The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-10-17
HONESTY.
The True Republican Policy
How the Credit and Faith OF the Ma
tion Have Been Kept.
What RepubIIcanIsm has Done for the Ma
tlon-Reduced Its Debt, Cut Down
the Interest, and Lessened
Taxation One-half.

| of 1857, and we had hardly begun TO recove
| from that heavy blow, when the rule of tn
Democracy was at last overthrown, and the wa
| OF the rebellion was begun to destroy that whicl
| they could not control. The Republican part
came into power with the revenues of the coun
| try wasted, and the credit of the nation so poo
that 1T was paying higher rate of interest thai
| ever within the generation, and even more thai
| it was paying in the height of the war that fol
| lowed. We had this war forced upon us whe,
our navy was scattered to the four quarter
| Of the globe, and material and ammunition pile
up by traitorous officials in southern forts an,
| arsenals in readiness for the contest which tn,
mad rulers of the south had planned long befor
| the north awoke to the desperat tion of the mel
who saw slipping away from them, never 10 re
| turn, the power that they had held so long. W.
had to begin from the beginning. There was n,
army TO raise and to equip, navy TO build an,
| to man, with not a dollar in the Treasury
hardly gun in the arsenals, and not a ship OF
| the sea that was worthy of the name Sucl
was the condition of the country when the peo
| pie at last asserted themselves, and wrested th
control of its destiny from the party that haC
| been plunderng it and squandering its resources
| for score of years.
THE DEMOCRATIC LEGACY.
The Republican party can indeed ohallengt
| the record and stand or fall by the result. The
war was fought and won-not without al
enormous expenditure of blood and treasure
but still without the ruin of our industries OF
our credit. The close of the war saw the
country with its manufactures fully en-
ployed, agriculture comparatively neglected,
and debt of 81 $780, 900, 900, which was in.
creased in the following year by the ex-
penses of the to So, ,773, 600, 600. There were
State debts besides amounting to 1864, 1856, 900.
T.,fn tl,n To.~.
country, over a million lives lost and about
So, 600, 900, 00O This was the burden that was
laid upon the Republican party, and which it
has carried ever since, although it has been
steadily lightened each year. All through Bu-
chanan's administration, with no extraordi-
nary expenses, it had been steadily growing,
but under Republican management it has been
decreased every year-in some years by an
amount greater than the largest total of the ma
tional debt in any one year previous to 1861, not
excepting even the heavy obligations remaining
after the war of 1872 Some facts concerning
the growth and decrease of the debt will show
how it was piled up and how it has been re-
duced. On July l, 1861, three months after
Sumter was fired upon, the debt was 500, $50, :
S73, and it bore five and six per cent. interest
For temporary loans the Democratic Secretary
of the Treasury had paid as high as ten and
lWclNe per cent. interest. FROM tlat time on
the debt grew with frightful rapidity, for war is
expensive, and the government was such Gus
toner of the people that it took all that they had
to SELL and yet in all this time no higher rate of
interest was paid than and 3-1Oths, and al
though there were $3.50, 600, 900 out at the close
of the war, all had been paid off three
years later. Nor did the government ever fail
to get the full value Of its bonds. The
Greenbackers and the Nationals are very
iond OF talking about the bonds that were
bought at thirty-five and forty cents on the dol
lar, ana there are some people who are foolish
enough to believe them. Yet glance at the
annual reports of the New York Stock Ex-
change sales will show them that the minimum
price for which any United States bond was
ever sold on the Exchange was 50, which was
the lowest quotation In 1861 for the skies OF
1851 we repeat, instead of the bonds being
taken by the capitalists at thirty-five and forty
cents, there is no case recorded on any stock
exchange of any bond of the United States
being sold at less price than 50 in the yeal
when these bonds were first issued, and they
sold up to 95A. In 1862 these bonds were still
the only securities of the government that were
on the list, and the minimum price was SO Z
while the maximum was 1G74 Never since
the very first year of the war has
there been a twelvemonth in which the
bonds of the United States did not touch
par. This is record unparalleled by that
OF any nation in the world In 1863 the dark
days of the rebellion, these bonds reached their
lowest price at 9lH, but they sold up as high as
1loA. In that year the first five-twenties were
issued, and they never sold more than one
quarter below par until 1865 when they once
went to 994. Since then not one of the differen,
classes of United States securities has ever beer
sold at public sale below par.
HOW WE ARE PAYING THE DEBT.
To this high point was the credit of the gov.
ernment kept. AS soon as the war was over
and the enormous outlay on its account wa,
stopped, the Republican party addressed itsel
vigorously TO the reduction of the debt. Re
funding was a secondary operation, anc
one not to be attempted until it was
shown that the government could no
only carry the debt, but begin to pay it of;
The debt, less cash on hand, was at its creates
amount August 81 1865, when il reached tn,
vast total OF 81, 1856, 43 571 43, entailing an an
nual interest charge of $3.50, 977, 697 ST. This wa
debt of S7S 25 for every man, woman and chilC
In the country, and TO pay the interest on th
vast sum required an expenditure of S429 TO
every one of the 35, 228 900 people in the United
States. Then began the reduction of the deb
by the paying off of the six per cents and TN,
seVen-thirtieS. The total was reduced the frs
year Sl2O, 900. 0OO and the next year S12S
0OO 600. This was done by insisting upon tn
most rigid economy and the thorough col
lection of the revenues, and by the sale o
old materials and reducing the army and nav,
at once to peace footing. In the next tw,
years the cancellation was not so great
But in 1870 the total was cut down hundre
millions, and in 1871 and 1872 almost as mucI
more. Now, said the Republican party in Con
gress, the credit of the United States is goo
enough TO warrant us in borrowing at lowe
rates of interest. SO the funding act was pass g,
in July, 1870, aud on the 1st of December 1871
hundred millions of six per cents. were pait
of and disappeared from The debt statement
being replaced by the fives of 1884, On The 2Otl
of March in the year following q like amour
was retired The saving in interest on the frs
hundred millions has already been six and thre
quarter millions, and on the second instalmen
called in, almost siX-and "a half more. Ever,
year since the last of the war the six per cents
had been coming in, and this operation wa
hastened by the operations of the funding act
so that the amount of this class of bond
redeemed amounted to S2iO, 900, 900 in 1872 alone
These changes in the debt continued during th
next three years, until the early part of 1869
when the last of the Ives had been placed U,
to that time the reduction in the amount of 81,