The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-10-31
Coming Due.

The debt of the United States will have to be
provided for; and it is monstrous to suppose
that even such q Government as this can afford
| to pay seven, eight, or nine per cent. upon the
money it has borrowed. Surely it is the part
of wisdom to keep the debt from growing; and,
to see that if the total amount cannot be dimin-
ished. il. at all events, shall not be increased.
But there is no economy, or sagacity, in the
way in which the finances of this country are
managed and the debt that was created by
war is being strengthened and inflated by
peace.
The expenses ofregistration, under the mill
tary acts, are estimated at one million of dol
lars for the State of Arkansas alone. If the
other Southern States require money in the
same proportion, the total cost of registration
will be fifteen millions, or more. And the cleo
| tions, which heretofore have not cost the Fede-
raj Government single dollar, will now add
about FIVE millions to the list; so that the ex-
penses of registration and elections will be
over twenty millions Then there are the
troops which Congress has made it necessary
to retain in the South. They must be fed and
clothed, and paid and they cost about forty
FIVE millions. Besides these, there is the
Freedmen's Bureau, which costs initself a mil
lion year, and brings the grand total of e1-
penditure, for reconstruction, to the startling
amount of one hundred and thirty millions.
This is the cost of one years legislation it
is the premium paid by the whole people to
enable gang of reckless schemers to carry
out their revolutionary and suicidal plans.
There is no present chance of the expenditures
being diminished. Floating capital is wanted
| for .lectioneeing, plotting contriving and the
distribution of illustrated circulars; and, while
| the Treasury can be squeezed upon any pre-
tence, the private, pc ocular, republican purse
is becoming rotund. The longer the South is
held back and crushed down, the worse will
be the condition of the North. These men who
have been tinkering with the finances of the
United States for the last FIVE years. have but
one general principle-to rob Peter to pay
Paul They will not confess their careless
ness, and diliatory behavior; their confusion
of e1pediency and plain right; yet they know
not how to lay the demon they have con-
jured up.
If the country were once reunited, upon
these broad principles which sustained the
whole fabric Of Federal rule, then there would
be hope of reasonable change. AS it is, the
career seems to be from bad to worse; while
experience gives these amateur fnanciers
neither sense nor judgment. They will not
hearken to counsel; and, in their hate or indif-
ference, will let the whole monetary system
fall into hopeless confusion. They have no
knowledge of their sin, and will not seek in
formation from others. They will stand or fall
alone and insist upon being blind to the fact
that a reunion of the whole country would do
more for security, credit, and the contraction
of debt, than will, or can be done, by all the
Jay Cookies, Government Treasurers, and FL
nance Secretaries in Christendom.