Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-10-17

| DoAuoiS Vi VIC pcOplc, 10 learn mat upOI
. these impoverished communities there ha.
= been inflicted, without any visible publ,
4 return, and principally since this Admins
tratlon was inaugurated, $168,O00 900 o.
e debt"
Y And in his speech at Springfield he charges
}, that this increase of debt was in eyery
t part theft and robbery by the scoundreis
placed in charge of the State Governments
r as he alleges, by the direct influence and
connivance of the Republican party. The
3 whole statement of Gov. Brown fills me
with amszement, and | an wholly at a loss
r 10 understand how any gentleman in his
( position dares to make such declarations.
, Bow SOUTHERN DEBTS WERE CONTRACTED.
In the first place, the men having con-
troll of the State Governments of the South
were not placed there by the administration
OF Gen. Grant or the Republican party of
the ration, but were elected by the people
of these States
In the next place he overstates the amount
OF Indebtedness contracted by the eleven
Southern States since reconstruction to the
extent of $37 900 900. The detailed staten Mt
embraced in the report of the Ku- Klux Com
mlttee to the Senate, page pa, shows In
crease OF debt and all liabilities, contingent
and prospective, since the reconstruction,
S131, III, 777S1.
In the third place Gov. Brown suppresses the
important and all-controlling fact that all
OF this Indebtedness, except about $3O, 900
0O), has been contracted for the purpose 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 utterly
out OF repair and the companies bankrupt
There was no capital in the couatrv with
which to build new railroads, and as men of
capital in other States would northwest their
money IN the South during her troubled and
unsettled condition, there was no wav to in
ltla e the construction of new roads but "
pledglng the credit of the States and raising
1T on their bonds. This was a dangerous
experiment, as has 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 cor
rect statement of the debt were authorized
Tor that purpose; many of them have never
yet been issued, the conditions upon which
they were to be issued and DISPOSED of not
having occurred. Some of those issued have
been lmprovidently disposed of, and others
wasted in frauds and extravaganza. for
wfich 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.
THE EVIL NOT CONFINED TO SOUTHERN STATES.
SAID the system was a dangerous one. as
had been hown by the experience of other
States Missouri, for example, at the end of
the war, had an old debt of nearly $40 900.
600, 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
twenty millions, failed to pay the Interest
on them, and for time her credit was prog
trated; but it has now wholly recovered.
Indiana, IN 1887, took the same course. dis
posed of her bonds to the amount of 81 / 900
GOO and upwrrd, and after the expenditure
OF all the proceeds, some being stolen, som.
squsndered, and the rest expended with a
proi1lgacy or without wisdom she had moth
ing to show for it but two pieces of canal
forty miles OF railroad and two or three un-
mn shed turnpikes. Ohio suffered largely in
the same way. Pennsylvania at one time
had debt of $4O,OOOOOO created for like
purposes, part of which was paid bv thu
sale OF Ler public works. Old Virginia to-
day has debt of more than $50, 600 600.
which it is doubtful whether she can ever
| pay, which was contracted before the war.
when there was not Republican within hsr
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 experi-
ment than the Northern ones did, for sore
Vi the WORKS nave been completed others
are IN progress, and in several States the in
Vestment may yet prove to have been wise
and statesmanlike. Had Gov. Brown stated
that the great balk of his indebtedness was
contracted for railroad purposes, it would
nave destroyed the force of his argument
and left him with lame and impotent con-
cluslon. Had he stated another fact which
he ought to have given to have vindlcated
the truth of history-that when these various
/
ception, they were supported by men of all
parties; that they were in no sense party
measures; that the corporations were organ
lied in great part by Democrats, and that of
the fra DIS actually committed Southern
democrats, to the manor born, had their full
share-his charges a. ainst the Republican
| party would have dwindled to q sn, all sum
of beggarly complaints.
| One word further upon this subject, and |
am done. Scarcely a railroad has been con- |
structed in the Southern States since the war |
| or is now in progress of construction, that |
was not inaugurated, and is now in great
part being conducted and managed by the |
much abused carpet-baggers; and the South |
to-day owes to them large part of her pro-
gress and enterprise. Southern abstraction |
lists. States rights philosophers, and the |
howiing Dervishes OF politics who spend |
their lives in lamenting the corruptions of |
| others, hardly ever build railroads or do |
other useful things. They are the drones |
OF the political hives, whom "God for some |
lnscrutsble providence" permits to vex the
public ear
THE TARIFF QUESTION.
In his speech in this city, Gov Brown con- |
graduated the country upon the final solu- |
ton and disposition of the tariff question bv |
RENTING it to the people in the various Con- |
gresslonal Districts, thus taking it out of |
ational politics ard relieving the country |
from all embarrassment. One would sup |
pose from his speech that the tariff for the |
first time had been placed within the reach |
and control of the people, by the especial IA
vor ard grace Of the coalition. The pretense |
OF taking the question out of national politics |
and renting 1t as new thing to the Con-
gressionsl Districts is most transparent |
dodge and humbug, and worthy only of the |
contempt of intelligent people. It will d.
ceive nobody. Gov. Brown had for wears
been an ultra free-trader, and the Missouri
Cincinnati movement was started upon that
basis, but afterward, when the coalition was
formed of men of al principles and none for
the sake of power and plumber, and Horace |
Greeley, protective tariff man, placedat its
mead, Is became necessary to strangie the
tariff question and huddle it out of sight.
!ney, astute managers, thought they had
done this by declaring that the President
should have nothing to do with it, that il
should be RENTED to the Con erosion al Dis