Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-09-23

lion and quarter for strengthening our
Notifications at the most important points
the increase in Indian appropriations
from two or three millions to six, from
the constantly increasing pressure OF the
settlements and the absolute necessity OF
feeding the destitute, whose hunting
grounds have been destroyed by railroads
or emigration, and the many millions OF
increase in our army expenses, from the
two thousand miles of frontier and great
er population it has to protect and the
increase in the pay of the soldier since
1864, to $16 per month, with proportlon-
ate increase in pay of officers, due to the
increased cost of living. / am glad, how
ever, to state that the reduction in the
number of officers and soldiers now going
on by law, will reduce our army expenses
some four millions after this year.
~ I have not made these latter deductions
| in the contrast I have drawn of the ex-
penses of the two administrations, because
wished to include in that only the in.
disputable; but adding these, as could
Justly be done, to the others, it would re-
| duce the national expenses, properly
chargeable to the present administration,
to SITS each in paper, or about $3.50 in
gold, for our forty millions of people, as
compared with the 1926 each in gold, in
far cheaper times, of the last administra-
ton the Democratic party favored this
nation with. I doubt whether the peo-
pie will rush to their arms this fall, or
embrace their candidates, or seek to moor
their ship of State in such haven Of
Democratic reformi
have not been able to obtain the ag-
gregate amount of expenditures of the
na ryy. fod rif of for
later fiscal year than 1867. But, in that
year, the cost of governing the one million
of people in that city, including pay of
officers, police, interest on debt, and State
taxes, but aoithout any Grmy or aaUy, or
pension last, or Indians Except the Tam
many chiefs) to provide for, was $23, $780,
295, not quite twenty-four millions of dol
lars. trust, if these chiefs are ever to
obtain power, they will not expect to pay
out. for governing forty millions of people,
at the same proportion it costs them to
govern one million in New York city,
which would aggregate nine hundred and
sixty millions per year. But, without
charging that they would, submit that
before they can expect the people to credit
their pledges of retrenchment and reform,
they should give us some specimens of its
working in that Overwhelmingly Demo-
cratic city of theirs.
When Mr.. Dawes left Washington las t
March to speak lin New Hampshire,
President Grant said to him, "Tell the
people of New Hampshire that, during
my administration, there shall be no as
cending scale of public expenditures, but
wherever and whenever the closest
scrutiny shall disclose the possibility of
cutting Off a dollar it shall be doae" Our
President, though maligned by those op-
posed to you, and by those who did not
love him through the war, and do not love
him yet, when elevated by great people
to a chief magistracy of the nation, has
redeemed that pledge to the letter. Let
the following figures of government ex-
penses show how it has been DONE For
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1868, (Presi-
dent Johnson's last full year $377 ,O0O, 900.
For the year ending June 80, 1869, (eight
months johnson and four months Grant,
1891 100000. For the year ending June
80, 1870, (all Grant's), 92,000,000. All
these include interest on the public debt
Appropriations for year ending June 80,
1871, $158, 100000. Add interest on re-
duced debt, which last year was $685.
100000, but will not now reach $118, OOO,-
600 for the year. Total $276,000,000, or
one hundred millions less than Johnson's
last full year.
This retrenchment can be shown even
moro clearly by the following official fig
ures from the Treasury Department: To
tai expenditures, not including interest
for 18months, from Sept /, 1867. to::March
1, 1869 (Johnson's) $328, 765, $50; from
March 1, 1869, to Sept. 1, 1870 (Grant's),
$245 ,912629. Decrease Of expenditures,
S82,o53,060. During Johnson's last 1S
months, he paid of interest on our debt
$211,22l,9 16. During Grants first 1S
months, he paid of interest $193, 421, 1855
Reduction Of interest, SIT 800561. Total
decrease in IS months, 800. e5s,6s1.
x < x x
While we denounced, in our national
platform, every proposition that savored
of reputation, direct or indirect, we de-
clared also, as already stated, that the
rate of interest on our debt should be re-
duced whenever 1T could be honorably
done. But for the constant denunciation
of the bonds and bondholders, the threats
by many of our leading opponents that
our obligations should be scaled down to
what we received for them in our hours
of emergency, when Democratic Nation
al Conventions were resolving that the
war was failure and Democratic nation
al leaders were predicting that our cur
rency and our bonds would both become
equally worthless, and the other threats
that they should be heavily taxed or wiped
out with sponge, Congress could long
since have funded our debt at lower
rate of interest, and thus been enabled
largely to reduce its burdens on the peo-
Pile. But with powerful party, strug
Cling for national ascendency, and with
such declarations in their mouths, our
credit improved more slowly than if we
could have shown united people, as
Jealous of our national honor and our ma
tional obligations as are all the people of
Great Britain, of all par ties, in regard to
their debt. And thus, since the war, as
during the war, our opponents have
proved themselves terribly expensive
organization to the nation.
Lest may be charged with stating this
point too strongly, Iquote, as one of the
many proofs of its correctness that could
be given, the following editorial remarks
of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the leading
organ of the Democratic party of Ohio,
and, indeed, of the Northwest, printed
only last June:
The Democracy Of Ohio are now divided, and
only divided upon the point whether any portion
of the debt should be paid at all. A large and
and in the West, are for open and undisguised re-
pndiation. Another division adheres to the old
views and favors the payment with green backs
worth what they were when the debt was taken.
The diversity of sentiment was such that it was
not thought advisable to make any distinct declar
alton at this time
And this paper did not misrepresent
the feelings of large portion Of the
Ohio Democracy. quote further the
following resolution adaDted unanimously