Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-11-10

restraint the Democrats propose to re-
move, and bill for that purpose was also
introduced at the last session of Congress,
admitting all claims, without regard to
the status Of the claimant during the war.
1t is for the people of the North to con-
template the consequences of the policy
tacitly admitted by the South and treach-
erously evaded by their Northern allies.
1t can only be prevented nou--in this
present election. Give the Confederates
the control of the Executive, Legislative
and judiciary branches of the Govern
ment, and there will be NJ lawful means
to oppose their project Admit them to
power by vote of the majority of the
people, and they will have the legal right
AS they now claim the moral right-to
indemnify themselves for the losses Incl
dent to an unconstitutional coercion of
their return to the Union. They will not,
Immediately upon their accession to DOW
er, pass bill admitting all claims indis-
criminateiy, appropriating two thousand
millions therefor, issuing bonds to that
amount, and increasing taxation to pay
the interest They will proceed in more
cautious but not less dangerous fashion.
The French have by word "Ce nest que
h premier pas qui c0ote"--(" 1t is only the
first step which is diffie llt'')-and it is
the first step in the reckless course of the
South chat must be arrested. Give them
the power, and they will first admit
claims of sympathy, so to speak-losses
sustained by widows and minor heirs,
whose husbands and fathers took part In
the Rebellion, but who were themselves
passive spectators because they could not
be anything else. Next will come non
combatants of all classes-old men. minis
tiers, and those engaged in peculiar civil
pursuits that exempted them from military
service. From this on, the progress will
be rapid. One precedent will admit a
dozen claims, dozen "a hundred, a hun
dred a thousand, and thousand all the
rest Up to a certain amount these claims
may be allowed and paid without per
,ceptibly increasing the burdens of the peo-
pie. Reduction of the public debt may
be stopped and the sinking fund applied
to claims, each of which will give twenty
or thirty millions year to pay the in
terest on new bonds. Then the issue of
the National Bank notes may be called in
and greenbacks substituted, which will
give 100000, 900 more. And so on until
the public debt shall be increased cool
thousand millions before the public sense
shall be fully awakened to it.
And what will the people of the North
do about it, if they shall have voluntarily
resigned full power into the hands of the
Confederates? Human nature and self
interest will prompt the latter to carry out
the raid on the Public Treasury to the ut
most tension, and there will be no lawful
means for restraining their rapacity. The
time will surely come when the people of
the North will be goaded on to repudia-
ton or revolution, or both. In repudia-
ton the people of the South will readily
join, after having had the benefit of the
sale Of the bonds and the credit Of the
Nation will be destroyed forever, and the
whole country will be borne down under
a panic the like of which was never
known. If revolution shall be the out
come, then we must again pass through
the terrors, the cost and decentralization of
another war, the scene of which will not
be bounded by Mason and Dixon's line.
This is the perspective of danger, clearly
outlined though it be some way off, that
can only be surely averted by refusal of
a united North to follow the course indi-
Gated by solid South. If sectionaism
there must be, let 1t be on the side of Ma
tional integrity safety, honor and pros
perity, and not on the side of National
bankruptcy, disruption and decay CHI.
cago Tribune.