New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-08-10
THE HUNGRY SOUFH.

Until the country thoroughly appreciates the
magnitude Of Southern war claims, and the
danger of bankruptcy of the Government
through their admission. no adequate effort TO
resist these claims will ever be made. The
impossIbiity of successful resistance to such
claims in detail Is shown with great clearness
in the Washington letters this day published.
For the number of separate claims IS so enor-
nous, and they are of so many classes and
varieties, involving so many questions Of prin-
ciple or of fact that resistance to each claim
separately will surely end in the success of a
vast number of them. Some will get COW
cred by some form of indirect legisla-
tion such as the bill offered by MIR. Chris
tiancy. Others will slip through as direct APP
preparations during the hurried closing days OF
session. For others, of different classes, pre-
cedents viii be one by one established. 1t
will be found before long that, step by step,
so many of these claims have been paid that
Congress can hardly think 1T just to refuse to
pay the rest. Opposition piecemeal only tends
to divide those who ought to resist sternly
every demand of this nature but the claim
ants, the claim agents, the specializing rings,
the passionate leaders of that Solid South
which wants :" to get even pecnniarily-these
men act together in a solid and compact body.
They Caa be effectually defeated only by a
body equally compact, ard united in purpose
only by the Republican party and its sue
cess in the election Of members of Congress.
1t is not strange that the danger is not yet
generally appreciated. The letters from Wash
ington show how very hard it is to get at the
whole of this business, even for men who are
on the spot, and best informed upon the sub
icct and specially qualified for its investiga-
| ton. For more than q year they have been
giving it constant attention, and yet 1t appears
that many new classes of claims, or new forms
of demand against the Treasury, have recently
been detected and included in estimates. IL
appears, also, that the number of claims of
every class tends steadily to increase. If any
are voluntarily abandoned by the original
claimants, they are still carried forward by
some agent or SPECTATOR. OF Democratic
CLAIMS, as of Democratic officials, "none die
and few Fesign." Each new clam or job,
moreover, has somebody strongly interested
IN 1t. so that the number If voters who have
direct personal desire for the success of the
Solid South and its claims continually in
crcases. We do not here discuss whether any
Of these claims have merit. 1t IS enough TO
say that they greatly exceed in amount the
possibility of payment without National bank
ruptcy, and yet they are continually growing
in volume.
The pretence recently made by Mr.. Voor-
bees and others, that all danger from South
eTn claims was really removed by the 4th
Section of Article XIV, which was adopted
July %, 1868, is a subterfuge unworthy of
any public man. The section declares that
neither the United States nor any State
shall assume or pay any debt or obligation
"iNearred In aid Of iRsarreetiOH or rebellion
"against the United States, or any clam for
"the loss or emancipation of any slave"
The first clause prohibits payment Of the
Confederate bonds, and of some classes
Of bonds issued by the States in rebellion, but