The Portland daily press., 1875-08-30
they are the legitimate results of the Demo-

Claims Commission, S2,093; expense Southern
Claims Commission, S5 800; expense of Court of AL
ALBANIA Claims, $S3374.70; cost of engraving and
printing national currency, S15S1 665 Al; re-funding
national debt 025551 expenses of national cur
rency and national loan 1888 342274 return of pro-
ceeds OF captured and abandoned property $780, O619-
oi re-funding proceeds OF cotton sezed S36 1888 ~;
COST OF assessing and collecting the internal revenue,
Soiss,oi3.al; prize money etc., $3.50, ,401 54 prize
money to Admiral Farragut's crew, 1852 800; pen
sons, S29,552, $50 49, interest public debt, slO3,
O9354.5; soldiers bounties under act of 1866 s277
11l bounty due colored soldiers, $50 OOO national
cemeteries and headstones for federal soldiers killed
in the late war, $685. s5s76; horses lost in service
and support Of refugees ETC., Sis, ,3bsS for le-im-
bursement of states for raising volunteers etc.. $780,
$685. for paying claims of loyal citizens for sup
plies, etc. ,265l7O 40; payment Of stoppages aud
fines due National Home for disabled volunteers.
S911 5O512; awards of British caimants, s19;
various relief acts, S77,Os429.
1t will be seen that every item above re-
lates directly to the late war and must be
charged 10 the Democratic leaders, since
every man of average intelligence must ad
nit that there would have been no rebellion
had not eleven Democratic states undertaken
TO sever the Union, in which undertaking
they were encouraged by the Democratic
leaders of the North.
Deducting the $149, 1924, 1894, the amount
chargeable to the Democratic leaders North
and South, from the total expenditures, $274-
1892. there remains $124, 79S, 725 to be ac-
counted for. The dollar with which the
present administration pays its current ex-
penses is only worth from eighty-ive to
| eighty EIGHT cents when measured by the dol
lar with which tho Buchanan administration
made its disbursements. Consequently 10
instituling comparison between the expen-
ditures Of tn" two administrations, it is nee
essary to measure them by the same unit OF
value, which should be the gold dollar. TAX
ing S74 cents as the average value of the pa
per dollar for the last fiscal year, S124, 1885,
IA, the currency expenditures for ordinary
| purposes, would be equal 10 S109, ,198, 1856 in
/ gold.
But even in this sum there are great
many items which cannot be properly called
l the ordinary expenses of the government.
All OF the sums expended to rebuild fortifi-
cations destroyed in the South, to clear out
navgable rivers and harbors filled with OBJ
structions, to make the Mississippi navigable
and many other expenditures of like char
acter, cannot be regarded as the ordinary ex-
penses of the administration, and if deducted
from the above amount would quite mate
rally reduce the $109, 1893 1856. But we will
omit these iteus, even the interest on the
Pacific Railway bonds, amounting to between
three aud four millions annually, and proceed
to make the comparison. The expenditures
| CT the Buchanan administration during its
second fiscal year corresponding with the
present in Gen. Grants second term) was
$74, 1920. The census taken two years or
more after that time (1S60) showed the pop
| ulatlon of the country to be 81, AS, ,321. The
increase of the population from 1850 to 1850
was over $4,000 which would ind cate that
the population of the country in 1858 was less
than thirty millions. 1t is estimated that the
population sf the country in 1875 was not
less than forty-three millions. By comparison
it will be found that the ratio between the
population and expenditures of the two Pc
liods for the ordinary purposes of the gov
ernment are very nearly equal.
In the meantime, the area over which the
federal government has been called upon TO
exercise active jurisdiction has increased in
a greater ratio than the population. At the
same time, the increase of the tariff which
has been demanded to pay the interest on
the war debt, has rendered it necessary to in
crease the number of revenue officials. Our
| Democratic friends make great howl about
this, but no man with particle of brains
| would risk his reputation for sanity by pre-
| dieting that that party would reduce the num-
| Der of ottee-hotders q single man. In the
meantime. too, great improvements have
been made in several departments of the
public service. The most important of these
improvements and extensions may be noticed
in the postal department. The number oil
nilss Of mail routes has been more than
doubled since 1850 and the value to the people
more than quadrupled. There is no city in
The land which does not have double the
mail advantages of ten years since. The
money order department which las been es-
tablisbed by Republican rule now does bus
ness amounting TO tens of millions at price
and with safety with which no private cor
poration eau hope to compete. The same
may be said of other departments.
| We will close this already long article by
declaring that the figures show tina. the or
cnary expenses Of running the government,
taking population, area and benefits into &C.
count, are not so large, per capita, as in Mr..
Buchanan's term; and second, that the
amount now annually paid by the people to
meet the liabilities gro,cing out of a Rebellion
for Which the Democratic leaders of 1860
,oere ,cholly responsible, IS DOUBLE THE
AMOUNT REQUIRED TO RUN THE GOVERN
MENT AT THE TIME THEY ATTEMPTED IT'S
DESTRUCTION.