Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-09-30

new appointees failed to prove their
fitness for responsible trusts, they had |
also TO give place TO others. And imme-
diately the revenues improved. Every |
subordinate felt that his position depended |
ON his fidelity. Every taxpayer rea-
lized that what he paid went into the |
Treasury, and that his dishonest competi- |
tor, by his side, could no longer escape his
share Of the public burdens. And the |
same Internal Revenue laws, honestly |
administered; without fear or favor, the
same taxes faithfully collected, brought
millions more per month into the Treas
ury, for which the Sentinel now attacks
the administration!
In the Customs service also (the tariff)
there has been increased efficiency.
Fraudulent systoms OF undervalued in.
voices have been broken up. Smuggling
has been detected and arrested. And the
same Tariff laws thus yielded millions
more per quarter to the Treasury under
President Grant than under President
johnson. t.'. s
Look at the following official statement
Of the increase of receipts during the first
eighteen months of President Grants Ad-
miuistration Qrom March 1869, 10 Sept
1870, as compared with the last eighteen
months of President Johnson's admins
tration (hom- September, 1867, to March,
1869:
Increase in Internal Revenue receipts Sb3 1853 0tg
Increase in Customs receipts. ....... 42,751, ,43t
Increase in land sale receipts. ....... 1919 Sig
sN,88lse6
Decrease in Miscellaneous receipts,
premium on surplus gold sold, etc. 10,621,l01
Net increase on all receipts. s.......... Ss7,219765
Which has paid off Just that much debt,
of course, and relieved the taxpayers per-
manently of FIVE millions interest per
year.
Making all allowances for increase of
business, does not this prove that the ad-
ministration has been faithful guardian
OF the public interests committed to his
charged The benehcent results of this in
creased revenue flowing from increased
efficiency and honesty in the public ser
vice, has been felt by the people in more
ways than one.
While nothing was psid on the debt
during Mr.. Johnson's last year, the re-
duction under President Grant has been
constant and gratifyingly large. With
| out any increase of the public burdens, he
has paid off over $169,500,e00 of our
| bonded and overdue debt, in the first 19
months of his administration and has
| permanently reduced the annual interest,
to be paid to our creditors, nearly $9000-
600 per year. Up to this date, the bonds
| he has purchased with our surplus reve-
nue. have been stamped and kept as o
sinking fund. But the last Congress
ordered, as fairer way, that they should
| all be destroyed, now and hereafter, as
| purchased, so that they should no longer
be in existence, even in a cancelled form.
With this healthy condition of our
finances, Congress felt that large reduc-
ton of taxation was not inconsistent with
the maintenance of our credit And &C.
cordingly bill was passed reducing our
internal taxation at the rate of over fifty
five millions per year, and on tariff tsxs-
ton about twenty-five millions-in all
eighty millions per year, striking eff at
one blow, neffth of all our remaining
taxation Of sll kinds. These reductions
in our internal tax system have been OF
the most sweeping character.
We have about four hundred millions
of dollars of greenbacks and fractional
currency. When President Grant was
inaugurated, gold was at g premium Of
1888; so that these four hundred millions
of paper dollars, in the pockets Of the
people, were worth about three hundred
millions in gold. Before the European
war broke cut, gold had declined here, il
consequence of our improved national
credit, to 1t0 making these four hundred
millions of greenbacks and fractional cur
rencY worth to the people over three hun
dred and sixty millions in gold. And this
addition to their value, and their purchas
ing power, rendering the people who hold
them and use them as currency that much
better off, is fairly to be credited to the
administration.
The national expenditures have also
been largely and steadily decreasing from
the day President Grant took the oath o
office, The year ending July 1869 (part
ly Johnson's term and partly Grant's), theJ
we're 56000C00 less than the previous
year. The year ending July, 1870, they
were $29,000,000 less than in 1869. AnC
the present year, ending July next, they
will be from $i5,000,O00 10 SIG, ,0C0 00(
less than the fscal year just closed. AnC
here | must not omit this Democratic tes
timony from the special dispatch to Tn,
Cincinnati Enquirer, dated Washington
June 30 1869, which proves, out Of thu
mouth of an enemy how promptly thI
administration commenced the work o
reducing the expenses OF tie govern
ment:
"The fiscal year closed to-day, and sll Of the oil
appropriations expired. Tomorrow the Govern
ment goes forward on reduced appropriations
the result is that feveEal hundred officials .wer
to-day removed. Nearly two hundred were in tn
Treasury, and fifty were in the War Dapsrt- out
So far, nearly SIX hundred removals have bcel
made tom the Treasury Department"
i And this retrenching work has beer
; steadily pushed forward ever since il
! every department of the government
! | Internal revenue Cffipiala are hrinn re5r1c
ed and when the recent reduction take
effect, their number is to be still fuIthe
lessened, districts TO be consolidated, an,
{ the expenses of that branch of ser7ic
> largely Curtailed.
2 will not stop to make a balance sheet
7 but an administration that, without an,
? increase of taxation, can increase the II
c ceipts of our NatioIel Treasury unde
the Tariff and Tax We, over eighty mil
a lions in its first eighteen months over tn
3 amount collected by its predecessor in il
. last eighteen mOuths-can pay off in th
II same time one hundred and seventy mi,
lions of our national debt-can strike of
at one blow, eighty millions Of burden
some tsXation-Csn reduce our nations
:, expenditures one hundred million in thu
! first eighteen months of this sdministrs
a ton-and can make the currency, in th
pockets of the people, worth sixty mi
: ions more than when 1t entered on il
duties-descrves the confidence Of tn
. ! people whose interests IL has so faithfull
served-aDd can bear DhilosJphically th
: unjust and bitter criticisms TO which
> has been subjected by It's enemies. WI,
: grander results cOuld the most exactin
= have demanded of the administration
q - @Rs-