Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-04-11
An Example of What the South
Wants.

The solid and hungry South has been mod
est, since the recess. Not including private
claims, or bills for the. relief of individuals,
the measures introduced since the recess
would involve the expenditure of only about
$42, 900, 900 at the South. Before the recess,
such bills were introduced involving the ex-
penditure OF about $3.50, ZOO, 600, so that the
little bill of the Solid South appears at pres
ent to reach 1892, 600, 600. 1t is not to be
supposed that the bills offered cover a large
proportion of the demands which will be
made when Southern Democracy gains con-
troll in both branches of Congress and in the
White House-if ever. Shrewd managers do
not care TO expose their measures to defeat
by thrusting them upon body naturally ad-
verse, and during the session just preceding
Congressional elections. The more dangerous
measures, it is safe to say, will wait a better
opportunity. By far the greater number will
be held back until favoring Senate and
President may give hope Of success. Only
some fraction of the appropriations demand
ed, We may be sure, are included in the S192,.
600, 600 thus far made visible to the naked
eye. If ever the South camps in the White
House and the Senate, as it is now encamped
in the House, we shall know more about its
wants.
No thoughtful citizen will forget that
claims far exceeding in magnitude those
which can be called public are now hungrily
awaiting the transfer of the Government to
favoring hands. During she last Presidential
campaign some information as to these claims
was gathered. Those which had then been
pushed so far rs to have place in the official
records, were even then so numerous and SO
large as to involve an expenditure exceeding
in amount the entire National debt So
startled was the country by these disclosures,
and 50 plain was it that utter bankruptcy
would follow any opening of the door to pri-
vate claims for losses during the war, that
Mr.. Tilden himself deemed it necessary to
break through the reticence usual in Presi-
dental candidate, and threw aside for once
his remarkable caution, in order to assure the
North that he did hot mean to favor these
schemes. The declaration did him little good.
1t was seen that the South was very much in
earnest, and that no Democratic President
demands of the ruling element in that party
on such an issue. Moreover, his letter was
an acknowledgement that, with any President
who could not resist, there would be real
DANCER that ha y1,iuht l,a nod
by the readiness cf a Democratic Congress to
yield to Southern demands.
Little has been said of these measures at
this session. They are of such ch aracter that
they would certainly Re defeated by Repub-
lican Senate, or Republican President, un.
less the division of parties should be greatly
changed. But it would be folly to suppose
that these claims are forgotten. Men who
lost all their property during the war, or an
important part of their property, do not for
get that Democratic victory may give them
more than they could expect to accumulate in
lifetime of labor. 1t is easy for them to
keep alive the hopes of neighbors whose losses
were smaller, or in part or wholly imaginary,
and it has come to pass that a very large pro-
portion of the citizens of the South, including
nearly all the men of local influence, consider
that they have perfectly valid claim against
the United States. Under a Republican Ad-
ministration they expect not cent. Under
Democratic Administration, these claimants
will make it too hot for any Democratic men,
Der of Congress who refuses TO support such
bill as that of Mr.. II. G. Riddle, for exam
pie. M. Riddle, of the Fourth District of
Tennessee, early in 1876, offered bill pro-
vidlng:
That the Secretary of War be and he is
hereby authorized to allow reasonable com.
pensation to all citizens of the United States
for the use or occupation of their property by
the United States Army, or any part thereof,
during the late Civil war, in the same man.
ner and under the same regulations as CON-
pensation is now allowed for quartermasterg