Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-12-17
Belmont Chronicle
sT. GAINESVILLE, OHIO:

TnunsDAy MORNING, DEC. Il, 1865.
All communications for the paper, or upon busi-
ness relating TO the ofhce, should be address
ed q Belaonf ohronicie, 81 CIGirsviIIe. Ohio.
EXTRACTS FROM THE MESSAGE.
We have not the room if we had de-
sire to publish entire the stale and ma
lignant message of the !" last of the Bour-
bons." It bears the impress of that
vindietiye feeling that usually actuates
bad men when defeated in their efforts
to carry out bad schemes, and contains,
aside from its impudence, nothing that
has not been published during the last
in copperhead speeches. To
show its character we extract few pas
sages upon the questions of Reconstruc-
ton, Finance and the payment of the
Public Debt.
Upon the re-assembling of Congress,
it again becomes my duty to call your
attention to the state of the Union and
its disorganized condition under the va
rious laws which have been passed upon
be safely assumed as an axiom in the
government of the States, that the great
est wrongs inflicted upon a people are
caused by unjust and arbitrary legisla-
ton or by the unrelenting DEGREES of
despotic rulers, and that the timely re-
peal ofinjurious and oppressive measures
is the greatest good that can be conferred
upon a nation. The legislator or the
ruler who has the wisdom and magnan-
unity to retrace his steps when convinced
of his error, will, sooner or later, be re-
warded with the respect and gratitude
of an intelligent and patriotic people
Our own history, although embracing
period less than century, affords album
dant proof that most, il not all, of our
domestic troubles are directly traceable
te violations of the organic law and to
excessive legislation. The most striking
Illustrations of this fact are furnished by
the enaetments of the past three years
upon the question of reconstruction
After fair trial they have substantially
failed and proved pernicious in their re-
suits, and there seems to be no good rea-
son why they should longer remain upon
the statute book. - - -
After eulogizing A. Us. plan of recon-
struction which is regarded as eminently
Constitutional, and denouncing the Con-
gressionaI plan as productive of all the
evils at the South inaugurated by the
Ku-Klux Klans, he says;
Congress, however, interveaed, and
refusing to perfect the work so nearly
eonsummated, declined to admit MEM
bers from the States; adopted courss
of measures which arrested the progress
of restoration. and frustrated all that had
been successfully accomplished, and,
after three years of agitation and strife,
has left the country further from the at
tainment of union and fraterDal feeling
than at the inception of the eCongressional
plan of reconstruction. lt needs- no ar
gument to show that legislation which
has produced such consequences should
be abrogated or else made to conform TO
the genuine principles of republican
government. Under the influence OF
party passion and sectional prejudice,
other acts have been passed, not warrant
ed by the Constitution.
These, according TO Andy, are the
tenure of office law, and military bill by
which his powers have been limited.
In the discussion of the financial ques-
tion he arrays his figures to show that
the expense eff the government is greater
now than before the Democratic rebel
lion, and, like Seymour and Pendleton,
Attempts to show that the Republican
party is responsible. He cannot avoid
quoting the following figures from the
report of the Secretary of the Treasury,
and it viii be seen that they show a very
rapid reduction of expenditure since the
close of the war. zssf
1t is shown by the able and compre-
siye report of the Secretary of the Treas
ury. that the receipts for the fiscal year
ending June 30th, 1858, were $405, ,63S, ,0S3,
and that the expenditures for the same
period were $377, $40, 2S4, leaving in the
Treasury surplus of SIS, ,297, ,79S. 1t is
estimated that the receipts during the
present fiscal year ending June 3Oth,
1889. will be S341, 1892 1858, and the expen-
ditures 1886, ,l52, ,470 showing a small
balarce of S5 ,240, ,39s in favor of the gov
ernment. For the fiscal year ending
June 3Oth, 1870, il is estimated that the
receipts will amount to 1927 ,000, 900, and
the expenditures to $303, ,000, 900, leaving
an estimated surplus of S94, 100000.
He makes the following Statement of
the Public Debt, but fails TO inform us
that the apparent increase during the
past year is produced by including, as
Indebtedness of the government, the bonds
issued to the Pacific r. r. Company,
which that Company is bound to redeem
when they fall due.
In 1s49, the year after the termination
of an expensive war with Mexico, we
found ourselves involved in debt of
sixty-four millions, and this was the
amount owed by the Government In 1861,
just prior to the outbreak of the rebellion.
In the spring of 1861 our civil war COM
mepeed. Each year of its continuance
made an enormous addition to the debt,
and when, in the spring of 1865, the ma
tion successfully emerged from the con-
fict, the obligations of the Government
had reached the immense sum of s., ,S73,-
992. 9O9. The Secretary of the Treasury
shows that on the lst day of November,
1867, this amount had been reduced to
Sc. .49l ,504, ,450, but at the same time his
report exhibits an increase during the
past wear of SS5, ,625, ,l02; for the debt on
the lst day of November last, is stated to
have been s, ,527. .129, ,552. 1t is estimated
by the Secretary that the returns for the
past month will add to our liabilities the
further sum of eleven millions, making
a total increase during thirteen months
of forty-six and a half millions.
The following as his methed Of extin-
gushing the public debt, is the most
infamous method of repudiation yet ad-
vocated. sr.,
Various plans have been proposed for
the payment of the public debt. How
ever they may have varied as to the
time and mode in which it should be
redeemed, there seems to be general
concurrence as to the propriety and just
ness of reduction in the present rate of
interest. The Secretary of the Treasury
in his report recommends five per cent.
Congress in its bill passed prior to the