Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-08-15
The Hungry South.

Onlll tne country thoroughly appr6-
ciates the magnitude of Southern war
claims, and the danger of bankruptcy
of the Government through their ad-
mission, no adequate effort to resist
these claims will ever be made. The
impOSSibilty of successful resistance TO
such claims in detail is shown with
great clearness in the Washington let
ters this day published. For the num-
Der of separate claims is so enormous,
and they are of so many classes and
varieties, involving 90 many questions
of principle or of fact, that resistance
to each claim will surely end in the
success of vast number of them.
Some will get covered by some form of
indirect legislation, such as the bill Of
fered by Mr.. Christiancy. Others will
slip through as direct appropriations
during the hurried closing days of a
session. For others, of different class
es, precedents will be one by one es.
tablished. 1t will be found before
long that, step by step, so many of
these claims have been paid that Con-
gress can hardly think it 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 claimants, the claim
agents, the speculating rings, the pas
siOnate leaders of that Solid South
which wants 'to get even" pecuniarily
these men act together in solid and
compact body. They can be effectual-
ly defeated only by a body equally
compact, and united in purpose-only
by the Republican party and its sue
cess in the election of members of Con-
gress.
1t is not strange that the danger is
not yet generally appreciated. The
letters from Washington 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 subject and specially qualified for
its investigation. For more than a
year they have been giving it constant
attention, and yet it appears that many
new classes of claims, or new forms of
demand against the Treasury, have re-
Gently been detected and included in
estimates. 1t appears, also, that the
number of claims of every class tends
steadily to increase. If any are volun-
tarily abandoned by the original claim
ants, they are still carried forward by
some agent or speculatOr. OF Demo-
cratic claims, as of Democratic officials,
'none die land few resign" Each
new claim or job, moreover, has some-
body strongly interested in it, 30 that
the lumber of voters who have direct
personal desire for the success of the
Solid South and its claims continually
increases. We do not here discuss
whether any of these claims have mer-
it. 1t is enough to say that they great
ly exceed in amount the possibility of
payment without National bankruptcy,
and yet they are continually growing
in vOlum.
The pretence recently made by Mr..
VOORHEES, and others, that all dang r
from Southern claims was really re-
moved by the 4th Section of Article
XIV, which was adopted July %, 1868,
is 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
incurred IN aid of ipSoaTectiO1 or re-
6elLi0n against the United States, or
any claim for the loss or emancipation
of any slave" The first clsu Use pro-
hibits payment of the Confederate
bonds, and of some classes of bonds
issued by the States in rebellion, but it
does not in any way touch the power
to pay for property taken or destroyed
By the United States, or any person act
ing in its name, nor to restore property
destroyed in the progress of war by the
joint action of both forces, nor to re-
fund the cotton tax, nor to pay for
property seized, captured or abandon
ed after the war, nor for supplies and
rents of buildings. Examination of the
long list, elsewhere given, of claims
now pending at Washington, shows
that not single class or variety is af-
fected by the section cited, unless or
it be by the prohibition of payment for
slaves emancipated.
But whatever scope or Interpretation
may be given to the amendment will
matter little if Democrats gain full con-
troll. 1t is notorious fact that the
Solid South has steadily Insisted that
of this amendment was
gained by duress and fraud, that it
never was duly adopted, anil is entire
ly void. 1t is amazing impudence in
Mr.. VOORHEES,, inasmuch as he has been
one of the most violent and extreme
men in this opinion, to set up at this
late day, as safe barrier to Democratic
an amendment which, at
the head of many Democrats, he has
80 often denounced as void. In fact, |
there is one chance of defence against |
the threatening avalanche OF Southern
obs and claims. That is to take ca g |
that the Republican party has ample
power. The elections this Fall would |
appear to the people immeasurably |
more important if they could fully re-
aliZe the temper and the demands Of
the Solid South, or the subserviency f
he Northern Democracy.-N. Y. Tri-
Nnnn