Natchitoches spectator., 1868-02-06
The Cs.rsney

tracts from an able and exhaustive
speech made by the Hon. ID. Barnes,
M. c., of New York. He reminds Con-
gress of the suicidal course which it has
thus far pursued, and warns it of the
dangers which are ahead if wiser
course be not adopted. We quote
| What, then, Mr. Chairman, are the
measures requisite to produce this great
national necessity9 Need / say, first
Uuion2 War has ceased for two years
and a half, and courts of Justice are re-
established in all the States. Guaran-
| tees against future rebellion were ac-
knowIedged in the stripes which the
people of the South have borne, and in
the furrows of desolation which the
plowshare of war has left throughout
the length and breadth of this once fair
land. And yet they are without local
| governments and without representa-
tion on the floors of Congress Their
State constitutions are being so framed
as to place the control of property in
! the bands Of ignorance, inexperience
and poverty. BOndholders see in this
the seeds of chronic decay. They see
the future agrarian Interests of those
who do not own but who controle the
| property of that section of country.
They foresee how property will be taxed
| for the benefit of the ruling faction !;
how that class will exempt them
selves from penalties how vice is en-
gendered how want is created, which,
finally justified by necessity, will
confiscate the property and attack the
liberty of the property classes. They
see how immigration and capital will
refuse TO locate or remain there how
| improvements languishes, industry is
nff tod
and how impossible it will be for the
Ipeople to contribute to national taxa
tion. They see the people dispirited,
yet compelled to support freedmen's bu-
reaus and military commandants. They
see how a sectional Congress imposing
large burdens upon them, destroys what
remains Of their once great staple crops,
and subjects them to taxation without
representation. They behold the cot
| ton culture tranferred to the Nile, the
Euphrates and the Ganges by Il tax of
twenty-five per cent, on its present val
ne, and the sugar culture almost annihi-
lated; they calculate the effect of un-
restricted franchise upon bonds, and
ask if sometime in adversely the people
may not refuse to pay the enormous
taxes they are now compelled to, while
not one il hundred of the voters have
any direct interest in their payment.
| The answer to these questions is vet III
the future. To Representatives in the
Fortieth Congress of the United States
has fallen the duty of answering them.
If we do our duty like men, knowing no
North, and no South, but only one coun-
try of mutual interest, the unwritten
| history of this nation may yet be bright,
and we be entitled to an honorable
name But if the sectional suicidal
| ~ ~ l,
this body no man can depict the hor-
pauperism and property, an agrarian
war, may infiict upon us.
Three and balf million of dollars
| loaned to the State OF Louisiana, Mis-
Sissippi, and Arkansas would repair the
river levees, and save from annual over
! flow twenty-five millions two hundred
! and eight thousand acres OF the richest
allnvial soil upon the surface of the
earth. This land, if reclaimed, is capa-
Bile of producing vast wealth, which,
intermingled and multiplied i'll the eX-
changes of the country, wOuld leave its
items of revenue TO the Government aIlti
repay the outlay a hundred fold. THIS
small favor has been asked, not foi"tht
people of a State, but for the nation,
for two years, and yet have we sat down
supinelY TO see the crops tetlfat fertile
territory drowned out with each return
ing season, the stock perish, and thI
people made TO fee for their lives.
The sugar crop of Louisiana for 1866
was 4I9, 900 hogsheads; for 1866 it was
only 80, 700 and there are to-day in that
whole section but three hundred and
forty sugar plantations, large and
small. Can revenue be derived from
this source?
The cotton crop of the United States
was 1876, GEO bales in 1860; in 1866 il
was LOO, 600 bales, and yet this House
still insists in destroying what Is left 10y
retaining an oppressive tax and discour
iaging the planting of new crop
American cotton furnished fOur-lifths O
the total supply. Can bondhOlders have
confidence i'll such suicidal legislation as
we furnish them ?
a political reconstruction of those
States would not only have supplied
them with the results of superior crops
but with immigration, with capital, and
with credit, which they so much need
This cause alone would have reduced tbs
premium on gold for the past two year:
fully one-balf-which would have beer
fifteen ner cent. on the revenues of tho
- Co. mn