The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-07-05

erned by brutes and the vital princi
pies of such government are reason
and public virtue. The Constitution
!, of the United States was framed upol
these ideas, although there was in th'
Convention those who believed in th'
wisdom of the English system. Eve
since 1861 there has been a studied
purpose ON the part of certain politi
clans to combine the Russian and Eng
lish system of government in the Uni
| ted States. That is, to build up al
oligarchy of wealth to be sustained by
force. Fear, force and concentrated
wealth to be the three planks of tht
new system. 1t was to this end thai
the federal debt was created. 1t wa!
for this purpose that the President
was authorized to interfere in elections
with the army and navy. If it was
for this, that authority has been given
President Grant to proclaim martial
law and suspend the writ of habeas
corpus in time of peace, in every State
in the Union. Do not misunderstood
me, my friends. do not make this
charge against the majority of Repub
licans. They are as much attached to
free government as we are, and il
once satisfied they are in peril, they
would as readily come to their defense
as ourselves. The men of whom
speak are the betrayers of the Repub-
lican party, as of the whole people
and it is with sorrow that I admit that
three of them-Butler, Morton and
Grant-were formerly Democrats.
But to the proof. In Europe as in
the United States. certain class of
men have long professed to believe
that a national debt is q public bless
ing; that debt and capital are the
same. Such was the doctrine of those
who created the funded debt of Eng
land. Such was the doctrine avowed
in the notorious pamphlet circulated
by Jay Cooke, when acting as agent
for the federal government for the sale
of bonds. There are but two meth
DDS by which the expenditures of n
government can be maintained. Tax
alton, without debt or borrowing first,
with heavy debt and oppressive taxes
afterwards. The latter plan was adopt
ed. Was it necessary After hear
ing the facts you shall answe er for your
selves. hold in my hand the last
report of the Register of the Unit ed
States Treasury. On page 276 it ap-
pears that ON July 1st, 1861, four
months after Mr.. Lincoln became
President, the entire outstanding debt
of the United States was S90,S67. .828
WITH ho1 Traos
(p. 275) sO,96s, ,s57
Leaving the actual debt, s59,903, ,971
This debt could have been paid dur
ing any fiscal year without being felt.
The question was, how should revenue
be raised to carry on the war? BY
taxation during the war, and low tax
es and no debt after the war was over?
Or by borrowing, and low taxes dur
ing the war; and heavy taxes, to be
made perpetual, after peace was re-
stored! The latter plan was adopted.
Was it necessary? 1t was not only
unnecessary, but the debt was inten-
tionaIly created for the express pur
pose of building up a moneyed oil
garchy, and it has been done.
THE PROOF.
Had taxation been equal to the ex-
penditures Of the Government during
the war, Mt its close there would have
been no debt, and to-day federal taxa.
tion would be less than seventy in
stead Of more than four hundred mil
lions. This policy would have pre-
vented an initiation of prices and re,
duced one half the cost Of the war;.
When greenbacks fell to be only worth
fifty cents OH the dollar, it required
two dollars in greenbacks to buy one
dollars worth of supplies, and thus the
cost of the war was doubled. The
expenditures of the first year of the
war were less than $457 900, ,000.-
Had $500, 100000 grcenbacks been is
sued as became necessary, to make
purchases and made receivable fer
custom dues as well as for the pay
ment of other taxes, they would have
maintained the par value of gold, and
been paid into the treasury for taxes
during the next year. But could five
hundred millions of taxes have been
collected in a year? The answer is
easy. More than six hundred and
nineteen millions of taxes were col
lected during the first year of peace,
Notwithstanding the exhaustion of four
years of war; and the voluntary con-
tributions of the people during the
war, nearly equaled the amount paid
in taxes. Hence it is clear that the
expenditures of the war could have
been paid Nhile the war continued :;
and at its close we would have return
ed to low taxes and been free of debt.
But my kind friends, that is exactly
what the oligarchs did not want. A
great debt. was their esepcial object,
and that could only be attained by low
taxes during tho war and high taxes
forever afterwards. Let me invite
your careful attention to the following
official figures which 1 read from the
last report of the. Register of the
Treasury. During the first year Of
the war federal taxes only amounted
to
Sol, ,9O7, ,944
The second year S74, ,44S.157
The third year, S262, 742354
The last year of the war, S323, ,092, ,7S5
The first year of peace, $61a, a,646, GAS
Borrowing and initiation were hand
in hand during the war, and at its
close we had liquidated debt of more
than twenty six hundred millions,
and more than six hundred millions
of federal taxation. 1t is true that
owing to the sleepless fight made by
the Democrats in Congress, the debt
has been reduced to a little over