The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1870-09-29
The Altitude Of the Two Parties.
Burning Words of Truth.
SPEAKER BLAINE'S LETT ER OF AC-
CEPTANCR.

! Published by the Union Republican Con-
4 gressional Committee, Washington, .C-l
AUGUSTA, MAINE, Aug. 4, 1870.
Hon. JOSEPH BAKER,
Chairman District CORUeRtiOH :
/ DEAR SIR Various circumstances
have caused delay in my formal ac-
Acknowledgement of your favor advising
me OF the fact that had again been
nominated for Representative from
/ the Third Congressional District. l
/ desire through you to express to my
political friends the profound sense OF
obligation feel for this renewed and
emphatic expression of their conf
dence. Approaching as do most
fully the moral worth, the general in
! telligence, and the high character of
my constituency, / confess that it is a
cause of grateful pride that | have
| been enabled to retain so steadfastly
and for 80 long a period their good
will, their sympathy, and their sup
port. In accepting the nomination
with which l am thus again hOnOred,
may be pardoned, trust, for dwell
ing ut some length on the issues in
vOlved in the pending election, and
the relative claims Of the Republican
and Democratic parties to popular
confidence.
REDUCTION OF THE DEBT.
It is seventeen months to-day since
General Grant was inaugurated as
President of the United States. When
he was invested with the Executive
authority the National Debt amount
to s., ,525, ASS, ,26O. On the first day Of
the present month the total debt was
s., 369, ,324, ,476, showing q reduction in
the period referred to of the enormous
sum of S15G, ,138, ,784-at the rate of
considerably more than one hundred
millions per year. During the seven
teen months Immediately preceding
General Grants accession to the Pres
dency, when the Democratic party
had control in the councils of Andrew
Johnson, the National Debt was in
creased more than thirty millions of
dollars. am writing with the official
al reports of Secretary McCullOch and
Secretary Boutwell, before me, and the
accuracy of these figures cannot be
successfully questioned.
But suggestive as these results are,
the whole truth is not yet told-fOr it
must be remembered that the enOf-
NOUS reduction of the National debt
under the administration of General
Grant has been achieved with dimin-
ishing sources of taxation as cOmpar-
ed with those in existence when the
debt was so largely increased under
Andrew Johnson. This fact demon
strates very conclusively two import
ant points, viz: First, that the reve-
nue. has been collected with far more
scrupulOus honesty and exactness un-
der President Grants Republican Ad-
ministratiOn than it was under Presi-
dent JOhnson's Democratic Admins
tration; and second, that the public
money has been aisbursed with far
greater economy and care under the
one than ii was under the other. Con-
trasting the two periods of equal
length, the one under Democratic in-
fiuenee and the other under Republic
can influence, and the difference to
the National Treasury in favor of the
latter exceeds one hundred and eigh-
ty-six millions of dollars, just about
eleven millions per mOnth-well
nigh 100000 per day. And this
difference exhibited, belt remem-
bered, when the Democraticparty did
not have full sway in the Govern
ment. They had control of the Pres
ident but were under the continual
and wholesome restraint of Repnb-
lican Congress. What the Democratic
party would do, II clothed with entire
power in the Departments of the Gov
eminent, will, we trust, be left for
longperiod to theimaginatiOn of men,
without giving us the bitter fruits of
its practical realization. What forms
of reputation of the National faith
would be resOTted to may be inferred
from the declarations of their cOnven-
tions and the speeches of many of
their leading men.
THE DEMOCRATS PROPOSE TO PAY
REBEL CLAIMS.
One of the most insidiOus, danger
GUS and probable modes of destroying
the National credit under Democratic
rule would be the payment from the
National Treasury of all Southern
claimants for losses inflicted by the
war. This is boldly avOwed by lead
ing Democrats in both branches of
Congress. In April last, during the
pendency of q bill in the Senate, in
frodaced by Mr.. Howe, of Wisconsin,
to pay aIoyal citizens fOrquaTter-mas-
ter and eommissary stores taken dur
ing the rebellion" Democratic Sem
tor, Mr.. McCreFy, moved to strike out
the word '1oyal" and supported his
motion by an earnest speech. On the
2Ist of Nav, Mr.. Knott, of Kentucky,
an able, frank and fearless gentleman,
one of the leaders on the Democratic
side of the House, speaking on the
question, used the following language:
"But, Sir, this is not all, nor half.
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, S3, 900, ,OO0,60Oi not
to the bloated bOndhOIder, of whom
we have heard so much, but to class
of our people to whom of all Others
we are under the most sacred Obliga-
tions to pay. We owe il to the poor,
whose horses, cattle and sheep and
hogs and corn and wheat, and every
thing else, were taken from them TO
sustain you in the field"
If the Union army had the right to
make war for the maintainance of the
government, it had the right to "fOr-
age on the enemy" but the Demo-
cratic proposition now is, that every
rebel in the South shall be paid for
what he lost during the war, and we
have leading Democrats authority
for saying that the amount required
will be three thousand millions Of dol
lars.