Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-10-03
in the nostrils of the demons of the Ku-

in the nostrils of the demons of the Ku-
Klux.
Again, Governor Brown assails the recon
structed State Governments as having been
organized by carpet-baggers, plunderers.
and adventurers, who went down there to
steal, and remained only until they were
gorged, then to return to the North with
their stolen goods. In all this there is but
a small element of truth, and for that ele-
ment nobody is responsible but the friends
of Governor Brown, North and South.
When the work of reconstruction began
those who had been engaged in the re-
bellion refused to take part in it, stood
aloof, declared the action of Congress un-
constitutional, and professed to wash their
hands of the whole business, in some States
refusing even to vote one way or the other,
but in all unanimously opposing reconstruc.
tion. This necessarily threw the work OF
reconstruction into the hands of the colored
men, the few white men of the South called
"scalawags," and those who emigrated from
the North to the South, called "carpet-bag
gers" If the politicians of the South had
not with stupid malice refused to take
part in reconstruction, the called car
pet-baggers" OF the North would have
had but little to do with it, and
the State Governments of the South
would from the first have been in the
hands of the late rebels, the friends now OF
Governor Brown. But when they stood afar
off, and did everything in their power to op-
pose, the work of reconstruction had to be
done by those into whose hands it fell, or
not be done at ALL Doubtless some of the
so-called "earpet- baggers were not proper
persons-were adventures seeking their
own fortunes but others, and the majority
of them, We're true emigrants, and would
have remained in the South and become her
most valuable citizens, as many of them
have done anyhow, had they not been per-
secuted at every step by their rebel enemies,
bounded on by Northern allies. The new
States of the Union have generally been
filled with carpet-baggers and even Gov
ernor Brown is said to have carpet -bagged
from Kentucky to Missouri. Our country
belongs to each citizen; his rights are not
circumscribed by a State, and the howl
against carpet-baggers is craven cry
which ought never to pass the lips of an
American statesman.
That there has been corruption in some of
the State Governments of the South is un-
doubtedly true; it would be strange if there
had not been, when we consider the circum-
stances under which they sprang into life;
but that it has been grossly and UNANIMOUSLY
exaggerated for party purposes is also true.
The accounts given by Governor Brown of
taxation in the South for the support of
their State Governments, and of the debts
created by those governments are so exag-
gerated as to excite my profound astonish-
ment. He says these governments have in
creased the debts of the Southern States
and chiefly during the present Administra-
tion, to the extent of S16S, 600, 600. But lest
l be accused of Misrepresentation, | will
quote from his speech in this city the follow
ing passage:
"Will it be received by you then as evidence of
such honest purpose to tighten the burdens of
the people to learn that upon these impoverished
communities, there has been inflicted, without any
visible public return. and principally since this
Administration was naugurated, S16S 600 of
debt?''
And in his speech atSpringfeld he charges
that this increase of debt was in every part
a theft and robbery by the scoundrels placed
in charge of the State governments, as he
alleges, by the direct influence and connlv
ance of the Republican party. The whole
statement of Governor Brown fills me with
amazement, and am wholly at loss TO
understand how any gentleman in his posi-
tion dares to make such declarations.
In the first place, the men having control
of the State Governments of the South were
not placed there by the administration of
the nation, but were elected by the people
of those States.
In the next place, he overestimates the
amount of Indebtedness contracted by the
to the extent of $37, 100000. The detailed
statement embraced in the report of the
Ku-KluX Committee to the Senate, page 2l4,
shows: increase of debt and all liabilities
contingent and prospective, since reconstruc-
ton, S131, III, ,777.S1."
presses the important and all-controlling fact
that of all this Indebtedness, except about
$50, COG, coo, has been contracted for the pur
pose of building railroads in those States.
When they were reconstructed the first great
want experienced was railroads. The South
had few before the war. Some of them had
been destroyed during the war, or were ut
terly out of repair and the companies bank
rupt. There was no capital in the country
with which to build new railroads, ,and as men
of capital in other States would not invest
their money in the South during her troubled
and unsettled condition, there was no way
to initiate the construction of new roads
but by pledging the credit of the States and
raising it on their bonds. This was danger
| Gus experiment as had been shown by the eX-
| perience of other States, but it was all that
| could be done under the circumstances
| Nearly all the bonds embraced in the correct
statement OF the debt were authorized for
| that purpose; many of them having never
yet been issued, the conditions upon which
they were to be used and disposed of not
| having occurred. Some of those issued have
been improvidently disposed of, and others
wasted in frauds and extravaganza, for
which no defense is to be made; but the
amount of bonds thus lost is very small COM
pared with the whole amount embraced in
| the statement.
l said the system was dangerous one, as
had been shown by the experience of other
States. Missouri, for example, at the end of
the war, had an old debt of nearly $50, ,0OO,-
900, contracted before the war, for the pur-
| pose of building railroads and other internal
improvements, for which she had very little
| to show.
Illinois embarked in the same system, and
| sacrificed bonds to the amount of near tWen-
ty millions, failed to pay the interest on
them, and for time her credit was pros
trated; but it has now wholly recovered.
Indiana, in 1887, took the same course, dis
| posed of her bonds to the amount of SILL
| 0O0, 900 and upward, and after the eXpendi-
ture of all the proceeds, some being stolen,
some squandered, and the rest expended
with profigacy or without wisdom, she
had nothing to show for it but two pieces of
canal, forty miles of railroad, and two or
| three unfinished turnpikes. Ohio suffered
| largely in The same way. Pennsylvania at
one time had debt of 1000, 600 created
| for like purposes, a part of which was paid
by the sale of her public works. Old Vir-
| ginia to-day has debt of more than S53,-
| 100000, which it is doubtful whether she
can ever pay, which was contracted before
| the war, when there was not Republican
within her borders, and for which she has
very little to show.
But the prospect now is that the Southern
States will come out better with this expert
ment than the Northern ones did, for some
of the works have been completed; others are
| In progress, and in several States the in
vestment may yet prove to have been wise
and statesmanlike. Had Governor Brown
stated that the great bulk of this indebted
| ness was contracted for railroad purposes
it would have destroyed the force of his
argument, and left him with lame and i'm
| potent conclusion. Had he stated another
fact, which he ought to have given to have
| indicated the truth of history-that when
these various railroad bills passed, with
scarcely an exception, they were supported
by men of all parties; that they were in no
sense party measures; that the corporations
were organized in great par, by Democrats,
and that of the frauds actually committed
Southern Democrats, to the manor born, had
their full share-his charges against the Re-
publican party would have dwindled to a
small sum of beggarly complaints.
One word further upon this subject, and 1
am done. Scarcely a railroad has been con-
structed in the Southern States since the war,
or is now in progress of cons Jruction, that
was not inaugurated, and is not now in great
Inn RI hafr, ,a4A