Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-02-03
SOUTHERN WAR CLAIMS.

Government has undertaken to pay
loyal parties North and South for dam
ages done them during the late war.
But this business has been constantly on
the increase, and until recently every
Southerner, and nearly every Northern
democrat in congress has been ready to
vote away Uncle Sans money to pay
these bills. Some of the northern dem
ocrats are discovering that this thing is
breaking the back of the party, and they
are refusing to be whipped into line
every time raid is made on the treasu-
ry. But more hopeful sign is the
fact that some Southern men, disguised
with the rapacity of their constituents
and colleagues, are beginning to come to
their consciences or senses, and are re-
fusing to assist in carrying out these
schemes of plumber. One day recently
Ben. Hill, of Georgia, took the sensible
and manly position indicated by his
speech below, and got up breeze that
was quite refreshing in the Senate. 1t
is not so much to be wondered at, that
Southerners should have no compunctlons
about stealing from the treasury of a
government they once sought to destroy {;
but that northern men, bred in the at
mosphere of this part of the country,
should be willing to join with their po-
Fhtical allies of the South, in their raids
on the treasury, is a burning shame.
Strange that men will make themselves
mean, stealing sycophants, for the sake
of party supremacy. The following is
Ben. Hills speech:
Mr.. Hill, opposing the bill. said that
he would vote against it because it was
war claim. He was opposed to the
payment of all war claims, whether from
loyal or disloyal persons. He might
probably except few religious and ed.
ucational institutions whose property
was destroyed. To pay these war claims
would bankrupt the government, and a:
we could not pay all, it would be I'm
Just discrimination to under take to pay
some. The senators on the republican
side had said that Warren Mitchell, wa
disloyal and should not be paid, while
the senators on the democratic side sale
he was loyal and should be paid. Wha
was meant by the word loyal? Did i
mean a man devoted to the states unde
the constitution
1t was an easy matter for a man il
Maine or New York to proclaim devo
ton to the Union during the war blu
farther down, where the sun is warme
it required courage for man to say h
was devoted to the Union. He (Hill
knew of thousands and tens of thousand
of men in the South who stood up an
proclaimed fidelity to the Union to tn
very last moment. There were man
men who fought secession until it b.
came fact, and submitted to disunio
as they submitted to the death of
father or son. When secession cam
the only thing they could do was to G
with their people. This question (
loyalty nau nuU received d proper denu
ton. He knew thousands of men
the south who would at any time du
ing the war have terminated it upon
basis of honest reunion.
He believed that the greatest poss
bic calamity which could happen to tn
country would be one section exercisir
the powers of conqueror over anothe
Since he had been In congress, he ha
heard men denounce the southern pc
pie as disloyal, thirteen years after ii
war, and he believed in his heart tn;
if those men had been south, they woul
have rivalled William L. Yaneey
their devotion to secession, because the
were men Of the same Temperament
The people of this country ought to wal
up to the conviction that the late W;
was an honest war. 1t was war fougl
on account Of the conviction that thu
were right.
This perpetual talk about rebels al
fidelity to the union did not come fro
magnanimous spirit. The war is owe
J The union is restored and it is time tn
8 We should leave the passions of the W;
behind. The MANNED southern soldi
would never ask congress for a pensio
: His widow and orphans would never a.
y for it. They accepted their losses
e the penalty for their failure, as bra
Ii men should do. The sooner the peop
; Of the south are taught to repair the
c losses by work, by frugality and indu
l. try. the better it would be for them al
e the country. Let the losses of the W
|. go. and if the people desire to avo
u such losses in the future, they mu
l. avoid war.
!. LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.
Cs SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE THE MONITOR
a WASHINGTON, Jan. 81, 1879.
Is From the tone of discussion duri
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