Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-09-27

than an impotent, helpless creature, with
out civil wisdom or military skill, without
consciousness of any but his servility to
it, bloated with pride and arrogance and
calling for battles sohtch he is not to .fght."
," STATE LEGISLATION. U obs
But the people of the State have paid
other and onerous burdens which really
constitute the State expenses. They have
paid $4,000,000 for bounties to volunteers
to I'LL the draft. 1t cost $6,000,000 to Or
ganize and equip and sustain the standing
army in the State called the National
Guards. And to aggravate the public eX-
pense 100000 persons liable to military
duty, exclusive of the Guards, were re-
quired to pay. in 1854, 100000, and in
lS64-5, $S00,000 military Communication poll
tax. Although the authorities refused to
further increase the National Guards, dis
banded companies already formed, and did
not need the military services Of the peo-
pie, they were taxed for not performing
forbidden duty. The system of military
duty which repealed the enemy at Cincin-
natl was not scientific, and the new system
cost the people not less than $S,000,000.
The legislation of Ohio in form, and dicta-
torially by her authorities, manifests q
scene of abandoned recklessness, which can
be accounted for, only upon the theory
that representative agency has become
drunken and besotted. Each days legisla-
tion costs the people at least 100000, three
months yearly costs $4,000, four years,
$lS0000. The legislation of this four years,
with trifling exceptions, and if noVested
rights had attached, might, with propriety,
be swept away at once. One half of the
time consumed has been employed in par
tisan trickery and buncombe. Trifling
questions have employed the whole energy
of the statesmen of the Legislature. Milk
bills and bird bills and cattle running at
large, and vile Instructions to Congress,
and rancorous and defaming resolutions
iand propositions have absorbed their at
tention. us. ... I'D. ..a....t b.. ..,...s.. .
But such frauds as that of the Ohio and
Pennsylvania canal, worth 100000, handed
over to Tod, and a portion of the Ohio
canal owned by the State and constructed
by the people, and worth $2,000000, donated
to the city of Cincinnati, have been diSre-
garded under circumstances that looked
like positive bribery. Nothing but sub
stitution of those who have not mingled in
the licentious extravaganza of the war, as
the agents of the people, will remedy these
evils.
The people have already paid and lost not
less than $2,000,000, by this Legislation OF
Jnc OJaLe lOT Lle last lOur years. Anu Dy
the time the whole expense of the war is
| gathered up the State debt will not be less
than $25,000,000, and the yearly interest
$1,500,000, by the 1st of October, 1866
Add this to the National liability, and the
whole debt which inevitably falls upon the
people of the State will not be short of
$400000000 principal and $2l.500.000 inter-
est, and taxes exclusive of this, $l5.500000,
so that the yearly tax, in fact is $37, 900,
and this is now the amount paid by thepeo-
pie of the State yearly to State and Nation
al authorities, and will so continue from
year to year, and the principal of $400,000,
600 will remain unpaid forever. Or if it
should be attempted to collect it, its pay
ment requires $1,000 of every man, wo-
man and child in Ohio. The total value of
the property in Ohio is $l,006,696, ll6, so
that all the property of the State is mort
| gagged to almost One-half its value to pay
this enormous debt. Horace Greeley, the
chief disunionist of the North, truly says :
"The war has saddled us with debt that
will take bread from the mouth of every
laboring mans child for generations and
send millions hungry to bed" The people
should not forget, also, that to collect the
taxes and revenues large amount will be
consumed in tolling itout for salaries and
agents before it is applied to the purpose for
which it is raised, and that If they keep
the cormorants in power who have already
robbed them, one-half of all the taxes and
revenues will never reach the Treasury.
CONCLUSION To-MoRRow.]