Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-02-24
SCENTS the following aggregate:
Total. .$24O, 66S,4S2 70


This represents only the increased in
debtedness Of the several States, but does
not show the robberies committed in the
way Of increased taxes levied and collected.
For instance, the taxes levied and collected
in this State during the Radical rule
OF about four and a half years for
State purposes, exceeded the taxes i'm
posed on the people for the ten years
preceding the war, being an increase
Of more than a hundred per cent.
Then the increase in the taxes for county
and municipal purposes was corresponding
ly great. There is reason to believe that
the increase in the taxes in other States was
equally as great, if not greater. 1t is, there
fore, safe to estimate the rObberieS COM
mltted by and through Radical officials, in
the name Of loyalty" at fully S3OO,OOO,OOO.
1t is barely possible that a portion of the
slupendous sum noted in the recapitulated
table may be saved from the wreck, by the
inability Of the plunderers to sen fraudu-
lent bonds and other intended spoils. But
in the most favorable light, here is positive
proof, says the Washington Patriot, that in
ten States desolated by the horrors Of
civil war, and where the actual prop
erty has deprecated fifty per cent. as
compared with 1860, an amount of money
hrs been stolen equal to one-tenth part of
the national debt. Superadded to the i'm
mense loss Of wealth and of life, and fol-
lowing in the very track of fresh destruc-
ton, came this organized villainy which
Congress licensed with impunity for crime,
and has protected through all its stages
with the most odious and oppressive legisla-
ton. Of the two hundred and forty mil
lions, which have been thus loaded
upon the back of an impoverished and
suffering people, fully nine-tenths of thZt
enormous sum has been absolutely ap-
propriated by the 'loyal" scamps for their
own uses. That is to say, they have sold
the bonds, ostensibly issued for railroad and
other Improvements, for what they would
fetch in market, and pocketed the proceeds,
without even an attempt to cover up the
barefaced frauds, by initiating these pre-
tended enterprises.
Referring to the majority report, which is
as mildly drawn as a Radical could draw
such document with the damaging proofs
of the corruption of his party before him,
the New York Tribune says:
eve have heard SO much Of the beggarly
condition of Southern finances, and of the
corruption OF the carpct-bag governments
OF the late insuTeCtiOnary States, that the
world IS ready for most discOuraging ex-
hibit from the subcommittee of Congress,
That Committee have just concluded their
labOrs and presented their report. We
have been prepared for the worst; but, vet,
IL must be confessed that the worst, dis
couraglng as 1t is, is not any more conclu-
sive IN the "deep damnation" of its making
up than the diSjointed facts, arrived at from
time TO time, have already indicated. The
full report which has Just been sub
mitted to Congress, was prepared by
the Hon. Job E. Stevenson of Ohio, |
chairman of the sub Committee, IL
goes carefully over the financial exhibits of
the eleven States, and concludes with a
summary, from which VIC gather the follow
ing data: The lately Rebel States entered
the Rebellion with debts and contingent liza
bilities amounting TO $l02, SIG, III; they had
exclusive Of slaves. valued at 81 !
I2S, S25,O O6; they emerged from the war
with an increased indebtedness and loss |
amounting to $l,272, 900,399, exclusive of |
the loss Of slave property.
$50, we find tine lately rebellious States
very badly of, when, at the conclusion of /
the civil war, they became subjects for re- /
But misrule and corruption /
followed where anarchy, financial chaos, and /
bankruptcy had done their worst. /
The States, though depleted by war
and the drain Of their best
blood, had yet recuperatiye energy, best
shown in the amount Of plufder which was
10 the horde of carpet baggers
that swept down on the land. The state
ment given ythe Congress Subj Committee
appears to be just and discriminating in its
array of facts and figures, and some of the
States in which rebellion lately existed make
a very creditable showing. But the scandals
which have already been bruited abroad
have made sufficiently notorious South
Carolina, plundered to bankruptcy by rapa-
'ious carpet-baggers; Georgia, depleted by
4 runaway Governor, and Florida now
rying lis Governor for misuse of the
public funds. The first named of
hese States may be quoted as
lflording the most fiagitious instance of
hieving known to the whole unfortunate
sterhood South Carolina has been so
'iten held up as an example of the ills of
'arpet-bag rule, that we need not now en-
arge on the main details of the crimes
which have reduced the State to financial
uin. We all know that the Governor.
State Treasurer, and State Agent in New
FORK have combined to fleece South Caro-
ina, enrich themselves and rnin the fipan-
ial standing of the State. In order to COL
sct money TO be diverted from legitimate