The Portland daily press., 1867-06-01
Cor RscatiOn.

Ohion State Committee
r.a., ,p,.J Conflscation.
% On one of the last DAYS of the last session of
Congress, Thaddeus Stevens called up bill
providing for system of wholesale confisca-
tion throughout the Southern States. Un-
mistakably sincere and determined, he pro-
ceeded in strain of sOmbre eloquence to ex-
plain and defend his proposition. 'yTo this is
sue,' he said, 81 desire to devote the small
remnant of my life." Unable through weak
ness and illness to so on with his speech to the
end, he was compelled to stop. The manu-
script was sent to the clerks desk and thence
readtOan unusually silent and attentive House.
The hour to which Mr.. Stevens was entitled
expired, but the House unanimously granted
time to complete the reading, At the conclu-
sion of the speech, Mr.. Stevens, perfectly
aware that his supporters in this matter were
but handful, himself moved to postpone fur
ther action till the second Tuesday in Decem-
Der. Ii people dream that the proposition has
been finally disposed of, Mr.. Stevens's recent
manfestoes ought to undeceive them. Listen
too, to the echoes at the anti-slavery meetings
in New York and Boston. This subject is
coming up for discussion; there is even a pos
sibility that with the help of the Democrats
MIR. Stevens may secure the assent of the
House; the sooner we understand precisely
what he means, the better we shall be prepared
for the controversy which has already begun.
MIR. Stevens proposes first to cOnfscate all
the public lands of the States constituting the
Confederacy; second, to seize ssrch of the
property belonging to the bellgerent enemy,
as is deemed forfeited by the act of July II,
1862" The act of July II, 1852, was an act of
war, authorizing the seizure and eoniscation of
the estate and property belonging to any
officer in the military or civil service of the
Confederate Government, or to any other per-
son aiding or abetting the rebellion after due
proclamation by the President. The Presi-
dents proclamation was made on the 25th of
July, 1862, and the war continued three years
longer. 1t is proposed now, after two years of
peace, to revive and put into execution this
measure. 1t is as If some unfuliilled order from
the War Department should be discovered and
forwarded-say to General Swayne, directing
him to burn Mobile. The lands thus seized,
Mr.. Stevens proposes to divide into homesteads
Of forty acres apiece, and to distribute them
among the freedmen. Upon the remainder of
the confscated property tax is to be assess
ed, sufficient to raise fifty dollars for the elec-
ton of buildings on each homestead lot, 200
millions to be invested a new pension fund
for the benefit of Northern soldiers, and 800
millions to pay the losses sustained by loyal
citizens at the hands of the Confederate
Government or its armies Ia,
1t is plain that here is an ingenious blending
or two instinct questions. The claims Of our
soldiers and their heirs to further assistance
and the claims of loyal citizens for losses
against which the Goverament failed to pro-
tect them, lie primarily against our own Gov
ernment After they have been ascertained
and allowed, the question arises how shall they
be paid Mr.. Stevens assumes to be in this
matter the champion of tine soldiers and of 9TH
er loyal sufferers by the war; "your tears" he
says, SLOW for pompous traitors, ours for maim-
ed, haltiag crippled patriots" This is Impress
i've, but unjust, Congress will not lightly re-
ject the claim of loyal citizens; but Congress
will reserve to itself the right to say from what
source the fund to pay those claims shall be
derived. ''
Take it, says Mr.. Stevens, from our enemies;
they danced; let them pay the piper. Specious,
it must be granted, is this suggestion; but full
of danger. Wholesale confiscation has never
been a prosperous policy. Mr.. Stevens men,
tions the examples of Greece, Macedonia, and
Rome; but did their colonies add any strength
to the parent state? Mr.. Stevens Goes not say,
but history mentions them as constant
source of weakness BE mentions also the re-
flo,x D,.k
the Sepoy mutiny, but he does not speak of the
wasting desolatiOn of famine which followed
that social overturning. He does not mention
ireland, where the policy of confscation has
been on trial for centuries. He does tell
us how the Gar of all the Russlas, when he
emaneipated the serfs, ordered their former
masters to give them the huts in which they
lived, and patch of land apiece; he forgets
that we live under President and not Czar.
1t is from the President. in fact, that Mr..
Stevens takes his cue. 'Treaso.i must be made
oiious," said Mr.. Johnson, "and traitors must
be punished and impoverished; their great
plantations must be seized and divided into
small portions, and sold to honest, industrious
men,, That was in 1864, while the war was
still raging. What might have been good poll
cy then, may not be good policy now. The
great plantations Will melt away rapidly
enough in the new order of things. The free
negroes will accumulate from year to year
more abundant means to buy land. The PLAN
ters, obliged tc raise money in order to put in
and gather and market their crops, will be
obliged to part with lot after lot, aad the laws
Of inheritance will accomplish a further sub
division. The new social system will supplant
the Old gradually and peacefully, as ths grass
grows over the rifle pits, or we can attempt to
force it suddenly and Extensively upon those
disorganzed communities in the form of a con-
fisca5ion act which will beget a universal feel
ing OF distrust, stimulate the decay;ng hostility
of the two races, and paralyzs the slowly re-
covering industry of the South The ve-y dis
cussion ofisueh a measure in Congress is to Re
deprecated, and we trust that by the second
Tuesday of December the House of Represen-
tatives will be prepared to vote it down at
once. B. 44.--Uoi' .tu g. trraflE