Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-02-27
THE RUTLAND HERALD
Danger to the Treasury.

@It was charged, during the last presi-
Dental campaign, that project was on
foot looking to the ultimate assumption
of the rebel debts by the general govern
ment. 1t was claimed that, in tho event
of the Democratic party being restored
TO power, such a result must inevitably
follow, not, perhaps, Immediately or
during the term of the administration
thus brought into the control OF the
government, but that it would be the in
auguration of a series of measures which
would tend to that end and, ultimately,
SO result The proposition was, by the
majority, laughed to seorn. Others
treated it more seriously, but met it with
what was intended to be complete and
unanswerable argument. That argu-
ment was that the fourteenth amend
ment to the constitution expressly pro-
vided that neither the United States nor
any State shall assume or pay any debt
or obligation incurred in aid of insurrec-
ton or rebellion against the United
States, or aby claim for the loss or
emancipation of any slave but all such
debts, obligations, and claims shall be
held illegal and void" This might have
been a complete, perfect and irresistible
answer to any such claim, or the assump-
ton and payment of such debts by the
general government, or by a separate
State, but for the fact that the same
power, which made such prohibition a
part of the organic law, can, also, I'M
make IL. We are no alarmists, and do
not apprehend any immediate danger of
.uch an attempt. We do not know that
any such proposition will ever, seriously,
he made, indeed, we are not prepared to
express a confident opinion upon the
point either way We believe, never
theless, that there is and was danger to
be unprecedented in this very direction.
If il ever becomes a reality, it will not
Dc by the acts, alone, Of those who are
now or were then Democrats. Although
fun charge OF entertaining such views
was charged, and, as we are inclined to
think, justly charged against Southern
Democrats, yet they could, of necessity,
boz only the ''uest egg of the project.
The influence would have to extend out
and from and around them, to a greater
or less extent. before it would receive
sufficient vitality to cause immediate
alarm we mean, by this, danger of its
immediate or near approach. We all
know and understand how quickly and
thoroughly one becomes imbued with
ideas which, in their practical realize-
ton, will result in immediate, or even
remote, benefit to their friends ard
neighhors, or even to their particular To-
culjty or State. Human nature is. always
and everywhere, the same. tits wholly
selfish. We can well conceive how the
South, almost as body, could unite in
demanding such payment, either by the
national or State government. We all
know how measures are forced through
Congress and State Legislatures by out
side pressure, if not by the absolute use
of corrupt means. We understand how
public opinion is manufactured. We
see, from day to day, the effects of time
and distance on the feeling of the people
towards the South, even in reference to
her course during the rebellion. General
Butler, even, said on the floor of the
national House Of Representatives, in
substance, that they-the Southland
earned the right to be wrong. 1t is too
much the custom to regard the public
treasury as lawful plumber. II il not
deemed necessary to guard it as sacredly
as one would his private fortune or the
funds of the bank in which he might be
Interested The part paid by each indi-
yidual is so small and insignificant in
amount, and is paid by us, as it were,
without knowledge, that we seem to
know very little and to care much less
What is paid out of the public funds or
what it is paid for. Entering wedges
are being constantly driven, rthe effort
is strcnuously made to drive them, so
that the treasury door may be thrown
wide open. -Four years ago, it would
have been impossible to pass, or hardly
to consider, the several bills for the pay
mcnt of property destroyed and losses
sustained during the rebellion, and as
direct result Of the war and, in fact, for
the sole purpose and object of, and re-
sulting only in, striking blow at rebels
actually in arms. But now there is no
difficulty in procuring such legislation,
as the history of the present Congress
attests Nay more, it is with ease that
two-thirds Of Congress are found to pass
such relief bills over the veto of the
President, who nobly stands guard over
the Treasury. Another measure, fraught
with still greater danger to the country,
is seriously entertained. This, also, has
its birth in the South and POUNDS its ap-
peal on sympathy. 1t is no less than the
assumption of the present Indebtedness
of the Southern States by the general
government. There have been rumors to
this effect for some time past, but, one
day last week. it took form and sub
stance in a circular, which was laid be-
fore every individual member of Con-
gress and sent, more or less generally, to
The newspaper press of the country. The
circular is lengthy or we would publish
II entire. 1t is based mainly, however,
on the impoverished condition of the
South on account of the rebellion, that
the failure of prompt payment, of either
principal or interest, would affect dis
astrously the credit of other States and
the nation, and that the debt is largely
due TO citizens of the north. How
specious the argument, and how apple
able to the first proposition. In order to
"a II a trihe more sugarrcoated, they,
snhseor, >~tly, propose that the general
,. ,,'D9 >tlall assume the State debts
. : 49, section c the country. Here