The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-11
sl7s,7I9,7S9
REoAPITULATIoN.
S54s,979 536
e12, 996,27S
17S,743,769

RECAPTTULATION,
Internal Revenue. sl2' 'a9e,278
Miscellaneous l7S,743,769
The above total therefore represents the exact
amount which the Treasury of the United States
has received from sources other than loans since
the close OF the war.
WHAT BECOMES OF TEE MONEY?
And now we come to the main question. In
what manner has this sum of money amounting
TO three-htths the present amount of the public
debt been disposed Off This is question which
the people have right to ask, and which pro-
pose to answer-to ans wer in the most simple
and straightforward manner, and in q manner
which can be verified by any man who will take
the pains to examine the finance reports of the
last three years, issued by Hon. Hugh McCul-
loeb, Secretary of the Treasury. Although
active hostilities virtually ended with the sur
render of the great Rebel armies in April, 1865,
the expenses OF the war did not and OF necessity
could not cease at once. The military aud
naval forces were at that time in state OF the
greatest efficiency. In number they approx-
mated TO million of men in active service, and
preparations had been made for prosecuting the
war at all points with the greatest energy during
the ensuing season.
WAR EXPENSES AFTER THE WAR.
1t was obviously impossible for the Govern
ment 10 say 10 Its million OF soldiers and sailors
the moment the Rebels laid down their arms
Go! we have no further use for you! To the
sick, wounded, and disabled care OF your
selves To the owners OF half constructed
vessels, and to those who had contracted in
good faith to supply food clothing and ordnance
we repudiate our contracts and refuse your
supplies No; all these matters were to be set
tied upon principles of justice, honor and hu.
maDity; but to accomplish such result the
treasury found itself in position of embarrass-
ment and danger which few either knew or ap-
preciated. The credit of the Government had
become greatly impaired, the 3-lO loan was
selling at less than par even in currency, and all
other means adopted for raising money during
the preceding year had proved or were then
proving comparative failures. There were in
April, 1866, accounts passed for payment-aEd
oyerdue-to the extent of over Que hundred aud
twenty millions of dollars, while all the avail.
able cash funds, coin, and currency, which the
Government could then command was less, all
told, than seventeen millions of dollars.
OUR CREDIT Low.
Treasury vouchers, issued for supplies to the
army and navy, were being sold with difficulty
by their holders at from ten to twenty per cent.
discount, the pay OF the army itself was and had
for months been largely in arrears. Horatio
Seymour and other rich Democrats were then
refusing, as they bad always refused, to sub.
scribe for or to hold the bonds of the United
States. In short, the Treasury was so near to
absolute bankruptcy that the old officials, to
whom almost alone these facts were known,
dreaded the collapse which they feared might
come at any day. But fortunately the system
of internal revenue, the establishment of which
had been only too long delayed was beginning
to prove effective, aud the receipts from this
source and from the renewal of subscriptions to
the 7'30 loan t1oed the Treasury over a most
critical period. The inevitable result was how
ever, that large payments, the liability for
which actually existed during the time, and
which were properly part and parcel OF the ex-
peuses OF active war, were carried over into the
year succeeding the war, and were then largely
paid from the enormous receipts of revenue of
that year.
BACK PAY OF TROOPS.
This liability for back pay, for the pay of the
troops to the date Of their possible discharge
Tor their transportation, and for the settlement
United States the 1st of April or on the lst of
August 1865, as much as if it had all been settled
and the bonds issued and entered upon the books
of the Treasury Department These disburse-
ments, under the direction of the War Depart
ment, from the lst of April. 1865, to the 30th of
June, 1866, period OF only fifteen months, were
July to September 80 1865 165, 369,2s7
October to December 81, 1865 68, 1872, SAL
January l, 1866, to June 80, 1866 5O,S57,923
During the same period the eypenJItn1Ves UeGU1Tes
made under the direction otth Navy Department
April /, 1865, to December 81, 1866 $5s, s,S47, $3.50
January l, 1866, TO June 80, 1866 H. 46l SS4
Total Is months .S76, ,773
1t thus appears that the disbursements made
under the direction of the Army and Navy De-
partment during the fifteen months Immediately
succeeding April l, 1865 the month in which
the Rebel armies surrendered, amounted to
$774,S65,S5l.
We OWED THIS IN APRIL, 1865.
1t is estimated that very large proportion of
this sum, not less than $400,00O,000, was on
account of expenses incurred and accounts
rendered from three to twelve months prior to
the termination of active hostilities, and which
had been allowed by the Treasury to remain
unliqudated, simply by reason OF great financial
mainly of the following items:-
Pay OF the army Is months. $206, 600, 900
Commissary and Quartermaster's
Department for Subsistence and
transportation, about 60,000,000
Medical and Hospital Department l7,337,0 900
Arrears OF pay OF discharged or de-
ceased soldiers l6,1s9, 900
Bounties :. l0,429,000
ment 3,s75,O72
in accordance with the facts, to assume that
this large expenditure OF nearly eight hundred
million dollars from April !, 1861 to June 30,
1866, was in every sense war expenditure, and
that it was liability on the lst of August 1855,
the date on which our debt appeared to be at it's
maximum by the Treasury books, as much as if
7 $40 notes or 500 bonds had been issued and
entered upon the ledger; and this expenditure
is to be m easured and estimated by the same
standards as those by which the expenditures of
necessary and unavoidable on the one hand, or
unnecessary and ineXpedlent on the other,
THIS IS NOT ALL.
But the liability which existed at that date
was even more. There were the debts which
humanity and honor alike have imposed upon
the country, and which Congress has recognised
and paid. We were then liable for pensions, for
the equalization OF bounties, for further arrears
of pay of deceased soldiers, for the claims of
States, for the property of loyal men destroyed,