Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-06-29
COLUMBUS, O., MONDAY MORNING., JUNE 2e 1863

spend s123,s5s,49O this year? If sl7,5OO,-
you spend upon it $43,324,111 in 1866. and |
$3l,0340l1 in 1867? You have not cut |
down the numbers of the army. Did |
you waste money this year, or are your
statements for next year untrue? We ask |
Republicans to read the estimates for the |
future, for they show the proflgacy of the
past. Ii $5O0,000 900 of the money paid for |
military, naval and other expenses had
been used to pay the debt, to-day the credit |
of the United States would have been as |
good as that of Great Britain. This rapid
payment. and the proof it would have given |
of good faith, would have carried the ma
tional credit to the highest point. The
bonds would be worth much more in the
hands of holders, and yet the taxpayer
would seem better off, for the cost of Gov
ernment would be cut down as its credit
rose. We could put out new bonds, bear
ing less interest, which would not have the
odious exemption from taxation. Our debt
would have been less, our interest lower,
and our taxes reduced. The hours of labor
could be shortened. What now lengthens
the time of toll? If we were free from any
form of taxation, direct or indirect, six
hours of work would earn as much as ten
do now. One hour more of work ought to
meet a labOrer's share of the cost of the
Government, another hour should pay his
share of the national debt. He now works
two hours more each day than he ought.
to pay for the military and negro policy of
Congress and its corrupt schemes. 1t
has just passed a law that eight hours
make a days labor, while it piles up
a load of taxation which forces the
laborer 10 work ten hours or starve.
+, But the wise and honest use of
this $500, 100000 would not have stopped
here. When it carried our bonds to the
level of specie value. it would have carried
up our currency to the value OF specie. The
plan of making our currency as good as
gold by contracting its volume carries with
it great distress and suffering. But if we
lift up its value, by getting rid of the tant
upon the national credit, it harms no one,
it blesses all. Now our legal tender and
bank currency must be debased while our
national bonds stands discredited. They
must rise and fall together. They are all
based upon the national credit. Bank
notes cannot be worth more than the bonds
which secure them. If, then, the $500,OOO-
600 had been duly and honestly used to pay
our debt, to-day the taxpayers would have
been relieved, the mechanic, laborer and
pensioner would be paid in coin, or money
good as coin, and would not be cheated out
OF otone-quarter oftheir dues by false dollars.
The holders of bonds in savings banks or
life insurance would be better off, as their
securities would be safer and worth more.
There would be no question how they
should be paid, for this question grows
ont of the follies of those in power and
will disappear when they disappear from
the places they now hold. The bOndholder
would no longer stand in an odious light.
He would not be charged with the taxa
tion which has been used to hurt. not to
help, his claim. If Il wise, an honest use
of the public money would have done this
good in the past, it will do it in the future.
But the Republican party at Chicago,
lnrlrr .t-,
lutions, to keep up its negro policy. 1t is
impossible to give untutored Africans at
the South uncontrolled power over
the Government, the property, and laws OF
the people of ten States, by excluding
white votes. without military despotism.
You cannot give to three millions of ne
groes more Senators than are allowed to
fifteen millions of white men living in New
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indi-
ana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,
and Michigan, without keeping up great
standing armies. Without a general am
nesty, and the restoration of the suffrage
to all the whites in the South, a great
standing army must be permanent insti-
tuition. In order to curse the South
with military despotism, negro rule
and disorganized labor and indus
try, they cursed the farmers OF
the North with taxation, the me-
chanics with more hours of toll, the labor.
ers and pensioners with debased paper, the
merchant with a shifting standard, and the
public creditor with tainted and dishon-
ored national faith. Are these classes to
turn and to see how each can push the
burthens upon each other, or are they tC
make common cause and do away with the
curses of bad government? If the Re.
publican policy prevails, this struggle mus
begin. Either the laborer or the capitals
must go down. Both cannot live under it
and men must choose between. If, on the
other hand, the policy of selfish ambition
| and of sectional hate is put down, ou1
country will start upon a new course o
| prosperity, and all classes will reapin com
mon the fruits OF good government. Tn,
next election will turn upon this question
can the Congressional party succeed il
their efforts to excite and array the indus
trial and moneyed interests against eacl
! other, or will these unite and turn out tn,
authors of the mischief under which
they are all suffering? The only hop
of our opponents is discort
where there should be harmony and concer
of action. In our State, at the last election
we appealed to all classes to help us saw
| New York from misgovernment, and al
came up to the rescue, and we made
| change of seventy thousand. Let us agail
appeal to all classes of interests through
out tie Union; let us go before the peopl
with these facts, aud we will make
from their places. We say to the bond
holders and to the laborer who has put hi
money into savings bank: "We do no
wish to harm you, we do not seek to Civ
you bad money, but to geta good currenc.
for all. 1t will not help us to break dow
the credit of your bonds; it hurts us;
| keeps up our taxes by making us pay hig
| interest; but we ask you to help save us a
Taxpayers, from the cost of the negro ant
military policy at the South. 1t is hard TO
us to pay you If you let men in power tax
the money we give in taxes to reduce you
claims and use it to uphold military des
i potism. We see clearly that state OF a.
| fairs which will compel you to take de
based currency will force every laborer
farmer, mechanic, and creditor to take
| debased currency as well. If your claim
were all wiped out tomorrow by an issu
of greenbacks, it would not relieve til
fear of patriots: labor would still be cheat
would still be shifting. Taxation
would be kept up by the Reconstructed
policy. for it is despotism more than deb
that makes taxation so heavy. Nothing
would be settled. The Judiciary woul
still be trampled under foot, the EXecutiv
would still be manacled so that it could no
| punish crime or protect innocence. Blu
Strike down the Congressional policy, AM
all will be set right. Since the war close
| in 1865, the Government has spent for it
expenses, in addition to payments on prin
cipal or interest of the public debt, the sun
of more than $1.000,000000. OF this sun
there has been spent nearly $S00000,000 o.
the army and navy, and for military pur
poses. This is nearly one-third of the ia
tional debt. This was spent in the time O
peace. The cost of our navy before the wa
was about $4,000 600 each year. Since til
war, when our shipping has been swep
from the ocean by taxation, the averag
annual cost has been $30000,000, althoug
we have now no carrying trade TO protect
While money is thus wasted without scru
pie upon the army and navy, if any aid i