Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-02-06
LOYAL SOUTHERN CLAIMS.

tives fairly launched on the long impending
debate on Southern war claims. The discus
sion was opened by Mr.. Chalmers, of Missis-
sippi, who made an eloquent exposition Of the
attitude Of the South, in lengthy speech Of
which the following is condensation
Mr. Chalmers opened by stating that he
cared nothing for the payment of loyal
Southern war claims, because loyalty to the
Union during the war meant disloyalty to
everything that he held dear. That many
men in the South had been loyal to the
Union was, nevertheless, true, and he did not
envy the cheap political capital that Union
soldier could make by telling such men that
he had no more confidence in their honesty
than that of a mouse in stuffed catskin.
The claims now presented come from women
and children, against whom the statutes of
limitations seldom run. The gentleman from
Wisconsin (Bragg) taking advantage Of a
well known opposition, everywhere sought to
blend war claims with claims for Southern
improvements, and endeavored to throw the
odor of his dead cat over them. That gentle
man announced in advance that he was un-
willing to trust the honesty of either claim.
ants or court. Such readiness to suspect
corruption in others, sometimes indicated an
innate tendency to corruption in ones self,
and he should therefore not charge corruption
on any one. The issues of the war were Ger
tainly dead with him. He had but one po-
litical faith to preserve inviolate, and that
was local self government. But one political
hope. to build up the waste places in the
South destroyed by the war. He called at
tention to the difference between the speech
made by the gentleman from Wisconsin,
(Mr. Bragg,) not as toned down in the Record,
but as delivered and partially published in
the New York Herald, and the speech COM
ing from a Republican member from New
Hampshire, (Mr. Blair,) both of which ap-
peared in the Record on the same day. When
the West had been in its infancy it had been
fostered by the South. Mississippi Democrats
had stood side by side with those from Mich
igan in the work of Western improvements
He warned Northern Democrats last session
that refusal to recognize the just demands Of
the South might result in the defeat of South.
ern Democrats and the sending of other rep.
resentatives who would form alliances with
other parties. The rapid growth of inde-
pendent candidates in the South had already
sustained his declaration. He had nothing
to take back, not line, not syllable. He
repeated all that he had then said. He
hoped that the solid South might still be
solid for the Democratic party, but for that
portion of it that had the courage and the
manliness to treat the people Of the South as
equals and not as interiors in the Union. The
gentleman from Wisconsin, after having slept
in his speech for nearly year, after nursing
his wrath to keep it warm" had come for
ward to excommunicate him (Chalmers) from
the Democratic church and to give general
ticket of leave to the rest of the Southern
men who dared to ask for justice and for the
equal distribution of appropriations from the
Federal treasury. He (Mr. Bragg had as
sumed to speak in the name Of. Northern
Democrats, and even if he had authority
thus to speak, it was the first time anybody
had ever heard of minority undertaking to
turn out the majority of party. But this
great leader from the solid Democratic State
of Wisconsin proposed to show him to the
door of the Democratic party, and when the
South asked for small proportion Of govern
ment aid, he treated her like a mendicant.
and said to her, like Van Beekman to old
Rip Van Wrinkle, "Give her a cold potato
and let her CO." As the representative Of
Northern Democrats, the gentleman from
Wisconsin had stated that they would not
sell out body and soul to Southern Demo
Gratis, and intimated that they could do bet
ter by getting recruits from the North with
out the South than with it. He should like
to know who had appointed that gentleman
salesman of the Northern Democrats. how
many Northern Democrats could ne deliver
if he found purchaser :? That gentleman
reminded him of the "cowboys and skinners"
of the revolutionary war, who belonged to
neither party, but robbed Unfortunately
from both, and fed in terror when danger
approached. The gentleman struck first on
one side and then on the other, and when-
ever question came up requiring fearless
courage and manhood, he rushed in frantic
terror into the Republican ranks to shelter
his political head. If such men were Demo-
Gratis, he asked upon what principles of De-
mocracy they stood. The principles Of the
Democratic party at the end of the war had
been peace and restoration, that the dead past
might bury its dead and that the bloody
shirt should wave alone from the flag pole OF
Republican banners, but the gentleman from
Wisconsin had found a bloodier shirt than
had ever waved from the battlements OF the
Republican party, and he was stretching MS
legs in the frantic effort to climb up to the
Republican platform and rob it Of its last
banner