Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-07-31
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tudb party Sought Gne votes OF tne peOpie
in 1860, they obligated themselves to the
people, through resolutions of County,
State and National Conventions, through
speeches and editorials, that if they were
successful in the Presidential contest, there
should be peace and quiet throughout the
country that in no event would there be
war; that there should be economy, hon.
Iesty ana frugality in the administration of
public affairs; that for the interests of the
mass of the people they would care with the
vigilance of hawk.
We have said they are in the seventh year
of their rule.
How have they redeemed their obliga-
tions?
They beseech the people to entrust to
their care the Federal Government four
years longer.
Are they worthy such trust?
| They allowed the country to drift into an
Internal Civil War.
Their excuse is that they were forced into
it and could not avoid 1t.
Virtually, the Treasury is bankrupt, al
though the taxes exacted from the people
are exceedingly hard to be borne; and,
month by month, notwithstanding, the
Public Debt is increased, and gold worth
IA, with an upward tendency.
The Public Debt, they plead, was an un-
avoidable consequence of the War, and
that hence they should not be held to ac-
countability for it.
III ia in testimouv- (and Ieod;po Toopubl;
cans are the witnesses who have 30 testified),
that in the very first year or LNCoLN's ad-
ministration, which also covered the first
year of the War, somebody defrauded the
Government out of as great sum of mon
ey as it cost every Department of the Gov
ernment the last year under JAMES BUCH-
ANAN's administration, and in the years fol-
lowing, with eyes reverently turned heav-
onward and mumbling over the Union
ritual, officials, in the army aud out OF the
army, ran their arms into the Treasury
and stole thence with impunity, until hon.
est men, who were first astounded, became
dazed. E
This is why the Public Debt is SO enor-
nous, ard why taxes blight and paralyze
everything Industrial.
Speaking of the War, Senator MORTON, a
high authority in the Republican party,
in his Wednesday night speech, at Indian
apolis, said:
'Oh, who can describe the sorrow, the
suffering and the agony that has been
brought home to fathers, mothers, wives
and families! The world can never under
stand how muchprivate individual suffering
thnrQ hos hpQn In Mo
and count part of the graves. We can go
to the Treasury Department and tell pret-
ty nearly how much it has cost in money.
But the tears that have been shed, the suf-
fering that has taken place in the millions
of households. never can be understood or
comprehended."
Those who have thus suffered, could re-
alize happiness, and find motive to use
their influence to continue the Republican
party yet longer in power, were they as
sured these suferings and this agony were
not in vain.
The men who went forth to battle to
maintain the Constitution and enforce obe-
dience to law did their duty. They accom-
plished their purpose. They compelled the
Southern people to surrender their armed
hostility to the Federal Government.
That was over three years ago.
They handed over those people to the
civil authority to be dealt with in states
man like manner. Craftsmanship would
have conciliated those people would
have made them fast friends. In Septem-
ber, 1865, Governor MORTON, speaking of
the progress of restoration, said:
81 desire, in the first place, to remark
that to me the general condition of tkis
country is most promising and favorable.
81 know there are those who take gloomy
views of what is called the work of recon-
but to me the prospect seems
highly encouraging. The war terminated
and the submission on the part
of the people of the Southern States
has been more complete and sudden than
had expected" - s.-.-s4
Remember, this was in September, 1855,
that everything promised tavorably for a
pacifcation OF the South.
In December, 1865, General GRANT made
this report to the President, after first hav-
ing made tour through the South:
81 am satisfied that the mass of thinking
men of the South accept the present situa-
tion of affairs in good faith. The questions
which have heretofore divided the senti-
ments of the people of the two sections
slavery and State rights, or the right of
State to secede from the Union-they re-
gard as having been settled forever by the
highest tribunal-arms-that man can re-
sort to. / was pleased to learn from the
leading men whom 1 met that they not
only accepted the decision arrived at as
final, but that now the smoke of battle has
cleared away and time has been given
for reflection, that this decision has been
a fortunate one for the whole country, they
receiving the like benefits from it with those
who opposed them in the field and in the
cause.
"My observations lead me to the conclu-
sion that the citizens of the Southern
States are anxious to return to self-gov-
ernment within the Union as soon as pos
sible.
1t is to be regretted that there cannot be a
greater commingling at this time between
the citizens OF the two sections, and partic-
ularly of those intrusted with the law
making power"
General GRANT in his testimony before
the Impeachment committee, corroborated
this statement in these words:
II know that Immediately after the close
of the rebellion there was a very fine feel
ing manifested in the South, and I thought
zoe ought to take Advantage of it as soon as
possible"
This is the condition in which our SOL
diers had left affairs in the South-in a
s'very fine" condition, so far as the feeling
of the people was concerned.
Craftsmanship would have done what
General GRANT thought should have been
advantage" of that Every
fine feeling" "as sooD as possible"
Was this done? Has it been done? Let
Senator MORTON answer. In his Indian
apolis speech of Wednesday night, he says:
'tNineteen out of twenty of the white
people of the rebel States are hostile to the
of the United States. They are
hostile to those Governments we have
framed. They are full of hatred to the peo-
pie of the North"