The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-10-13
inform the canvassers that there were
only $50 names on the registry.
The Rebel Demand-COmpensatiOn for
Slaves to be Insisted upon by the
SOulh
From the New York Tribune


From the New York Tribune.
The Norfolk Vxgiaian has contribu-
tor who thinks it only necessary to put
the Radical party out of power, and
then the South can be paid for her
slaves and all other property destroyed
or otherwise lost in the late unpleasant
ness. He first argues that Emancipa-
ton was a wanton destruction of prop
erty, not justified by the laws of war,
and therefore to be compensated, and
continues:
add the. value of other property
lost by depreciation, from the destruc-
ton of capital and labor wanted to
utilize it and the injury done its taxa
bles by the Rebel Government of Wash
ington-for that the rebellion began
and was continued and will end in the
White House in Washington with the
present Administration, as | hope) no
one will deny, or, indeed, ever doubted.
President Buchanan and Judge Black,
both from the State of Pennsylvania,
said they could find nothing in the Con.
stitution of the United States TO justify
Congress, the agent, to declare war
against the States, their principal--this,
too, upon the eve of war. Such was
the opinion of all the great men from
Virginia and Carolina who made that
instrument, and such was its uniform
Interpretation south of the Potomac up
to the time of secession. The leaders
OF the Rebellion in Congress said that
It's war measures were revolutionary and
outside the Constitution, and that no
man of common sense could reconcile
the two things. The Constitution was
upset, and consolidated central gov
eminent, controlled by an absolute
majority, established on the ruins of a
Federal Republic.
Such being the fact and once adj
mitted truth, two or three plain princi-
pies of the law and practice of nations
will make the settlement of the ac-
count between the North and South
very simple and easy. That the war
was most unjust and in utter derogation
Of the rights Of the slave States,
may be assured as taken for
granted. The Northern States, who
used the General Government as tool
and its navy and army, treasury, etc,
as the machinery to wage war on the
South, must foot the whole bill, as Prus.
oitb Aleto lltNtS IIdllCc ~, ana hS tut
General Government itself did in the
most unprovoked and unjust war it
waged against Mexico. The ground
and principle Of settlement must be
Statuqto ante bellun, and not ui posSidetiS'
that is, not to keep the South in its
present state Of subsection, but to re.
store it to the condition in which it was
before the Ubiquitous war against it by
the North. This involves, as we have
seen by the laws and usages of nations,
full indemnity for the past and security
for the future, namely ample compen-
sation TO the slave.owner for the loss of
his property by the act of the emanc-
patton OF his negroes, or its repeal at
the option of the master. and the resto-
ration of the slave to his former state of
bondage, slavery, servitude and Deepen
dence from which he was liberated.
Complete compensation likewise to the
man, rich or poor, who lost houses,
barns, grain, corn, horses COWS, or any
other species of property.
This is no monstrous doctrine. 1t
would be Furnishing, not pay ing pre-
MUM for rebellion and would not
not heap disgrace upon the memory of
the thousands of brave men who died
in defense Of the government and the
rights of the States The Southern
States should also be fully compensated
for the expense they incurred in de-
Tending themselves in an aggressive
war of invasion on the part of the free
States. That is to say, the debts of the
Confederation should be assumed and
paid by the General Government by a
tax levied not on consumers by tariff.
but by an assessment on all the real
and personal property in the United
States. This would be compromise
and concession on the part of the South,
and the present national debt (about
two thousand millions of dollars being
wiped out or repudiated, or put exclu-
sively on the shoulders of the North,
where it should and will ultimately be
made to rest, the new assumed debt of
the General Government would be less
than its war debt now is, and the tax
laid for its payment entirely uniform
and just The poor man would then
pay on his property of which he has
little or no money! and not on his con-
sumption and wants, which are legion.
"' Disguise it as you will, to this ia
vor things will come at last The
West, the Northwest, and the South,
which are one in interests, will combine
and repeal the tariff, the act of emanc-
patton if necessary, and the new amend
ments to the Constitution, which are
frauds on that instrument. As ques.
ton OF dollars and cents, of simple adj
dition and subtraction, not to say Jus.
tice and common honesty, the new al
lies OF the South will find it to their in.
terest to assume their share of the
present debt of the rebel government.
and to pay by general tax on all prop
erty the war debt of the South"
The above is fair exemplifcation OF
the spirit and views of those who call
themselves "the South" and who ex.
pect to have their way whichever the
Democratic party shall elect President
and Congress. Hence we infer that the
Democracy can't afford to get into
power very soon; and even if they
could, the country can't afford to Let
them