The Portland daily press., 1868-08-29

SARA Who is 10 Blame ~
We are in debt, the Nation, the States, the
cities ane towns, more than three billions OF
dollars. 1t is a formidable trouble. 1t costs
toll and taxes to pay even the interest. But
who is to blame for it? Do you, Messrs. Shaw
and Pillsbury, think yourselves at liberty to
stand as dispassionate critics and fault-fnders
over the situation? How came we in deotI
The money has gone for soldiers wages and
pensions, for food, clothing, arms, ordnance,
ships, teams, forage, and the vast waste OF all
wars Wars are proverbially costly. OF this
the Smart, Pillsbury mind should have had
timely prescience. But you thought the little
unpleasantness that ensued in the South after
it was known Lincoln was elected was jolly;
when State after State seeded from the I'm
ion, you admired their spirit; you even told
them so. When your political friends under
took to assassinate Lincoln in Baltimore, a
feat afterwards achieved at Washington, you
actually chuckled with the anticipation that
perhaps the sectional candidate would not be
inaugurated. When Lincoln called for $4,000
men to put down the rebellion, the conspira-
tors at Montgomery laughed Unfortunately, and
you hCu youl oy upsthJ WIN shCh' Aoo
urged them ON with announcements and apol-
oges to begin their devilish work. Some few
of you got alarmed afterwards and thought the
government oue hit to be supported, but as the
war grew disastrous and wearisome, your old
political prejudices returned and your hearts
yearned for your brethren IN gray in the
camps. You did everything but risk your
worthless necks in the trenches by their sides.
After that you became constitutional Demo-
Gratis of the Kentucky stamp, sticklers for State
sovereignty and the resolutions of ninety-eight.
Your plan of carrying the war was the
Kentuckan one of an armed neutrality. Your
campaigns were never projected beyond the
parade grounds of Washington. You some
times doubted if you had right to maintain a
Federal army in slave city; apd could never
be made to approve march ing through Mary
land. The proper way was to conciliate the
South by maintaining a large army on the
north bank of the Potomac and keeping up its
supplies of food and shoes, and particularly its
etiquette and corps desprit Mcclellan fulfill
ed your ideas of military hero, aud the more
he didn't do. the more you hurrahed for him.
Afterwards you had a knot of friends in
Congress to vote against every measure for
raising supplies and for carrying on the war.
What with the waste of life intrenching in
the swamps and the constant fear of Nc
Clellen of being overpowered by the Rebels,
whom his brave men were steadily whipping,
men began to be called for in large numbers,
you discouraged volunteering. When mainly
by your croaking volunteering ceased and a
draft became necessary, you rushed into all
the town meetings AND PUT THE TOWNS IN
DEBT FROM ONE HUNDRED TO FIVE HUNDRED
DOLLARS FOR EVERY MAN HIRED, not to save
men, or exempt the people at large from mill
tary service, but for a choice between the man
who had no heart for the war, and another
| man who would go if his family were provid-
ed for. When the draft at last came, you, Mr..
Pillsbury, were writing frantic editorials
that provoked the Kingfeld farmers to riot,
and your confrere in disloyalty, Simpson, was
sketching Lincoln as Genghis Khan bestride
pyramid of million skulls.
When the government was compelled t.
stop specie payments and issue paper money,
you opposed the policy, and then did and said
and wrote what you could to depreciate the
paper. As its depreciation progressed and
the cost OF recruiting, paying and feeding the
army increased one hundred and two hundred
| per cent, you were as glad as when you sup
| posed the mob would prevent the Inaugural.
| ton of Lincoln, for you reckoned the time
wonld come the sooner, when the country, ex-
hausted in its resources and credit, would be
| compelled to make base terms with the trail
| tors. 8Ea a-g q
Had you been able to keep your disloya
| tongues still while treason was plotting from
| November 1860 till the next April, there
| would have been no war. Had you heartily
| co-operated in the war where it became the
only alternative to separation, Mr.. Seward'i
halcyon vision of its end in 60 days would
have been fulfilled. But for your slow ant
questionable patriotism the currency would
never have deprecated as much as it did, anc
the armies could have been filed and the wal
| ended at half its actual cost
So we are in debt, and must sacrifice and
submit to taxation, and, depend upon it, fol
your responsibility of putting us in this pre-.
dicament, we mean that this debt shall be
paid, and what is more, that you shall pay you,
share Of it. t t ..islla