Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-11-11
THE ECHOES OF THE WAR.
$5OO,OOO.OOO for the Loss of
Slaves.

EThe Richmond Wing publishes the
following correspondence between ga
distinguished Northern gentleman" and
ex-senator Hunter:
LETTER OF A NORTHERN GENTLEMAN
TO MIR. HUNTER.
Oct. Is, ls73.-Hon. R. M. T. Hun
teI-Deaf Sir: l have Just received a
| synopsis of your remarks before the
| Agricultural Society of Shenandoah
Valley; which has induced me to send
you the enclosed extract from E. Bur-
| ITtt's lecture as some evidence of the
Beginning of areaciion in the Northern
mind with regard to the South. The
\ fiscal relief which you suggest would
of eourse be resisted in the North. if
asked ON the ground Of Justice to the
South, But if the interest which the
Northern and Middle States have in the
prosperity of the South, and the in
crease of its productions should be IN
sisted on, then, l think, that loan to
the South of four or five hundred mil
lions would have many friends. 1t has
occurred to me, since reading your re-
marks, that some such plan as the fol-
lowing might command COMPRESSION
al majority: The United States to
loan to the South S500,000,0O0 of four
per cent. bonds, having twenty or thir-
ty years to run; this loan 10 he distrib-
uted to the Southern States, excepting
Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Mis-
souri,, IN proportion to population;
each State to distribute the amount
received by such State to different
counties, to he loaned to planters, at
| Six per cent, on unincumbered i'm
proved real estate in actual cultivation
and twice the value of loan, the two
per cent. paid by the planter over and
above the interest on the United States
bonds, to be paid annually to the Sec
rotary of the Treasury, and to consti-
tute sinking fund to extinguish the
principal; all payments Of principal
over and above the Interest which the
planter from Time to time may be dis
posed TO pay to be added to the sinking
fund. I think that long before the |
principal shall be due, events may take |
place which might induce the United |
States to relinquish to the borrowing |
States their whole indebtedness. A |
strong argument in favor of such a |
measure of relief would be that it |
would tend TO allay all lingering senti-
1hents of animosity at the South to-
wards the people of the other States |
The deposits of surplus revenue during
General Jaclson's Presidency no one
has ever proposed to recall, and it
would be SO with the proposed loan.
Very truly and respectfully, your
obedient servant, --.
MR.. HUNTERS REPLY.
OCTOBER q, 1873.-My Dear Sir:
| received your letter of the 9th a day
or two ago, and avail myself of an ear
ly opportunity to reply to you.
L did not make any proposition to
pay the claim for the loss or emanCipa-
ton of any slave, or 20 compensate the
owner for such loss, either in substance
or form. That 100000 900 would not
pay for four million five hundred thous-
and slaves when they were emancipated
is so obvious that l need not discuss
the question. This amount would be
very far from paying for such number
of slaves at the time of the emancipa-
ton. Nor did propose to give abso-
lutely 500, 100000, or any amount Of
money, to pay for these slaves; but, on
the contrary, suggested a deposit of
that amount to the slavehOlding States,
without interest, to be loaned TO the de-
spoiled shareholders in the same man.
ner after the model and strictly upon
the precedent of the act of June %.
1886, depositing the surplus revenue of
ha 14yNlC 80, I
States upon the terms and in the man.
ner therein specified.
When the United States Government
wished to transfer their surplus reve-
nue. to the States, finding that it had
no authority to give money to the
States, it saved the constitutional point
and eluded the Difficulty by giving the
transfer the form Of loan or deposit
without interest, to be resumed by the
United States III certain events. and in
a prescribed mode. | proposed that
500, OO0,OOO, the sum named by MIR. Lin
coin as that which he was willing to give
the despoiled shareholders, should be
deposited with the States without III
terest, and in the same manner 10 be
loaned to the STAKEHOLDER IN proportion
to his losses. II the loan Of the sur
plus revenue in the manner in which it
was made was not an assumption of the
power to give money to the States not
granted IN the Constitution, then the
deposit of the $500, 100000 with the
slaveholding States in the same man.
ner and upon the same terms would be
no violation of the fourteenth amend
ment, which forbade the Government
to pay for a slave lost by emancipa-
ton.
The inducement to deposit the sur
plus revenue with the States was the
hope that it would be used far more
usefully for the purpose in this way
than if it remained in the Treasury of
the United States. Far greater would
be the inducements to deposit the
800, 100000 with the slaveholding
States for the easement and benefit of
the despoiled stakeholder than existed
for that of the surplus revenue when it
took place. 1t would be difficult to es-
innate how much such deposit, to be
loaned to the stakeholder, would con-
tribute to the prosperity and revival of
the States of which he was a citizen
That this revival would greatly pro-
mote the Interstate trade and COM
merce, in which all are interested, is a
proposition so plain as to need no dis
cussion. All may see how much this
would increase the prosperity of those
States, now so depressed, to contribute
to the common taxes and burthen Of
the country. Although unable to es-
innate the advantages Of these pecuni-
airy returns to the Government of the
United States and their people, 1 should
probably be not far wrong in saying
that these advantages would repay be-
fore very long to the whole Union the
expenses of the original outlay.
But this is not all. The union and
fraternal action of the two races in the
South have been delayed by the fear,
real or affected, on the part of the col
ored race that their former masters
would seek to re-enslave them. This
fear is so absurd that it is difficult to
believe in its existence. But if it really
exists, then such a measure could hard
lv fail 10 aytiD Or1liSh II nc tho nacyrO |