Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-10-21

nave not learned to admire the dl5hOneSt
system which our enemies have put i'll its
restoration Of sound principles. If that be
BourbOnlSm, make the most OF it,
| But have adverted to these historical fl Is
for a purpose. wish to show why it is that
every man who believes in the whole Ameri-
enn system of government should be a friend
OF General Hancock. He is, and has always
been. for it in every part: His sword defended
the lawful authority of the Union; he threw
his shield before the breast of civil liberty; it
was his great order that vindicated State SOW
| ereignty. -
Having done all these things it can
not be denied that he ought to be num-
| bered among the greatest benefactors of his
| terests that are not the interests of the coun-
| try, oppose his election upon certain false
him e OF his friends. The highest Politicians
among hfs opponents have not hesitated to
predict that the advent of Democracy to pow
er would be marked by the
PAYMENT OF THE SOUTHERN WAR CLAIMS,
whereby the Federal treasury would be surely
made bankrupt. This does not rise to the
device it is too naEedly false to be decent.
Our candidate has exploded it by declaring
that he would veto any such measure.
the honor OF a man whose life is
hitherto unsullied by single falsehood. But
! to show the absurdity of the thing, some little
| examination ought to be given to its original
character.
| 1 admit that an honest, just and legal claim
OF a Southern man Is as good as If it were held
| by you or me, and ought to be as promptly
| paid. But what are called war claims OF the
| south are no claims at all in any proper
sense of the word. After the close of the war,
the citizens or subjects of one belligerent can
| not claim compensation for damages done to
their property or persons by the other, in the
prosecution of the war, unless there has been a
treaty of peace, in which such compensation
so declared by both parties-and all neutral
powers treated them as belligerents. There
contest beca1sse It was no longer able to carry
it on. BY the public law of the world, and by
the rules which prevail, and have prevailed
in all similar cases. the loss which any indi-
vidual may have suffered is dannum absQue
injtsriG, for which he has, and can have no re-
dress. Nor is the claim any better because it
is set up by a person who in his heart was op-
posed to his Government.
THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
have held that the property of Union man
residing in Virginia duIing our civil war was
liable to capture or destruction precisely like
the property OF person armed and fighting
on the side OF his state Botf are public enc
mined, not by their personal sentiments con-
corning the cause or object of the war, but by
| ritory. 1t follows that all claims of that kind
no matter by whom presented, are false
claims which can not be paid out OF the pub.
people of the Northern States Cor the South
either for the matter OF that, can not be con-
stitutionally taxed to raise money for such a
purpose. The power to lay taxes and duties
is expressly limited in the grant to certain
specific objects-"to pay the debts, and pro
of the United States" Certainly claim with
out legal foundation is not a debt, nor can the
payment of it be called a provision for the
common defense and general welfare.
This accusation against the DEMOCRACY was
made in 1876 Our then candidate, Mr.. Tllden,
repelled it by declaring that he would pay
none of these claims without special legisla-
ton Gen Haneock goes further e and says
pose. If were authority, as am not and
never will be, | would go further STILL and
hold that all such legislation, no matter by
whom approved, or how passed, is void ana
of no effect. In this view the whole Democ-
Is ns or be bd W e the sn65eet
people assent to it as fully as the rest of us,
and the most popular of their representative
men in both Houses of Congress have said
that such claims ought not to be made or al
lowed. To Them as to all men, We owe equal
land. If they wanted more, as a condition of
acting with us in the cause of honest govern
ment they would have to go out from among
rejoice to know that they are not in the mar
ket or open to any bids.
THUS THE QUESTION is SETTLED
as Tar a as the democracy Is concerned os But
ponents on this very subject. They them
selves have paid amounted millions of these
same illegal and unfounded war claims. 1
can not give the amount, and do not sup
pose that any body knows it accurately, but
have seen estimates which put it up to nearly
Sl0O, 100000, which may or may not be above
the mark; but the amount makes no differ
ence in the principle. You all know how they
large sums as Il donation out of the public
treasury which We're put into the hands of
partisan commissioners to be distributed as
| u gratuity among their political friends in the
South. The Commissioners were expressly
ordered by the terms of the act itself to con-
fine their favors to loyal men, and so, in the
language of Senator Morton, "build up a
loyal party in the SOUTH We all understand
what is meant by loyalty in their vocabulary;
Il loyal man is one who votes their ticket.
And 1 call this distribution of money among
that class of persons a corrupt gift to bride
hpI ican fhn
public money out of the Treasury by pro-
cess not a whit honester than stealing. and
placed it, as Cakes AmeS placed the stock of
the Credit Mobilier, "where it would do them
The speaker then reviewed at some length
the
Boosted FINANCIAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Of the Republican party while in power, the
direct result of which; he showed, was that
more fortunes were lost by honest people
engaged in legitimate business, and won by
mere spectators, than were ever lost or won
in any other country in the same length of
time. A large proportion of all the wealth we
had passed from the many to the few. Never
in the world did the process of making the
rich richer and the poor poorer go on so rap
idly or to such an extent. If there be one
thing which the Republican party ought to be
more ashamed of than another, it is its
one time three hundred millions of our bonds
were sold in Germany for an equal amount in
greenbackS, when greenbackS were worth
here at home only thirty-five cents on the
dollar and would not pass at all anywhere
else. Really ana tfllly, we got LOT IneSe Unfee
hundred millions of bonds only little more
than one hundred millions. Other trans
actions of similar character were made
during a period of many. years, which,
when taken together, will show that
probably we did not realize more than
an average of so per cent. on all the bonds
that were sold. Thus one result of our system
was to make a debt of six thousand millions
for a consideration of three thousand millions
received. The people were taxed to pay the
whole sum- We stood up to it faithfully, but
it was the heaviest burden ever borne by hu-
man shoulders. The taxes, National, State
and municipal, absorbed all the profits of all
the labor of the country. The men who crea-
ted wealth by their work were obliged to part
with all their earnings, above what kept life
in their bodies, to swell the colossal fortunes
of spectators.
Everybody knows how much distress this
brought on all except the favored classes.
Legitimate business was everywhere in hid
eouS ruin, and hundreds of thousands of men,
the most meTitOriOuS among us, were actually
starving in the midst of the wealth which
their pwn labor had created; and when they
became turbulent (as hungry people always
do, the only relief offered them was present
ed on the point of the bayonet; starve and
starve quietly, or else be slaughtered like
wild beasts. they buckled to it again, and yet
they are at il, and still their earnings are swal-
low ed up by the Government which takes
1al,t TOLL for