The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1868-08-20

Certain Democratic journals have lately
labored hard to induce the belief that our
national expenses are enormous, that the
public debt is being increased instead Of
diminished, that taxation is more onerOus,
and that the Republican party, having
two-thirds majority in both Houses, is re-
sponsible therefor. In answer to certain
inquiries of the Hon. VIM. B. Allison Of
Iowa, Special Commissioner Wells has
written a letter, containing the following
specifications:
I That the national recei pts of revenue
from all sources, for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1868, were substantially $780,
300, ,0O0, and the aggregate expenses $751;
55O, ,225, of which SI4I, ,635,55I 13 was on
account Of interest on the public debt,
(nearly SIG, 900 of this being due main
ly to payments on account of accumulated
interest on the compound interest notes,
and which will appear in future interest
disbursements thus leaving an estimated
surplus of receipts over expenditures, for
the year ending June 80, of SS4, 749, ,777.
II. Since the war the amount of taxes
abated or repealed is $l67. .269, 900, and
coincident with this reduction the aggre-
gate of the national Indebtedness has been
reduced, $3.50, 600, ,OOO On this abatement
the reduction of the interest, calculated at
six per centum, would be fifteen millions
per annum.
III. The aggregate expenses Of the War
Department from April ], 1865, to June
80, 1868, were SSI7, ,O43 %, S647, ,6Ss, 900
(or IS per cent. of the whOle) being used
during the last nine months of 1865, in
paying off our troops and other necessary
war expenses. The balance, $3.50. 42S, ,9S7-
10, covers period of thirty months, aud
represents disbursements further cOntin-
gent upon the termination of the war, reg
ular expenses, the money used in the In
dian war, the payment Of bOunties, (S4O,-
3S2, $50 J payments for property destroyed
in the military service, (s1l ,OOO, ,OOO,) reim-
bursements Of State claims, (Sl0,3SO, ,000,)
river and harbor Improvements, fortiiea-
tiOns, Indians, Freedmen's Bureau, ex-
penses of reconstruction, etc.
". From April /, 1865, to June 80, 1868,
the expenditures of the navy department
were SII3, lis, ,2g6 81, and 45 per cent. Of
this, or $59, ,847, $50 So, were disbursed IN
the nine months succeeding the termina-
ton of war. The balance covers the regu-
lar expenses of the navy for thirty months
en- ding July 80, 1868, as well as the dis
bursements of prize money and for the
settlement of contracts made before the
war ended.
V. No department of the Government
has been so much abused by Gov. Sey-
mOur and Democratic orators generally as
the Freedmen's Bureau. They have not
failed to magnify threefOld the cost of that
institution. Mr.. Wells shows that since
Its organization in 1866 down to June 80,
1868, its expenses were only S5,617, 900.
This disposes of one-half of the false state
ments of these men. Ifit were possible
to find out how much Of this Roney was
spent to alleviate the sufferings of the
whites, the Democrats might be shamed
into stopping the other half Of their abuse.
Finally, the expenses contingent upon
the acts of Congress regulating reconstruc-
ton, have been $2,355, 200, which is also
far below the amount given by the Demo-
ocratie candidate for President and his fol-
lowers New York Tribune.