New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-02-20

blood had vet A recuperative energy, best
shown in the amount Of plumber which was
furnished to tho horde of carpet-baggers that
swept down on the land. The statement
given by the Congress Subcommittee appears
to be just and discriminating in Its array OIL
facts and figures, and some OF the states ID
which rebellion lately existed make very
creditable showing. But the scandals wDich
have already been bruited abroad have
made sufficiently notorious South Carolina,
plundered to bankruptcy by rapaclous carpet
baggcrs Georgia, depleted by runaway ooV-
ernOr, and Florida now trying Its Governor
for misuse Of the public funds. Inc nis'-
named of these three States may be quoted as
affording the most flagitiOuS instance Oh thle'-
ing known to the whole unfortunate sister
hood. South Carolina has been so often hcId
up as an example of the ills OF carpet-Dag
rule, that we need not now enlarge on inc
main details of the crimes which have reduced
the State to financial ruin. We all know that
the Governor, State Treasurer, and state
Agent in New-YOrk have combined to 1eece
South Carolina enrich themselves and rum
the financial standing of the State. In order
to collect money to be diverted from legitimate
Wall-street on State bonds for twenty ana
thirty cents on the dollar. Over-lssues were
made and State securities were printed IKE
wallpaper The report made to Congress
treats the carpet-baggers very mildly out
there is no reason to doubt the truth OF
its statement that the cOrrupting influences
affected all classes of society, black and
white. old and new, patriot and rebel. One
old citizen of Spartanburg County, ). G., tes-
titled that he could see no wrong III brlDlng
an official it was as innocent transaction as
buying q mule. The system of buying land
by the State Government Of South Carolina,
for the poor freedmen, not only loaded the
treasury with wickedly increased debt, but
offered great temptations to old citizens OF the
planting class to secure extOrtionate prices for
their lands by blibing dishonest Oficials-a
temptation too strong alike for decayed ais
tocracy and imported rascallty.
Bad "a is the financial condition Of the South
to-day, it would be hardly fair to pass over in
silence the statement of the Subcommittee OF
Congress which shows the actual bankruptcy
of the so-called COnfederacy. In the conclu-
si0ns previously quoted it is proved that the
eleven lately rebellous States lost in property,
funds, assets, etc, exclusive of slaves S1,272,-
9OO,39O. In the confusion which followed
the collapse of the Rebel Government,
much valuable matter of record was lost
but the best authorities have placed the Rebel
debt on the 1st of April, 1865, at S2,G5 $685.
and the total asccrtained loss by the rebellion
in property, assets, and debts, State and Con-
federate, is safely put at the enormous amount
of $500, 9O3554. Here was burden which
even the prolific resources of the South would
have been unable to lift; it must have eyentu-
ally crushed the vital energies of the would
be nation. We have no words of pallation
for the crimes of the carpet-bag governments,
no excuses for their shameless thefts; but our
Southern brethren who seem TO consider these
latest misfortunes their greatest, must remem-
Der that they have a large share in the re-
sponsibity for the existence of these burdens,
and that, possibly worse thing than this
plague of locusts might have befallen them.