Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-06-01
THE DEMOCRACY ON THE PUBLIC DEBT.

at the hands of its adversaries by publish
ing such outrageous falsehoods as it did in
the Blount county affair; or by the sup
preston of the truth, as it did in its article
on the public debt last Thursday morn
ing, it is proof of its ability and efficiencya as
aparty organs Having started out topublish
a paper upon the theory that it is proof of
weakness to apologize for injuries unjustly
inflicted, or to retract statements unguard-
edly made it refuses to make reparation
to the injured citizens of Blount county,
and will doubtless refuse to do so in SINH
lar cases in the future.
In the eyes of honorable and rejecting
men there is vast difference between
making political capital out of legitimate,
fair discussion, or criticism ofthe principles,
or policy of your political opponents, and
distorting facts or suppressing truth.
There is, in fact, but little difference be-
tween the suggestion of falsehood and the
suppression of the truth.
These observations seem pertinent to the
case in hand.=-The Press and Herald takes
up an article from the Louisville Courier
Journal, and adapting it to its own wants,
of its readers, no doubt seems very able
and satisfactory TO any one atall CONVEX
SAINT with public affairs, it carries upon its
very face trick so bald as to be readily
understood.
The effort of the article in question is,
to show that the public debt of the United
States was greater by S54, sos, PSI on the LIST
day of May, 1870, than it was on the LIST
day of April, 1865. 1t is cautious enough
to protect itself from being convicted of
deliberate falsehood, by saying that the
audited debt has been increased, during
the past five years, nearly fifty-five mil
| lions.n The qualification of its statement,
made to protect it from the contempt such
a trick provokes in every fair-minded man,
cannot shield it from the charge that its
statement was made to mislead and delude
those not so familiar with such questions.
The facts, of course, do not sustain the inn
preston intended to be made. When the
war ended, in April, 1865, the expenditures
| incurred thereby did not cease, as every
informed man well knows. The vast ar
mics disbanded were to be paid; the i'm
mense claims for quartermasters' and COM
missary stores for the army and navy We're
to be settled the contracts made while the
war was fragrant were to be liquidated; the
several hundred thousand soldiers, when
mustered out, We're to be transported to
their homes, and the pensions to the disa-
bled heroes, and to the wives and children
of the dead, were to be allowed and paid.
| All this was part of the public debt and
more binding upon the Government
than any of its written promises to pay.
! Let us look at the vast sums these items
made, and see whether or not we have
lessened the Public Debt.
Since 1865 the government has paid on
the following items the following sums
Military and Naval Pensions, -. $107, ASS, 635
Military Expenditures, ......,' 589, 055,0l2
Naval "."...... 12S, 449, 473
Grand total, ......... 1894 1913 40
Portions of the above sum We're, of course,
added during the years between 1865 and
| 1869, to the current expenses of the gov
eminent, and it cannot, therefore, all be
called an increase of the debt. But to show
the unfairness of the Press and HeraId's
statements, we have only to show that our
contemporary takes the debt at what it
was on March 3lst, 1865, when it was ST.
366, ,077, while on the 3lst of August,
1865, but four months later, the debt was
50, 757 $50, 81, an increase of 1890, 734 494.
The increase resulted from the sources
above enumerated.
So far then from the debt having been
| increased, if we take the audited debt as
stated on the 3lst Of August, 1865, when it
reached the highest point, we have de
crease of S336, S35 600
Taking into consideration these facts,
every intelligent reader can see the little
partisan trick our contemporary tried to
play.
But this decrease has been done, to
great extent, under President Grants Adj
ministration. The policy pursued by Sec
rotary Boutwell,, of selling our surplus
gold and with the proceeds buying Gov
eminent bonds has resulted in raising that
fund 10 $50, 1856, 200, which, added to the
sinking fund of SS3 ,si2,9 800, shows an ac-
tual decrease of the public debt since the
beginning Of Grants Adninistration-bu
little over year--of Sll4, l2S, 100. This has
been done without an increase of one sin