The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-09-17

| 1t is seventeen months to-day since Cen
eral Grant was inaugurated us President
of the United States. When he was in
vested with the Executive authority the
National Debt amounted to So, 525, 463, EGO.
On the first day of the present month the
total debt was 1850, 1924, 47G, showing Il
reduction in the period referred to Of the
enormous sum of S156, 1873, 7S4-at the rate
of considerably more than one hundred
months Immediately preceding General
Grants accession to the Presidency, when
the Democratic party had control in the
councils of Andrew johnson, the National
Debt was increased more than thirty mil
lions of dollars. l am writing with the
official reports of Secretary McCulloch and
Secretary Boutwell, before me, and tho
accuracy of these figures cannot be success
fully questioned.
But suggestive as these results are, the
whole truth is not yet told-for it must be
remembered that the enormous reduction
of the National Debt under the admins
tration of General Grant has been achieved
with diminished sources of taxation as
compared with those in existence when the
debt was SO largely increased under Andrew
johnson. This fact demonstrates very
conclusively two very important points,
lected with far more scrupulous honesty
and exactness under President Johnson's
Democratic administration; and second,
that the public money has been disbursed
with far greater economy and care under
the one than it was under the other. Con-
trasting the two periods of equal length,
the one under Democratic influence the
other under Republican influence, and the
difference to the National Treasury in favor
of the latter exceeds one hundred and
eighty-siv millions of dollars, just about
eleven millions per month - well nigh
four hundred thousand dollars per day
And this difference is exhibited, be it re-
membered, when the Democratic party
did not have full sway in the Government.
They had control of the President, but
We're under the continual and wholesome
restraint of a Republican Congress. What
the Democratic party would do, if clothed
with entire power in all the Departments
of the Government, will we trust, be left
for Il long period to the Imagination of
men, without giving us the bitter fruits of
its practical realization. What forms Of
reputation of the National faith would
be resoIted to may be inferred from the
declarations of their conventions and the
speeches of many of their leading men.
CLAIMS.
One of the most insidiouS and danger
Gus and probable modes of destroying the
National credit under Democratic rule
would be the payment or attempted pay
ment from the National Treasury of all
Southern claimants for losses inflicted by
the war. This is not an inference for it
is boldly avowcd by leading Democrats in
both branches of Congress. In April last,
during the tendency of a bill in the Senate
introduced by Mr.. Howe, of Wisconsin, to
pay "loydl citizens for quartermaster and
commissary stores taken during the rebel
lion, a Democratic Senator, Mr.. McCreery
moved to strike out the word 'sloyal,' and
supported his motion by an earnest speech.
On the 2lst of May, Mr.. Knott, of Ken
lucky, IN able, frank, and fearless gentle
men, one of the leaders on the Democratic
side Of the house, speaking on this ques-
ton, used the following language:
"But, sir; this is not all, nor half. 1
have been speaking of only SO much of our
debt as we have given our notes for
Besides this we owe, at the very lowest
calculation, $4,000, 100000; not to the
bloated bond holder, of whom we have
heard SO much, hut to class of our peo-
pie to whom Of all others we are under the
most sacred obligation to pay. We owe it
to the poor, whose horses and cattle and
sheep and hogs and corn and wheat, and
everything else, were taken from them to
sustain your armies in the field
If the Union army had the right to
make war for the maintenance of the Gov
eminent, it had the right to I" forage ON
the enemy" but the Democratic PROPOSE
ton now is, that every rebel in the South
shall be paid for what he lost during the
war, and we have a leading Democrats
authority for saying that the amount
required will be three thousand millions of
60lInrs