The Placer herald., 1864-05-28
Soldiers on the War.

General Geo. w. Morgan, whose command
at Cumberland Gap, in Tennessee, was left
without provisions or other supplies and
who, rather than surrender, blew up the fort.
and with his brigade fought his way through
the mountains to the Ohio River, subsistinp
on green corn during a forced march Of
eighteen days-who fought in Shermans ill.,
fated attack on Vicksburg, finding that the
war was perverted to other purposes than
those set forth at its beginning, on the occa-
sion of a late Democratic meeting in Mount
Vernon, Ohio, made speech, an extract
from which we give below
Mr. President and FeIoaD. .citizens:-T
annals of the world do not record the hsl
tory Of political contest so full of momen-
tous consequences as the one we are about to
enter upon. Our great Republic is in immil
nent peril; the Constitution has been crushed
beneath the armed heel of President Lin
coin; and the war commenced to preserve
the Constitution and the Union, has been
made the wicked pretext Of an attempt to
destroy both.
Regardless of the advice of his constitu
tional advisers; pitiess to the wall of death
which rises like drge from bighed frel
sides; remorseless as to the million dead of
our heroic armies, whose bleached bones. if
gathered together, would form pyramid
whose summit would be lost among the
clouds; Indifferent to the stupendous debt.
which in another year will be equal TO the
assessed value of all the real estate, and all
the personal property of all the States, and
all the Territories from Nova Scotia to the
Rio Grande and from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, Mr. Lincoln in his car of Juggernaut
rolls on, crushing States and commonwealths
and populations as he moves forward in bis
path Of desolation.
My friends, this is no idle dream: no sketch
Of fancy; but a stern and dread reality. II
the war continues, the liqudated national
debt will, at a low estimate, amount to two
thousand five hundred millions dol. ars by the
3Oth Of June, 1865. Not one of you can
measure in your minds the size of that mon
strous debt. When you think of it, it is
like trying to fathom eternity. But what
will you say when tell you that the debt of
twenty-five lnndred million dollars will only
be the liqudated, that is the settled debt of
the nation. while there will be An outstand
ing debt of ten thousand million dollars.
which, added to the liquidated debt, will
make an aggregate of twelve thousand five
hundred million dollars. Twelve thousand
five hundred million dollars.
But how will you estimate, how can you
understand what that sum means? will
tell you. Turn to page l94 Of the Prelim-
mary Report on the Eighth Census and you
will there find that the assessed value of all
;he real estate and personal property in all
the States and all the Territories, amounted
in 1860 to twelve thousand and eighty four
million six hundred and forty thousand and
five dollars. From which it follows that if
the war continues until June 80, 1865 and
if on that day all the lands and all the per-
sonal property in all the States aud all the
Territories, including all you own, all your
houses and all your lands, all your stock and
all your grain were sold, we would still be in
debt four hundred and twentysix million
dollars