The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1876-10-05

CUHsIIuCIlOu ClduscS, dll Cldlulo ouOuiu
have been rejected. To allow a part for
loyalty gave life again to all, and this
our Republican party has done; at its
door lies all the responsibility for what
ever claims are now presented.
To keep distinguishing, after peace is
made, between rebels and loyal men, is
really an act of hostility; it is an act of
war or breach of the peace. This partial
conduct of the republican party was en-
tirely unnecessary, for the entire body
of the people had acquiesced in consid-
ering every claim arising out of the war
as dead, and the South as we'll as the
North agreed to this We agreed to re-
lease them from all further claims; they
us. We were to be fellow-citizens, that
were no longer enemies, but equals. 1t
was, after that, unwise for the South to
revive causes of discord, it was unfair in
US to do so. And this is as correct in
reference to claims for freed slaves as for
every other loss. The first are precluded
by special argument and by the action of
Southern State conventions; the others,
as we have seen, by geneIal interstate or
international law. And we must reiter-
ate, there must have been base motives
for this Republican renewal of dead
claims. They were partisan and mercen-
ary-the Republican party meant to buy,
with public moneys, the votes of Ger.
tain Southern men by paying their
claims, and the Congressman and their
lobbies, who voted them through, always,
as we have right to suspect, shared in
the proceeds.
The plea for distinguishing between
rebels and loyal men rests on the rule de-
nounced by Vattel-chapter xviii, Book
iii, to wit
"Section 2S7. 1t is a question very
much debated whether a sovereign is to
observe the common laws of war toward
rebellious subjects who have openly taken
up arms against him. A fatterer and
cruel ruler Immediately says that the
laws are not made for rebels, for whom
no punishment can be too severe. Let
us proceed more mildly and reason from
incontestable principles. All the SOW
ereign's rights are derived from those of
civil society for the trust reposed in him
from the obligations he was under of
watching over the welfare of nations, of
procuring its greatest happiness, of
maintaining order, justice and peace
therein"
From this l argue that all revivals of
war claims, whether for or against the
South, are renewals of questions and
issues which should be considered en-
tirely obliterated and handed over to
complete oblivion. This should be
specially done, because all such claims
are but temptations to lead Congressmer
and their lobbies to use them as corrup-
tion funds.
We may regret that Lincoln's recon-
mendation for Court of Claims, with
final jurisdiction, was not acted upon,
and still more, that no equitable con-
vention" was instituted, as Vattel sug-
gests, " for a final extinction of all pre-.
tensions;" but the responsibility for
these omissions is not ours, it rests with
men now dead, Lincoln, Stanton, Andrew
johnson, and Seward, on the part of the
North, and Lee on the part of the South.
With them the claims, one and all,
should remain buried in perpetual peace.
have no right to speak for either
Governor Tilden or the Democratic
party, but. know both well enough to
pledge them that they will not follow
the dishonest precedent of Republican
Congressmen-thato of keeping alive for
corrupt purposes claims dead under the
law OF nations. To reject them is in the
Democratic party's interest as we'll as
that of the whole country, and especially
that of the South. Governor Tilden is
too good durist to act contrary to in
To-, ,,,l Tor cd,
istrator to create spoils for his enemies.
He will make earnest of what Grant
said as joke, Let us have peaceP
And now must ask you whether I
was justified in saying that " the Repub-
ican party press and stump-speakers are
foundering in sea of wickedness and
falsehood," and they are using
"Inductions dangerous
By drunken prophecies, hbels and dreams"
Is it not wicked to accuse the in
coming Democratic Administration with
purpose to pass the so-called rebel
claims? Where is the proof? They
themselves revived these claims. They
are their meat; not oursl Among the
list of them published in the Commercial
there are evidently some meritorious
claims, and correspondents of that paper
argue so; but we should not carry into
the new Cantons of this Republic any
thing that recalls any of the irritating
memories and quarrels of our civil war.
Such | have no doubt will be the policy
of Tilden's Administration and the lob
bies and congressman that expect to fat
ten on rebel claims will be as much dis
appointed as certain lewd females were,
who, after their town had been taken,
wandered about wondering when the
ravishing was to commence that had been
predicted to them as result of the sue
cess of the attacking army.
Th eRepublican corruption fund mon
gers may as well now be notified that as
the Inauguration of Jefferson stopped all
Hamiltonian funding schemes, so will
Tilden's succession to power be
a new era of prevention to all jobbery
that might be built upon rebel
claims. There will be no more ravish-
ings of the Federal Treasury as there
have been since the war has been closed.
The debt will not be increased, but di-
minished. The carpet-baggers' and the
shoddies' corruption will be gone, and
tutIt Will De HO ulOIe Sduc luIulsutu "
lobbyists and Congressional traffickers
All the so-called rebel claims, that are
worth cent are those which Congress:
has already passed, and Grant has signed
and Republican Secretaries of the
Treasury have paid. repeat what
said on a former occasion: There is but
one danger of any further payment O
these Southern claims, and that is from
continuance of the Republican party
in power. 1t alone is bound by preceden
to pass these claims. We Democrats art
free to follow the law as announced by
Vattel.
Whisky Frauds and Southern Claims
, [From Speech of Senator Thurman.I
, Then, what about their whisky frauds
You have heard of crooked whisky
: You Democrats are accustomed to tax,
yours straight. You have heard of th
r prosecutions at st. Louis. You hav,
, heard, too, of the prosecutions at Chi
, cago, at Milwaukee, Louisville, and tn