Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-10-07
Speech by Commissioner
Dalano, at Harrisburg.
Eleven Hundred millions Oftle
Debt Paid OF in -Four Years.
The expenses Of the Gov
ernment Reduced so as
to Save $25,O0O,OOO
Annually.
100000 Being
w1ped Out Every
earl

( .ias suddenly becuiii. Il very active oiIt.
and both parties are making unusual e
! .uris Ia urI:aII.Ze their strength, AID a.
win rev voters. The most important
contribution it has yet called forth in
! the discussion of the issues pending, is
tile address made at Harrisburg on Satur-
day last, by Mr.. Columbus Delano, t. e
Commissioned Internal Revenue. The
policy OF the Democrats in the canvass is
simply To attack the National Admins
| tration, and to demard the election OF
Mr.. Packer as an expression OF popular
disapprUhation towards President Grant.
/ Mr.. Delano accepts the issue boldly, and
/ points out plainly, and with authority.
what the new Administration has ac-
com mplished in one of its most important
| branches. These statements are not of
a mere local or temporary interest, and
we therefore give 4 summary of them
| here.
| The greatest work the Government
has to do is to collect the taxes and handle
the National debt. The spirit of the
| Democratic party is one of hostility to
the debt itself, and while they do not, al
least in Pennsylvania, openly advocate
reputation, yet they try in various
ways to excite prejudice against its hon
est payment. They hint at injustice i'll
not taxing the bonds, i'll not paying
| them off in greenbacks, in not assuming
the war-debt of the rebellion, or at least
of the States which joined in it. Mr..
Delano clearly shows that each of these
suggestions is merely repudiatiOn in dis
guise. and so brings the discussion to the
position which the Democratic orators
and press are urging SD boldly every
where-the only one on which they seem
tn agree--that the debt is an intolerable
burden, and can never be honestly paid
in real money, without expressing the
people IL Is in answer TO this assertion
that his statements are most valuable.
and indeed conclusive.
In the spring of 1865, he says, when
the rebels laid down their arms, the
ascertained and audited debt ol the
UnitedStates Was twenty seven hundred
millions of dollars. The army was tien
unpaid from period of rom one to two
Years, and more than eight hundred
millions of dollars, not included III the
audited debt. were due to them. Now,
within little more than four years, the
whole of this fi0aiing debt of eight humid
red millions mas been paid off. and the
aScert;lned debt has been reduced To
twenty four hundred millions OF dollars.
In other words, eleven hundred millions
of dollars of debt have actually been
paid off in four years; nearly one-i hird
of the entire Indebtedness OF the natiuI,
ut the close of the war
All this has been done by the people,
in spite of difficulties which can not
easily be exaggerated. The people have
been taxed heavily, though not intoler-
ably; but the taxes paid by them ha We
not been honestly placed in tie Treas
ury, and economically applied to the
debt. There has been gross eXtrava-
gance in the Government, col eruption
and dishonesty in its officers. For ex-
ample. during the fiscal year ending
June 80, 1863. the whole amount of whis-
ky that paid tax in the country was g.
7O9, ,546 gallons. One hundred millions
of gallons are annually made and con-
sumed; and if the whole amount had
been taxed at two dollars q gallon the
revenue from it would have been $500
100000, instead fjust fifteenth that
sum, as it was. a9. .."r
Now the annual capacity of the dis
tlllerles of the country is about six lines
the actual product, or 600 900 900 of gal
Ions; so that it requires great ability, en-
ergy and integrity in large number OF
officers to track out the manufacture and
bring it all TO account. But the service,
though still not perfect, is certainly i'm
proving rapidly, as is shown by the fact
that, during the last fiscal year, incIud-
ing only the first four months of Presi-
Grants administration, there have been
81, DOS, ,331 gallons of whisky returned as
subject to duty-about six times as much
as was returned, including that ex xported
without paying duty, during the previous
year.
A similar Improvement in the revenue
service is shown by the increasing reve-
nue. from other branches of the tax law.
The tax Oil manufactures was abolished
last year; so that the entire receipts of
internal revenue for the two years cas
not he compared. But the receipts from
the various taxes which have been re-
tainedar most encouraging Forexam-
pie, comparing the last six months of the
year ending June so, 1868, with the last
six months of the year ending June 80, !
1859, the latter period including nearly
four months of President Grants ad-
miDistration, there is an increased reve
nue from
Spirlts-...-. Q, 10