The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-14
Who Made the War Debt2


Taking sentence from recent letter from
Mr.. Seymour to personal friend, in which he
says that the Republicans (radicals) are try
ing to dodge the financial issues, and that it is
the duty OF Democratic oanvassers to push the
debt and taxation upon public attention. the
New York Tribune makes IL text upon which
to air atresh some of ite stereotyped perver-
sions of the origin of the public debt and
grievous taxation under which the country
suffers. | Mr.f..
AS matter Of course, its first assertion is,
that the Democratic party caused the civil
war; and to sustain this il beats for the ten
thousandth time the chaff about the aggres-
sions of the pro-slavery Democracy, and the
imbecility and ill-concealed treachery of the
Buchanan administration as the remote and
immediate provocations of the conflict out Of
which grew the debt. Mr.. Seymour himself
comes in for attack as an ally with the Demo-
cratic party in piling up the mountain of debt.
To refute the sophistry which seeks to SHIFT
the responsibility of the war from the shoul-
ders OF the Abolition crusaders against the
South, is task upon which it were proftless
to enter. History will note prominently one
fact, viz: that if political party in the North
had not organized itself with the avowed in
tention of abolishing slavery, and in doing so
to override the rights of the Southern States
and people, and the Federal Constitution
which gave them guarantee, there would
have been no war and no debt The
present radical party made all the condi-
toDs of the war. 1t invited it. 1t EN-
couraged it. 1t provoked it. For twenty
five years it persistently labored to bring
it about. Argument, protestation, appeal,
threat, repeated compromises, and the final
offer OF the Crittenden compromise, could
not change their purpose or deter them in
the least from driving the Southern people
to arms This We say is history. 1t has
passed above the range of party discussion at
the present time, and cannot be altered by the
bald assertions of the Tribune and It's associ-
ates. The fact that resistance came from one
side after it was deliberately and calculatingly
provoked by the other, does not fix the guilt
of consequences upon the first party. so
the world and posterity will Judge.
The IriJune'S criticism upon Governor Sey-
mour's noble and patriotic course in the win
ter OF lS6O-'6l, III endeavoring TO repress the
rising tide which soon launched the country
into war and debt, itself sustains the charge
that the Republican leaders were deaf to the
appeals for compromise, and bayed with
voices ''stili for war;" A quotation is given
from Governor Seymour's celebrated Tweddle
Hall speech, in which, after urging that the
Peace Conference, then in session, should not
adjourn without presenting to the country
some scheme of pacfcaton, he said -"The
question Is simply this-Shall We have COM
promise after a war; or compromise 10 hom
war;" The Republican section of the Peace
Conference shouted back, ''No compromise to
avert war;" and war came, and debt came,
and taxation still comes
And they are not satisfied with all this train
OF evils. They will not have compromise
after war. The same party, yet in possession
OF the Government, is more exactng, intole-
rant, and oppressive than before. The South,
by the force OF numbers, was coerced into
peace, and yet radic4lism will abate nothing
of its demands. having conquered, it seeks
to humiliate and degrade. Its measures for
this purpose continue to increase the debt and
add to the taxes. The miscalled Republican
party is primarily responsible for the war and
the debt, and its successor, the radical party,
is following in its footsteps.
Governor Seymour was wise in his advice.
1t is the duty of the Democracy to arraign the
authors of the debt which lays mortgage of
ten per cent. on the property and producing
resources of the people for an indefinite
period, and hold them responsible before the
tax-oppressed people. s-.. f