Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-07-17
The Democratic "AgOny Over
Taxes, q

The Democratic "AgOny Over
Taxes.c q
The ZdnesuiHe Courier of Saturday, has
the following, which has truth in it:
"The Democracy of late are possessed of
of the people. Their agony over taxes is
unutterable."
The agony of the people over taxes at the
present writing is unutterable, but they will
give utterance to their Indignation, in no
doubtful sound, at the polls in October
next.
They see the most wasteful extravaganza
and profligaey as things of every day &C.
currence. Taxes raised for one purpose
defiance of the letter and the spirit of the
Constitution, and they feel that the money
of the people is no longer safe in the hands
of men who regard their oath of office as
but made to be broken.
From the rapacious hands of the State
officials, even the funds raised to educate
the children of the State,are not safe. With
in the last few months, seventy-six thou
sand five hundred and eighty-six dollars
of this fund was distracted by the Fund
Commissioners of the State, and applied,
if applied at all, to a purpose wholly differ
ent from that for which it was raised by
taxation.
In like manner, eight hundred thousand
dollars were borroaoed, two winters since,
from the Soldiers Relief Fund, under
the pledge that it should be repaid. Last
winter the loan was made a perpetual one,
and the money was thus literally stolen, be-
cause It was taken not only without war
rant of Constitutional law, but in absolute
derogation of its plain letter and spirit.
This latter fund was raised by taxation
for the purpose of procuring food and
clothing for the necessitous families OF SOL
diers absent in the army, or whose protee-
tor had met soldiers death in the field,
leaving wife and children without means OF
support. At the time this fund was stolen
from these widows and orphans, there were
nearly six thousand families of soldiers
needing support (5,330 in seventy counties,
leaving twenty eight counties, Muskingum
among them, not reported), and with them
six hundred and seventy-two crippled SOL
diers with no means OF decent support ex-
cept from the fund raised by the people OF
Ohio, not as charity, but as debt due
the men who periled life and were reft OF
limbs in defense of the Union, or home,
as a common pauper, in the county infirm-
ary.
The editor of the Courier was. or profess
ed to be, soldier. He bore a commission
in the army and drew pay therefor, and
this pay, six or eight times as much as the
private soldiers, enabled him to lay by
money for rainy day. Will he justify this
barefaced robbery of the MANNED soldier,
and of the widows and orphans of those
who fell fighting or died from wounds in
Cured or disease contracted in the service
of the country? ..-..
To enable him to form an intelligent
opinion-if indeed such thing be possible
we will state that in the county of Perry
alone, there are, according to the Auditors
Report, two hundred and fifty-three of these
destitute families and twelve soldiers, un-
able to make living, who are swindled
by this misapplication of the Relief
Fund. In the county of Licking there
are l79 soldiers families in destitute
circumstances-in Guernsey 81; Coshoc-
ton I31, and in Morgan 80. Of soldiers
without families. unable to make living,
there are in Licking IA; Guernsey 8, and
Coshocton z, making in the counties which
surround Muskingum. where the Courier is
published, six hundred and five destitute
families and thirty-six destitute soldiers,
oil to be supported, in whole or in part,
from this Soldiers Relief Fund, requiring
sixty-seven thousand nine hundred and
twenty-five dollars, each year, to enable
them to sustain life without begging for
their daily bread.
How these poor unfortunates are now
supported is left to conjecture. During
the war, the men who sought to avoid the
draft, promised them protection. How
they have been protected by the party,
calling itself, par excellence, the soldiers
friend, will form dark page in the history
OF the country.
When the Democracy thus see the people
and the Treasury robbed and every promise
violated, and when they feel that the taxes
are hard to bear, and the money raised
theretrom misapplied, it is no wonder that
they eare possessed of an earnest yearning
regarding the pockets of the people," and
and that this ''agony over taxes" is great,
If not "unutterable."
The Indians why the War BE
gan.
The public mind in the United States,
for years has been engrossed with the ne
gro. His sufferings has been painted in the
strongest and most startling colors, and Sc
infatuated did the masses become that they
beheld, with unpardonable apathy, Con-
gress spending millions upon millions Of
dollars on the negroes in the South, while
the leaders of the negro party are incitine
the Indians to war tor the purpose of plum
dering them of their lands. There are now
1000 Indians engaged in active hostility
against the United States, and this war
Gen. GRANT does not hesitate to say, was
gotten up by spectators. and it Is con
Quoted on our part with even more of saw.
age barbarity than on the part of the say.
ages themselves.
In a recent document transmitted t,
Congress, Mr.. TAYLOR, Commissioner o
Indian Affairs, contends that Indian diff
culties arise mainly from the oppression
and unfair treatment of the In6ians b,
Government, and that the difficulties cal
be easily settled if proper moans arc usod
He says:
"From the facts before Inc. I conclud
we can have all we want from the Indian
without war, with entire security on al
our frontiers, and in all our territorial dc
mains, at cost of less than two days. eX
penses of the existing war to-wit quar-
ter of million of dollars, and in less thai
one hundred days.'
He then proceeds to point out how peac