Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-08-24
From the New York Worldl .
PIunder in the Garb OF Patriot

PIunder in the Garb of PatriOt.
" ism. '.l"
The Republican State Convention in
Pennsylvania, summoning cupidity to the
aid of fanaticism, resolved, last week, that
all properties in the Southern States eX-
ceeding $4,000 ought to be confiscated, and
the proceeds used to pay the pensions of
Union soldiers crippled in the late war.
The patriotic disposition proposed to be
made of Southern property is an artful mask
for gigantic scheme. OF private plunder.
If this project should find favor with the
President, little of the money would ever
get into the pockets of pensioned soldiers.
The property proposed to be confiscated
consists mostly of real estate; and whether
disposed of by private sale or public auc-
tion, it would pass into the clutches of
greedy spectators, for tritling part of Its
value. 1t would not be purchased by South
erners, who have no means of payment;
nor by Northern emigrants, who would not
expect quiet possession in such communi-
ty as the South is described to be; but by
the crafty sons of avarice who engineer
through political conventions such resolu-
tions as this, and put forth such calumnious
representations of the temper OF the South
as are calculated to frighten away peace
loving purchasers for actual settlement.
foot for still further enriching the shoddy-
ties and cormorants who battened on the
war. Their greed has grown by what it
fed on. Now that there are no more con-
tracts for arms, shoes, blankets, uniforms,
etc. they seek ''fresh fields and pastures
new," in buying up, dog-cheap, the contis-
Gated estates of our late enemies The sue
cess of their shoddy enterprises has given
them means to invest; the certificates of
Indebtedness by which the treasury is oblig-
ed to meet their balances could be utilized
in making their payments; while the vast
amount of the confscated property, the
absence of Southern purchasers, and the
means taken to frighten away settlers from
the North, exclude competition and give
tlris host of cOrmorants the best part of the
property of the South at their own price.
We appeal to honest men to block
this dishonest scheme. We warn the sim
pie minded not to be bubbled by the hypo-
critical affectation of interest in our wound
ed soldiers resorted to for screening the mo-
tives of these plunderers. The scoundrels
who cheated the soldiers by furnishing
, worthless shoes, which caused many a
march with bare and bloody feet, who sup
piled them with shoddy uniforms and blank
cts, which dropped to pieces as soon as
worn-these precious hypocrites are fine
set of fellows to be prating about the well
fare of the soldiers. COntiscation or no
confscation, the soldiers will be paid their
pensions; and as question Of relief to the
treasury, conflscation would cost ten dollars
for every one it would bring in. In the first
place, all competition being excluded, these
scoundrelly harpies would get the property
for next to nothing; in the second place, the
property, lying idle in their hands for seve-
raj years, would produce no taxable. in
comes; and in the third place, the eXasper-
alton caused by such measure would keep
the South so unquiet that it would cost a
hundred times as much to pay the soldiers
to preserve order as to pay all the pensions.
There is no economy in this scheme, only
plunder. s.. .A ho.,y } 9l'
There is danger that this great iniquity
will succeed. If it stood alone, without re-
Inducements, exposure would blight it in
the bud; but revenge, fanaticism, false phi
lanthropy, party passions, sectional hatred,
and unhallowed ambition are its allies. A
powerful faction-perhaps majority-ot
the Republican partya are bent upon break
ing down the Presidents plan of recon-
struction, They despair of dissuadiug him
by argument or pressure, and of late
have set themselves at work to cause his
plan to miscarry by calumniating, and doing
y their best to exasperate the South. Never did
great war leave subdued people so sub
missive; not guerrilla in the whole broad
extent of wooded country 7abounding
in mountain Businesses and other coverts-
not ia general, among all those engaged in the
rebellion, whose voice was still for war-not
a man of influence, nor man without influ-
ence, In the whole South who counseled
anything but manly acquiescence and fnak-
ing the best of what could not be helped
Nha 1atn nf hn ,Ip,ic fn,.I
ed free scope for magnanimity. A gener-
GUS and forgiping policy seemed so osuitable
to the circumstances, that the plunderers
and fanatics found Unnecessary to their pur-
poses to make 1t appear that the secession
fires were only smothered and are ready to
burst out anew. ByinsistingOn negro suf-
frage, by yinsisting on confiseation, by mis-
representing the motives and calumniating
the character of the South, they are taking
the surest steps to provoke resentment,
even if there were no old wounds which II
required time to heal.l 10 gailea. AaJ 90 sr
" If the South can be, provoked into q loss
of temper, the gang of plunderers and the
party Of pseudo -philanthropists will alike
profit by it. President Johnson's recon-
struction experiment would be frustrated
without the trouble OF converting him to
the faith in negro suffrage, and new pre-
text would be established for vengeance
and confiscation. The temper in which
the allied plunderers and fanatics intend to
treat the South is Swallowed, forth in this
language of the Pennsylvania Convention:
% 8 That the mild and generous method OF
reconstruction offered by. the President to
| the people lately In rebellion, in the judg-
ment OF, this convention, has not been ac-
cepted in the spirit of honest loyalty and
gratitude; but with such evidence Of def
| ance and hostility as to impel us to the con-
viction that they cannot safely be iatrysted ,ci
| the political rights which they forfeited by
their treason until they have proven their
operation in constitutional provisions, and