Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1867-09-05
MASS MEETING
A.
Our Debt and Taxati0n-The
Facts as thew Are.

oSSo 90 tAOy NV
Our national debt and taxes are
heavier to-day than they have been
at any period Of our history. Thus
far the Democratic party are right,
and we have no desire to controvert
the truth. Our aim at all times is to
give the people the facts as they are.
But when the Democratic party GO
further, and charge the responsible
ty of this debt and these taxes upon
the Union party, and allege that it
has arisen out of our extravaganza
and corruption, then we must most
emphatically dissent from them, be-
cause they assert that which is not
true. We have a national debt, be-
cause we have had rebellion and a
civil war. And we had war and re-
bellion, because the Democratic
party encouraged the South to be-
lieve that the North would submit to
peaceable secession. Prominent
rebels everywhere throughout the
South, now that the war is over,
have again and again declared, that
they went into the war with the ex-
pectation and express promise of
assistance from the Democracy of
the North. Without it they never
would have attempted secession
These are the plain facts in the case,
facts which have become matter of
history and are now beyond contro-
versy. The Democratic party stand
convicted as the cause of which the
national debt and our present high
taxes are the legitimate effect. We
admit, with them, that our taxation
is heavy, but we place the RESPONSE
biiity for that taxation where it be-
longs, upon those men who encour-
aged the South to rebel, and made
the creation of a national debt in the
suppression of that rebellion a ne
cessity.
And not only was the Democratic
party responsible for that debt in its
incipiency, but by the course they
pursued during the war they added
largely to its amount. There can
be no question that the rebellion
would have been suppressed at a
much earlier day than it was, if the
Democratic party at the North had
come up promptly to the support of
the government. The obstacles
thrown in the way of the govern
ment by Northern Copperheads and
peacemen, by discouraging enlist
ments in the army, by resisting the
enforcement of the draft, by de-
nouncing the war and the admins
tration, by repeated and renewed as
surances of aid to the South, by a
counter-rebellion at the North, these
gave life and strength to the rebel
lion long after it had lost all vitality
at home, negatived the effect of our
victories, prolonged the war and
thus increased our debt to double the
amount it otherwise would haye
reached. They also are the same
men who cried down the govern
ment loans when they were upon the
market, denounced greenbacks as
worthless, advised the people not to
invest in government bonds, and did
all within their power to impair the
credit of the nation both at home
and abroad. Their elamor sent gold
up, and the bonds and currency of
the United States down, and thus
brought about condition of things
that forced the government to bor-
row money at far higher rates of in
terest than it otherwise would have
been compelled to do. Thus they
added to the national debt. That
has been from its commencement a
creature of Democratic growth.
They cannot now deny their own
offspring. True, Congress of loyal
men voted the appropriations, but
the treason and disloYalty of the
Democratic party made those appro-