The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-01
Our Finan cial and Political Plunderers.
Fy0,,l the NJ y Herald

OUR tlnan cIal anu fOlltlcaI fIunuererS.
From the ". r. Herald.
When our war for the consolidation of the
Union broke out, government was pleasure,
not a burden, to the country. Everything
fourished, and indefinite expansion invited
internal and external enterprise. Our COM
merce, so absolutely essential to national
greatness, was the boast of the nation, and in
every port we waged generous rivalry with
the European maritime nations for the carry
ing trade of the world. Our foreign or regis
tered tonnage in 1857 was 2, ,463, ,967 tons. In
1867 it had decreased to 2l8, 812 tons, allow
ing for the new system of measurement
These figure decrease of over fifty per cent.
in ten years. 1t will be said that the English
piratical expeditions caused this. They GER
taiply did not cause decrease in our domestic
inland tonnage, which was, in 1864, 3,404, sos
tons, and in 1867, ,262, 942 tons--a decrease
of thirty-three per cent. in three years.
Our national debt in 1860 was less than
sixty five millions ofdollars. 1t is to-day over
| two thousand five hundred millions. The ex-
penses of administration were then estimated
at sixty-two millions now they have swollen
| to over three hundred millions. In 1860 the
President, in his annual message, in speaking
of the finances and comparing the Government
expenditures with those OF previous years,
said:-"An overfowing Treasury had pro-
| duced habits of prodigality and extravaganza
1
II this was was said Of 1860, what should be
said of 1869? Three hundred millions of
| dollars administrative expenses against about
oneffth that amount in 1901 And yet we
have not grown five times as large, have
not five times the population, commerce,
internal trade, and general national
development we had IN 1860. 1t is true one
hundred and forty millions of our expendi-
tuTes 60 for Interest," but sixty millions go for
civil service, the latter, an enormous amount
for the purpose, is about equal TO our whole
expenses eight years ago. While all these
! financial and commercial evils have been
openly accommodating, there have been grow
ing up in their shadow certain associations
which, seeing how poorly guarded is the
national wealth, have, with satanic wisdom,
! supposed thatin tue decline of all prosperity
II is Well to struggle for the spoils. These
associations curse US more than our real
national debt, and when we consider how
they bleed us of our wealth, We feel that our in
| terest-beariDg debt is something near ten
| thousand millions of dollars.
So great is the influence OF the associations
emanatng from the Illicit manufacture OF
whisky from the building of railroads with
the public plunder, aud the thousand and one
minor ''jobs'' that lance the veins OF the ma
tion, that they may be said to rule what
honest unsuspectiDg people are under the
delusion is our republic. The rings" nave
woTmed into Congress until Its principal
branch stands like arotten log in our pathway
They gathered from the debris OF the war, from
the wreck Of cur commerce, from the national
debt, and from the many evils that the last
eight years have engratted upon us, al the
elements Of financial and consequent pohtcal
corruption, and have rolled them under the
wings of that august old hen, the Senate oi
the United States. There she sits in her wis