The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1868-09-16
GreeIey's Grsenhaok GroWl.
From the New 7 erk independently

&C once remember the wear of disaster and doubt that
followed McClean's failure before Richmond, and
Stonewa Iacksons too successful falG Gown the oheh
andoaI Valley III the summer of 1862. That year wit
messed McCiellan's spfless an wanton flight before
an inferior force from his strongly intrenehed position
on the ChickahominY through the W bite Oak Swamp
to the James after destroying Or leaving to the enemy
provisions. munitions and works which had cost the
purchase of kingdom; Pope's disastrously bloody
campaign ID Northern Virginia; Miles shameful sur
render Of 900 men at Harper's Ferry, whom Gen
Mcclellan, by moving promptly and vigorously on that
point from Frederick might, nevertheless have saved;
the frnitless indecsive carnage at Aatetam Braggs
trumphal career in Tennessee and Kentucky scarcely
resisted by Buell. IN the awk9afdy fought drawn
battle at Perryville where our losses greater
than the enemy's Bragg's embarrassed and plumber
laden Withdrawal from Kentucky; Burnside's repulse
with frightful carnage Fredericksburg the scarcely
less dispiriliDg :" Mud March; Shermans failure be-
fore Vicksburg the bafed leaguerof Charleston the
unaccountable and costly miscarriage OF our land and
naval forces at Gayeston Hookers costly rebuilt at
Charlottesville : Milrcy demolition at Winchester,
&C., &c. Few Of Us wholly forget the narrowing
anAeties and agonisng dsappontments of that gloomy
year SO benignantlY lighted up at its close by Meades
victory at Gettysburg, Grants capture OF Nieksbrg,
and Banks brilliant reduction OF the rebel stronghold
at Port Hudson whereby the Mississippi was finally
cleared Of rebel batteries, aud restored to the COM
lnerce and flag of the Union, ,
That was ii year Of darkness which came near eclip
sing forever the sun Of cur Union. The only CLEANS
which persstonty gladden. it are those radated from
President Lifeons two immortal pfoefamations OF
freedom.
Initial year of desperate effort and unlocked for
caamities were laid the foundations of great Ma
tona debt. True, We had incurred debt already and
provided for mourning more but was carried above
one billion of dollars by the series of national misfor
tunes WITCH begun with the fuller demonstration before
Richmond of McCleIlans incapacity aud the manfes-
tation IL tue West Of Bues defestwhch, certainly,
not being neapacitY, must have been something even
worse. That year found cur national debt some two
three hundred millions its disasters forced Us to
scale Of preparation and Of warfare which carried the
debt above two billions.
We nov owe, in round numbers, two billions anda
half Of dollars This debt is part Of the price Of
national salvation We might have eseapedit fora
time) by giving up the country to the rebels. They
would never have rested content with the half OF it ;
aud even if they would their Northern friends would
not let them We might have precluded it if Grant,
and Sherman and Sheridan had been at the head of our
armies at the outbreak Of the war Fourth Of our
great debt may be fairly charged to the generalshp of
Scott Mcclellan, Halleck, Buell., etc.; aid the whole
oft to the wanton wckedness Of the Shareholders re-
bellon.
The Republican National platform, framed at Chi
cago when General Grant and Colfax were nominated
answers this question as follows: s.sssss =
s5 Eli. We Genounce all forms of Reputation as a
national crime and the national honor requires the
payment of the public Indebtedness in the utternost
good faith to all creditors at home and abroad not
only according to the letter. but the spirit of the laws
under which it was contracted. l.t
". 1t is due to the labor Of the nation that taxa
ton should De equased, and reduced as rapidly as
the nationa! faith will permit.
"V. The national debt, contracted, as is has been
for the preservation OF the Union for all time to come
should be extended over fair period for redemption
and it is the duty Of Congress to reduce the rate of in
terest thereon whenever it can be honestly done.
/ CYL That the best policy to diminish our burden
of debt is to so improve credit that capitalists will
seek to loan money at lower of interest than
We pay, and must continue to pay so long as re-
pqdiaon, partial or total open or covert, threat
ened Or suspected
The Democratic National platform, framed in Tam
many Hall when Seymour and Blair were nominated
answers the same question thus; : Se@
''.3. Payment of the public debt of the United
States rapidly practicable all moneys drawn from
the people by taxation except much is requisite
for the necessities Of the Government economically
administered being honestly applied to such payment
and where the obligations of the Government do not
expressly state upon their face the law under which
they issued does not provide that they shall be
paid for in coin, they ought in right and in justice, be
paid in the lawful money OF the United States.
"a. Equal taxation Of every species of property
cordng to its real value, including Government bonds
and other public securities"
1t would be an insult to the readers understanding
to comment these contrasted declarations. One Of
them means, pay the debtn full just as.we agreed ~
while the other plainly says, "eayil quibbie DC
muir, resist and never pay cent that we possibly
avoid paying No one misunderstood the drift,
the animus of either. ,--ss-s
The taxation of Government securities is governed
By a9a Chief .Instice Marshall decided
in 1920, that no State municipality could tax the
bonds OF the United States; as it otherwise, the
States might defeat by their exercise of the taxing
power, the express and vitality needed power Of the
Federal Government to borrow money No iurist has
ever impugned this decision.
True, the Government might make its bonds locally
taxable but If it did, it must pay just much higher
rate of interest the probable amount OF taxes on
its bonds. IlGovernment bonds are untaxable, they
will net TO the treasury just SO much that
enption is worth. In peace should always be able
to borrow On antaged bonds at four TO FIVE per cent
when the same bonds, made taxable, must pay six to
seven per cent. Idiots alone could imagine that ex-
enption is favor the bondhoder: be pays for it.
precisely as he pays for his bond Only by issuing
bonds uHtaxable and then taxing them-that is, by
Reputation and rascaiitT-can anything be made by
taxing bonds.
The journal of Con.nerce-a thoroughly. bitterly
Democratic paper-repying to the Louisville journal
thus terse exposes the vllay of the pretense that
the fivetweptg bonds are lawfully payable in green
backs: = Mss. NJ grJ
The statement i'll regard to the contract is errone.
GUS IN every particular Instead Of the issue of the
greenbacks being long before the contract with the
bondhodsrs both first provided for in precisely
the moment o. time, the authority for the first
Teach being in the same act bearing date February
rs, 1862. This act; instead Of making greenbacks d
legal tender for the bonds provides exactly the
reverse the bonds being authorised cny and solely as
convenient security in which to fund the notes there
i'll described, III order to check their tendeny to de-
probation They were issued after the notes. ofcourse
being designedas funding loan to convert the paper
into gold-bearins bond. We do deny most emphat
ealy that these bonds, into which the greenbacks
were obe funded, were payable after all IN the very
thing which tie holders exchanged for them. On the
contrary the receipts Of coin expressly set apart
ithe act (section 81 first, to pay the interest
and second, to pay the principal ofbese very bonds!
The Louisville Journal denies this but there stands
the act to speak for ITSELF
/ only add 30 this utter demolition Of the central
Copperhead assumption that the bonds are payale in
greenhacks my earnest entreaty that every Republic
can speaker and writer meet this question like men,
In the immortal words of Linoolns second inaugural
" with frmness iii the right as God gives us to see
the right" let us, trusting in the integrity of the
American people, stand firmly by the faith and honor
IF the Republic 80
Snow SHEns.-The snow sheds built by the Pacific
Railroad Company, to protect their track from the
leep SHOWS of the Sierra Nevada were crushed BY the
weight of that fell upon them. 1t was once re-
,orted that this method of pretackou Fould have ~