The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-09-27
A PerilOus Revival.

house OF Representatives as large a
portion of their claims as was then
thought to be prudent. Only those
which it was supposed would be the
most likely to receive consideration
were brought forward, but the aggre-
gate Of these exceeded in amount the
total war debt of the nation. These
claims, 1T must be remembered, are
OF m?ny kinds, and were made up i'm
mediately after the war, accompanied
with statements in detail, and vouchers
as far as possible, with the purpose of
urging for payment by the general
government at the first favorable op-
portunity. The most significant and
the most alarming commentary that
could be made on the elections of that
year was the effect that, when the new
House came together in December,
there stood this portentious army of
claimants, asking to be paid for the
losses which they themselves incurred
in the attempt to destroy the govern.
ment. These claims, amounting, as
above stated, to nearly $500, 900. 200,
are now pending in the House of Rep
rcsentatives, and nothing but the fact
that a Republican President and a Re-
publican Senate would certainly have
blocked their passage has kept them
n the background.
1t should also be remembered that
the provisions made for the presenta-
ton and payment of Southern claims
at the close of the war were exceed
ingly liberal that the heads of de-
partments, the several courts, and
Congress itself by special acts,. have
all been engaged in hearing and pass
ing upon war claims almost without
interruption, until by a moderate esti-
mate more than one hundred million
dollars have been paid to citizens of
the South for claims of every kind that
could, by the rules of warfare, be
properly made against the United
States. The claims now brought for
ward are such as require new legisla-
ton, and will be pressed to- an issue
the moment the Democratic party
is in power. The largest single item
in this formidable account is the claim
upon the treasury for the amount rea-
lied from the tax on cotton from 1863
to 1868, amounting all together to
about seventy million dollars. This
was the only war tax nominally paid
by the South. We say nominally paid
because the amount was charged to
the consumer when the cotton was
sold, and was really paid by Northern
and foreign manufacturers, and by the
people who bought their goods. But
the proposition now presented every
year is to refund this amount to the
States in which it was paid.
Notable Fact.
From the Louisville Commercial. Aug. %
1t is a significant fact that no Amer
lean who ever opposed the prosecution
of a war in which his country was in
volved, with a solitary exception, was
ever elected to the presidency.
Take the Revolutionary War of 1915.
Many men of high social position,
talent, and integrity, and estimable
citizens in every other respect, joined
the anti-war or Tory party. The name
Tory was not at that time one of re-
proach, but signified one who was in
favor of the established order of
things but long before the war closed
the word Tory was an epithet of re-
proach as much as the modern term
''scalawag" is to-day, and the gentle
manly and cultivated Tories of the
Revolution in New York, Pennslyva-
mia, Virginia, and the Carolinas sank
into political insignificance. After the
war, to prove the charge of Toryism
on a candidate, was to ruin him.
A still larger, more influential, cul-
tivated, and wealthy class of politi-
c ans opposed the war in 1872. They
were known as the leaders of the Fed
eral party. They were soon dubbed
t'Blue-Light Federalits, and were swept
out of existence. Several of them as
pired to the Presidency afterwards,
but were ingloriously defeated, with
the one exception alluded to, Bucha-
nan, who, although Federalist when
a young man, quickly saw his blunder,
and went over to the Democracy. Then
came the Mexican war. The Wings,
led by Mr.. Clay, believed that the war
was wrongfully begun, but their pa
triotic instincts prompted them to
throw themselves in the front of the
contest they got most of the laurels
and the glories of the war, and
elected Gen. Taylor President.
Opposition to the war for the Union
not only sounded the political death
knell of the brightest intellects of the
Democratic party, as Breckenridge,
Davis, and Benjamin, but overwhelm-
ingly defeated Gen. Mcclellan, and
Gov. Seymour for the Presidency.
Even MIR. Greeley's integrity, talents.
and wide fame as a Union editor did
not save him from defeat, simply be-
cause he was a candidate of the party |
which opposed the war for the Union.
Asaleader Of the anti-war party of 1861,
Gov. Tilden may read his own doom