The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-10-30
why a Change Is Needed.

|
The National debt Is now twenty-siz
hundred millions of dollars. Lee surren
dered on the 9th day Of April, 1865; the
National debt on that day was twenty-three
hundred and sixty millions. l
In three years of peace the debt has in.
creased two hundred thirty-three millions
The people have paid into the Treasury
in those three years, fifteen hundred and
twenty millions. In 1865, 1851 ,572 900
in 1866, $500, 634, 900, and in 1867, SAIL
100000. 49,
| The official statements show that in the
last two months the debt has increased 3d.
25S, 693. ..., -....
All of this money came from the earnings
of the people, and should have been applied
to paying the debt; for it is a mortgage
upon all our property, and encumbers and
! Expresses us in our business.
Every article that enters into our daily
use and consumption is taxed to raise the
money. The poor mans tea pays twenty
| five cents in gold his sugar, four cents
his coffee, five cents; the leather out of
which his shoes are made, the matches with
which he lights his fire the shovel, the pick,
the pillow and the harrow, all bear their
share of these taxes, and all these increase
the cost of living. ..t
The system of taxation is more severe on
the poor than the rich-for the necessities
of a man (and not his property are taxed,
SO that poor man with family of six,
pays three times as much tax as the rich
man with family of two. b..
In the year ending June 80, 1868, four
hundred and seventy millions of dollars
were taken from the comforts and necessi-
ties of the daily lives of the people, and
were put into the Treasury of the nation.
There are thirty millions of people in
the Union, and this is more than fourteen
dollars for each man, woman and child.
This is mainly paid in buying what we
eat, drink and wear.
About eight days work are now required
from the laboring man to buy barrel of
flour, while in 1860 four days work would
buy as good one.
One days work now will only buy five
pounds of coffee, while in 1850 it would
buy twelve pounds. '.t ..,<.:f
The farmer, the mechanic and the mer-
chant, find their profits all spent in the in
creased cost of living; in the large taxes
imposed for state, county, municipal and
Of clothing, of labor hired, and of taxes
upon income, and they have nothing left.
n Increase Of the debt means increased
hours of labor, increased taxes, and in
creased privations to the mass of the peo-
pie. - ,-. ........ ..'
The radicals have wasted your money,
and ought to be turned out.
The Reconstruction of the south, with the
negro above the white man, prevents
prosperity there. The enormous taxes we
pay 60 to maintain the army and the
Freedmen's Bureau in the south for this
purpose. Instead of US paying over 100
millions each year to do this, the south
ought to be put to work to earn 300 mil
lions to help US to pay the debt and the
taxes. -. .. -
Take away the army and the bureau, and
give the white man as good chance as the
the negro, and it will be done.
They cannot buy our iron, cotton and
wooden manufactures as long as we persist
In keeping them poor. Put them to work
to develop their resources, and allow them
to aid in governing themselves, and we
will relieve ourselves from grievous bur-
then.
The radicals have put the negro above
the white man, and ought to be turned
out. --..
The exemption of bonds from taxation is
unjust and oppressive. The poor man who
ownes house and lot, has no right to be
taxed to protect the property and educate
the children of the rich man, who pays
none, because his property is all in United
States bonds
The radicals made this system, and de-
fend it, and they ought to be turned out
A greenback dollar is now worth about
sixty-eight cents in gold. There are six
teen hundred millions offive-twenty bonds,
which the bondholders want paid in gold,
but which the law promised to pay in
greenbacks. We now pay them one hun
dred and thirty millions in gold interest
every year, and we find this grievous load.
The debt bearing gold interest has increas-
ed sixty-seven and half millions in the
last two months. This has added four
millions to our burthens. If the principal
OF the ive-twenties be paid in gold, it. will
add eight hundred millions of dollars to
the value of the claim they make, and this
terrible debt will crush the energies of the
people. They paid greenbacks for the
bonds at fifty cents on the dollar, and the
contract was they were to take the same
in pay.
The radicals are for paying the bond
holder in gold, and ought to be turned
out
Reduce the enormous, useless and cor
rupt expenses of the Government, and thus
dispense with taxation, and leave the mon
ey with the people. Pay the debt as rapid
ly as possible; remove the curse of negroism
in the south, and let the white man govern
himself and help us pay our debt; tax the
people equally and reduce taxation; reduce
the amount of interest we must pay by
paying part of the debt in greenbacks; re-
store the Union and obey the Constitution.
Pursue this policy and business will bright
en-, our national troubles will be over, our
credit will be at par, and specie currency
The radicals refuse to do this and ought
to be turned out.
The debt must be paid, but we must
commence it now or it will never be paid;
the people in power have learned to be ex-
travagant, and cannot quit it if they wish
ed to; change can make it no worse; a
change will reduce taxation and ensure the
of the debt.
Let us go for a change and turn the rad
icals out.
THE VALUE OF ADvERTIsINe.-The val
r i