The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-05-09
Reducing the Debt.

The New York Tribune, in repl, to the
lnqulrles OF q correspondent, says that on
the LIST of August, 1865, our national debt
amounted to SO, 757, 900. 900, and that on the
1st of March, 1869, it was only So, 544 OOO,-
oOO:t Taking these figures as the basis of
the I'-ibame gravely deduces the highly
pleasing fact that, in three and half
years, we have discharged 1913, 600, 900
of the principal of our debt. We wish this
were as true as the editor of the Tribune
would have his readers believe We do not
question the figures of the Treasury state
ments for the dates above mentioned. The
way IN which this reduction was effected,
however, shows that We have but little
cause for congratulation in the fact that
S2l3, 600, 900 less were owed in 1869 than in
1865.
The way in which this reduction was
effected was by selling Government stores
for half their value, that were purchased
only short time before for fully sixty per
cent more than they were worth. Those
stores consisted of clothing, tents. provi-
sions, drugs, field equipages, arms and am
munition, and the manner of their sale was
one OF the most disgraceful of the many
frauds perpetrated by those who controlled
the various military departments during the
rebellion. At the close of hostiIities
large quantities of these stores remained on
hand, accumulated in the various depots of
the quartermaster's, commissary and medi-
cal departments, and as their sale afforded
the officers to whose custody they were com
mitted, chance to double the fraudulent
profits they had made on their purchase, an
order was issued directing that they should
be disposed of at public auction This was
accordingly carried into effect, and those
costly stores were sacrificed at any price
which enabled the epauletted spectators to
realize q handsome margin of profits We
remember attending several of the sales,
where blankets that cost 80 per pair
were sold for S1.50; new iron bedsteads,
worth 50, were ratified off by the auctioneer
at tfty cents piece; and drugs, that had
cost the highest market price, for about
twenty per cent. Of their actual value.
These were but few instances Of the
many, IN which millions Of dollars worth of
property was sold for any price that was
onefed; ana we know OF instances in which
sales were so arranged that only such prices
were bid as would enable 1.-The ring" to
make the most extravagant profts-through
the connlvance and cooperation, be it re-
membered, of those whose oaths of Office
bound them to course of honesty and in
tegrity In discharging their official duties.
Under any other Government than that of
democracy, these uniformed swindlers
would have been held accountable; as it is.
q.
from these sales (so much of the returns. at
least, as found its way in the public Trea-
sury,) was applied to the liquidation of
some OF our floating debt then due But
there was no real reduction in the debt, as
the value of these stores should have been
deducted from the amount of the debt pre-
vious to September, 1865. 1t is poor and
weak attempt at deception to instance this
settlement Of 5000, 600, 900 with an amount
OF money which then happened to be in
the Treasury, from the source we have
slated, as proof that the public debt can
easily be discharged in given time. The
truth is, that within the past few months
our debt has increased rapidly, and we may
aod, TINT 1t will continue to increase until
we nave Government that is not dis
grace-even to Democracy.
Ne,o York In,perialis,
1he barnwell Journal states that Mrs.
Peyton, who lived near Blackville, in that