
or Union soldiers and their relatives in III
nois. The blow must fall either upon tn
~legions of the Northwest at Fort DOnelsor
r Or upon Buckner and his miscreants who's
very lives are forfeited both by the laws o
I: the United States and the laws of Kentuck,
u One would suppose that it were enough tbs
a the loyal States were compelled to pour OF
their best blood to put down the Rebellion
without being taxed to madne s afterwar
= to pay the expense attending the bloodshec
Almost every treaty following a ~cessatio
ny OF hestilities, in modern times, contain
H. stipulations concerning the expenses of tn
~ wal, measured generally by the ability O
-, one party OF the other to enforce tn
ali collection. Wheaton says that the right Q
confiscation must exist as q consequence O
ii war, because nearly all the land titles in I'll
v world rest upon it. n.rif.gif aluG.r- sp
W. The question recurs. and no sophistry ca
aae put it aside: Shall the $3.50, 900, 900 be Al
al sessed upon the loyal States or the Reb
States? Shall those who brought on ii
-. war, or those who were driven into it, fo'
Of the bills? Ifa man commits an unprovoke
y, assault and battery on me and | sue him, {
~ cause him to be prosecuted criminally, an
IT convict him before a jury, shsll the judl
/ saddle him or me with the costs? The rel
estate belonging to rebels, in the Glove
Rebel States which claim to have seeded
is valued at about 800. OOO. 900. In til
estimate one-third is deducted for loyal cit
Gems, real or pretended. The total ~valuatio
81 of the lands in those States is somethin
n over 81, 200, 600, 900, and if we do not yiel
to tho vociferation of such looms as Carli
re of Virginia, and at once receive back JEFF
m Davis, Mason, Sldell, Benjamin, Wigfal
" &c, in their vacant senatorial chairs, we ca
y without much difficulty pay the principle O
the whole national debt by the rightful cor
se ~iscation Of those lands, and by the gradu,
z sale of the same to northern aud Europea
p immigrants. B. triagH ualllle l41ol
e. If any other way can be shown for payin
N 1 " - 80