Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1869-07-08


: tional right long enjoyed and perfectly
well settled by repeated decisions o
the highest Court having jurisdiction
of the question.
They repealed the law allowing, af
ter the usual residence the disabled vet.
Grams of the Union army to vote in the
Township in which the National Sol
diers Home is situated, and enacted a
law designed to deprive of the right of
suffrage large number of young men
engaged in acquiring an education at
'any school, seminary, academy, col
lege, university, or other institution OF
learning" To prevent citizens who
were deprived of their constitutional
rights by these acts, from obtaining
prompt relief in the Supreme Court,
they passed law prohibiting that court
from taking up causes on its docket ac-
eording to its own judgment of what
was demanded by public justice in any
case except where the person seeking
relief had been convicted of murder IN
the first degree, or of crime the pun
ishment of which was confinement in
the penitentiary.
L believe it is the general Judgment
of the people of Ohio that the passage
Sf these. measures, unconstitutional as
some of them are, and unjust as they
all are, was mainly due to the fact that
the classes of citizens disfranchised by
them do not commonly vote with the
Democratic Party. The Republican
party condemns all such legislation
and demands its repeal.
On the important subject of suffrage,
Gen. Grant, in his Inaugural Message,
expresses the CONVICTIONS of the Re
publican party. He says: 1.-The ques-
ton of suffrage is one which is likely
to agitate the public so long as a por-
ton of the citizens of the nation are
excluded from its privileges in any
State. 1t seems to me very desirable
that this question should be settled
now, and l entertain the hope and ex-
press the desire that it may be by the
ratification of the Fifteenth Amend
ment to the Constitution.
During the canvass which resulted
in the election of the late Democratic
Legislature the Republicans were
charged with having used $500. 900,
raised for the relief of soldiers fami-
lies, to pay the State debt, and this
charge was insisted upon, notwith-
standing a majority of the Democratic
members had supported the measure
The idea was everywhere held ont that
If the Democratic party were success
ful this money would be restored to the
relief fund and expended for the ben
eft of the soldiers. The failure to re-
deem this pledge is aggravated by the
fact that the Legislature, by strictly
party vote in the Senate, refused to
provide for the support Of soldiers des-
titute orphans at Homes to be estab-
lished without expense to the State,
by the Voluntary contributions of pa
triotic and charitable people.
But of all the pledges upon which |
the Democratic Party obtained power
in the last Legislature, the most i'm
portant, and those in regard to which /
the just expectations of the people |
have been most signally disappointed,
are their pledges in relation to financial
affairs TO expenditure, to debt, and to
taxation. Upon this subject the people
are compelled TO feel a very deep inter-
est. The flush times of the war have
been followed bya financial reaction,
and for the last three or four years the
country has been on the verge of fl
nancial crisis. The burdens of taxa
tion bear heavily upon labor, and upon
capital. The Democratic Party, pro-
fuse alike of accusations against their
adversaries, and of promises of re-
trenchment and reform, were clothed
with power to deal with the heaviest
part of these burdens, viz: with the
expenditures, debts, assessments and
taxes which are authorized by State
legislation. The results of their two
years of power are now before the
people. They are contained in the
65th and 66th volumes of the laws of
Ohio. Let any Republican diligently
study these volumes and he will fully
the meaning of Job when
he said, ooh, that mine adversary had
written book" No intelligent man
can read carefully these volumes. and
note the number and character of the
laws increasing the expenses and liza
bilities of the State, and authorizing
additional debts and additional taxa
ton for city and village, for county
and township purposes without having
the conviction forced upon him that
the gentlemen who enacted these laws
hold to the opinion that the way to in
crease wealth is to increase taxation,
and that public debts are public bless
Hgs.
When the late Democratic Legisla-
ture assembled they found the revenue
raised yearly in Ohio by taxation to
pay the interest on the State and local
debts and for State and local expendi-
lures was S2O,253, 1854 This is at
the rate of almost forty dollars for ev- Y
ery vote cast in the State at the last
election, and exceeds seven dollars for I
each inbabitant of the-State. OF this
arge sum collected annually by direct
taxation less than one-fifth or SO, 1884,
]9979 was for State purposes, and
more than four-ifths or Sl6, 6,272, 1854 l
was for local purposes. The increase {
If taxation for State purposes during |
he last few years has been small, but I
many items of taxation for local pur- I
poses are increasing rapidly. The tax
ltion, for example, in the thirty-three 4
,ities of the State has increased until,
to the report of the Auditor 4
# State, ..'in several the rates of levy t
'xceed three per cent. and the average +
ate in all is but little short of three
,er cent" In this condition Of the o
inancial affairs of the State, and in the II
and depressed condition I
f II l.o.. of tba o0unfrv tho r