New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-30
"THE War A FAILURE"

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elusive responsibility for the war, its costs
and consequences, should rest upon the
Republican party. There is no unity
upon the question of finance. The dis
ciples of jackson vary about half and
half on the hard and flush money ques-
ton. They denounce the present tariff,
though there has been no attempt to
amend it within six months OF Demo-
cratic control
We see in this platform no one canon
of the creed of 1860. The Southern
delegation have not proposed single
recognition of the great distinctive prin-
ciple of party separation. 'The sacred
league of the States" as Mr.. Cullen
Bryant still persists in POLITICALLY styling
the doctrine which Southern Democrats
maintained even to war itself, finds no
word of endorsement. The Democratic
party was pledged in 1860 "to abide by
and uphold the principles laid down IN
the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions OF
1893, and in the report Of MIR. Madison to
the Virginia Legislature in 1899" Yet in
the TRADE of vituperation, and a sordid
compromise about money, not one word
is said of State sovereignty. This onis-
| sion and abnegation Of the doctrines OF
| 1898 SO is reported by Virginia Demo-
Graf, we may presume, of the old school.
A Democratic platform without men
ton of State rights or constitutional
currency, is about equal to the ten com
mandments with the negative adverbs
stricken out. Under this inconsistent
and irrelevant dodge the convention
smothered its shameful compromise OF
principles. When, however, it comes to
heaping upon Republican heads the whole
weight of debt and distress which the
war had cast upon the nation, there is
perfect accord, and the nomination Of the
sage who advised against the war, the
prophet who predicted its failure, IS made
unanimous.
We have said the Republican party is
arraigned as having caused the war, and
held to answer for its consequences. This
is conveyed in the assertion that the Re-
publican party has swollen federal taxa
ton from one hundred and sixty millions
in gold in 1860 to four hundred and fifty
millions currency in 1870. Our aggregate
taxation from one hundred and eighty-four
million dollars in gold in 1860 to seven
hundred and thirty million dollars in cur
rency in 1870, or sin one decade from
less than FIVE dollars per head to more
than eighteen dollars per head" The Re-
publican party conducted the wax and in
great part fought the war; this great
increase Of debt and expenditure is there
fore attributed to them. A stranger
should, however, be informed that during
that decade which was worth exactly
century in determining whether the repub-
lie should exist OF be divided, there was
war of the most terrible proportions,
fought with the most desperate courage,
and conducted as all legal wars must
be at an immense expense. The inquir-
ing stranger should know that at the
expiration of that war millions Of Con-
federate combatants were held to have
forfeited their rights of American citizen
ship; that the cars were crowded with pc
titioners for pardon" and that the Re-
publican party extended general and
almost universal amnesty to all who had
been thus DISTINGUISHED. Verify, between
these decades of 1860 and 1870 "an earth
quake rolled unheededly away" The
Democratic platform takes no other &C.
count Of this struggle which shook the
world and established the American Union.
1t arraigns the generous conqueror for the
doctor and the tailor's bill that grew out
of this struggle.
The Republican party is held response
BILE for the whole cost of that war. That
war could not have been fought without
money and Indebtedness. 1t would
have been impossible to conduct it
on the despotic practice Of Selling the
person of the citizen for the field and his
property for military uses. The nature Of
the war, and these lawful measures in
volved a depreciation of the currency
and a consequent appreciation Of the sup
plies and services necessary for its prose-
cution. Much of this debt was incurred
with deprecated currency. The faith
of the nation was saved by recognizing
these obligations at par. 1t was high
price to pay for the insurance upon the
freedom which it had cost our ancestors
twelve hundred paper dollars for one in
specie to establish. To have recognized
and funded either debt was, in the eyes of
tories of the one war or Of the other.
great wrong Robert Morris or Alexander
Hamilton were as much abused in their
day for funding the first national debt as
Secretary Chase and his Republican sue
cessors in the treasury have been for the
second.
Here is the preliminary and conclusive
declaration of the Democracy. 1t will
perhaps tend to explain what has gone
with the resolutions of l798-99:"
For the Democracy Of the whole country
we do here reaffirm our faith in the perma-
nancy OF the federal Union. Our devotion
to the constitution of the United States,
nth its amendments universally accepted as
final settlement Of the controversies that