The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1871-09-15
Financial Corruption North md South.

English as we'll as Of our own press, of
financial corruption and "ring'' manage
ment in New York city. is curiously and
suggestively like to that which hns been
| repeatedly made Of a similar state Of
things in various Southern States. The
Indignant resolutions of the late citizens
meeting ut Cooper Institute echo almost
literally the complaints which, for three
years past, the Southern press and peo-
plo have been uttering in the cars Of the
nation. The fact that the Republican
purity has been mostly indifferent to the
| spectacle presented ut tho South, while
it is vexed to its inmost soul mt tho re-
citnl of the alleged misdoings Of Tweed
Connolly & Co. only illustrates tho diff
ference it mikes whose OK is gorel. Il
always does make difference in politics,
although it makes mono in morals, aud
should mike none in the judgment Of
honest and patriotic men, which sido
does the stealing. In New York Tam
many is accused Of prndcring tho pub
lie to enrich itself aud to mnintnin tho
supremacy OF tue Democratic purity.
! The Wholesale robberics Of the State 60
vernments aud people ut the South hnve
been excused and pnliated, if not justi
tied, because the men who perpetrated
them were Of unblemished ''loynlty, :"
and it WAS hy such means that tho per-
petuity of ''carpet. bag" rule aud Repub-
licnn ascendency was to be secured.
That our readers mny Judge how
closely the parallel holds, with the differ
ence. if any, that the greater cnormities
and rascalities will be found to have been
committed ut the South, we invite utten-
ton to few figures taken from trust
worthy sources. The results in New
York, Us summed up by Republican
authority, may be stated ns follows: Iu
January, 1S69-two years and half ago
the total city aud County debt was, in
round numbers, S2D, 900. 600. In Octo-
6er, lS70-not quite year ago-it was
S55, 900. 900. Last May it was S82 000,-
ooo. aud at the citizens meeting It WIS
estimated to amount, on tho 1st Of Sep
tember. to Sll3, 100000. At the break-
| ing out of tho war the State debt Of
Louisiana was SIC, ,OO0, 600; in 1868 it was
5l4, 500. 600; in 1870 it was S41, 200. 900,
and on the lst of lust June it was $40,
600, 600. In the same interval taxes had
increased from 20 cents to Sl.45 on tho
$l00. and this yeur will amount to con
sidernbly moro than 81; while by the
| loss Of slaves; the depreciation of land
and the devastations of the war, taxable
property had greatly diminished. To
show how the money has gone, before
1860. sixty days session of the Legis-
lature cost in Louisiana from SlO0, 600 to
S200. 600. The regular and extrn session
of 1870 cost more than $3.50, 600, and the
regular session of 1871 cost more than
5000, 900. In South Cnrolina, ns shown
by the exhibit prepured by the Tax pay
ers' Convention, taxes. in 1870, reached
81, 600, 600, as against S40O, 600 before
the war, and this in the fnce of The
greatly impoverished condition of the
State; while to show the superior cost Of
'scalawag" and ''carpet-bag" legislntion.
session of the Legislature which iii
1865 cost S45, $50. in 1871 cost 5l00. 600.
and the State debt from having been no.
minnl before the war is now about So
000.O
! If we take the case of a State which
emerged earlier from 'the bonds Of
wickedness and gall of iniquity" of Sc
cession than either of those named, aud
enjoyed earlier the benefits of RepubIi-
can rule. the State debt of Tennessee
has increased from SIS. 1875, 1853 in 1861,
to S42. 852. G52 ID 1S7l-an increase OF
S37. 527 494 mainly since reconstruc-
ton began. The New York Nation,
commenting upon the figures from Lou.
lsiana, above given, makes this frank
acknowledgement: 'rIhe Stnte ia, in
short, ns North Carolina has bcen, as
South Carolina has been, and as nearly
every Southern State has been. the prey,
since 1865, of grossly and shamelessly
corrupt governments. whose officers
have made fortunes, and of rings Of
railroad and other speculators." All the
Southern States have not suffered eaunl-
~, it is true, but not one has wholly
escaped. The history Of Radical mis-
government in the South recalls that Of
the worst period of Roman proconsular
government, when extortions like those
of the Quaestor Verres. in Sicily. fur
nished an immortal text for the indig-
nant eloquence of Cicero. To modern
times it finds it's only parallel in the
policy which Spain has remorselessly
pursued towards her colonies, fnrming
them ont among political fnvorites nnd
needy adventures, if it does not even
rival the experience Of Mexico and Peru
in the hands of the con9uisudores.
Every word of indignant protest and
dennnciation contained in the resolu-
tip,o ,,.ucu1 1,v tia N,,, Vo,l- o;t,,,,,,