New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-08-17
L1HnP r1YES IND DIET.

Our country was recently the theater oil a
vast and sangunaTy Civil War. civil war Is
always more destructive Of property than any
other: and this war, wherein not less than
Three Millions of men took part and nearly or
quite Fifteen Hundred Thousand were engaged
at one time, was destructive beyond precedent.
Railroads unknown to the warfare of former
centuries) were broken up, by one or other of
the belligerents, to the extent Of thousands OF
miles; steamboats, and costly bridges were
burned; considerable cities, even, were laid III
ashes The Rebels burned at NewOrleans and
at Richmond, when compelled TO abandon those
cities, many Millions worth of property; while
Charleston, Norfolk, Vicksburg, and other
cities, were scenes of TuinOus devastation
The War lasted more than -four years, and
cost the country not less than Five Billions of
| Dollars. In other words There are probably
| Five Thousand Millions worth less of houses,
factories, furnaces fences, railroads. steamboats,,
clearings, &C., &C., now included within the
area of the United States, than there would
have been if Mr. Lincoln's first election to the
Presidency had not been followed by the
Shareholders Rebellion.
DO you beIieUe that Rebellion raS necessary or
juSt? That is the fundamental question in our
pending political contest. For, if the Rebellion
was lust then those who resisted it are fairly
chargeable with the cost of resisting and de-
feating it. If the election of Abraham Lincoln
by the Republicans justified Howell Cobb
Toombs, jeff Davis, Sldel Mason g. Co., in
conspiring to sever the Southern States from
the Union and erect them into an Independent
Confederacy, then the North, and not the
e 20, f,,f no IN
pay it's entire cost Then the National Debt
is fairly chargeable to those who contracted it,
not to those whose rebellion was overcome by
means of it.
That Debt is a stubborn fact. 1t will have
to be borne and paid Even if the People
should vote to repudiate it, that would not di-
minish its burden by a single dime. The
American People would still owe it, and would
ultimately b. constrained to pay every far
thing of 1t.
Over fifty years ago, Great Britain and Spain
emerged from long and desOlating war;
wherein each had incurred a heavy National
Debt Great Britain resolved to pay her debt
honestly, to the last farthing; and she has ever
since been steadily growing in population and
wealth. Spain sank into the bog of Rcpudia-
ZION, ana JDSIe suC lies bJlduucu 10 llllS nOuT,
Her power has vanished with her forfeited
credit her industry, commerce, and wealth,
have steadily declined; she is the football of
the Great Powers, and of no more real weight
than Denmark or Morocco Her people, abject
and hopeless, have sunk at last into seeming
content under the double burden Of despot-
ism and infamy.
Are there voters who blame the Republicans
for the War of Secession7 They will vote of
course, to turn the Republicans out and restore
Howell Cobb, TOombs, Wade Hampton g. Co.
to power. These men raised the flag of rebel
lion because Mr.. Lincoln was-through their
own connivance, in breaking up the Democratic
party-elected President. If they were right
in so doing, then the Debt, the Pension List,
and consequent heavy taxes are rightly scored
up against us who resisted them. But if the
Rebellion was wrong and they who upheld the
Union were right, then the National Debt en-
bodies Twenty-Five Hundred Millions of solid
reasons why the Rebel chiefs and their allies
ought not now TO be intrusted with the gov
eminent of the country. And every poor man,
who finds his comforts diminished 10y taxation,
should vote to keep them out